libes@nbs-amrf.UUCP (06/16/84)
I recommend Vitamin C. I am no doctor nor can I guarantee that it will help
you. However, I will take it for the rest of my life. Right now, (during
allergy season), I take 3 grams a day. Other times of the year I take .5 to
1 gram.
I have hayfever (for sure) and probably other allergies. I always used to
sneeze a lot and especially during hayfever season. It was worst when I was
a student eating a diet of subs, pizza, chocolate, cola and occasionally
antihistamines when I really couldn't stand it. (I hate taking drugs of any
kind.) I found a book called the "People's Pharmacy" that recommended
Vitamin C and then asked a friend of mine who studies nutrition (as a
hobby). After giving me some books by Linus Pauling, she explained how much
to take and that day I took 3 or 4 grams - 500 mg every half hour until I
went to bed. The next day I woke up with no allergy symptoms whatsoever.
Two weeks later, I stopped taking C (my bottle ran out) and the symptoms
came back the following day. I quickly went out and bought some more! As
long as I take C in large amounts, I find I have no allergies. What more
can I say?
As an aside, I have had colds (sorry Linus - I really can't say if I get
them less frequently) but the severity of the colds is much less. They last
a day or two and no one (but me) can tell that I have one - I hardly ever
sneeze (so my nose doesn't get raw), my eyes don't water, throat doesn't
hurt, etc. I'd take the C just for that alone. Actually, I don't know if
this resistance to colds is due to my diet...its improved 1000% since
school. In any case, I find the C necessary to avoid the allergies. (Its
possible I could have even better success with colds if I took 3g year
round.) But obviously diet (and I take other vitamins and minerals now)
plays an important part in health. (So does environment - I lost all my
allergy symptoms temporarily when I visited California!)
According to Pauling, 3g is actually a small dose. He suggests that people
take between 5 and 8g (dependent on the person). I found that at 5g, I had
diarrhea, an apparently normal reaction by the body attempting to rid itself
of too much of the water-soluble vitamin.
In fairness to equal say, I have to say that a lot of people (i.e. doctors)
don't like Pauling and his theories, especially the AMA.
Don Libes {seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!nbs-amrf!libesdyer@wivax.UUCP (Stephen Dyer) (06/18/84)
>...I hate taking drugs of any kind...
You think 3 grams or more of ascorbic acid per day isn't classified as
a drug? I'm glad your allergies are gone, but be sure to write when
you go into the hospital for kidney stones! :-)
--
/Steve Dyer
decvax!bbncca!sdyer
sdyer@bbncca.ARPAseifert@ihuxl.UUCP (D.A. Seifert) (06/22/84)
> You think 3 grams or more of ascorbic acid per day isn't classified as > a drug? I'm glad your allergies are gone, but be sure to write when > you go into the hospital for kidney stones! :-) A drug is something not normally ingested/present-in-the-body. Would you call someone a drug user if they ingested a lot of H2O ? There is evidence that we are *supposed* to ingest several grams of Vitamin C per day. And it doesn't follow that you'll get kidney stones. -- _____ /_____\ Ever try to autocross a Sopwith Camel? /_______\ |___| Snoopy ____|___|_____ ihnp4!ihuxl!seifert
sdyer@bbncca.ARPA (Steve Dyer) (06/23/84)
>A drug is something not normally ingested/present-in-the-body. >Would you call someone a drug user if they ingested a lot of >H2O ? There is evidence that we are *supposed* to ingest several grams >of Vitamin C per day. And it doesn't follow that you'll get >kidney stones. As with most discussions which crop up on the net, we often find ourselves wrestling with semantics rather than issues. To clarify, I would define a drug as any substance which exerts a pharmacological action in the body independent of its primary role (if any) in ordinary human physiology. In this sense, I would definitely call the effects of excessive water ingestion sufficient to endanger life a "drug effect", though I would hedge on calling the unfortunate victim a "drug user", a phrase which has acquired extra-medical connotations. In the case of Vitamin C, megadoses not only protect against scurvy, but also begin to effect other physiological systems. In this sense, it could be said to be acting as a "drug." This is a completely neutral term in the medical literature. Unfortunately, the same term dredges up Manichean polarities in certain people's minds: "natural" vs. man-made, "health- giving" vs. health-crippling, "wellness" vs. the spectre of organized medicine. This is fine as religion, politics or philosophy, but it makes for a poor science of nutrition, pharmacology and physiology. With regard to kidney stones: SOME people, not all, get kidney stones after excessive megadoses of Vitamin C. This is to be expected, given the variance in individuals. I end with a quote from Goodman and Gilman, "The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics", 1980 ed., pp. 1579-1580: "...studies [of ascorbic acid in the treatment of colds and viruses and cancer] have yielded negative or inconsistent results. Any benefit which might be derived from such use of ascorbic acid seems small when weighed against the expense and the risks of the megadosage treatment. The latter include formation of kidney stones resulting from excessive excretion of oxalate, rebound scurvy in the offspring of mothers taking high doses, and a similar phenomemon when subjects who are consuming large amounts of vitamin C suddenly stop; a precipitous reduction in ascorbic acid concentration in plasma follows. These rebound phenomena are presumably due to induction of pathways of ascorbic acid metabolism as a result of the preceding high dosage. Excessive doses of ascorbic acid also enhance the absorption of iron [not clear that this is bad-- sdyer] and interfere with anti-coagulant therapy." -- /Steve Dyer {decvax,linus,ima}!bbncca!sdyer sdyer@bbncca.ARPA
fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (06/27/84)
(oo) <- an irritated nose...
What does all this discussion of vitamin C and renal function have to
do with my a - a - a - CHWAAH (sniff) allergies? BTW, I take 300 mg
of vitamin C a day, plus whatever I get from the fruits and veggies
I eat a lot of, and it doesn't help ONE BIT!
--
Bob Fishell
ihnp4!ihu1g!fish