Why I take so much Vitamin C

[Guest guest]

Earlier today I was asked why I take so much vitamin C by

someone on this list. I did not notice that the question was asked

off-list. After my lengthy reply I realized that the information

might be useful to others, I am placing my reply here in the list as

well. Before I put my reasons into this post, let me repeat the

closing paragraph up front because I think it is important. I am

dubious about simplistic answers, or magic bullets to cure all

problems. But I do think there are key parts to a wholistic balance

in life. Easier to maintain balance than it is to restore it.

Eating healthily is key to either. But, for me, taking ascorbic acid

in large doses over many years has helped me immesurably, even in

times when my eating habits were terrible. Now that I am on the

path to wellness, taking C to bowel tolerance not something I will do

without.

 

 

 

Personal benefits:

As I think about it, my list of personal benefits is a long

one -- possibly more than you really expected. I am a true vitamin

C zealot these days.

 

Due to many many years of eating a low fiber diet, I am

chronically constipated. Even though I am eating well now, my

intestine is sluggish & lazy. When I was taking glyburide for 6

months (starting 2 years ago), one of the side effects is severe

painful constipation. I hated taking " stool softener " with

ingedients I did not understand, which made my toilet smell nasty,

and which I did not feel was good for me. So this was the perfect

time for me to up my (already high) daily Acrorbic acid dose to bowel

tolerance to cure my painful constipation.

 

For several decades I used sugar & caffeine to keep me going,

otherwise I would not have enough energy to keep going thru the day.

Having given up both sugar & caffeine two years ago, there was a

certain zoom or sparkle which I missed. Now I have been taking

large amounts of vitamin C now since about 1975, but I had been doing

it with tablets taken twice a day. So I never went to bowel

tolerance unless I was home & sick. After reading on this list that

taking more frequent smaller doses was more healthy & had less

bounce-back than taking 2 larger doses, I began to take small doses

of C thru-out the day. I discovered that the on-going input of

vitamin C all throughout the day gives me a vibrancy which I love!

Not really like a caffeine or sugar rush, but the vibrancy from the C

makes me not miss my sugar or caffeine so I am not tempted to binge

on sugar or caffeine at all. I found that some brands of C seemed

to have more vibrancy than others. I was re-reading some C

material (again from this list) which indicated that ascorbic acid

conveys this vibrancy, but ascorbate mineral salts do not.

 

From what I have read (Pauling, intially, then others),

humans *need* much much more vitamin C than the government tells us

we do. Goats (I am told) are similar to humans in many ways.

Goats make their own ascorbic acid -- lots of it. If a goat weighed

150 pounds, it would produce 10-15 grams of C a day when happy

healthy and without stress. Stress the goat out, and the

hypothetical 150# goat would make 15-25 grams of C a day. If the

goat got terribly ill, it would make even more. So I figured that

since I had a definitely more stressing daily life than a happy

contented goat with no money or relationshp worries, and since I

weghed 220 pounds, not 150, I should probably need about 20-25 grams

of C per day. But I hate taking C tablets. So I began with 8

grams at a time x twice a day, along with my other vitamins. Then

when money got tight, I cut back to 6 grams at a time.

 

Due to my terrible diet (tons of sugar, far too many foods

fried in veggie oils, no veggies) I was sickly my whole life with

colds, flu, lethargy, depression, anger, paranoia, etc.). Taking

the 12-16 grams a day helped all of my sickly stress points a lot.

Once I realized (from reading something on this list) that taking C

in smaller doses of C many times a day would prevent the un-evenness

I always experienced in my daily mood & health swings, I began taking

C tablets once on hour or so.

 

This last winter, finances became very desperate for the

first time in nearly a decade. I had to cut back on all of my

supplements or I would soon be living on the street. Rather than

cut back on my C, I switched to crystals at a very large savings over

tablets. At first I hated the taste. Then I figured out I could

make the solution far less strong & just drink more of it! Amazing

what a little thinking can do!

 

Now, because of my decades long bad diet with tons of sugar,

my mouth is riddled with cavities. When younger, I had access to

more money, and therefore I spent a lot of money at dentists. As I

have grown older, I can no longer affords dentists (which at the peak

was over $4,000 at one time). So my teeth have been crumbling in my

head now for over a decade. Lots of half teeth. Blackened stubs.

I also have had numerous chronic & acute gum infections over the past

decade or so. I managed the infections as best I could using a

water pick to open up the abscess pocket along the gum line, then

used various mouth washes, tea tree oil, goldenseal, etc. to help

heal the problems as best I could. But sometimes, the infection

persisted. Then I needed to go to a dentist for an extraction.

 

I have always hated dentists since I was a small child. I

have had more incredibly painful experiences from dentists than I

care to contemplate. 2 years ago, I had an extraction which was the

absolute worst. So I really was not looking to return for more

extractions, yet I realized that given the shape of my mouth due to

my decades long sugar abuse, I saw no other possible outcome other

than getting my teeth pulled one by one as I could afford to do so.

 

Usually, the worst time for toothache is in the winter. I

work outside at night & winter chill is brutal on my tooth stubs.

