# Can scurvy be avoided with occasional large doses of vit C or do you need small daily doses **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339 "2015-11-23T04:07:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339/1 "2015-11-23T04:07:21Z")
I was reading an article talking about how there is a resurgence of scurvy in the US, with patients showing up because of terrible diet (usually due to terrible eating habits due to mental illness or extreme poverty). Even though the RDA of vitamin C is 60mg/day, you only need 10mg/day to ward off scurvy. I believe the body has as most 2g of Vitamin C in it, and I think scurvy symptoms show up when you drop to near 200-500mg total body concentration (I’m not sure about that part). If a person wanted to ward off scurvy can they take a 500mg tablet of vitamin C every 50 days, or will that not work the same as taking 10mg a day for 50 days in a row? If you had different groups: 1000mg vitamin C once every 100 days 500mg every 50 days 250mg every 25 days 100mg every 10 days 10mg every day Would there be a difference in scurvy or health rates? I think absorption drops after 200mg/day so taking 1g may only result in 500mg being absorbed, but evenso, wouldn’t a 250mg tablet once a month be enough to ward off scurvy? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339/2 "2015-11-23T05:21:36Z")
Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. Your kidneys wind up filtering out the excess. You need to get it regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339/3 "2015-11-23T11:55:45Z")
Searching for “vitamin c excretion rate” brings up some studies. It looks like there is a threshold level, above which you start getting expensive urine. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339/4 "2015-11-23T13:07:16Z")
Given that sailors with a diet with no vitamin C still took a while to come down with scurvy I’m guessing the answer is that there is some limited capacity for the body to store the vitamin, but there’s an interval beyond which you’re going to get scurvy no matter what mega-dose you took X days ago. You don’t need it _every_ day, but you do need it with some regularity, and if you’re not getting it every day you need to get enough on the days you do get it to tide you over to the next dose. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2015, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-scurvy-be-avoided-with-occasional-large-doses-of-vit-c-or-do-you-need-small-daily-doses/738339/5 "2015-11-23T14:04:43Z")
The human body stores about 1-2 grams of vitamin c, and scurvy shows up when total levels drop to 300mg or so. Also I believe up to about 100mg/day,the vast majority of vitamin c is absorbed but the levels of bioavailability drop dramatically after that to the point where 2500mg/day only provides plasma levels 30-40% higher than doses of 100mg/day. In my op I said 200mg/day but I think absorption actually drops at 100mg/day. But does bioavailability change bases on total levels? If you only have 200mg vitamin c in your body and you take a 500mg tablet will your levels shoot up to 700mg or will your body dump most of what you took?