Vitamin C overdose

Factual Questions
21

Indeed, there is precious little evidence to support the notion that increased intake of vitamin C leads to kidney stones. This paper by some of the foremost epidemiologists in the world concluded there was no link, as did this one. This study states that high amounts of vitamin C actually protect against the development of kidney stones.

I suspect that the vitamin C kidney stone connection has is roots in the fact that anything that makes the urine more acidic, like vitamin C, will tend to make uric acid less soluble in the urine. This would, theoretically, promote the formation of uric acid kidney stones which are far less common than the calcium oxalate stones that are fairly prevalent.

(For all the links above, I think you’ll need to click on the author’s name to bring up the cite.)

22

Admittingly anecodotal. Meaningless? I don’t know. I do know that when I do have a cold, I mean I know I have a cold:sniffles, dripping,etc., megadoses of vitamin C ameliorate my symptoms greatly. It works for me. Of course that’s not scientific study and I never claimed it to be. But it works for me. :stuck_out_tongue:

The only adverse side effect documented has been diarrhea. A small price to pay to eliminate that terrible running nose,etc. of a cold, and once you back off, it disappears, since vitamin C is water soluble.

23

A woman I used to work with was having problems with kidney stones. After she had the first batch treated with ultrasound, she continued to have problems with stones. Doctors later diagnosed her stones as being some kind of precipitate due to her taking megadoses of Vitamin C combined with cranberry juice. Either of these items are anecdotally protective against kidney stones, but the combination of the two were disasterous. Once she stopped taking them both, her symptoms subsided. I know you’ll regard this as second-hand and therefore unreliable information, but keep it in mind as a warning.

24

I’ve been pounding down my vitamin and mineral recipe for over 10 years now with no ill effects. I occasionally skip the C for a day or two, but I don’t drink citrus products because I’ve an ulcer. (A result of my previous wild life style.) The natural C rips up my stomach.

I know folks who pound down ascorbic acid packed California and Florida Orange juice by the quart daily because TV commercials and magazine articles insist that it is good for them. They suffer no ill effects of all of that C.

For me, it apparently works. If it works, I continue to use it.

25

When I get sick (whether I have a fever or not) I take a very special substance. You may not have heard of it but, I find it greatly improves my objective signs (fever) as well as subjective symptoms (feeling lousy).

Now, y’all may be reluctant to take this stuff. It has no natural source. It’s manufactured by multinational corporations, but they are nice, friendly multinationals; the softer side of cartels.

You also can’t take mega-doses just because you’re feeling extra-poor. In fact, this miracle substance has well-documented hepatotoxicity at doses exceeding 6 grams. You also may not want to combine this stuff with alcohol, since that increases toxicity.

Now there are no studies available that demonstrate this incredible compund shortens the duration of illness. I’m sure it does, though. Here’s some meaningful anecdotal evidence; it makes me feel so amazing, that I don’t care that I’m sick. If being ill feels like that, make me ill all the time.

My miracle substance: acetaminophen (Tylenol) of course.

26

Adventurious said:

Yeah, and my grandmother’s been smoking for over 50 years now with no ill effects. Does that mean smoking is safe?

No. It means that anecdotes are, as I said earlier, pretty much meaningless.

27

I’ve pooh-poohed anecdotal evidence too. However, it’s still evidence, just not as good as other evidence, such as well controlled studies, etc. What works for me may not work for you. I don’t know if it’s something in our genes or what. Studies do not show as much alleviation from the symptoms of a cold using vitamin C as I experience with it. It may be just my make-up. Then again, it may be that the studies have not used enough vitamin C. (That was always Pauling’s complaint: the studies used to refute his positions did not use enough vitamin C.)

Your grandmother has been smoking for 50 years. Has she had a recent chest x-ray? There may be some inchoate disease in progress not detected as yet. I get a physical every year. There are no indications of any problems. Long term studies have not shown any severe problems, just the transitory ones. Long term studies of tobacco use, on the other hand, have documented severe problems.

28

I still disagree.
For every anti-vitamin cite you give me, I can find a pro-vitamin cite to give you. The same with herbals. The primary convincer for me is that I feel much better when I take the combinations than when I don’t.

I also have set up others on similar routines and they have noticed improvements in the way they feel and act. After years of working with the general public and catching nasty colds every year, time and time again because over here, when people get sick they don’t wear protective masks, preferring to spread the diseases to all, after I started taking supplements, I got sick much, much less.

Most doctors tell you to pound down citrus juices to help prevent flues and colds, so people do, not concerned in the least about stones from all of that natural C.

Psychiatrists often treat certain forms of emotional illness with major dosages of Vitamin B-12, the oil based form so less of it gets urinated out, and have noted good results. Many folks just don’t eat well enough to get sufficient trace elements like selenium, which is a powerful antioxidant.

With the world we live in having so many carcinogens floating around, taking supplements rich with antioxidants is not a bad idea.

Now, even doctors have begun suggesting women start taking supplements containing calcium as well as other elements as they get over 30 to help prevent osteoporosis, delay menopause, and provide them with more vigor. Certain supplements are doctor suggested for women during their periods because they tend to loose certain vitamins at that time.

