Vitamin C

:This article is about the nutrient.

Daily requirement

There is a continuing debate within the scientific community over the optimum amount of vitamin C for humans.2

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The Recommended daily allowance

A healthy person on a balanced western diet should be able to get all the vitamin C needed to prevent the symptoms of scurvy from their daily diet without supplementation. People who smoke, those under stress and women in pregnancy have a slightly higher requirement.

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The amount of vitamin C needed to avoid deficiency symptoms of scurvy has been set by variously national agencies as follows:

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:40 mg per day UK Food Standards Agency

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:60–95 mg per day US Food and Nutrition Board 2001 revision.

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Advocacy amounts

Some researchers have calculated the amount needed for an adult human to achieve similar blood serum levels as Vitamin C synthesising mammals as follows:

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:400 mg per day – Linus Pauling Institute & US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Recommendation.

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:3000 mg per day – Vitamin C Foundation's recommendation.

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:6000-12000 mg per day – Thomas Levy, Colorado Integrative Medical Centre recommendation.

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:6000-18000 mg per day – Linus Pauling's daily recommendation

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:from 3000 mg to 200,000 mg based on bowel tolerance levels (see Cathcart below)

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High doses (thousands of mg) may result in diarrhoea, which is harmless if the dose is reduced immediately. Some researchers (Cathcart) claim the onset of diarrhoea to be an indication of where the body?s true vitamin C requirement lies. Both Cathcart and Cameron have demonstrated that very sick patients with cancer or influenza do not display any evidence of diarrhoea at all until ascorbate intake reaches levels as high as 200 grams (1/2 pound).

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The small size of the ascorbic acid molecule means the kidneys cannot retain it in the body. Some other explanation is required to explain why very sick persons retain such huge quantities of vitamin C without any discharge. Quite a low level in the blood serum will cause traces to be present in the urine. All vitamin C synthesising mammals have traces in the urine at all times. The fact that animals like rats pass ascorbate into their urinary tract, after expending valuable energy manufacturing it, implies that there is a benefit to having vitamin C passing through, and this does not represent waste.

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