But th past two winters, I have had *no* toothaches. I had a few

tiny abscesses along the gum line which healed in a day or less,

rather than the normal 2 weeks. Every time I looked in the mirror

checking my gumline for abscesses, I wondered what I was doing

differently which had helped my mouth. Then I read something (again

thanks to this list) which informed me that high blood levels of

vitamin C can prevent or even heal dental caries. Given that I

usually have to spend several hundred at the dentist each winter, I

would say that my $25 a month vitamin C intake has been a very

worthwhile investment even if the only benefit was to my mouth.

 

The reason why I managed to confront my decades long out of

control sugar habit is that 3 years ago I trimmed off some callous on

the sole of my foot & I cut too deeply. I have done this thing

hundreds of times before, so I was not concerned. However, this

time, the sore did not heal. In fact it got worse. I cared for it

daily, yet the sore became a hole.

 

I became very afraid because I was trying to avoid thinking

about what I really knew it was. I had a relative with diabetes

when I was a kid. I knew the routine. Foot sores which never

heal, then get progressively worse, and eventually mean an

amputation. So I feared going to a doctor to get my fears confirmed.

I eventually went. My darling ex-wife, Raven, drove all the way to

New Orleans from Austin so she could hold my hand. I am terrified

of doctors & hospitals. The doc at the hospital was incredulous that

the hole in the sole of my foot was not infected looking at all. The

bare white bone was clearly visible in a spot about the size of a

pencil eraser. The docs wanted me to take some very expensive

antibiotics which I could not afford even had I been willing to take

them. I insisted on tests. They did various scans of my foot. No

sign of infection.

 

BTW, it was Raven & my friend Roxanne who suggested I do my

own research on the internet looking for solutions beyond what the

docs were pushing. After a week of utter depression I began to look

at internet sites. Most I found was repeating the same alopathic

bs, were touting various prescription meds, etc, or was just plain

kooky. Lots of junk to wade thru before I started uncoving useful

sites. I evenually came upon this list (November, 2001 -- I saved

every post!), and my searching has become a lot more fun & productive

because of all the leads I get here.

 

Now, I can't prove this, but I have a very strong belief that

my high dose of vitamin C every day, along with all my other

supplements, saved me from a bone infection, and possibly saved my

foot from gangrene since the hole went untreated by professionals for

abouit 10 months before I finally went to the hospital. I live in

rainy wet semi-tropical New Orleans where I often walk thru deep

puddles (ankle deep) on very dirty city streets which is contaminated

with human urine & vomit, horse manure, dog turds, etc. -- filthy

water which soaked my feet several times a week. I always washed

my feet & cleaned my non-healing wound, but the hole had often soaked

in the filth for hours before cleaning. A yuear of that kind of

abuse and I had *no* infection.

 

I believe that the only reason I have my two feet intact

today is because of my high intake of vitamin C, along with my other

supplements, which all work together help to keep my immune system in

excellent shape. So, because I have been willing to spend money

on daily supplements & because I have consistently taken 12+ grams of

C each & every day of my life over the past quarter century, I can

still walk on both my feet.

 

The hole, by the way, took less than 6 months to heal once

the foot got proper care by Chip, my physical therapist, and I

dropped my blood glucose levels substantially thru dietary changes

and further supplementation. I also took alopathic meds

(glyburide) for 6 months until my foot healed over. Healing the

hole seemed like a very high priority, so I took the meds. Once the

hole was healed I dropped the meds (against my doc's advice) and

relied upon diet plus supplements which I had located thru my

internet research to keep my blood sugar in control.

 

I have no way to prove this, but I believe that high vitamin

C intake helped me quit sugar with very little cravings. I had to

*really* want to quit. C alone will do nothing without the focused

will to quit. Having a hole in my foot & accepting that I was a

diabetic gave me the will to quit. The first week was hell. I did

not think I would want to live without my sugar. I contemplated

suicide because I did not think I could quit sugar & I did not want

to become a progressively shorter person (my dark humor at the

prospect of progressive amputations). Living my end years as an

invalid with no mobility when I had no money to care for myself made

me want to nust end it all.

 

But I surprised myself. Quitting sugar was easy. From what

I have heard from others in a similar situation, other people have

had a very difficuklt time quitting sugar. I read once that sugar

(when tested using rats) was more addictive than either heroine or

cocaine. So why did I have such an easy time quitting? I believe C

helped me a lot in this area. I used to put a cup of sugar in a

pint of milk, add some lemon extract & drink this every evening. I

still have about 4 pounds of sugar on the shelf which I have not

touched except for one hot buttered rum at Yuletime. No temptation

to indulge in my previously normal binging.

 

I am dubious about simplistic answers, or magic bullets to

cure all problems. But I do think there are key parts to a wholistic

balance in life. Easier to maintain balance than it is to restore

it. Eating helthily is key to either. But, for me, taking ascorbic

acid in large doses over many years has helped me immesurably, even

in times when my eating habits were terrible. Now that I am on the

path to wellness, taking C to bowel tolerance not something I will do

without.

 

Alobar