Without oxygen, there is no life. It is utilized by mitochondria to oxidize some particular compounds along the electron-transport chain, producing energy in the form of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). When an oxygen molecule breaks into single atoms with unpaired electrons it will target the closest stable molecule in an attempt to steal its electron particle resulting in oxidative stress and damage. These are very aggressive molecules. These aggressive molecules are known as free radicals. If the attacking particle loses its electron, it will transform itself into a pro-oxidant or free radical trying to steal someone else’s electron. The process will start a domino effect. Once the process is started the destruction or mutation of a healthy cell is the end outcome of the progression.

Free radicals are created as a part of normal metabolism.

Understanding antioxidants is one of the key areas in the history of modern nutritional research. Food-derived antioxidants have frequently attracted a lot of attention outside of their nutritional value for their capacity to scavenge free radicals, shield DNA damage, chelate environmental toxins, especially heavy metals, inhibit lipid peroxidation, and defend against radiation. They are even used in traditional medicine as a countermeasure against snake venom.

Vitamin C is the primary water-soluble, non-enzymatic antioxidant in plasma and tissues in all living organisms. Not just humans. Carnivores species produce their own vitamin C. It is not a vitamin for them.

Vitamin C as an antioxidant can shield the body’s essential molecules, including proteins, lipids (fats), carbohydrates, and nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), from harm caused by free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS), neutralize different types of toxins, kill some types of viruses and other infectious microorganisms and defend against radiation. The thesis is that when you go all way down to the molecular level most of the toxins and viruses are just electron scavengers. There are toxins that vitamin C does not affect for example these would be toxins that disrupt biochemical reactions by binding to different receptors. Even in these cases, vitamin C has a supportive role in the immune system and detoxification as an antioxidant. This protection is effective even in small doses. It is also able to recycle oil-soluble vitamin E to some extent.

All omnivores, carnivores, and the majority of other animals produce their own vitamin C. If we look at the fossil record, people who lived in the stone age still had around 130 grams of fiber per day and almost ten times as much vitamin C.

What makes vitamin C a potential supplemental antioxidant is the fact that it does not require enzymatic activity to be removed from the body. Our body just flushes it through the kidneys. Also, vitamin C does not become a pro-oxidant but just a reduced form of more weak antioxidant dehydroascorbic acid (DHA). It will donate its electron and it would be removed. This offers a potential for mega-dosing if such mega-dosing does not cause side effects and has positive health effects.

Does vitamin C promote oxidative damage under physiological conditions?

In vitro experiments, there were some reports that interactions between vitamin C and some free metal ions can result in the production of potentially harmful free radicals. While free metal ions are rarely present in vivo, there has been a lot of interest in the possibility that large dosages of vitamin C might increase oxidative damage in living organisms. That was some preliminary research that claimed vitamin C had a pro-oxidant impact but it received a lot of attention. In later reevaluation on the subject, it appeared that these studies had no physiological significance and there were more experiments done. After a careful review of the literature, no compelling scientific evidence today can be found that supplemental vitamin C promotes oxidative damage in physiological conditions.

What might be the optimal intake of vitamin C?

So far, science is conflicted but there is somewhat of a consensus. The work of Linus Pauling stimulated public interest in the use of doses greater than 1 g/day of vitamin C to prevent the common cold. In normal circumstances in healthy individuals, the body will automatically maintain the level of vitamin C in the bloodstream. The RDA for vitamin C is set as same as for any other vitamin and that is the minimum level that is capable of preventing scurvy. Absolute minuscule amount when compared to the real optimal level.

Regular medicine doesn’t think of vitamin C in the same way that natural healers do.

They think of vitamin C as a vitamin that has a role in preventing deficiency and diseases like scurvy but when we take vitamin C, we and our bodies use it as an antioxidant as well. Most people that supplement with vitamin C also supplement not because they need to prevent scurvy but to utilize the antioxidant power of that vitamin. When we think of vitamin C, we think of the antioxidant potential of ascorbic acid and the way we can use it to enhance our health and prevent a wide range of diseases. Scurvy has nothing to do with it.

