Boosting your Immune System: Vitamin C Megadoses
This article is for those who are conscious about keeping a healthy body and are always on the hunt for an extra boost to keep a healthy immune system and in a pinch improve the appearance of their skin.
The idea of the post is not to convince you to do anything, but to create awareness and show available approaches to deal with situations so you can determine what is best for us, since we all should be able to choose what to put in our bodies, and the government have no business mandating anything on us.
Have you ever heard about vitamin C megadoses drips?
I know we are supposed to consume our vitamins naturally but I prefer to keep it realistic and admit that I am not going to eat oranges every day (I know there are more foods that contain vitamin C but oranges are the most common ones) anyway knowing my history of endless colds throughout fall-winter in the last 10 years, are proof enough that I needed to start taking extreme measurements.
Cold weather is my enemy number one, even if I start preparing my system months ahead with daily 200 milligrams of vitamin C pills, I get sick anyway, and after being in domiciliary arrest due to “covid” for months I was seriously concerned about the state of my immune system, so making a dent in my bank account with a megadose of vitamin c was necessary, and you know what? it was the best 200 dollars I’ve ever spent! It is almost December and I haven’t gotten sick once yetttt (knocking on wood) I would ideally love to do it once a month but this ain’t cheap.
The only secondary effect I experience after my IV was smelly urine and sweat for a good 3 days, but it was worth it. Crappy publications like Wikipedia and Forbes are going to tell you that these megadoses are bad for you, and this is because it doesn’t go with the elite narrative, who’s goal is to keep us sick, drug dependent, convince us that we need to jab ourselves with poisonous flu shots or even worse a crappy covid vaccine that was made to alter our DNA not to ‘cure’ covid, to be healthy, so they can keep their power over humanity and become even wealthier. When was the last time flu shoots prevented the flu from happening or eliminated the virus anyway?
I won’t get tired of saying that our body is our temple and that we must take care of it all the time not only when s happens, so WE can have control over our bodies.
Why don’t we dig deeper so we can have a better understanding of how megadoses of vitamin c work?
Immune system:
The complex group of defense responses found in humans and other advanced vertebrates that helps repel disease-causing organisms (pathogens). Immunity from disease is actually conferred by two cooperative defense systems, called nonspecific, innate immunity and specific, acquired immunity. Nonspecific protective mechanisms repel all microorganisms equally, while the specific immune responses are tailored to particular types of invaders. Both systems work together to thwart organisms from entering and proliferating within the body. These immune mechanisms also help eliminate abnormal cells of the body that can develop into cancer.
Vitamin C megadoses benefits:
Proponents of vitamin C megadoses claim that large infusions, either orally or by intravenous drips, can prevent or cure all sorts of diseases, and in many cases, they have some evidence to support their views. Vitamin C megadoses are advocated for heart health by people such as cardiologist Thomas Levy, who also believes that people with diseases and illnesses ranging from cancer to AIDS to the common cold might also benefit from vitamin C mega doses. Dr. Julian Kenyon of the Dove Clinic in Britain also favors mega doses of vitamin C for cancer patients.
Vitamin C is necessary for tissue growth and repair. It's also an antioxidant vitamin that may protect your cells from the damaging effects of free radicals.
“Vitamin C is essential for life and acts as a miracle in certain applications and yet, humans are among just a few types of mammals that cannot produce it within their bodies”.
We humans cannot make ascorbic acid!
Almost all mammals make ascorbic acid in their livers from glucose (other animals generally make it in their kidneys).
Four enzymes are required to turn glucose into ascorbic acid. We humans have the first three enzymes in our livers that are required for ascorbic acid synthesis.
We are missing the fourth enzyme, L-gulonolactone oxidase. This missing enzyme is what blocks the liver production of vitamin C in humans. Animals that are not missing L-gulonolactone oxidase make and release considerable amounts of ascorbic acid into the bloodstream on a continuous basis.
The reason we are missing the fourth enzyme is because of a genetic mutation that occurred many millions of years ago to our early primate ancestors.
Conventional diets have reduced our vitamin C consumption even further to dangerously low levels.
We know that a modern gorilla (that also cannot make its own vitamin C) living in the wild consumes about 4-5 grams (4,000-5,000 mg) of ascorbic acid per day.
Compare that to modern man, who now averages less than 100 mg of ascorbic acid per day from food.
Such little amounts provide protection from death by scurvy, but are not enough to convey all of the many positive health benefits that other animals receive.
Is it possible to take too much vitamin C?
Answer From Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., L.D.
While vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient, it's possible to have too much of it.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that supports normal growth and development and helps your body absorb iron. Because your body doesn't produce or store vitamin C, it's important to include vitamin C in your diet. For most people, an orange or a cup of strawberries, chopped red pepper, or broccoli provides enough vitamin C for the day.
For adults, the recommended daily amount for vitamin C is 65 to 90 milligrams (mg) a day, and the upper limit is 2,000 mg a day. Although too much dietary vitamin C is unlikely to be harmful, megadoses of vitamin C supplements might cause:
• Diarrhea
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Heartburn
• Abdominal cramps
• Headache
• Insomnia
Remember, for most people, a healthy diet provides an adequate amount of vitamin C.
There is an extensive article explaining in detail case studies and the origin of vitamin C megadoses, you should definitely read it, I will share the link at the end, but read some highlights here:
1. Vitamin C has many essential functions in our body in addition to its well-known role as an antioxidant. Thus, prolonged periods of sub-optimal vitamin C exposure could have adverse health effects, including increased susceptibility to a plethora of diseases. In fact, the optimal dosage of vitamin C required to maximize its health benefits has been hotly debated ever since its discovery a century ago.
2. Utilizing high doses of vitamin C as a cancer therapy is no exception to this controversy. Nearly 60 years ago Toronto physician William McCormick observed that cancer patients often presented with severely low levels of vitamin C in their blood and featured scurvy-like symptoms, leading him to postulate that vitamin C might protect against cancer by increasing collagen synthesis. In 1972, extending this theory, Ewan Cameron, a Scottish surgeon, hypothesized that ascorbate could suppress cancer development by inhibiting hyaluronidase, which otherwise weakens the extracellular matrix and enables cancer to metastasize. He began treating terminally ill cancer patients and published a case report of 50 patients in which some of the treated patients benefited from high dose vitamin C.
3. Based on studies pioneered by Mark Levine’s group at the NIH in the 2000s, the oral vitamin C doses used in the Mayo Clinic studies would have produced a peak plasma concentration of less than 200 μM. In contrast, the same dose given intravenously, as used in the Pauling studies, would produce peak plasma concentrations of nearly 6 mM, more than 25 times higher. When given orally, vitamin C concentration in human plasma is tightly controlled by multiple mechanisms acting together: intestinal absorption, tissue accumulation, renal reabsorption and excretion, and potentially even the rate of utilization. However, when ascorbate is administered intravenously or intraperitoneally the tight controls are bypassed, and pharmacologic millimolar plasma concentrations of vitamin C can easily be achieved. For example, a phase I clinical study revealed that ascorbate concentrations could safely reach 25-30 mM with intravenous infusion of 100 g of vitamin C. In this study, plasma concentrations around 10 mM were sustained for at least 4 hours which, based on preclinical studies, is sufficient to kill cancer cells. Given the fact that cancer patients were only treated with vitamin C orally in the Mayo Clinic studies, the studies do not disprove high dose vitamin C’s efficacy as a cancer treatment.
4. There are at least three challenges that have thus far prevented large-scale, randomized controlled trials of vitamin C for cancer therapy. First, vitamin C is not patentable. Therefore, there is no financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies to support vitamin C clinical trials, and those that have been done have largely relied on government grants and small private donations.
How else does vitamin C benefit the skin?
Amazingly, vitamin C's skin-saving benefits aren't limited to its antioxidant status. It has plenty of other skin-healing properties that make it worthy of a permanent place in your medicine cabinet. For one, because it's highly acidic when vitamin C is used topically "the skin is triggered to heal itself by accelerating the production of collagen and elastin," explains New York City-based dermatologist Howard Sobel. Remember: Collagen and elastin are both naturally occurring protein fibers that help keep skin plump and firm. So, in helping to promote collagen production, topical vitamin C can help prevent premature aging of the skin.
Another cool thing about the ingredient: It contains a property that inhibits your skin's melanin production, which is what causes skin discoloration like dark spots and hyperpigmentation, Wexler explains. With continued topical use, vitamin C can help prevent dark spots from forming in the first place.
"It's a superior brightening agent that works to fade brown spots without altering normal skin pigmentation," Sobel adds.
Links:
1. https://behiveofhealing.com/more-matters-treating-illness-megadose-vitamin-c/
2. https://www.cancer.gov/research/key-initiatives/ras/ras-central/blog/2020/yun-cantley
3. https://www.approachwellness.com/vitamin-c-megadose.html
4. https://www.livestrong.com/article/413359-what-are-the-benefits-of-mega-dosing-vitamin-c/
5. https://www.livestrong.com/article/479307-the-toxicity-level-for-vitamin-c/
6. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-c/faq-20058030
7. https://www.allure.com/story/vitamin-c-benefits-for-skin