Most Animals Produce The Equivalent Of 3 to 15 Grams of Vitamin C Every Day

Vitamin C isn't a vitamin at all. It isn't a necessary component of diet, at least for all mammals with the exception of guinea pigs, fruit eating bats, the red vented bulbul bird and primates - which includes us. All other species make their own.

This they do by converting glucuronic acid derived from glucose into ascorbic acid (C6H8O6). Three enzymes are required to make this conversion. One of these enzymes, or part of the enzyme system, is missing in primates. Irwin Stone proposed, in 1965, that a negative mutation may have occurred in these species so as to lose the ability to produce vitamin C. In primates this is thought to have occurred in the region of 25 million years ago.

Mutations can and frequently do occur in nature. Only those that put a species at advantage at the time tend to become dominant. Unfortunately, reversing such mutations is highly unlikely to occur. Unlike other vitamins, vitamin C is required in large amounts which could only be supplied by a tropical diet high in fruit and other vegetation. if sufficient vitamin C could be obtained from such a diet the quantity of glucose normally used to synthesize vitamin C could be channeled towards energy production. This could conceivably have been an advantage for primates or other species.

This advantage may have come at a price. Dr. Jungblut, an early pioneer of vitamin C therapy in the 1930's, discovered that only us primates and guinea pigs were susceptible to scurvy as well as anaphylactic shock, pulmonary tuberculosis, diptheritic intoxication, a poliomyelitis-like viral infection and a viral form of leukemia. None of the vitamin C synthesizing laboratory animals had susceptibility to these diseases. This is perhaps one of the first observations that led to the idea that susceptibility to viral infections could be a consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Could humanity's history of disease - endemic infections, plagues and more recently cancer and heart disease - be the result of our inability to produce vitamin C and our inability to obtain it from the food we eat?

Vitamin C produced per day by different animal species
(equivalent for 70 Kg Man)

More than 50% of People Require Over 2,500 mg to Reach Maximum Absorption

Vitamin C is One of the Least Toxic Substances Known to Man

The fact that almost all species continue to make vitamin C suggests that the amount of vitamin C generally available from diet is not enough for optimum nutrition except in exceptional circumstances such as a tropical environment. The chart above shows the average amount produced by each animal, adjusted to an equivalent body weight for Man. Under normal circumstances the daily amount produced, adjusted for comparison to a 70 kg man, is somewhere between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg.

Species of monkeys, such as the squirrel monkey, require an equivalent of 2,000 mg a day to maintain health and up to 1000 mg a day to maintain blood levels found in the wild. Animals produce variable amounts depending on their circumstances. Under conditions of stress or infection synthesis can easily quadruple. Some primates appear to require up to 2,800 mg a day equivalent to survive the long-term stresses of captivity, while guinea pigs require 3,000 mg per day to recover from anesthesia.

What about us? While a mere 60 mg a day can prevent scurvy, the deficiency disease first identified by Dr. James Lind in 1753, it would be illogical to assume that this is the optimal dose. A survey of doctors in the US found that those who were healthiest consumed at least 250 mg of vitamin C per day. A recent survey has shown that a person's vitamin status is a good predictor of their mortality risk. High blood vitamin C levels indicate a low risk for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer and other immune based diseases. Optimal intakes to reduce risk of such conditions would appear to be at least 500 mg per day.

Expensive Urine?

But aren't you simply making expensive urine when you take large amounts of supplements? Dr. Michael Colgan investigated this often made rebuttal. He investigated how much vitamin C we use by giving increasing daily doses and measuring excretion. "Only a quarter of our subjects reached their vitamin C maximum at 1,500 mg a day. More than half required over 2,500 mg a day to reach a level where their bodies could use no more. Four subjects did not reach their maximum at 5,000 mg." Increasing vitamin C intake from 50 mg to 500 mg tends to double serum vitamin C levels. Increasing intake to 5,000 mg a day will double serum levels again. Expensive urine? Vitamin C protects the bowel, kidneys and bladder on the way out. As Dr. Michael Colgan points out the average victim of bowel or bladder cancer spends $26,000 for treatment - mostly to no avail.

