Can you overdose on Vitamin C tablets?

Question

Someone i know says that we cant overdose on Vitamin C tablets and eats them like they're sweets. Im pretty sure that we can. Can we?

Answer 1

i havent been able to walk in 3 years as a result of excessive vitamin C intake, it really isnt a joking matter. ive now banned all juices from my flat, and anybody caught eating fruit gets a sharp whack with my stick. But it doesnt bring my legs back to life :-(

Answer 2

The worst thing that will happen by consuming too much vitamin C is you will have really loose bowels. Otherwise, no you cannot overdose on vitamin C. However, if you have diarrhea for too long you could become dehydrated and lose other mineral content in your body.  

Answer 3

One cannot overdose on a water-soluble vitamin. The way that you know that your body has reached the saturation point is that you will start to have diarrhea. Your body cannot utilize more than 500 mg (1/2 a gram) every two hours so if you take more than that you will just pee it out.

Answer 4

Wow, there's a LOT of misinformation out there.

Rabbit R is actually the closest... yes, you can get too much of anything, even water (you can even ask a doctor about water toxicity or water poisoning). With Vitamin C, it is a water-soluble vitamin, so it will pass out of your system unused if you get too much... within reason. If you take too much of it too fast, you can overdose and people have.

Linus Pauling (who essentially discovered Vitamin C) took about 12,000 mg of Vitamin C daily in good health, but he took that in several doses throughout the day (like around 1,000 mg per hour) so it gave his body time to process out what wasn't needed. Now if anyone went from 0 mg to 12,000 in a day, they are likely going to have severe diarrhea because high doses of Vitamin C do give a laxative effect, but if you slowly increased your daily dose over time, your body could get used to it.

It really depends on how many you take how often. If you had a whole bottle of Vitamin C pills within a few hours, you would probably have to go to the hospital. But if you took 1-2,000 mg per hour, you should be safe (short of maybe having loose stools). Just keep it in moderation and you'll be fine ;-)

Answer 5

I would think that you could but am not sure that it would do any more than make you quite ill.  Vitamin C is effectively removed from your system so taking too many is just a waste of the vitamin.  You urinate out what your body cannot use.

Answer 6

You can have too much of a good thing.If you continually take to much of anyvitamine supplement the kidneys or liver can "overload" and cause a shut down of those organs.take at most double the daily recomended dosage.Plus veggies,fruit ang nuts-even cashews will add tons of vitamines naturally to your bod.Its the only one you have take care of it.

*In a former life was a lab tech.Saw way too many whacked levals some people have tried to OD with vitamins,too much CAN harm you.YOU sound smart and its good you ask,dont follow in your friends foot steps.

Answer 7

.Vitamin c has no medicinal value, waste of money. Eat fruit and veggies and take some sunshine

Answer 8

Strictly speaking you can overdose on anything, even water.

Gelitine and other ingredients in the tablet might cause a problem but as you're ingesting it slowly your body will have plenty of time to warn you to stop: you'd just throw up!

Vitamin C itself is not stored in the body. It is excreted when the body has what it needs.

Answer 9

Yes, you can overdose on Vitamin C.

A friend of mine did once while drinking several gallons of orange juice (for what reason he still won't say).  He had to have his stomach pumped because too much Vitamin C CAN be lethal.

Just like anything else, take them in moderation.