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High-Dose Vitamin C: Anecdotal N=1 Case Report (myself) UPDATED
Related: anti-oxidant, cognitive bias, cognitive commitment, cognitive dissonance, ethics in medicine, follow the money, follow the self-interest, gears of the machine, health, rationalization, Vitamin C
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UPDATE: this report now reflects a potential tipping point in 3+ years of malaise, with the longest run of normality in at least 2 years. If it continues much longer, it will disrupt (in a good way), the longstanding pattern of malaise-relapse for 4-6 weeks-malaise. Is it the Vitamin C? Either that or a peculiar coincidence.
UPDATE 2023-08-16: the situation is now very unusual in the context of the past 3+ years, that is, I’ve now experienced a full two months of good energy. More...
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This is an anecdotal N=1 case report, self reported. It is not a recommendation or advice; consult your allopathic medical doctor to learn just how I am to dare to think that “let food be thy medicine”.
The key differences between this report and an anecdotal case report published in one of the utterly corrupt (a matter of public record now) medical journals are as follows: (a) brevity, (b) freedom from jargon and medical puffery, (c) freedom from apologetic tone that a non-drug worked, (d) freedom from platitudes about the need for further study, etc. And most of all: addressing a verboten topic in assembly-line medicine: using a “disproven” quack treatment, quack meaning something not a Big Pharma drug.
Dosing
Vitamin C powder = proportions Ascorbic acid 2000mg + 500mg bioflavonids in 1/2 tsp powder
What I use: LivOn Laboratories Lypo Spheric Vitamin C @AMAZON and Nutricost Ascorbic Acid Powder (Vitamin C) @AMAZON.
Dosing was as follows. starting 2023-06-12:
- Initial dosing of 6000mg liposomal Vitamin C morning and evening, with 25 grams powder in two doses spaced in between.
- Over a few days, building up to “bowel tolerance” dose (21 grams powder was found to be a bit much per dose, but 17 grams no issue). Two doses per day, sometimes 3. Up to 41 grams per day of powder.
- Ongoing daily dose: 3000mg liposomal Vitamin C morning and evening (6000mg), plus 35 grams ±5 grams in two doses spaced throughout day.
Optimism allowed
If you have not suffered from a chronic fatigue style problem, it may be hard to understand what that “fatigue” means. It is both mental and physical. It is not the tired but good feeling of a hard workout, it is not just needing sleep, it is not any conventional feeling. Rather, it is a horrible energy sink that kills motivation, dulls mood, destroys concentration, raises sleep needs 3-4 hours per day, and makes exercise a grim gauntlet of willpower with no pleasure involved during or after.
What matters to me is a sense of vigor returning, both mentally and physically, a veiling fog for both being lifted.
At least here on June 26 2023 July 2 2023, I feel like I should: an out-of-shape and 25-pounds-overweight version of my former self, but with the energy and vigor restored, and that is the difference between hope and feeling hopeless. Hard work ahead to regain fitness and drop the body fat is a challenge that I can manage so long as my system continues to respond this way.
Observations
The following findings are following a year of issues, which following two years of oscillating issues where I operated at 5% to 25% most of the time, with occasional brief breakouts to 100%. Could just be another purely coincidental oscillation.
June 14 2023
Coincidence? Transitory? Time will tell. Perhaps these effects will fade and fail as they have before; the problems I’ve had follow a “long wave” pattern with “short wave” breakouts (mostly very short).
Day 2: a notable uptick in energy.
Days 3/4/5: reduction in sleep requirements of ~1.5 hours, reduction in daytime tiredness.
Day 5,: strongest ride in months with power/watts as per lab-grade SRM power meter 25% higher than past two months.
Day 7+: can now work at computer all day long, improving steadily such that a 9-hour day is once again doable. Contrast to days limited to 2-4 hour range for months/years.
Days 9+: increasing mental and physical energy.
Days 10/11/12/13: daily hikes including one from 8000' to 9000' elevation in difficult terrain (soft snow and more), revealing loss of fitness and that 25 extra pounds of body weight (plus 20 pounds of gear) are hard. And that’s notable: vigor returning, eg absence of the horrible “no energy” feeling that has plagued me for years. Soreness in muscles quickly recovering each day.
Day 18: still going strong.
Day 20 (July 3): warning signs, relapsing?
Had been feeling more tired past 3 days, but there were reasons that could expain it.
Red-flag warning sign this morning waking up, not fully rested: dull ache in left/upper chest wall, a distinct symptom of the malaise for at least 2 years. No, it’s not a cardio issue and it disappears with exercise. It abounds with a cluster of aches and pains associated with the fatigue. By mid-day, light headache and upper achiness in back (part of the cluster) are manifesting.
Points of relevance: (1) for various reasons, had dropped C dosing to only 2000 liposomal morning/evening and ~10 grams total powder, (2) too little sleep past several days, (3) daylong workload in 90° heat in van for 3 days, (4) massive pollen load (allergen) each morning; freshly wiped-off surfaces are all coated witih yellow dust.
It will be a 4th and final day of computer work in the hot van today, but it has to be done. Then I will resume photographing, which should reveal while hiking if vigor is fading again. I will increase the C dosing today July 3 to higher levels again.
Day 29: strength up, now that C intake raised
I now wonder if the relapse might have been due to dropping Vitamin C intake. It was very hard to dose the stuff when out all day (eg no intake at all), dropping the daily intake down towards the 10 grams per day level. The Klenner protocol always claimed that the dosing had to be enough to address the issue. I resumed regular dosing around July 10, and my energy levels starting July 11 showed a marked increase again, in spite of demandes that shorted me of sleep. That follows needing to nap half the day in the July 6/7/8 timeframe. Maybe there is a multi-day lag between cosing and efficacy?
Day 44: smooth sailing
That period of weakness around Day 20 passed after 4-5 days. I now suspect that I overdid things (shorted myself on sleep on top of all-day trail clearing at high altitude, followed by high heat stress). As I returned home 4-5 days later, my strength started climbing again to very good levels, sleep needs dropped (again), and here on July 27 I just has the strongest bike ride in over a year, with progressive gains increases in wattage (lab-grade power meter!) on back-to-back days of 177W, 225W, 214W, 223W, 245W.
Subjective feel counts for a lot, and it has been terrific the past 10 days or so—working 10-hour days doing a coding project, bike ride every day for a break late in the day. A short nap some days but only because of rising very early eg 5 AM Along with the objective metrics of power (watts) ±0.5% accuracy on same course, the evidence is undeniable that functionality is way WAY up.