The easiest way to see the real need for this antioxidant is to measure the levels that our bodies absorb when we mega-dose with it and to measure the levels of excretion. If we take for example 15mg of vitamin C we will absorb 89 percent of it but if you take a supplement that has 1250mg of it the body will absorb 49 percent (1). Up to 200mg a day, our body will absorb all of it. A single orange has about 70mg of vitamin C. Then as we go up the absorption will decline. The overall absorption in mg will still go up but the percentage of absorption will decrease.

In normal conditions, our body’s evolved to absorb at least 200mg of it a day and maybe some percentage more than that. In addition, in our kidneys, vitamin C is reabsorbed back into the bloodstream to maintain our blood levels in the range of about 70 to 80 micromoles per liter and that is the level we can reach in vitamin C intake of about 200mg per day.

In normal conditions even if we megadose with 5000mg the kidneys will excrete it to maintain a level of about 80 micromoles. So, the real RDA for vitamin C is 200mg in normal conditions and the current acknowledged RDA by the medical establishment for adult nonsmoking men and women is 60 mg/d. But again, this is also partially the truth. You have seen me write more than once “in normal conditions“. When we have abnormal exposure to toxins or infections of any sort the body will absorb as much as it can. When you are not sick and you take vitamin C in the oral form there will be a point when you will suffer from vitamin C induced diarrhea. If you have constipation this might help you as a natural cure. The level of this threshold for megadose-induced vitamin C diarrhea is individual. This threshold is about 2000 to 3000mg for an adult healthy male depending on your overall inflammation level and overall antioxidant intake. If you smoke and eat junk and your antioxidant intake is negligible your threshold will go up. People that have cancer or AIDS can take in some cases as much as 30 grams of it without having a laxative effect.

For example, Cigarette smoking or second-hand exposure to cigarette smoke contributes to increased blood lead concentration and a state of chronic low-level lead exposure. An intervention trial in 75 adult male smokers found that supplementation with 1,000 mg/day of vitamin C resulted in significantly lower blood lead concentration over a four-week treatment period compared to a placebo (5). A lower dose of 200 mg/day did not significantly affect blood lead concentration, although serum vitamin C concentrations were not different from those in the group who took 1,000 mg/day.

You don’t have to megadose on vitamin C because the body does not have the ability to store it. It is a water-soluble antioxidant. You would have constant uncontrollable diarrhea. If you take vitamin C regularly you will have some of the benefits, this means 1 to 2 grams or as much as you can tolerate per day and most of it will be excreted out with the urine. The best approach is to eat antioxidant-rich whole foods, take 1 to 2 grams of vitamin C daily, and if you like you can also take other antioxidants and antioxidant supplements and some of them are much superior to vitamin C. Technology had come a long way since the 1970s and I will describe some of the supplements that I recommend in correlated articles.

If you have swine flu or cancer then intravenous vitamin C is a must. If you have cancer you never have to get off of it. Unlike chemotherapy, there are no vitamin C side effects. It is chemotherapy that can be taken for the rest of your life and just this fact is what terrifies the regular cancer industry. The intravenous vitamin C shots are expensive and so is the liposomal vitamin C. There are videos on YouTube where people are trying to make their liposomal vitamin C at home with just lecithin and ascorbic acid mixed in together and then energized inside ultrasonic cleaner for encapsulation. Does this work, I don’t know.

Liposomal encapsulation is a process where fat is used to encapsulate some molecules inside it. In this case, it is vitamin C so when cells metabolize the fat the inner part of the compound gets released. It is a nice way to trick the body. Liposomal vitamin C also gets released inside the cell not into the bloodstream so it is more potent even than intravenous vitamin C because not all of the ascorbic acid that is in the blood will get absorbed into the cells. When ascorbic acid is in the blood there are molecules known as transporters that take that vitamin C and integrate it into the cell but when phosphatidylcholine encapsulated vitamin C comes into contact with a cell there is no need for transport because cells pass through phospholipids right in. Phosphatidylcholine is a fat molecule that cell membranes are made of. When ascorbic acid is in the blood then some will be urinated out. In liposomal encapsulation, all of the vitamin C goes directly to the cells inside the body.

If you want to make homemade liposomal vitamin C you need to understand that phospholipids are not the same as lecithin. They are extracted from lecithin and commercial products are the real deal, however, I don’t know if homemade liposomal have any effectiveness at all or if are they as potent as pharma grade. Doctors that do vitamin C as a treatment generally consider 1000mg of liposomal vitamin C to be as effective as 15000mg of oral vitamin C and liposomal form does not cause a laxative effect.

