About taking tons of vitamin C? How much of it can the body use and what happens to the rest?
Posted by admin on Nov 10, 2009
With the use of Vitamin C
is there a limit to how much is useful to take, and what does the body do with the rest? Details please , can anyone explain, thanks
Have there been any studies on taking tons of vitamin C? At Universities or other places of research?
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plays a role in collagen, carnitine, hormone, and amino acid formation. It is essential for wound healing and facilitates recovery from burns. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, supports immune function, and facilitates the absorption of iron.
No limit. Your body just uses what it needs and then gets rid of the extra, which is why you need some everyday.
References :
once you get your max vitamin c, the rest is excreted
References :
When you take an excess of vitamin c, the body gets rid of the overdose by excreting it through the kidneys.
References :
Neon, the average healthy person only needs about 60mg of dietary or supplementary vitamin C per day.
Even a person with vitamin C deficiency (scurvy) shouldn’t need more than 200-250mg for ~2 weeks to cure their condition.
Taking any more than that is, literally, pissing it away (excuse my French).
Vitamin C is water soluble. You cannot overdose on it because excess amounts are just excreted in your urine.
It is acidic, however (citric acid) and massive amounts can cause gastritis or even ulcers over time. Apart from that, it is harmless.
To answer your last question, there was a very good study on Vit C in JAMA last month (see below).
Hope this helps
References :
MD; Vitamins E and C : the Physicians’ Health Study II randomized controlled trial. Sesso HD etal, JAMA. 2008 Nov 12;300(18):2123-33. Epub 2008 Nov 9.
Vit. C is a cool thing such that you pee off the excess.
You don’t have to take "tons" . just some every day consistently.
Water is great to flush it about.
Homemade lemonade
References :
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) plays a role in collagen, carnitine, hormone, and amino acid formation. It is essential for wound healing and facilitates recovery from burns. Vitamin C is also an antioxidant, supports immune function, and facilitates the absorption of iron.
References :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec01/ch004/ch004j.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002404.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002145.htm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000355.htm