While it is valid to infer from this brief history of evolution, a comparison with other species, and average excretion rates that optimal vitamin C levels are probably above 1,000 mg with plenty of room for individual variation,what about 'hard evidence'? What levels are required to ensure maximum function of enzymes and body systems dependent on vitamin C? A quick review of some of vitamin C's hundreds of biochemical roles will help us here. Vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen. Our intercellular glue that keeps skin, lungs, arteries, the digestive tract and all organs intact. It is a potent anti-oxidant protecting against free radicals, pollution, carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxins. It is strongly anti-viral and mildly anti-bacterial. Energy cannot be made in any cell, brain or muscle without adequate vitamin C. The adrenal glands have a high concentration of vitamin C which is essential for stress hormone synthesis. Vitamin C is so central in so many chemical reactions in the body that,without it, life is simply not possible.

Are Western Killer Diseases Symptoms of a Vitamin C Deficiency?

The immune system depends on having healthy immune cells and associate molecules such as antibodies. Vitamin C is essential for both. Antibody production increases on supplementing 1 gram of vitamin C. It is also needed for interferon, complement, and prostaglandin production, and is essential for the proper function of immune cells such as lymphocytes and leukocytes. A recent study showed, in the test tube, that vitamin C can even inactivate the HIV virus.

Thanks to the work of Linus Pauling and coworkers we know that 10 grams of vitamin C doubles the life expectancy of cancer patients, and, in some cases effects a complete cure. Its role is even more pivotal in cardiovascular disease, which is now being postulated as the long-term consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Just about every marker of cardiovascular disease, arterial damage, high blood cholesterol levels, low HDL levels, high levels of oxidized cholesterol, thick blood are all improved by adequate vitamin C intake at levels up to 10 grams a day. Vitamin C increases resistance to stress, lessens allergic reactions, helps arthritic conditions, slows down the aging process and improves energy production. Beneficial effects of vitamin C in human trials tend to increase with the amount given up to, and above, 10 grams per day. On the basis of research into vitamin C's effect on disease states it would appear that an intake of somewhere between 1 and 10 grams may be optimal simply for maintaining optimal function of the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular system.

How Much Is Too Much?

Dr. Robert Cathcart believes the ideal intake for any individual is the highest level they can tolerate without loose bowels. On the basis of his experience with 11,000 patients over 14 years this bowel tolerance level may be 10 to 15 grams in a healthy person, 30 to 60 grams in a person with a cold, and over 199 grams per day in a person with a serious infectious illness. During an infectious illness the best clinical results have been achieved by maintaining high vitamin C levels in the blood through 3 or more grams every four hours.

Fortunately, vitamin C is one of the least toxic substances known to man. Four studies gave 10 grams of vitamin C to over 3000 patients without a single reported incidence of toxicity. Other than the bowels there has not been one single case of toxicity resulting from taking vitamin C supplements, despite unfounded reports of potential risk for kidney stones, raising blood uric acid levels, or 'rebound' scurvy. It is unlikely that any vitamin has been tested to such an extent for toxicity and it is safe to assume that supplemental levels of at least 10 grams a day, or up to bowel tolerance, are completely safe.

WHAT IS OPTIMUM

Whichever way you look at it the figures come out in the same ballpark. The optimum intake is likely to be in the region of 1,000 mg (1 gram) to 10,000 mg (10 grams) per day, If you are in the grips of cardiovascular disease, an infectious or immune system disease, or cancer the ideal level may be much higher. If you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, live in a polluted city, have a stressful lifestyle, take drugs including aspirin, or smoke, your optimal intake will again be raised. An intake of 200 to 300 mg of vitamin C per day is required to raise the average smoker's vitamin C level to that of a non-smoker. An intake of around 50 mg per cigarette probably affords maximum protection.

Albert Szent Gyorgi, who isolated vitamin C in 1928, recommends 1 gram daily. Dr. Michael Colgan takes 5 grams daily. Dr. Linus Pauling takes 10 to 18 grams daily. I take 5 grams daily on top of a diet rich in food sources of vitamin C. The choice is yours.