If we really go into it, we can see that mega-dosing on universal antioxidants and antioxidants that do not have enzymatic breakdown metabolism like in this case liposomal vitamin C have the ability to easily wipe out more than 50 percent of prescription medications, from different types of chemotherapy onward. And the medical industry will do everything and I will say this again, the medical industry will do anything to forbid you to use it. You will have to call a lawyer to force the MD to give you intravenous ascorbic acid. And it is not a coincidence or misinformation but as Pauling use to say, it is a well-organized conspiracy.

Mega-dosing of liposomal ascorbic acid encapsulation is also good for an overall state of inflammation but especially for inflamed gums and teeth.

Vitamin C stimulates the immune system by more than 20 identified mechanisms. A low level of painless inflammation is something that most people don’t realize that they have because of the toxic overload and bad diet but in the long run, it will kill you. Taking liposomal vitamin C, plus eating high quality antioxidant-rich whole plant food diet will have a big impact on the immune system, overall lowering of inflammation, prevention of cancer, prevention of periodontal diseases, prevention of infections from different viruses, and overall longevity and well-being. Eating animal products that do not have any type of antioxidant in them but just a high level of dead meat bacteria will create endotoxemia and inflammation. Plus if we add on top of that a whole range of pollutants from the environment it is a recipe for chronic, in initial stages painless inflammation, then a whole range of painful diseases in stage two like cancer and then shortening of lifespan and death.

There is also evidence that vitamin C can lower the cortisol level and could mitigate stress response in rats, both in terms of regular stress or sleep deprivation (2) or exercise (3).

At least in the case of plasma cortisol, which could help to improve stress tolerance. Elevated cortisol levels can induce a state of insomnia and fatigue and anxiety. Cortisol is a hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to stress. If you drink coffee and on top of that have a bad diet that creates inflammation the response of the body will be to increase cortisol levels to fight that inflammation. It is the strongest anti-inflammatory hormone in the body. Corticosteroids are prescribed for inflammation as well. But besides lowering inflammation once it gets into the bloodstream, cortisol is also responsible for relaying the news of stress to all parts of the body and mind. Cortisol is the hormone that triggers the so-called “fight or flight” response to stress. Evolutionary is a hormone that puts the body and mind in a survival state. It is an essential hormone to live. But if we are overexposed to stress, high levels of stress hormones will exhaust the body’s physical resources, impair learning and memory, and will make people susceptible to depression.

If you have issues with anxiety and adrenal insufficiency vitamin C can help. It helps to reduce both the physical and psychological effects of stress on people. One more plant that has phytochemicals that are known to a lowering of cortisol and epinephrine effects is Rooibos (Aspalathus linearis) which is commonly consumed as tea (4). Flavones from the tea has the effect of binding and neutralizing enzymes that adrenal glands use to make glucocorticoid hormones like cortisol and epinephrine. These flavones decreased levels of cortisol and epinephrine by 4 times. Researchers were alarmed that they might even lower testosterone levels but it was not the case. Rooibos tea just lowered the circulating glucocorticoid levels. And it is a natural way of lowering stress response in the form of a cup or two of tea in a day. When looking at vitamin C the extrapolated doses for people’s stress management will be around 1,000 mg. It is a dose that was found to be helpful in the stress study.

If you want to increase vitamin C intake through food intake you need to know that vitamin C is destroyed by cooking and exposure to light. If you want to take a supplement and don’t want liposomal form then the best way is to take it in a time-released preparation that works over the course of a day. Another solution would be to take vitamin C supplements in time intervals throughout the day.

