Re: Don't use Ascorbic Acid, use mineral ascorbates

Hi North,

Since I ingest so much hydrogen ascorbate, i.e. ascorbic acid, daily (30 to 60 grams for the last 12 years), I also used to be worried about leaching minerals from my bones and/or teeth, etc. And finally I decided to do some research, and that put my fears to rest. I do not remember all of the technicals, but basically it had to do with the fact that our bodies (actually our cells themselves) produce their own sodium bicarbonate as an alkalinizer, and our kidneys have a process whereby if our blood is too acidic, they simply excrete more acid in our urine (and vice versa, for too alkaline). I read nothing (if I recall it was primarily in a few online encyclopedias) about needing to leach [needed] calcium and/or other minerals from our bones and/or teeth in order to alkalizize our blood/tissues.

As an aside, if I had to take a mineral ascorbate, the ONLY one I would ingest would be sodium ascorgate, as the excess sodium is much easier to excrete than excess calcium, magnesium, etc.

Just thought I would offer this as "grist for your mill."

Best,

David

P.S. For what it might be worth, Dr. Robert Cathcart, M.D., the person with more clinical experience prescribing megadoses of ascorbate than any other on earth (over 20,000 patients, last time I checked), wrote that his clinical experience was that ascorbic acid orally was much more effective than the mineral ascorbates orally, "I have not been able to achieve the ascorbate effect with mineral ascorbates orally. Mineral ascorbates are fine forms of vitamin C but when you are really sick, the mitochondria are failing in their refueling of the free radical scavengers with electrons. The ascorbic acid carries 2 extra electrons per molecule where the mineral ascorbates seem to carry only one (plus per molecule the mineral ascorbates are heavier due to the mineral weighing more than the hydrogen the mineral replaces). So the mineral ascorbates are not potent enough to accomplish the ascorbate effect. There may be other reasons that we do not appreciate additionally." Robert Cathcart, III, MD Tweet