Yesterday I participated in a webinar with Andrew Saul also known as The Mega Vitamin Man. The webinar was focused on the COVID-19 virus that is currently making its way around the world.
This is a brand new virus so no one in the population currently has immunity. The only thing that can help protect you (besides steps taken to eliminate exposure) is your immune system. So, there is no better time than now to ensure you are focusing on healthy habits and strengthening your immunity.
Personally I have been struggling with the unknowns surrounding this outbreak. I’m not really scared of the virus itself but I’m more uneasy thinking about my older family members and the potential risk for them. This virus seems to be much more severe in older people or at least that is what the news is sharing.
I keep reminding myself that I am not in control of this virus and in the end what will be will be. The only thing I can control at this very moment is how I care for my body.
In this post, I am going to focus on everything I learned about Vitamin C in the webinar I took yesterday but I plan on devoting a post in the next few days to all the steps I am personally taking to protect myself and my family in mind, body, and spirit.
THE IMMUNE SYSTEM IS YOUR SECRET WEAPON
Your immune system truly is your secret weapon when it comes to fighting off bodily invaders like viruses. We are surrounded by viruses on a daily basis. They are everywhere! But, our body fights most of them off silently. Doing its job perfectly without us even knowing.
Some of us have stronger immune systems than others due to a multitude of reasons. Regardless of the current state of your immune system, there are steps you can take to help strengthen and regulate it allowing it to do the job it is designed to do.
VITAMIN C’S EFFICACY IS NOT “FAKE NEWS”
Adding Vitamin C to your daily regimen is one of the easiest ways to build and keep your immune system strong. Study after study shows Vitamin C’s efficacy in building the immune system. Through my education, research and after participating in this webinar I can confidently say that consuming Vitamin C is one of the most important actions you can take right now!
Just last week CNN told everyone that Vitamin C is not effective for fighting off COVID-19.
Information circulating about Vitamin C and its efficacy was called fake news, a hoax and even fact-checked and blocked by Facebook being described as misinformation.
Google “Vitamin C COVID-19” and you will find article after article claiming Vitamin C will do nothing to protect or help your body heal from this new virus. Wondering why good old Vitamin C is currently under attack? Well…it does not fit the pharmaceutical narrative so therefore it is considered ineffective.
It is time CNN gets fact-checked themselves and all these articles removed from the internet because just last week Vitamin C became the official recommended treatment from the Shanghai government.
“We need to broadcast a message worldwide very quickly: Vitamin C (small or large dose) does no harm to people and is the one of the few, if not the only, agent that has a chance to prevent us from getting, and can treat, COVID-19 infection. When can we, medical doctors and scientists, put patients’ lives first?” —Richard Z. Cheng, MD, PhD
HOW MUCH VITAMIN C SHOULD I TAKE?
The body needs Vitamin C daily to keep the immune system strong and when you are fighting off a virus the body needs even more. An interesting fact I learned yesterday is that almost all animals make their own ascorbic acid (vitamin c) and when they are sick their bodies make quite a bit more. Nature always knows what to do!
So, as humans how much Vitamin C do we need when we are healthy and how much do we need when we are sick?
For adults, Andrew Saul recommends around 5,000 mg a day spread out over multiple smaller doses. So, 1,000 mg taken 5x a day. The frequency is almost as important as the dose itself. The key is to keep a constant flow of Vitamin C coming into the body. You can take more than 5,000 mg if you want. Currently, I am taking a total of 9,000 mg a day.
As we already discussed when you are sick your body needs more. So, at the first sign of illness, you should up this by a lot! How much is specific to the person consuming it and what the body is fighting off.
Andrew Saul’s recommendation is to consume Vitamin C to bowel tolerance. What this means is that you consume Vitamin C in amounts just short of that which will produce diarrhea. When you reach bowel tolerance your body can no longer absorb Vitamin C. At this point the body is at full saturation.
NOTE: It is important to re-evaluate bowel tolerance each time you are sick as it can change.
DETERMINING BOWEL TOLERANCE
General guidelines for reaching bowel tolerance are below. For more information on this, I suggest you read this article. The below process will take several hours.
- Take 2,000mg of Vitamin C.
- After 1 hour take another 2,000mg of Vitamin C.
- After 1 additional hour take another 2,000mg of Vitamin C.
- Once you reach 3 hours and 3 doses of Vitamin C, continue to take an additional 1,000 mg of Vitamin C each hour until you have a watery bowel movement.
- Once you have emptied your bowels, add up how many mg of Vitamin C you have consumed. This is your bowel tolerance amount.
- You will consume 75% of the total mg you were able to tolerate each day until you are well. To calculate this multiply the total number of mg you consumed by 0.75.
- Take this total amount and spread it into as many microdoses throughout the day. The more frequently you take Vitamin C the better especially when you are sick.
WHICH FORM OF VITAMIN C IS BEST
Andrew Saul spoke about a few different forms of Vitamin C.
Ascorbic Acid powder is one of the most affordable and shelf-stable options. Purchasing powder instead of a tablet or capsule ensures there are no fillers and allows you to add it to whatever you like. The brand I use is Doctors Best Vitamin C Powder.
He also spoke about liposomal Vitamin C. What makes this form of Vitamin C different is it bypasses absorption through the small intestine and is absorbed right into the lymphatic system. Liposomal products are much more expensive and because of this reason, people typically don’t take enough. I think liposomal Vitamin C is a great thing to keep on hand to be used if you get sick because it is so powerful. The brand I use is LivOn Laboratories.
As with any supplement ensure you are buying from a company you trust and one that can ensure their product is not contaminated. I shared the brands I use but there are many great ones out there. Do your research and use the brand you feel best about.
HOW TO TAKE VITAMIN C
I already shared that the frequency is almost as important as the amount. Spread your total Vitamin C mg’s out to as many times per day as is convenient.
And, to my surprise, you don’t have to take Vitamin C with food as most supplement packages recommend. You can take it on an empty stomach however, some people may get stomach upset or acid reflux. Experiment on your own and do what works best for you!
WHAT ABOUT KIDS
Andrew Saul did not spend a lot of time talking about the use of Vitamin C for children. He mentioned some doctors and researchers suggest 1,000 mg for every year of age per day.
Information on this topic can be found here so if you have kids and want more information you can do a little research yourself. My son takes the same brands of Vitamin C that I do I just give him less. Currently, he is taking 2,000 mg 3x a day.
LEARN MORE
If you want to gain more knowledge on the wonders of Vitamin C I highly recommend researching Andrew Sauls’s work by checking out the resources below.
Vitamin C is truly a wonder vitamin and there is so much more to learn about it.
We may be living through a very scary moment in time with many unknowns but remember your body is great at what it does when we give it what it needs. Nature hardly ever makes mistakes!
DoctorYourself.com: the largest peer-reviewed, non-commercial natural healing resource on the Internet.
Documentary: That Vitamin Movie
Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine
In Love, Health + Gratitude,
Katie
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