Posted by Larry Hoover on November 1, 2003, at 9:34:42
In reply to Re: Vitamin C maximum dosage for important lack ???, posted by Frog on October 26, 2003, at 16:53:35
Sorry for the delay in responding. I've been tied up.
> Hello Larry,
>
> > There are two ways that vitamin C enters the body from the digestive tract, active transport and passive diffusion. The first, the active uptake, is >readily saturated by high doses. In other words, there's a limited capacity for absorption by this route, perhaps 100 mg/day. At the dose you're >taking, it's been estimated that maybe as much as 50% of the excess (when the active transporter is saturated) might simple diffuse into the blood.
> > The amount that stays in the digestive tract is an irritant. It's generally accepted that doses of 3 grams per day or more may cause diarrhea, but you >can build up tolerance over time. I know people who take much more than that, but I don't know if that's a good idea. Your body can become very >wasteful when the supply of vitamin C is overly abundant, and you can get what's called reactive scurvy if you suddenly decrease the supply.
>
> Thanks for your explanation , I understand better now how vitamin C works in the body.
>
> > That's a serious deficiency. Did you have your kidney function checked, too? Your kidneys might be wasting nutrients.
>
> When you speak about “kidney function checked” , do you refer to SGOT(ASAT) ,SGPT(ALAT), GGT analysis ?Those are liver enzymes. Kidney function is urinalysis, as measured by creatine clearance, BUN, protein.
> If so , yes it has been checked and there is nothing wrong regarding results obtained.
Good.
> > There are three possible reasons I can think of why your blood concentration of vitamin C has not come up.
> > 1. kidney problems....your kidneys are not protecting vitamin C from excretion in urine.
> > 2. malabsorption....as from celiac sprue, or other inflammatory intestinal disorder.
> > 3. the timing of the bloodwork, relative to the dose of vitamin C. It's possible that your tissues are so starved for vitamin C that most of it has >already been taken up from the blood before the blood test is done.
>
> I think that second and third choice (from what you have written) could be the cause of the problem and I guess that my endocrinologist will make me do further blood test to explore those ways.Didn't occur to me at the time, but there's quite another reason why your vitamin C might be horridly low......selenium deficiency. Are you European? Severe deficiencies in selenium intake are geographically distributed, and relatively common in Europe in general, and specific regions more particularly.
Selenium is a key component of the glutathione peroxidase enzyme (four atoms per enzyme molecule). Vitamin C is normally recycled by this enzyme. Vitamin C will be used up quite quickly if you're selenium deficient. If selenium is at the heart of your problem, you'll also benefit from fish oil.
> > If you don't get diarrhea from it, there's no reason not to try increasing your daily intake of vitamin C even further.
>
> Yea you are right , and even if I would get diarrhea I would consider it as a weak side effect compared to what I have experienced with some antidepressant I have taken.Add in selenium. At least 200 micrograms per day. Selenium deficiency is a physiological cause of depression. It also is related to fatigue, as thyroid dysfunction occurs in selenium deficiency. Blood tests may or may not show normal selenium levels, even in selenium deficient individuals, as blood levels may reflect recent dietary intake rather than general levels in the body.
> > I know English is not your first language, but there is a very complete reference here:
> > http://books.nap.edu/books/0309069351/html/95.html#pagetop
> >
> > Good luck,
> > Lar
>
> Thanks very much for this link(and no problem with english) , it so far the best complete one I have seen on the web. Some studies detailed in this reference mention intake of 10g/day , so it reassures me since this could become my daily dosage in the future.At that website, you can bring up information on many other nutrients by running a search using TDI and RDI as search terms.
> I will do a blood test tomorrow morning to see how my body has reacted after taking 2g daily during 18 days.
>
> Thanks again for your support
> Regards,
> PierreKeep us informed, okay?
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:273596
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20031023/msgs/275482.html