One article stated that because of Americans taking so many vitamin supplements, we now have the most expensive urine in the world for peeing much of the stuff out. It didn’t mention that we are one of the healthiest and longest living populations in the world.

Some supplements are indicated in helping prevent the mental decay which generally accompanies aging and it seems to me that we have more old duffers out whacking golf balls, getting jobs after retirement and running businesses now than ever before.

There’s no proof that yogurt is antiaging but there’s a few places overseas where they eat tons of the stuff, live beyond normal expectations and yogurt is now a preferred health food.

Smokers should take additional vitamins, so should heavy drinkers, people who work in high stress jobs and those who work out in the weather all of the time. Those who do stay healthier, so I’d say the stuff works.

Vitamin B complex is suggested for depressives. People who live in heavily polluted cities stand a better chance if they take antioxidants.

There is no real proof, but it has been noticed that those nations which use a lot of olive oil in their diets remain healthier, with less heart problems than those which don’t. Nations which consume large amounts of capsicum, the hot stuff in hot peppers, like Mexicans, have a tremendously lower incidence of stomach ulcers.

I say supplements work.

29

Some supplements work. More importantly, as noted in another thread which I started in GD, the FDA is for the most part powerless to regulate them. More importantly, there may be impurities (highly dangerous ones) and what you see on the label may not be what you get. Here is a link that does analyse supplements: http://64.70.191.24/index.html (Consumers Reports Lab)

30

Adventurious said:

Yeah, the difference is that the “anti-vitamin” ones are in medical journals and the “pro-vitamin” ones are from the newspaper.

But, incidentally, I don’t think anybody here is “anti-vitamin.” I, for one, have just been noting that vitamins are not the cure-alls that some make them out to be, and can, in fact, be dangerous under some circumstances. The fact that they are classified as vitamins means we need them, so it’s hard to imagine anybody actually being “anti-vitamin.”

Oh, well, that sure convinced me. :rolleyes: As I said, anecdotal accounts don’t mean anything. That’s why we have science.

They do? Says who?

31

I just skimmed some of the longer posts…

But if you’re prone to getting cold sores, as i am…Yuck…an excess of vitamin C will bring them on within, oh, about THREE HOURS. I love the taste of Vitamin C tablets, and one day, when I wasn’t feeling too too well, I took about three of them, and by that night I had a raging cold sore. My doctor, who saw me a few days later said that excess vitamin C causes outbreaks.

So that’s ONE way of overdosing I guess.

Jarbaby

32

Ok my two cents. I have what I believe to be a cold. I have a caugh, sneezing and runninging noze with a scrachy voice. Within 10 minutes of taking two 500mg Vitamin C tablets I notice my voice returns to normal and my nose is clear. This effect is only short lived but something in the tablets must be triggering it don’t you think?

33

I never heard or read anywhere where vitamin C causes “cold sores,” which is an eruption of herpes virus I. Those are caused by colds (hence the name) or stress.

Tell you what to do, Jarbaby. At the first sign of a cold sore coming on, dab on some Curasore. Instant relief. Guarantee with repeated applications, the sores will be gone anon. The active ingredient is ether, which kills the virus. There are some much more expense prescription medication available, which kills the virus to a deeper level, but I find Curasore works just fine. Just a couple of bucks for a tube. You have to ask the pharmacist for it because they don’t put it on the shelves as it contains ether. I used to use a hydrocortisone cream, which also was great, but this is better.

34

This may be a simplistic view, but as a lifelong athlete/trainer/and student of nutrition, I understand supplements in the following terms. You can group minerals/vitamins into two opposing camps. Water soluble, and fat soluble. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, hence, what your body cannot immediately use, is flushed out through the kidneys in urine. The most likely affect of a true vitamin c overdose (and it would have to be a horrendous overdose) would be a very uncomfortable bout of the squirts. In the case of fat soluble vitamins/minerals, the effects of overdose are much more severe, and longer lasting. The sheer volume of vitamin c that would need to be ingested in order to garner anything other than the need to pee a bit more often than normal would be prohibitive. Anyone wanting a little “head start” on a suspected cold would have to be terribly overzealous in order to take that many pills. No matter what they were.

35

Well, i don’t have anything to back it up, so I won’t argue with you, except that I know it doesn’t CAUSE them, since a tendency towards cold sore outbreaks is either something you have due to herpes virus I or you don’t have it. I just know that my doctor told me excessive sun exposure (I always get a cold sore when I get sun burnt) or excessive vitamin C can encourage an outbreak.

Thanks for the advice on the topical solutions though. I think I speak for everyone when I say, cold sores are a bitch.

jarbaby

36

This is off the OP, but excessive sun can caused a flare up of the herpes virus. It’s another form of stress that the body cannot handle. I’ve been thinking about your chewing the vitamin C tablets, and perhaps it’s the acidity that’s precipitating the sores. Don’t use the chewable. I use powdered vitamin C which I get from Bronson Pharmaceuticals by mail. (They have a website, but I don’t recall what it is off-hand, probably something like http://www.bronson.com).

They are caused by the herpes virus, which you cannot get rid of, since the virus resides in the ganglia, immune from the immune responses of the body. Under stress, such as a cold, excess sun, fatigue, they move along the nerves to various portions of the face. In my case, and the usual case, the lips, but they can occur also elsewhere on the face or in the mouth.