How Much Vitamin C Do You Need to End Allergies, Infections and Heal From Chronic Diseases?

By Arturo Galindo, Cert. Nutritional Therapist

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How much vitamin C do you need to end allergies? To sop infections? A cold?

The amount of vitamin C your body requires for good health, and to prevent or treat a disease are not the same.  

Every person is different, but here you can find some guidelines from the vitamin C experts.  This includes the amounts of vitamin C that the body needs to prevent and heal many chronic illnesses. 

Vitamin C Given In The Right Amounts Can Help The Body Heal From Chronic Diseases

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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!

Vitamin C in Animals vs. People

As mentioned in a previous blog post, most animals and plants produce their own vitamin C, and only a few can’t. 

The amount of vitamin C that these animals produce is equal to between 5 and 15 grams per day, if they are healthy. They produce much more when stressed or sick. Up to three times more and some animals produce even more than that.

People must rely on external food stuffs or supplements to get enough vitamin C. Enough vitamin C so that all the body functions that depend on it work in an optimal way and prevent a vitamin C deficiency. 

The challenge is that our bodies don't absorb all vitamin C we take. And we can only store very little as a reserve. Also, vitamin C has a very limited short life in the body and lasts only a few hours.

Remember, your body is in constant need of vitamin C. Especially when you’re sick or stressed. Any kind of physical or emotional stress.

Here’s an interesting study that proves the human body needs more vitamin C when is under stress or sick. 

How much Vitamin C Do You Need for Good Health? 

We also discussed in a previous blog post the maintenance doses of vitamin C that you need for good health. Each person has different needs, because each person has a different body chemistry. 

Estimates from the experts show that most people need between 5 and 15 grams of vitamin C per day.  This is only to maintain good health.  It assumes you are not sick or under any other kind of physical or emotional stress.

For example, I need about 12 grams per day to maintain good health. And my body needs more when I am stressed or when I feel that I may be sick.  

But how much more vitamin C do you need when you're stressed or sick?

How Much Vitamin C Do You Need To Prevent or Treat a Disease?

A therapy dose is the amount vitamin C that your body needs to either prevent or to treat disease. 

For example, you feel you might be getting a cold. You want to prevent a disease. 

In this case, the doses of vitamin C that your body needs are larger than the doses that you take for good health. This is because your body is being challenged. You want to prevent being sick.

Let’s assume you already have a cold. You want to treat the disease and go back to normal as soon as possible. 

In this case, the doses of vitamin C that your body needs (and can tolerate) are larger than the doses to prevent a cold. 

Vitamin C Dose Chart For Several Conditions

Dr. Robert Cathcart used vitamin C to treat many illnesses in his medical practice.  He found that patients can tolerate more vitamin C when they're sick.  

In other words, the sicker the person is, the more vitamin C the body can tolerate by mouth before diarrhea occurs. Vitamin C is one of the safest substances.

The table below is the vitamin C dose chart from Dr. Catchcart. It documents the bowel tolerance doses for many conditions. 

The More Severe The Condition, The More Vitamin C Your Body Needs

In the table above we can identify how much vitamin C the body needs under different conditions. For example:

• A person in normal health needs 4-15 grams in 4-6 divided doses
• Mild colds need 30-60 grams in 6-8 divided doses. Severe colds need much more, between 60 and 100 grams or even more. 
• Hay fever or asthma needs 15-60 grams in 4-8 divided doses.
• Cancer needs between 15 and 100 grams in 4-15 divided doses. 

It is interesting that the more severe the condition, the more vitamin C the body needs.  And the more frequent the doses should be to maintain high levels of ascorbic acid in the blood.

Sources

• PubMed - Scurvy in intensive care, despite vitamin supplementation

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

• Stone, I. (1972) The Healing Factor, Vitamin C Against Disease

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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