Vitamin C – What Can It Do For You? by Eva Herr

If there is such thing as a miracle “drug”, Vitamin C would be it. If you could only choose one vitamin you just might want that vitamin to be Vitamin C because it has a use in treating most any problem you might have.

Vitamin C can do many things and unlike most other mammals, humans don't naturally produce their own Vitamin C so the only way to get it is to ingest it.. It can boost your immune system tremendously, and in a very short time, by boosting the amount of lymphocytes circulating in the bloodstream. Vitamin C neutralizes free radicals. It can also eat away plaque in the arteries and support vision, not to mention fight cancer. Vitamin C can assist with alleviating depression and significantly reduce inflammation throughout the body, arthritic joints being no exception. Vitamin C in varying large doses is a remedy for the common cold, the flu and everyday symptomatic viruses. It is a support mechanism for the uptake of many other vitamins and minerals… meaning, that without adequate Vitamin C, a necessary co-factor, you can take supplements all day long and not see any result.

So where do you start? How much do you take and what form is best? Plain old ascorbic acid. It is the best chelator against plaque for the buck that you can find. The magic dose will be that dose just short of gastric symptoms, otherwise known as bowel tolerance. You will also find that your dosage tolerance will increase if you are symptomatic with the flu, a cold or virus so keep that in mind when attempting to battle these illnesses. It is best to take small doses throughout the day as opposed to a single large dose. Divide your tolerated dose into six smaller doses to maintain uniform levels.

Many children suffer nosebleeds due to low levels of Vitamin C. If the bleed is due to a Vitamin C deficiency, by supplementing the diet with low doses of Vitamin C, regular nosebleeds may disappear. That was the case with my own child.

One thing to keep in mind when using Vitamin C is that it is an everyday affair. Single, small doses will not achieve any significant results. There is hard and convincing evidence supporting the use of mega doses of Vitamin C for cancer, heart disease and inflammation, but again… it is the larger dose that makes the difference. Andrew Saul, PhD, www.doctoryourself.com whose mentor was Dr. Abram Hoffer, considered to be the father of orthomolecular medicine (a form of complementary and alternative medicine that seeks to prevent or treat diseases with nutrients prescribed as dietary supplements or derived from diets) wrote an indispensable book, Fire Your Doctor, detailing the use of orthomolecular medicine for safe and effective natural therapies for more than 80 different health conditions. You might also peruse the work of Linus Paulding http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/lpbio/lpbio2.html and Abram Hoffer http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/hoffer/index.shtml. Hoffer also conducted significant research using mega doses of niacin to successfully treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and manic depression.

Another must have book for the serious minded alternative medicine seeker is Burton Goldberg’s Alternative Medicine, The Definitive Guide, Revised and Expanded Edition.

Using nutrition to prevent and heal disease is a long and complicated process. Educate yourself, ask questions from experts.