Most Animals Produce The Equivalent Of 3 to 15 Grams of Vitamin C Every Day

Vitamin C isn't a vitamin at all. It isn't a necessary component of diet, at least for all mammals with the exception of guinea pigs, fruit eating bats, the red vented bulbul bird and primates - which includes us. All other species make their own.

This they do by converting glucuronic acid derived from glucose into ascorbic acid (C6H8O6). Three enzymes are required to make this conversion. One of these enzymes, or part of the enzyme system, is missing in primates. Irwin Stone proposed, in 1965, that a negative mutation may have occurred in these species so as to lose the ability to produce vitamin C. In primates this is thought to have occurred in the region of 25 million years ago.

Mutations can and frequently do occur in nature. Only those that put a species at advantage at the time tend to become dominant. Unfortunately, reversing such mutations is highly unlikely to occur. Unlike other vitamins, vitamin C is required in large amounts which could only be supplied by a tropical diet high in fruit and other vegetation. if sufficient vitamin C could be obtained from such a diet the quantity of glucose normally used to synthesize vitamin C could be channeled towards energy production. This could conceivably have been an advantage for primates or other species.

This advantage may have come at a price. Dr. Jungblut, an early pioneer of vitamin C therapy in the 1930's, discovered that only us primates and guinea pigs were susceptible to scurvy as well as anaphylactic shock, pulmonary tuberculosis, diptheritic intoxication, a poliomyelitis-like viral infection and a viral form of leukemia. None of the vitamin C synthesizing laboratory animals had susceptibility to these diseases. This is perhaps one of the first observations that led to the idea that susceptibility to viral infections could be a consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Could humanity's history of disease - endemic infections, plagues and more recently cancer and heart disease - be the result of our inability to produce vitamin C and our inability to obtain it from the food we eat?

Vitamin C produced per day by different animal species
(equivalent for 70 Kg Man)

More than 50% of People Require Over 2,500 mg to Reach Maximum Absorption

Vitamin C is One of the Least Toxic Substances Known to Man

The fact that almost all species continue to make vitamin C suggests that the amount of vitamin C generally available from diet is not enough for optimum nutrition except in exceptional circumstances such as a tropical environment. The chart above shows the average amount produced by each animal, adjusted to an equivalent body weight for Man. Under normal circumstances the daily amount produced, adjusted for comparison to a 70 kg man, is somewhere between 3,000 mg and 15,000 mg, with an average of 5,400 mg.

Species of monkeys, such as the squirrel monkey, require an equivalent of 2,000 mg a day to maintain health and up to 1000 mg a day to maintain blood levels found in the wild. Animals produce variable amounts depending on their circumstances. Under conditions of stress or infection synthesis can easily quadruple. Some primates appear to require up to 2,800 mg a day equivalent to survive the long-term stresses of captivity, while guinea pigs require 3,000 mg per day to recover from anesthesia.

What about us? While a mere 60 mg a day can prevent scurvy, the deficiency disease first identified by Dr. James Lind in 1753, it would be illogical to assume that this is the optimal dose. A survey of doctors in the US found that those who were healthiest consumed at least 250 mg of vitamin C per day. A recent survey has shown that a person's vitamin status is a good predictor of their mortality risk. High blood vitamin C levels indicate a low risk for cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer and other immune based diseases. Optimal intakes to reduce risk of such conditions would appear to be at least 500 mg per day.

Expensive Urine?

But aren't you simply making expensive urine when you take large amounts of supplements? Dr. Michael Colgan investigated this often made rebuttal. He investigated how much vitamin C we use by giving increasing daily doses and measuring excretion. "Only a quarter of our subjects reached their vitamin C maximum at 1,500 mg a day. More than half required over 2,500 mg a day to reach a level where their bodies could use no more. Four subjects did not reach their maximum at 5,000 mg." Increasing vitamin C intake from 50 mg to 500 mg tends to double serum vitamin C levels. Increasing intake to 5,000 mg a day will double serum levels again. Expensive urine? Vitamin C protects the bowel, kidneys and bladder on the way out. As Dr. Michael Colgan points out the average victim of bowel or bladder cancer spends $26,000 for treatment - mostly to no avail.

