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Adam Wilk's avatar

this is interesting & worrisome at the same time, i’ve been mega’in vitamin C for years since i grew up with pauling & cathcart; but i’m always open to new ideas & data, i do not wish to create problems in my body; i take the vit C in the hopes of heart disease prevention…

thank you for all you do (and share)

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Dr. Sam Madeira's avatar

Vitamin C is also a cofactor for Dopamine beta hydroxylase with copper. intriguing.

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TexasRed's avatar

Fascinating. My doc suspected that I might have autonomic nervous system dysfunction. My symptoms were more in line with histamine intolerance though, but symptoms do seem to overlap.

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TexasRed's avatar

It would be intriguing to know if/how this may have shortened Andrew Saul’s life. Known for megadosing ascorbic acid, but just recently passed away reportedly from congestive heart failure just before turning 69 years old. His work has influenced many of us, but his passing has me rethinking everything I thought I knew about vitamin C. I have a personal interest in vitamin C as it relates to copper, etc because after high dosing vitamin C (and zinc unfortunately) in an attempt to avoid covid, I got covid and became terribly ill, followed by a long slow recovery which involved a sudden, new onset, crippling histamine intolerance. I’m better now, but it took months to get back to being able to eat normally again. Beef liver, B vitamins, and a low histamine diet helped. But I was still taking 8-10g of ascorbic acid daily since I’d read that it is a natural antihistamine.

Now I worry that I might have created my own problems inadvertently by provoking a copper deficiency. Diamine oxidase (DAO) is needed to process histamine in the gut apparently, and copper is necessary for producing DAO. I discovered too late that supplementing too much vitamin C and zinc drive down copper. Ugh! It was Andrew Saul’s work that convinced me that vitamin C was safe and beneficial in ongoing high doses, with no drawbacks!

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Bishwa Basnet's avatar

I have severeal of Andrew Saul's books. I too was following his advice. I am nearly 78 and relatively healthy, and I used to think Andrew Saul would live a lot more than me as he took all the necessary vitimans and supplements. However his early death at only 69 years has me scratching my head! As I too was taking high doses of vitamin C and also Niacin. Recently I read in one of Dr. Mecorla's blogs that high doses of Naicin can also be detrimental to health. Therefore, could it be that Andrew Saul's death is due to high doses of vitamins and supplements?

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TexasRed's avatar

I do wish that someone close to him would address this. Or someone well versed in orthomolecular medicine. One doesn’t know what to believe anymore.

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JayD's avatar

Does anybody know whether he had 1 or more mRNA covid shots?

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TexasRed's avatar

I don’t know, but it seems unlikely.

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Deep Dive's avatar

Thanks for taking the time to put data-dense things together in such a readable way. While trying to find research on phenylalanine hydroxylase, I only found an old study [ PMC1177509 ] which had stated that, to get a 50% reduction in phenylalanine hydroxylase activity, you'd need a whopping 270 mM of ascorbate.

But I'm under the impression that oral doses of vitamin C (all the way up to bowel tolerance) can only get your plasma levels of up to about 0.22 mM -- 1,000-fold lower than required to cut enzyme activity by 50%.

Am I missing something?

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

The study I cite in the CoQ10 article showed that 2 mM inhibits its activity by 78%, and in my vitamin C article linked to right after that I cite papers showing 3 grams once gets you to 1.7 mM and 5 grams intravenously gets you to 5.6 mM.

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Shawn Pitcher's avatar

Wonder what effect those liposomal vitamin c formulations are having in reality?

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Deep Dive's avatar

Thanks.

I was unaware of any research showing millimolar plasma levels after oral dosing, with the highest estimate I could find (0.220 mM) being that from Padayatty, 2004 [ PMID: 15068981 ]

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

I changed it to say that "phenylalanine hydroxylase is strongly inhibited by the concentrations of vitamin C achieved by intravenous use, and probably mildly inhibited by repeated use of oral vitamin C to bowel tolerance."

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

I changed it again to say "and probably mildly inhibited by high oral doses on the order of 3 grams."

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

You are right and I was wrong. I will revise the article. Thank you.

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alexxxxxxxx's avatar

endocrine disrupting pesticfides a re the herd of elephants in the room ....the effect all life support systems ,,, BY DESIGN ... THAT " IS" THEIR MODE OF ACTION IE TO DISRUPT EVERYTHING ... good GOD PLEASE HELP US ALL RETURN TO GOODNESS AND TRUTH

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Jomico's avatar

Truth bombs like this blow the narrative out the testubes.

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Amy Yates's avatar

Awesome as always! Whats the upper limit of what’s safe to take daily per kg bodyweight?

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

Thanks! The relevant studies don't dose people according to bodyweight and there's no evidence that weighing more decreases your likelihood of generating oxalate so I think it's best to say that 200-400 milligrams is the safest area by default for adults, and if you want to alter that for children you could normalize to 2000 Cal or 70 Kg just as a rule of thumb.

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Amy Yates's avatar

Thanks! I was thinking in terms of kids. There’s a very popular no food dye lollipop that the kids eat with 125mg vit C. Sounds like probably too much for a 30lb kid

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alexxxxxxxx's avatar

we have arrived at a point in history .... we cant shouldnt believe the scientific ,medical , political ,main stream media, judicial , educational ,,, etc ,,, ample proof of this... everything has been weaponized to acomplish the great reset,,, depopulation...etc they have secret advanced medical only for them ... we have to look everything through these glasses..... dear God of goodness and truth please help us return to goodness and truth

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Pp's avatar

Hi Chris - is the plasma vitamin C test useful?

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alexxxxxxxx's avatar

what would Linus Pauling say to this ,,, turning in his gave with his Nobel award in chemistry

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Jomico's avatar

Does PQQ help CoQ10?.. Like I mentioned before Astaxanthin does penetrate both lipid layers and has both higher amounts of vitamin C and CoQ10 per gram than the separate counterparts.. I do not need to wait for some entity to run an expensive RCT as I have already gained huge rewards to turn my NE around after 40 years of constant tiredness.. a very happy 69 year old.. one last thing.. my heart tracings are excellent resting pulse of 51 bpm and 120/70 bp.. after years of high blood pressure and erratic rhythms.. just want to give hope to anyone struggling to turn CFS around.

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Eichenhain's avatar

What is your take on the claim that one can figure out one's personal vitamin C need by seeing at what amount one develops digestive issues?

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J Haynes's avatar

Something I see pretty regularly in nutrition conversations is that sugar prevents the absorption of vitamin C in the body and lowers the immune system. Is there any evidence to support this or is this one of those myths that becomes fact the more it is written?

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J Haynes's avatar

Something I see pretty regularly in nutrition conversations is that sugar prevents the absorption of vitamin C in the body. Is there any evidence to support this or is this one of those myths that becomes fact the more it is written?

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JayD's avatar

I'd really appreciate an answer to this ( that I asked on Feb 17) :

"What I want to know is - and this is never addressed in articles about how much Vit C you should take - what about taking a 1000 mg TIMED-RELEASE Vit C twice a day ?"

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John Needham's avatar

If I were to take 400mg a day, when would you recommend taking it? I am especially interested in relation to exercise. Vit C has a short half-life so possibly before exercise, but also i hear it takes a while to absorb so possibly even the night before?

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

Separated in to two doses at least five hours apart.

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John Needham's avatar

Not sure if you are still responding to this thread Chris, but would be interested in your take on megadosing in light of flu / virus / cold. You say above 'if you need it' - is that such a situation? Thanks

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Chris Masterjohn, PhD's avatar

Please see my "Staying Immune Through the Winter/How to Not Get Sick" ebook.

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