Is it possible that Ascorbic Acid could be harmful in some people? I know that this sounds crazy, but I found out the hard way that it is true in some cases.

Here is the story....

Recently I was at some friends' house having lunch. Shortly after we went outside and started jumping on the trampoline. Within a few minutes, I was winded and decided that I needed to stop. When I got off of the trampoline my heart went into SVT (Tachycardia). I called out to my wife (a registered nurse) and she came over and took my pulse she could barely get a pulse. What she was able to count was 220 to 240 bpm.

Thankfully, we knew about Cayenne pepper helping someone that is having a Heart Attack. So my friend Russell mixed some with water and gave me some and within less than a minute my heart normalized to 140 bpm. We where confident that I was not having a Heart attack because I had no pain, numbness or shortness of breath. Well, we were really worried about this, so I went to the Doctor a few days later, just to get some tests done to rule out any heart disease... Well, thankfully everything was normal except one thing, my blood Iron content was double of normal.. And the Dr’s agreed that the trouble that I was having was probably due to my Iron level being too high.

At first we where puzzled by this, but then we remembered that just a couple of weeks before I had started taking very large doses of Ascorbic Acid Powder.

I was probably taking 10 to 20 grams per day. When I revealed this to the Dr., they told me that Ascorbic Acid was synthetic and harmful to the body. At first I just dismissed this as Dr. Propaganda, but after doing some studies on my own, I found out that Ascorbic Acid increases your Iron absorption by 30 % or more.

So with this new information, I stopped taking the Ascorbic Acid. About 8 weeks later, I had more blood tests done to check my Iron level and it had totally normalized.

The Ascorbic Acid had caused me to have “Hemochromatosis”. This is a disorder where your body stores too much Iron. Normally, it is a genetic disorder that can only be treated by blood letting. Thankfully, Ascorbic Acid induced Hemochromatosis can be reversed by simply stopping the consumption of Synthetic Ascorbic Acid.

Hemochromatosis is a fatal disorder if not treated. Untreated, the survival rate is only 18 % in 5 years. This disorder is more common than people think and most people that have it don’t know until it is too late. The person dies of Heart failure and / or Liver failure.

Ascorbic Acid induced Hemochromatosis has been linked to at least 5 known deaths.   However, I suspect that there are many more incidences that have not been linked, that could be.

During this time I had been shown a book called “The Truth about Vitamins and Antioxidants” by Judith A. DeCava, MS, LNC. There is a section on Vitamin C that totally changed my mind about Vitamin C and Ascorbic Acid.

I discovered something that seems to be hidden from us. Ascorbic Acid truly is NOT Vitamin C, it is a component of Vitamin C complex. That's right ! Think about it.. Where does Ascorbic Acid come from ? It comes from Hoffman / La Roche, one of the large pharmaceutical companies. They synthesize it from glucose. Remember, we cannot make Ascorbic Acid in our body from Glucose, that is why we have to supplement or eat foods that have it.

Did you know that Ascorbic Acid does nothing to help Scurvy, but eating an orange will... Why ? Because, Ascorbic Acid is the protective antioxidant sheath for Vitamin C complex. This natural complex is the natural mixture of Rutin, Bioflavinoid complex, the K factor, the J factor, Tyrosinase, Ascorbic acid, Ascorbigen, and other co-factors.  You have to get the complex from a natural food source to treat Scurvy.  Calling Ascorbic Acid "Vitamin C" is like calling an egg shell the whole egg.   Ascorbic Acid is only a protective component, similar to the egg shell.

Ascorbic Acid is an antioxidant and an anti-inflammatory agent. Yes, there is a place for ascorbic acid in our body, but it seems that it would be better to get our daily needs from a whole food source.

I could write a book on this, but all I wanted to accomplish here was to inform you of my experience with Ascorbic Acid and get you to think about all of the Vitamin C information that is out there.