Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site metheus.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxl!houxm!houxz!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!ogcvax!metheus!howard From: howard@metheus.UUCP (Howard A. Landman) Newsgroups: net.med Subject: Re: Vitamin C Message-ID: <262@metheus.UUCP> Date: Thu, 9-Aug-84 19:43:38 EDT Article-I.D.: metheus.262 Posted: Thu Aug 9 19:43:38 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Aug-84 00:49:19 EDT References: <249@mako.UUCP> Organization: Metheus, Portland Oregon Lines: 25 The least anybody says you should get (these days) is 60 mg. That's the FDA RDA. The most anybody says you should get is 12000 mg. That's Linus Pauling based on studies of how much C there is in the tissues of animals that can synthesize their own. One way to "play it conservative" would be to take the geometric mean of these, or about 848 mg. Myself, I lean toward Linus a little bit, so I take 1000 to 1500 mg daily, spread out into two or three doses (it works better that way). It's also worth noting that both the FDA and Linus have increased their estimates in the last five years (the FDA used to say 30 mg, Linus used to say 10000 mg), so the high side seems to be a little bit better bet. There should normally be no real problems with 4 gm (4000 mg) per day, as long as you drink enough water to handle the C that eventually gets eliminated in the urine, and DON'T suddenly go back to not taking any. Your body adjusts to the amounts of various vitamins it gets, especially in the efficiency of the digestive uptake. You should taper up or down any time you are changing your intake. Howard A. Landman ogcvax!metheus!howard (till August 14th) "What in the world ever became of Sweet Jane? She's lost her sparkle you know she isn't the same. Living on reds, vitamin C and cocaine All a friend can say is ain't it a shame."