Feeling some cold symptoms. How much Vitamin C to take daily?

[DoubleBubble]

I'm starting to feel a little cold symptom, a sore throat. I get colds almost every winter. I was diagnosed with ME/CFS last month and we're pretty sure my symptoms first appeared in Aug 2019, and things are tricky with COVID 'cause my immune system is busted from mold toxins.

I'm planning to start taking vitamin C. Any recommendations on the dosage? For males, the avg recommended dosage is about 90mg. I was planning to take 400mg.

Info online:
For adults, the daily upper limit of vitamin C is 2,000 mg. Vitamin C is water-soluble, making it hard for your body to store it — with excess being secreted in your urine. So even if you're adult and can handle the 1,000 mg in each vitamin C packet or pill, just know that your body can't absorb (or, therefore, use) more than about 400 mg.

 

[GreenEdge]

Vitamin C is just marketing. No study has ever shown any benefit in reducing severity or length of cold.

Zinc however has been proven to both prevent or reduce the length of a cold. I take 30mg / day and occasionally skip a dose because 30mg is quite a high dose that when sustained will displace copper leading to a zinc induced copper deficiency causing anemia.

 

[DoubleBubble]

Vitamin C is just marketing. No study has ever shown any benefit in reducing severity or length of cold.

Zinc however has been proven to both prevent or reduce the length of a cold. I take 30mg / day and occasionally skip a dose because 30mg is quite a high dose that when sustained will displace copper leading to a zinc induced copper deficiency causing anemia.

good point. I just don’t get a ton of it right now in my diet. I’ll skip the supplement and eat more berries.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Hi @DoubleBubble .....

While Vit C has neither been conclusively proven or disproven to be effective for colds, here’s why it’s worth taking when you feel you might be coming down with something:

VIT C is intrinsic to the immune system. It’s a pretty powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your body’s natural defenses by protecting cells from free radicals, thereby reducing oxidative stress which will weaken your immune system.

Speaking of the immune system, VIT C encourages the formation of lymphocytes and phagocytes, which help protect the body against infection. It also helps those white blood cells function more effectively and protects them from harmful attacks from free radicals.

It has a lot of other helpful functions as well, including the formation of collagen and connective tissue, both of which strengthen your body in other areas, and is a co-factor in the biosynthesis of carnitine and neurotransmitters.

As to how much, I take a boatload of it. Considering the amount of toxins we absorb from the air, the water, and much of what we eat, it just makes sense to me.

Years ago I read that when your body is under stress, like, say, an oncoming cold, it’ll burn thru 500 mgs of Vit C in 20 to 30 minutes. I take 500 mgs about 5 times a day, along with magnesium, something else yo might want to consider taking when throwing off a bug.

And yes, zinc and Vit C work and play well together, and are a good combo for immune function and fighting off bugs, tho 30 mgs is a fairly high dose and can seriously screw with your absorption of copper and iron.

Zinc is best taken either 1 hour BEFORE a meal, or 2 hours AFTER.

Hope you feel better soon …. ME is enough to deal with, more is just an excessive insult from the universe, which should have better things to do.

EDITED .... for additional info and a few typos ....

 

[DoubleBubble]

Hi @DoubleBubble .....

While Vit C has neither been conclusively proven or disproven to be effective for colds, here’s why it’s worth taking when you feel you might be coming down with something:

VIT C is intrinsic to the immune system. It’s a pretty powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your body’s natural defenses by protecting cells from free radicals, thereby reducing oxidative stress which will weaken your immune system.

Speaking of the immune system, VIT C encourages the formation of lymphocytes and phagocytes, which help protect the body against infection. It also helps those white blood cells function more effectively and protects them from harmful attacks from free radicals.

It has a lot of other helpful functions as well, including the formation of collagen and connective tissue, both of which strengthen your body in other areas.

As to how much, I take a boatload of it. Considering the amount of toxins we absorb from the air, the water, and much of what we eat, it just makes sense to me.

Years ago I read that when your body is under stress, like, say, an oncoming cold, it’ll burn thru 500 mgs of Vit C in 20 to 30 minutes. I take 500 mgs about 5 times a day, along with magnesium, something else yo might want to consider taking when throwing off a bug.

Hope you feel better soon …. ME is enough to deal with, more is just an excessive insult from the universe, which should have better things to do.

thanks for that info. I take magnesium at night as part of my treatment for deeper sleep. I think I’m getting over the hump of my cold.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Hi again, @DoubleBubble ....

An unsolicited and I hope not intrusive tip for posting in these threads.

Instead of hitting the 'Reply' button at the bottom of the post you're responding to, you can just highlight a portion of it, which will indicated what you;re responding to and tag that poster to your response, and when you do, a pop-up will appear wherever you end the highlight. You'll have your choice of 'Quote' or 'Reply', and more on the 'Quote' function another time.

If you hit 'Reply', the section that you've highlighted will be transferred to your reply window at the bottom of the page, and you'll be transported there immediately.

