Vitamin C Overdose

Can you have too much vitamin C?

Can you experience a vitamin C overdose?

Is there such thing as too much vitamin C?

For many people supplements and side effects are synonymous. People hear bad stories or rumors and get worried about taking certain health supplements.

One thing to keep in mind is that much more people suffer from lack of proper nutrients than taking too much. There are far more cases where people are suffering from not getting quality vitamins, minerals and antioxidants as opposed to suffering from toxicity issues with supplements.

The truth is with extreme cases you can overdose from anything. A vitamin C overdose might be possible if you're popping pills like crazy.

However if you're taking a reasonable amount, there should be no worries about too much vitamin C. According to some of the top experts on vitamin C, you're not getting enough.

There are NO toxicity concerns with Vitamin C.

Toxicity in a substance can refer to whether it can produce a harmful side effect. Vitamin C is not known for producing any harmful side effects.

Many people talk about kidney issues when taking health supplements. Vitamin C has no relation with the risk of kidney problems.

There have been studies that conclude the safety of vitamin C intake in relation to kidney stones in men.

The study published in the Journal of Urology confirmed that: "Neither vitamin C nor vitamin B6 intake was significantly associated with the risk of stone formation."

The only real side effect of taking too much vitamin C is an upset stomach or diarrhea. This can happen if you take more vitamin C than you're used to. Some people feel a cold coming on and supplement more vitamin C. Some of them may experience gas or an upset stomach.

The best way to avoid this is to slowly introduce more vitamin C into your body. Some experts suggest taking 1000 mg for a few days and work your way up.

How much Vitamin C should you take?

In the old days if you didn't have proper levels of vitamin C you would develop scurvy. These days scurvy is extremely rare. Your basic diet will provide you with enough vitamin C to keep you safe from scurvy.

But you should be taking vitamin C and other supplements to reach an optimal level of health, not just to avoid scurvy.

In terms of your vitamin C intake, you should not be worried about a vitamin C overdose. Dr. Linus Pauling who has won two Nobel Prizes and was the biggest advocate of vitamin C worked his way from 3 grams per day to 18 grams per day.

Now I wouldn't recommend you start taking 18 grams right away, but you should definitely think about slowly increasing the amount you currently take.

Some experts believe that the amount of vitamin C you should take is the amount you would naturally produce. Us humans are one of the few animals that don't produce our own vitamin C.

We are missing one of the few processes of creating vitamin C in our bodies. People believe that as we evolved we were eating enough foods that were rich in vitamin C and therefore lost the ability to produce it on our own.

So based on the amount other animals create on their own, an average human could produce close to 20 grams of vitamin C per day. This is not an exact figure and would depend on the weight of the person and whether the body was under stress, but it highlights how low the recommended daily allowance for vitamin C is.

In conclusion you should probably not increase your dosage drastically by consuming 18 grams tomorrow, but you should understand that a vitamin C overdose is not something to worry about.