Life Extension magazine, Nov 2021, Misconceptions About Vitamin C

This is a critique of this article written by Nutrition Investigator. FIrst, some quotations from the article.

Vitamin C is only partially absorbed at doses above 200 mg and is then rapidly used up. A liposomal “hydrogel” formula elevates vitamin C blood levels 6.8 times more and provides 24-hour protection with one daily dose.

By William Faloon.

  1. “A typical vitamin C supplement provides a few hours of elevated blood levels that then return to baseline. “ pg 8
  2. One way of partially overcoming this obstacle is to take vitamin C several times throughout the day,
  3. What some people do is take higher vitamin C doses (1,000-2,500 mg) that provide a slightly longer degree of acting protection.
  4. Research published in the 1950s showed that taking  500 mg of vitamin C three times a day for only two to six months, reduced arterial plaques [27]
  5. Another reason why vitamin C has not demonstrated more robust results is that taking a single daily dose provides only limited protection
  6. Perhaps the greatest blunder made in research that seeks to identify vitamin C’s other benefits is dosing it just once or twice daily.
  7. Fig 3 – Deceptive – Comparing 350mg once a day vs hydrogel. Note that taking 500 mg twice a day gives 75 uM as shown in Fig 1.
  8. Ref 27. Willis GC, Light AW, Gow WS. Serial arteriography in atherosclerosis.  Can Med Assoc J. 1954 Dec;71(6):562-8. “Once again it must be pointed out that the series is small and that final conclusions must await studies carried out for a longer time with mlore cases added.”  Treated for 2 to 6 months

Roc’s Comments:

I am impressed that the author found reference 27, which has received little attention by vitamin C researchers. That is likely because it was in a tiny Canadian journal, did not state how many people were in the study, and did not justify the 500mg dose three times daily. It is a shame he did not read my paper “Rate of Excretion of Vitamin C in Human Urine”, G. King, M. Beins, J. Larkin, B. Summers, and A. B. Ordman, AGE 17:87-92 (1994). https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Rate-of-excretion-of-vitamin-C-in-human-urine-King-Beins/9609a9e90dd8778fac7228efa6d664bb637a6f4e

That paper proved that taking 500 mg of vitamin C orally twice a day saturated the blood.  There was continual excretion in the urine from 4 to 16 hrs after the 500 mg dose was taken.  Thus, remarks 1, 2, 3, and 6 are incorrect.  But the author is correct that vitamin C studies, except for mine and Levine’s, use vitamin C only once a day, so the results do not reflect the benefits of maintaining high serum levels of vitamin C.

Figure 3 is also deceptive.  Comparing 350mg once a day to the hydrogel makes the hydrogel look wonderful.  And the hydrogel only elevates vitamin C for 12 hrs, being higher than 500 mg Vitamin C only from hrs 1 to 10.   But taking 500mg vitamin C orally twice a day is much less expensive than the hydrogel, and raises serum vitamin C to 75 uM for the entire 24hrs.

In summary, Faloon’s article contributes to the misunderstanding about vitamin C dosage.  500 mg twice a day remains the optimal dosage.