Just enter your comment or post under the quoted portion of the post you're responding to, hit the 'post reply' button, and Bob's your uncle ....

It takes up less space and keeps the thread from getting bogged down in lengthy re-quotes of posted comments.

Hope this is helpful rather than just annoying ....

 

[Judee]

I open a 500 mg vitamin c and mix it with thymus in about a 1/2 cup water and then gargle the mixture before swallowing. It starts to work after one or two doses. I talk about how I use it here along with some other things I have found helpful: https://forums.phoenixrising.me/thr...ged-due-to-reduced-energy.62724/#post-1021979

Edit: I just realized I should have mentioned in my original post to take vitamin c/thymus with something in your stomach just to be safe. I've taken it on an empty stomach but others might experience issues.

 

[Judee]

Zinc is best taken either 1 hour BEFORE a meal, or 2 hours AFTER.

I get very nauseated on zinc alone and have to take it with food. Is that okay, @YippeeKi YOW !!

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

I get very nauseated on zinc alone and have to take it with food. Is that okay, @YippeeKi YOW !!

Absolutely !!!

Because zinc's absorption can be affected by copper, iron, and other things contained in both foods and mutli-vits, or sometimes vitamins taken as stand-alones, it's absorption is more certain if taken away from food, but if it nauseates you, you definitely should take it with a meal.

Or have you tried taking it with that old standby, Saltines? I used them a lot when I was going thru chemo and for quite a while after because pretty much everything caused nausea. If you can tolerate them, try that and see if it works for you. Or maybe another cracker of your choice, anything that would put something between your empty stomach and the zinc ....

 

[PatJ]

I get very nauseated on zinc alone and have to take it with food.

The nausea might be caused by low stomach acid. I take zinc with food (and betaine HCl) and have found that it's still effective.

 

[PatJ]

I'm starting to feel a little cold symptom, a sore throat. I get colds almost every winter.

From: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v16n30.shtml

The Vitamin C Fire Smothering Technique: Four Keys

The first key is to pay attention to your early indicators that you are about to get sick. For me that is stuffiness in my left nostril. Years ago, it was a sore spot in the back of my throat. For you it may be different. The important thing is to be aware of your early warning indicators of illness.

The second key is to be very quick to start the high dose vitamin C at your first indication of illness. My experience has taught me to go immediately to 2 grams an hour (not per day) and keep the rate up for a few hours or for the whole day or evening. When this gives you enough vitamin C, your first indication of a shift is that you suddenly perk up and feel, maybe not great, but better.

For some nasty illnesses, four grams an hour or one gram every fifteen minutes will be the solution to stop the viral infection. Dr. Cathart in his video and papers reports a young woman who took around 450 grams in two days to bring a case of mononucleosis under control. I recall that was a teaspoon full (i.e. four grams) every half-hour.

The third key is closely or evenly spacing the dosages. All sources agree that vitamin C has a very short half-life in your body. On the order of a few hours when you are well. When you are sick and heavily stressed, the sources say the body can easily consume a gram or more in fifteen minutes.

What happens if you take too much? After starting to feel better, the next indicator is you start feeling a little gassy with some flatulence. This is annoying but OK. However, in the rare event you wildly overdo it, you will clean out your bowels for a few hours, but this is usually a very short-term event. Though unpleasant, it far beats the alternative of being sick and it could be looked upon as a detoxification. Dr. Cathcart called this method of trial-and-error with the dose "bowel tolerance,"

The fourth key is to keep vitamin C handy. Just as you would small bandages or lip balm. When you need it, quick is very important.

No study has ever shown any benefit in reducing severity or length of cold.

Many studies on vitamin C, especially those reported by the media, use miniscule doses of vitamin C which aren't effective. The doctors, and patients, that actually know how to use vitamin C properly (which means taking high doses throughout the day) have found many benefits.

From: "Vitamin C and Infections" - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409678/

Two controlled trials found a statistically significant dose–response, for the duration of common cold symptoms, with up to 6–8 g/day of vitamin C. Thus, the negative findings of some therapeutic common cold studies might be explained by the low doses of 3–4 g/day of vitamin C. Three controlled trials found that vitamin C prevented pneumonia. Two controlled trials found a treatment benefit of vitamin C for pneumonia patients. One controlled trial reported treatment benefits for tetanus patients.

@pamojja has a lot of knowledge of, and experience with, vitamin C and might have some input here.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Terrific post, and a great misinformation-buster !!!

I think my most substantial lesson in not believing every 'expert' opinion vaunted about in the media was firmly hammered home with Vit C, because it was something that I had a fair amount of experience with, and knew that either the pooh-poohing I was reading in respected journals was wrong, or I was walking around with a set of blown-out kidneys and a moribund liver.

I thought about including some info on orthomolecular medicine, but decided against it, due to recent ..... stuff ..... and I was sooooooo happy to see you post it here .....

Thank you @PatJ .... you never disappoint !!!