Conclusion:

• Free radicals are created as a part of normal metabolism and cannot be avoided completely.
• Vitamin C is the primary water-soluble, non-enzymatic antioxidant in plasma and tissues in all living organisms.
• All omnivores, carnivores, and the majority of other animals produce their own vitamin C.
• What makes vitamin C a potential supplemental antioxidant is the fact that it does not require enzymatic activity to be removed from the body. Our body just flushes it through the kidneys.
• Vitamin C does not become a pro-oxidant but just a reduced form of more weak antioxidant dehydroascorbic acid (DHA). It will donate its electron and it would be removed.
• No compelling scientific evidence today can be found that supplemental vitamin C promotes oxidative damage in physiological conditions at any dosage.
• In normal conditions, our bodies evolved to absorb at least 200mg of it a day.
• When we have abnormal exposure to toxins or infections of any sort the body will absorb as much as it can. People that have cancer or AIDS can take in some cases as much as 30 grams of it without having a laxative effect.
• The level of this threshold for megadose-induced vitamin C diarrhea is individual. This threshold is about 2000 to 3000mg for an adult healthy male depending on overall inflammation level and overall antioxidant intake.
• The best approach is to eat antioxidant-rich whole foods and take 1 to 2 grams of vitamin C daily.
• If you have cancer, pneumonia, or other types of serious infections then intravenous vitamin C is a must.
• Vitamin C has been proven to be a powerful antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial, anti-melanoma cell, anti-rheumatoid cell, and anti-leukemia cell agent.
• Liposomal vitamin C mg per mg is as potent as intravenous vitamin C and can be taken orally.
• Mega-dosing of liposomal ascorbic acid encapsulation is good for an overall state of inflammation but especially for inflamed gums and teeth.
• Vitamin C can lower the cortisol level and could mitigate stress response both in terms of regular stress or sleep deprivation or exercise.
• Vitamin C is destroyed by cooking and exposure to light.

Sources:

Passages selected from a book: “Go Vegan? Review of Science: Part 3” [Milos Pokimica]

1. Authors’ perspective: What is the optimum intake of vitamin C in humans? doi: 10.1080/10408398.2011.649149
2. Vitamin C Prevents Sleep Deprivation-induced Elevation in Cortisol and Lipid Peroxidation in the Rat Plasma Niger. J. Physiol. Sci. 30(2015) 005-009
3. Vitamin C supplementation attenuates the increases in circulating cortisol, adrenaline and anti-inflammatory polypeptides following ultramarathon running. Int J Sports Med. 2001 Oct;22(7):537-43
4. Rooibos Flavonoids Inhibit the Activity of Key Adrenal Steroidogenic Enzymes, Modulating Steroid Hormone Levels in H295R Cells doi: 10.3390/molecules19033681
5. Reversal of ionoregulatory disruptions in occupational lead exposure by vitamin C. Environ Toxicol Pharmacol. 2008;26(3):297-304.
6. Dehydroascorbic acid in urine as a possible indicator of surgical stress. Ann Nutr Metab. 2003;47(1):1-5
7. Frederick R. Klenner, M.D., F.C.C.P., Observations On the Dose and Administration of Ascorbic Acid when Employed Beyond the Range Of A Vitamin In Human Pathology. Journal of Applied Nutrition 1971. 23(3 & 4).
8. Mechanism of action of vitamin C in sepsis: Ascorbate modulates redox signaling in endothelium doi: 10.1002/biof.7
9. High-dose antioxidant administration is associated with a reduction in post-injury complications in critically ill trauma patients doi: 10.1016/j.injury.2010.01.104.
10. Ascorbic acid dynamics in the seriously ill and injured DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4804(02)00083-5

Related Posts

• 
  Antioxidant Role in Depression and Anxiety
• 
  Antioxidant impaired training adaptations- Preventing oxidative damage in the muscle
• 
  Antioxidant supplements vs whole foods- Paying to live a shorter life
• 
  Antioxidants- Understanding the basics
• 
  Astaxanthin Benefits- Therapeutic uses, longevity, and clinical significance
• 
  Essential oils as supplemental antioxidants- General rules and strategies
• 
  Intravenous vitamin C megadosing in the treatment of cancer: 40 years of evidence
• 
  Intravenous vitamin C megadosing in the treatment of influenza: Living proof from clinical practice
• 
  ORAC VALUES
• 
  Optimal antioxidant consumption- Recommended intake of ORAC units
• 
  Optimizing antioxidant content of our diet- General rules and strategies
• 
  Phytochemicals- Understanding the basics
• 
  Spices as supplemental antioxidants- In vivo results with realistic dosages
• 
  Turmeric as a supplemental antioxidant- Optimizing health, longevity, and clinical significance
• 
  Understanding ORAC values- Antioxidant levels in foods