Vitamin C notes

[liveonearth]

High doses of vitamin C are used to treat some infections and some cancers. How high is high? 3-4 g/day is considered high, but one doc takes 200g/day and is OK, so we don't really know what the top end is and why.

Some people experience diarrhea w/ vit C. Sometimes the diarrhea is caused by a corn base to the vitamin pill, and not the vitamin C itself. Check on base.

Watch iron when using increased vit C doses, as C increases Fe absorbtion. Esp: post-menopausal women and men of northern European descent.

Bowel tolerance for vit C can change. Turnover rate adjusts.
--is dependent on location of infection: lower tolerance with GI infx, higher with resp infx.
--tolerance increases with gradual increase of dosage

Comments

Hope you don't mind...

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

Minimum RDI (In Australia) to prevent scurvy is 30mg/day. A potato provides about 15mg per 100g and an orange 50-70mg per 100g.

Vitamin C intake for optimal health is still open to debate, as the focus used to be on preventing deficiencies.

not at all

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Happy to absorb any info you can throw my way!

Re: not at all

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

:D

I finished my post grad dip in dietetics awhile back, and am considering going back and studying Western herbal medicine, maybe next year :D

Vitamin C is one of those interesting ones which has a pharmaceutical effect in high doses I think...

(Same as a lot of other nutrients such as EPA and DHA with arthritis and eicosanoid production)

Re: not at all

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Yes....tis very interesting. I've been contemplating the possibility of doing my thesis on vit c....even though it's been done, and done and done. But a good overview is always useful. Do you post about dietetics?

Re: not at all

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

Vitamin C is one of those ones where some studies say yes it helps with things, and other studies say no it doesn't, so doing a thesis on it would be interesting.

I rarely post about dietetics because only about 15-20% of my clientele is actually interesting. The majority of the daily work is diabetes and heart disease, mostly because I work as a community dietitian in the country and most of the interesting people get sent to the city to be treated.

Every so often I get interesting* cases, which usually involve me and some other allied health people, such as speech therapists or OTs. Or the occasional inpatient, that requires dietetic input.

(*interesting usually involves autism, kidney disease/renal disease, food allergies and intolerances, and early diagnosis of type 1 diabetes)

Re: not at all

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the *interesting ones sound interesting to me too. I'm just beginning to delve into the morass that is allergy, sensitivity and intolerance.....immunology is very cool stuff. I suppose one might get a little bored with posting about trying to get diabetics to not eat sugar. Argh! Anyway, thanks for commenting. =-]

Re: not at all

[littleblueghost.livejournal.com]

Thanks for replying.

Food allergies and intolerances are interesting, especially when you start getting into A2 milk, and gluten free diets for autism. There is a plethora of information that seems to give conflicting information, and no well controlled trials, because of the ethical dilemmas behind doing them.

Re: not at all

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

The truth will OUT.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

T - What did you call the problem some people have with becoming constipated from too much fiber?

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't know what the name is for it. I just recently came to understand that it is probably because the fiber is irritating the ileocecal junction, which is where the small intestine dumps into the large intestine. There is a sphincter there that controls the flow. The cecum is sort of the butt end of the small intestine, and the appendix sticks out from it. In animals that ferment food in their gut, like cattle, the cecum is big. So anyway if you irritate the valve and it sticks shut, stuff piles up in your small intestine and whatever is in your large intestine has nothing behind it to push it along, and gets very dehyrdated. So fiber can cause constipation. Dosage and fiber type are important. That's about all I know so far.

I can tell you that IBS is coming up CONSTANTLY and I have yet to understand it.

[neptunia67.livejournal.com]

Hmm. This is all very interesting. I look forward to hearing more as you learn. I would just about bet, that is what happens with me. Because the BMs are like hard, dry little pebbles.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I'll keep you posted. Pebble poop is a strain on the system.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

I must correct my earlier comments about anatomy. The cecum is the wide area at the beginning of the large intestine, not the end of the small intestine. The ileum is the last part of the small intestine, so the ileocecal valve is before the cecum in terms of flow. Gotta get it right.