How to Use Vitamin C

And why most people are doing it all wrong

Vitamin C is incredible. Few people appreciate the power of Paul Marik and Pierre Kory's (both MDs) original work on vitamin C in sepsis.

Why is vitamin C so effective?

1. Vitamin C helps to generate hormones and neurotransmitters involved in the acute stress response, specifically the response to acute infection.

This is why vitamin C is on my list of must-have medications/supplements at home.

2. Vitamin C helps to produce free radicals that then help the body the clean up injured tissues. Most people think of this as an "anti-microbial" property, but it's much deeper than just the fact that vitamin C can help a neutrophil or lymphocyte kill a microbe.

3. Vitamin C helps to create cross-links in collagen, literally making you tougher and stronger. On a microscopic/cellular level, this means that your tissues are more resistant to invasion, degradation, disruption, and so on and so forth.

That's the short version.

Then you get what I call the "vitamin C fear-mongers."

• "It'll give you kidney stones."

• "Synthetic vitamin C ruins copper metabolism."

• "Only natural vitamin C can be used by the body."

Statements like these are pseudoscientific sophistries built around a tiny piece of the truth.

Most people who peddle these notions have only ever had brief clinical careers, or maybe just "coaching" or "consulting" careers.

I think they mean well, but their experience with vitamin C is grossly at odds with mine.

And mine is based upon the reality of my clinical practice, where we see dozens of patients every week.

Vitamin C is one of our most potent tools for creating wellness. It is also one of the most abused and misunderstood, mostly because everyone seems to have an opinion about it, but nobody seems to actually reflect on what the rational use of it might look like.

That's all well and good, but it leaves more questions than answers.

So here are the answers to a burning question you might not even have known that you had.

How do we use vitamin C rationally?

The Rational Use of Nutritional Supplements

I recommend starting with this post to understand how I think about supplements in my practice.

As for vitamin C, this information is so good that it’s reserved for premium subscribers.