scurvyencounters wrote:Part of the problem is that bowel tolerance is not necessarily always a sensitive enough indicator of vitamin C needs. Cathcarts theory is a great place to start. Definitely. But what is at stake here is the body's oxidative load, which I suspect is not always fully connected to the bowel tolerance measurement.
But why has the bowel tolerance assessment seemingly failed? Could it be this person may yet have need for vitamin C, possibly with much higher dose???
Excellent point (Probably should split this into a bowel tolerance topic) It is true that individuals vary in how much ascorbate they can absorb, and what it means regarding optimal intakes. There are some people (such as my father and brother) who hit tolerance at 200 mg at any one time. Any more at one time and they spend a great deal of time in the bathroom. Indications are that both require(d) more as both have or had heart disease. I credit LivonLabs.com Lypo-C with keeping my brother healthy. (I on the other hand, can easily down 20,000 mg of ordinary vitamin C in one day without diarrhea. So there is a range of 3 orders of magnitude in the same family.)
This differs from Cathcart's observation that most people can tolerate 4000 mg daily. My brother has determined that 200 mg every 2 to 3 hours does not cause diarrhea. He can take perhaps 8 * 200 or 1600 mg daily if spread out this way. Probably no where near what his internal requirements are visa vis arterial health. So again, thanks to Livon/Liposomal products. He is taking 3 Lypo-C daily, and at least 3 Donsbach liposomal vitamin C. I estimate that his "ordinary C equivalence" is roughly 27 grams daily.
I think the best method to follow is to determine the dosage based on body weight from the charts in this post, http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=7593 Then if the individual cannot tolerate that amount of C, use an equivalent amount of Lypo-C (e.g. 1 packet equals 5 grams) to achieve the necessary blood levels.