While it is valid to infer from this brief history of evolution, a comparison with other species, and average excretion rates that optimal vitamin C levels are probably above 1,000 mg with plenty of room for individual variation,what about 'hard evidence'? What levels are required to ensure maximum function of enzymes and body systems dependent on vitamin C? A quick review of some of vitamin C's hundreds of biochemical roles will help us here. Vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen. Our intercellular glue that keeps skin, lungs, arteries, the digestive tract and all organs intact. It is a potent anti-oxidant protecting against free radicals, pollution, carcinogens, heavy metals, and other toxins. It is strongly anti-viral and mildly anti-bacterial. Energy cannot be made in any cell, brain or muscle without adequate vitamin C. The adrenal glands have a high concentration of vitamin C which is essential for stress hormone synthesis. Vitamin C is so central in so many chemical reactions in the body that,without it, life is simply not possible.

Are Western Killer Diseases Symptoms of a Vitamin C Deficiency?

The immune system depends on having healthy immune cells and associate molecules such as antibodies. Vitamin C is essential for both. Antibody production increases on supplementing 1 gram of vitamin C. It is also needed for interferon, complement, and prostaglandin production, and is essential for the proper function of immune cells such as lymphocytes and leukocytes. A recent study showed, in the test tube, that vitamin C can even inactivate the HIV virus.

Thanks to the work of Linus Pauling and coworkers we know that 10 grams of vitamin C doubles the life expectancy of cancer patients, and, in some cases effects a complete cure. Its role is even more pivotal in cardiovascular disease, which is now being postulated as the long-term consequence of vitamin C deficiency. Just about every marker of cardiovascular disease, arterial damage, high blood cholesterol levels, low HDL levels, high levels of oxidized cholesterol, thick blood are all improved by adequate vitamin C intake at levels up to 10 grams a day. Vitamin C increases resistance to stress, lessens allergic reactions, helps arthritic conditions, slows down the aging process and improves energy production. Beneficial effects of vitamin C in human trials tend to increase with the amount given up to, and above, 10 grams per day. On the basis of research into vitamin C's effect on disease states it would appear that an intake of somewhere between 1 and 10 grams may be optimal simply for maintaining optimal function of the immune, endocrine and cardiovascular system.

How Much Is Too Much?

Dr. Robert Cathcart believes the ideal intake for any individual is the highest level they can tolerate without loose bowels. On the basis of his experience with 11,000 patients over 14 years this bowel tolerance level may be 10 to 15 grams in a healthy person, 30 to 60 grams in a person with a cold, and over 199 grams per day in a person with a serious infectious illness. During an infectious illness the best clinical results have been achieved by maintaining high vitamin C levels in the blood through 3 or more grams every four hours.

Fortunately, vitamin C is one of the least toxic substances known to man. Four studies gave 10 grams of vitamin C to over 3000 patients without a single reported incidence of toxicity. Other than the bowels there has not been one single case of toxicity resulting from taking vitamin C supplements, despite unfounded reports of potential risk for kidney stones, raising blood uric acid levels, or 'rebound' scurvy. It is unlikely that any vitamin has been tested to such an extent for toxicity and it is safe to assume that supplemental levels of at least 10 grams a day, or up to bowel tolerance, are completely safe.

WHAT IS OPTIMUM

Whichever way you look at it the figures come out in the same ballpark. The optimum intake is likely to be in the region of 1,000 mg (1 gram) to 10,000 mg (10 grams) per day, If you are in the grips of cardiovascular disease, an infectious or immune system disease, or cancer the ideal level may be much higher. If you drink excessive amounts of alcohol, live in a polluted city, have a stressful lifestyle, take drugs including aspirin, or smoke, your optimal intake will again be raised. An intake of 200 to 300 mg of vitamin C per day is required to raise the average smoker's vitamin C level to that of a non-smoker. An intake of around 50 mg per cigarette probably affords maximum protection.

Albert Szent Gyorgi, who isolated vitamin C in 1928, recommends 1 gram daily. Dr. Michael Colgan takes 5 grams daily. Dr. Linus Pauling takes 10 to 18 grams daily. I take 5 grams daily on top of a diet rich in food sources of vitamin C. The choice is yours.