Is Too Much Vitamin C Safe and What Happens If You Take Too Much?

By Arturo Galindo, Cert. Nutritional Therapist

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Is too much vitamin C bad for you?  Vitamin C is a natural substance that’s essential to all forms of life. But is vitamin C safe? Can you overdose on vitamin C? Is vitamin C toxic when used in larger amounts? 

The best way to help your body prevent and fight disease is to take enough vitamin C.  But... How do you know when you have taken enough?

In this article I share information about vitamin C safety and toxicity, and I also share some family experiences... this includes how my wife Lorena is using vitamin C while pregnant with our third baby.

Can you take too much Vitamin C? Is it Safe? Is Vitamin C toxic? Can you overdose on vitamin C?

We've prepared this short video for you.  You'll learn what our site is about and how you can use this information to improve your health...

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Important:  Ascorbic acid or vitamin C is more than a vitamin. Why? It regulates many functions in your body to make sure they're doing their best job in keeping you healthy!

How Much is Too Much Vitamin C?

When you have too much vitamin C in your body you reach your bowel tolerance limit, or saturation. This is when the amount of vitamin C that you take by mouth gives you gas and then the flush, or diarrhea. 

Every person is different. You can reach bowel tolerance at 2 grams, or 20 grams per day when you are healthy. Or it can be more when you’re sick or stressed.

Saturation, or bowel tolerance, is a sign of too much vitamin C in the body. Since gas comes before loose bowels, this is your first sign that you've had enough vitamin C.  

Now, if you do reach bowel tolerance and get the flush, then you need to reduce the frequency and dose. 

You see, one of the most important things I learned is that vitamin C is a stress responsive substance.  And your body is under different types of physical and emotional stress every day.

Dr. Robert Catchcart treated thousands of patients using vitamin C with huge success. He found that when a person is sick or stressed, the body can take more ascorbic acid. This is before the body reaches bowel tolerance. He documented the bowel tolerance doses for many diseases.

Knowledge is Power

It is said that knowledge is power, and education is the most powerful weapon. Once you gain the power of knowledge you do not need to fear from other powers.

The first step to gain power is to accept responsibility of your own body. And this includes the decisions that you take that will affect your health.

The next step is education.  This includes learning what is vitamin C and all the benefits of vitamin C.

This will empower you and prepare you to find the doses of vitamin C that your body needs. 

Now to the questions… 

Is Vitamin C Safe?

Yes, vitamin C is safe. This is because is a natural substance to your body.

Your body was designed to make vitamin C by converting glucose to ascorbic acid.

But there's a problem. Humans carry a defective gene and thus, most people can’t make vitamin C in the body. This is unlike most other animals and plants.

Also, vitamin C is a GRAS substance that is Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

This means that vitamin C is not subject to review and approval by the FDA because experts consider vitamin C safe.  

No substance is completely safe, not even water.  

Did you know that you can kill yourself by drinking too much water? And It would probably be easier to overdose on water, than by eating too much vitamin C.

Another factor to consider is that not one person has died from taking too much vitamin C.  

Thus, there is nothing to suggest that vitamin C is a hazard to the public when used at any levels. 

To the contrary, the use of larger doses of Vitamin C has a safe and effective track record. Many doctors have used vitamin C against many diseases, including cancer. 

For example, Dr. Klenner used vitamin C for over 40 years to treat many diseases. And Dr. Catcarth used high dose vitamin C to treat over 25,000 patients. 

Currently, many functional and integrative medicine clinics use vitamin C to kill disease. One of such clinics is the Riordan Clinic, established in 1975 by Dr. Hugh Riordan.

Can You Overdose on Vitamin C?

This was my main concern when I started on vitamin C. And it’s the main concern of most people as well. For many years, I did not unlock the powers of vitamin C to beat disease because I was scary.

What if I take too much vitamin C?  Can I overdose? What will it happen? Will I end up in the hospital? 

Fear is a powerful force and many decisions are unfortunately taken out of fear. The solution?  Knowledge. Education.

Not one person has died from a vitamin C overdose. An overdose, by definition, is an excessive and dangerous use of a drug. 

Vitamin C is a natural substance that the body needs in large amounts. It is not a drug. And vitamin C is a GRAS substance that the FDA considers it safe. It is not dangerous.

Vitamin C Toxicity

A toxic substance is a poisonous substance that causes damage to the body. Vitamin C is not a toxic substance and there is no known vitamin C toxicity level.

Diseases are toxic. And they have different toxicity levels based on the severity of the disease.

Dr. Robert Catcarth found that people can tolerate more vitamin C when they are sick.  The more toxic the disease, the more vitamin C the body can take. This is because the body needs more vitamin C to kill disease and go back to normal.

I take 10-12 grams of vitamin C by mouth every day, in divided doses. This is the amount of vitamin C that my body can tolerate when I am healthy. If I’m sick, I take much more because my body can tolerate more to fight the toxic disease.  

Kidney Stones and Vitamin C

The studies on kidney stones and vitamin C find that vitamin C does not increase the risk of stones formed.

In fact, vitamin C experts believe that vitamin C may actually reduce your risk of kidney stones. These are the reasons why:

• Vitamin C sticks to calcium. Calcium oxalate is the main component of kidney stones. More vitamin C means less calcium and less risk of stones.
• Vitamin C is a diuretic. This is not an environment for stones
• Vitamin C kills bacteria. Stones form around infections and enough vitamin C prevents infections.
• Vitamin C reduces blood sugar. This reduces the risk of stones because sugar increases the risk of stones formed.

Pregnancy and Nursing

Vitamin C is very safe during pregnancy. Dr. Frederick R. Klenner was a pioneer in high dose vitamin C therapy. He proved vitamin C helps prevent post-partum hemorrhages, cardiac fetal distress, shorten labor and reduce pain during labor.  

It can also help with leg cramps and backache. This is because vitamin C strengthens ligaments and tendons, and eases pain.

At the time that I write this blog post in July 2019, my wife Lorena is pregnant with our third baby. She currently takes 6,000 milligrams a day (6 grams) in the first trimester. She plans to increase her vitamin C intake to 10 grams in the second trimester and 15 grams in the third trimester. 

Lorena suffers from high blood pressure. Vitamin C has also helped to control her blood pressure and take less drugs, which can be harmful for the baby.

And what about nursing?  The optimal dose of vitamin C as a nursing mom depends on you and the baby. Are you sick? How do you feel? How is the baby doing? 

These are important questions to answer since the vitamin C is passed to the baby in breast milk. If the mom is under stress or sick, less vitamin C will be available for the baby in the breast milk.

Sources

• Levy, T. (2002) Curing the Incurable - Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins

• Hickey S., Roberts H. (2004) Ascorbate, The Science of Vitamin C

• Riordan Clinic - Nutrition-based Health Facility

• US Food And Drug Administration - GRAS Substance Database

By Arturo Galindo Certified Nutritional Therapist I have used vitamin C and nutrition for over 10 years to end my chronic diseases and help my family stay healthy. Learn about our story.

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