Since I started mold/biotoxin avoidance, I have periodically gotten Vitamin C IV's. These have been wonderfully effective for me. It feels to me like it "erases" the effects of mold exposures. Now that my mold reactivity in general is lower, the Iv's push me into feeling totally normal unless I get a quite large exposure.
This makes some sense, since biotoxins exert most of their damage through oxidative stress. Insofar as the Vitamin C is an antioxidant, the damage could be cancelled out.
A question is why most people with CFS don't benefit from this treatment very much. These were used in the very early days of CFS, and while there were some positive reports, apparently these were scattered.
This made more sense to me when someone told me that in too high of an amount, Vitamin C could have a pro-oxidant effect. In high dose IV's, the Vitamin C turns to hydrogen peroxide in the cells. This specifically kills cancer and bugs like Lyme, so it can be a good thing. But it doesn't help cancel out oxidative stress (such as biotoxin exposures) when that happens.
It seems reasonable to me that if someone is getting just a reasonable amount of oxidative stress, the Vitamin C IV's would help. But if someone is getting a whole lot of oxidative stress (e.g. from living in a really moldy place), the extent to which the "antioxidant dose" of Vitamin C (which is something less than 10 g) could cancel it out might be limited.
I also take a lot of oral Vitamin C (15-30 g, sometimes even more). I think this is worth doing, but it doesn't help with the mold symptoms nearly as much as the IV form. I've always thought the absorption likely was the problem.
The idea that the lypospheric Vitamin C might give some of the benefits of the IV form without the trouble of getting the IV's is interesting. I'm going to try some.
Kathi remarked early in the thread about a patient from Kansas who received benefit from this product. This makes sense to me after my recent trip from Kansas, which was by far the best state I've been to in terms of outdoor biotoxins. The idea that someone could go from Incline Village (which had/has major problems with outdoor and indoor biotoxins) to Kansas (and perhaps stumble upon a really good house) and get a remission spontaneously wouldn't surprise me at all. Adding helpful supplements might help that along, I would think. (And in fact, the person I visited is a former CFSer who did just that with other supplements.)
Kathi, do you know how much mold exposure you were getting when you found these products working for you?
Best, Lisa
