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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by Christ_empowered on March 7, 2022, at 17:59:37
fan of DIY Orthomolecular. I reintroduced B3 (I go for niacinamide...no flush, no reason to slowly increase the dosage...because of potential nausea and appetite suppression, the old school Orthomolecular doctors recommend keeping niacinamide dosages at or below 9 grams/daily...) and the results have been...awesome. spectacular. gradual, but (to people I socialize with, to me) borderline miraculous. true story.
Thing is...as much as I respect Dr.Hoffer and the other old school psychiatrists who brought us "Niacin therapy for the Schizophrenias" (plural because...I think maybe 50-70s North American psychiatrists tended to see -most- truly ill people/patients as some flavor "Schizophrenic..."), I've gotta say...
honestly, its only when I took it upon myself to go Pauling on my C intake that I got the relief from my...err..."affliction..." I so desperately needed.
Hoffer writes a good bit about C and various health problems in addition to "The Schizophrenias." Some of his earliest patients were apparently psychotic in large part because of cancer, for instance, and the vitamin mixes bought some of them time and seem to have added years and years of healthful, productive life to some others (not all, of course...mega-vitamin treatment is often quite helpful, but I don't think it should ever be presented as some sort of magical panacea...). and yet...
Pauling seems to be "the C guru," while Hoffer's emphasis is more on B3, mostly niacin (cancer prevention, cholesterol management, anxiety, on and on...), and the Hoffer material I've skimmed over -does- delve into all things C, but much of it is referencing the works of Pauling, Levy, etc.
sorry to ramble. Point is...I try to get in 6 grams of B3 (again, niacinamide. I'm considering adding 2-3 grams of "no flush niacin," more in the hope of getting some sort of cardio benefit than any psych issues...), and that -is- helpful for mood (mellow, but not apathetic) and anxiety and such (mellow, periodic anxiety and agitation respond well to daily aripiprazole and PRN gabapentin), but...
yeah. now that I've managed to get my C intake up to around 25-30 grams/daily (divided into at least 4 doses, btw), I find that vitamin C seems to play a much, much, much bigger role in my "mental state" than I had thought possible, and definitely a larger role in my ongoing (never ending?) "recovery" than the Hoffer material would have led me to think possible.In large part because of Orthomolecular, I have become quite the fan of antioxidants. I try to remember to get 1600 IU vitamin E (I go for natural form) daily, along with Pyncogenol and astaxanthin. And yet..
simple, generally inexpensive and readily available vitamin C -- humble old C -- really, truly seems to play a much, much bigger role in my own stability, lucidity than much of the psychiatric Orthomolecular material I've skimmed would have indicated possible.
What do you think are the underlying mechanisms? Anyone have any similar supplementation going on?
thanks. :-)
Posted by Mtom on October 22, 2022, at 8:57:12
In reply to 'mega-dose' C for psych stuff, posted by Christ_empowered on March 7, 2022, at 17:59:37
Interestingly, early in Covid I started taking Vitamin C - nowhere near what you're taking, just 2000 mg per day. I became increasingly less consistent after several months. However, I went through a period of feeling better and only much later, in retrospect, I remembered I was taking Vitamin C through this period of improvement.
Another factor in becoming less consistent and eventually cutting it back to just occasional 500 mg, was concern about kidney stones. And in fact, I was giving my spouse 2000 mg of Vitamin C during the same period - and they did develop kidney stones about 4 months later. We also ate a lot of high oxalate foods - spinach, swiss chard, etc., but had been for years leading me to suspect the addition of Vitamin C to these foods may have triggered the stone formation.
Are kidney stone something you've considered with such high doses?
It would be nice to hear from others who have tried Vitamin C and whether they experienced any mood improvement.
This is the end of the thread.
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