Too Much Vitamin C? Health Effects of V8 Splash Drinks

[decamij]

I just bought a pack of 12 427mL V8 Splash drinks. In one bottle, there is 400% of my recommended Vitman C intake. I have a bottle a day. Is this too much Vitamin C? What side effects can it have?

 

[kalladin]

I don't think vitamin C has any harmful side effects besides turning your pee pee yellow. But someone with more authority would be able to confirm or trash my opinion :)

K.

 

[Moonbear]

I don't know about color changes, but Vit C is one of the water soluble vitamins, so anything over and above what your body needs will be excreted.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

What is the latest on taking huge doses of C? Has Pauling's claims been refuted? I haven't read up on this issue for many years.

btw Moonbear, Pauling was an OSU guy.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/

 

[PICsmith]

Don't worry decamij, 400% rda (240 mg) vitamin C isn't harmful at all. I used to take up to 3g per day when I worked out regularly, that would be uhh 5000%! Plus I remember this discussion from a nutrition class I took and I've read about it several times. If anything you're benefiting from it.

 

[Moonbear]

What is the latest on taking huge doses of C? Has Pauling's claims been refuted? I haven't read up on this issue for many years.

btw Moonbear, Pauling was an OSU guy.
http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/

I just went digging a bit and haven't come up with much new literature on this. It seems the general consensus is as long as you're getting at least the RDA of Vit C (we can't synthesize our own, so need to get it from our diet or supplements), more than that seems neither helpful nor harmful.

I did come across a 2001 double-blind placebo-controlled study on the effect of mega doses of Vit C on cold duration and severity of symptoms (one of the most common things people are told to take Vit C to help), and they came up with no benefit of Vit C. Note, the "placebo" did include 30 mg of Vit C, which is about half the minimum daily required intake, intended to account for everyone getting some daily Vit C intake. The test was whether mega doses make a difference.

Med J Aust. 2001 Oct 1;175(7):359-62.
Mega-dose vitamin C in treatment of the common cold: a randomised controlled trial.

Audera C, Patulny RV, Sander BH, Douglas RM.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of large doses of vitamin C in the treatment of the common cold. STUDY DESIGN: Double-blind, randomised clinical trial with four intervention arms: vitamin C at daily doses of 0.03g ("placebo"), 1 g, 3g, or 3g with additives ("Bio-C") taken at onset of a cold and for the following two days. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: 400 healthy volunteers were recruited from staff and students of the Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, between May 1998 and November 1999. The trial continued for 18 months. INTERVENTIONS: Participants were instructed to commence medication when they had experienced early symptoms of a cold for four hours, and to record daily their symptoms, severity, doctor visits and use of other medications. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Duration of symptoms and cold episodes; cumulative symptom severity scores after 7, 14 and 28 days; doctor visits; and whether participants guessed which medication they were taking. RESULTS: 149 participants returned records for 184 cold episodes. No significant differences were observed in any measure of cold duration or severity between the four medication groups. Although differences were not significant, the placebo group had the shortest duration of nasal, systemic and overall symptoms, and the lowest mean severity score at 14 days, and the second lowest at 7 and 28 days. CONCLUSIONS: Doses of vitamin C in excess of 1 g daily taken shortly after onset of a cold did not reduce the duration or severity of cold symptoms in healthy adult volunteers when compared with a vitamin C dose less than the minimum recommended daily intake.

 

[eax]

Just wondering, If I eat one lemon a day will I stay healthy? I heard vitamin C is bad for your liver. It may be, but if it is excreted, if too much is taken in then it doesn't really matter does it?

 

[ShawnD]

Too much vitamin C will give you diarrhea. I speak from experience...

 

[loseyourname]

Last I remembered, extremely high doses of vitamin C (5g or higher) taken over a period of several months can increase the risk of kidney stones. I have no idea where I read this, though, and I highly doubt any person ever takes in quite that much under anything even approaching normal circumstances.

Edit: It seems they actually have a page devoted to this at the Pauling Institute. The hypothesis seems to have been mostly deductive and experiments are inconclusive, but certainly there is no toxicity shown anywhere near normal intake levels, even 5000% of RDA. Here is the page.