Vitamin C & Cortisol

[[...]]

Moderate exercise in the mornings may help via release of endorphins, but exercising too hard can further raise cortisol levels. I do my hard workouts late in the day after my 'cocktail' of cortisol inhibiting substances.

[[lk...]]

I do not find any motivation to exercise in the morning :laugh:

 

Ok......going to store.............What type of vit c should I get? Does it matter? Is Ester c ok? It says it is easy on the stomach. Lord knows I don't need anything else to mess with that.

 

Thanks!

 

Lisa

[[Du...]]

You want buffered asorbic acid, its fat soluble, much easier on a sensitive system, powder form is best..ideally you want liposomal though. Make you sure you buy a good brand like Jarrow, as most store bought vitamin C as very low potentcy.

 

If you want the proper stuff

 

[nobbc]http://www.supplementclinic.com/LipoNano_C_by_Pure_Horizon_p/107614.htm[/nobbc]

 

its expensive, but last ages, each teaspoon is 1600mg of IV strength vitamin C with some extra goodies. Start off slow, 1/4 teaspoon a day, go up in 1/4s every 3 days. If you get slight upset stomach thats your current tolerance, so back off for a few days, then re introduce.

 

I would also order lipsomal glutithione to help your liver clear the toxins and free radicals the vitamin C will be chucking out, and some milk thistle. I would start the milk thistle first, one week on that, they add the C, then 2-3 weeks later add the glut. Watch for any paradoxical reactions, by now through benzo WD you know your body better than you probably ever have done in the past!

 

Edit: commercial link deactivated

[[lk...]]

Yikes! Thats a whole lotta words that I know nothing about lol

 

I don't do well with powder stuff....Im a gagger. Any good stuff in pill form?

[[Du...]]

 

The liposomal is a syrup you mix with water or juice!

 

I avoid tablet form as the digestive tract will munch most of the nutrients before ot gets to cellular level

[[lk...]]

Thanks!

[[Di...]]

... or you just try what you can get at your local store and see what happens, before you start spending a lot of money on more expensive stuff. You are also better off taking a few smaller doses of Vit C throughout the day, rather than just one larger dose.

 

Sometimes I think we get a bit of information overload. Use what works for you, and if one thing doesn't work, try something else. Everything is always trial and error.

 

 

[[Wi...]]

For what it's worth I take 500 mg chewable Vit C bought at a local grocery store and I get a reasonable response.

[[lk...]]

OMG Pam....Information overload indeed! Then of course I have to research more and then research brands to all come back to not wanting to spend a fortune cuz lord knows if it will do a darn thing!

 

I actually ordered some from amazon that will be here tomorrow. I knew I wouldn't be going to the store until then but thought better safe then sorry and I will have it. Hopefully it will help. ANything at all will be welcomed!

 

Thanks for everyones input!

 

Lisa

[[he...]]

I take regular but c...rose hips...It's working well.

[[Di...]]

OMG Pam....Information overload indeed! Then of course I have to research more and then research brands to all come back to not wanting to spend a fortune cuz lord knows if it will do a darn thing!

 

I actually ordered some from amazon that will be here tomorrow. I knew I wouldn't be going to the store until then but thought better safe then sorry and I will have it. Hopefully it will help. ANything at all will be welcomed!

 

Thanks for everyones input!

 

Lisa

 

I know most people mean well, but I really think that we should think before posting a lot of really involved and "scientific" or "technical" information, because most people just aren't able to grasp it, especially in benzo withdrawal, and it only further confuses confused minds.

 

I know how I felt right at the beginning of my taper, when I had all these people tossing really confusing tapering information at me, that made no sense whatsoever. Just because you know all the words, doesn't mean you have to use them all at the same time…lol…. KISS is the best policy.

 

Good luck with what you've ordered from Amazon. My Vit C advocacy has taken a slight hit today, because I had a bad night last night. Not sure what caused it. I hope it's just a one-time thing.

 

[[Co...]]

^ Pam, I went away for a long weekend and got back yesterday.  I skipped my Vitamin C on the trip and the consequences were bad.  Just sayin' ...

 

CC

[[Di...]]

Well, it's good that you've been able to prove it.

 

I'm hoping I'll sleep better tonight. I remembered today that I had a cup of coffee around 1pm yesterday, which I have done before and it hasn't bothered me, so I'm hoping that maybe that's what had an effect on me. No coffee today or anything else that could bother me, so we'll see what happens when I go to bed in about 3-4 hours....lol...

[[lk...]]

Pam...........I would assume that we cant always expect to have perfect sleep right? It would be nice....lol My Vit c came in today :yippee: So I will start to take 500mg now should I take the melatonin with it. I have taken that for 2 or 3 nights and it did finally help. I tried without it last night and it was a bad bad night. Opinion??

 

Lisa

[[Di...]]

Yeah it would be nice to have perfect sleep, but I guess we can't expect too much while we are still tapering. Hopefully once we heal, our sleep will return to normal.

 

I have very mixed feelings about melatonin. I have tried it and sometimes I think it helps, other times I've thought it was useless. So I don't use it at all now. I have found that when I really need help with sleep I'm better off just using some OTC doxylamine or an AD that I had prescribed ages ago. Both work quite well, so if I'm having a lot of problems I alternate them for a couple of nights each so I don't get too used to either of them.

 

I still had trouble getting to sleep last night and had to resort to some doxy. I think I've come to the conclusion that I might have to slow my daily taper a little because my dose is getting really low now. So I will do that for a few nights and hopefully that will fix the problem.

[[lk...]]

The weird thing is that Melatonin never did a thing...NOTHING....then it worked a few nights and so I did end up taking it with the C last night and I slept for 31/2 hours straight. DOn't know what helped me do that but its good lol. I couldn't fall back to sleep for a while but then seemed to get another 3. I feel pooped but at least I wasn't up every hour.

 

How long did it take for you to see affects from the C?

[[Di...]]

I saw the effects almost straight away, and they continued to improve over a period of about a week.

 

I'm still having sleep problems, and I'm now wondering if it could have something to do with a change to a supplement I was taking. I've always taken Omega 3, but last Tuesday morning I switched to trying Wild Krill Oil. Coincidentally that was the same night my sleep problems started. I take it in the morning, so I don't know if that would have any effect on sleep at night, but it is odd that I'm still having problems even though I have reduced my daily taper. In the past, when the same thing has happened, it's only taken a couple of days before things improved, but I'm now up to four days that I've been having problems.

 

I didn't take the krill this morning, but took my normal Omega 3, so I'll see if there is any improvement tonight. I hope so, because I don't want to be taking doxy or AD's every night.

 

[[lk...]]

Ok I have taken the vit c for about 3 nights so far. I notice nothing. I plan on giving it longer but I wanted IMMEDIATE effects

 

Lisa

[[he...]]

I saw benefits immediately but I am taking 3,000 mg daily.

[[lk...]]

Ok so should I up the 500 to 1000?

 

Lisa

[[Di...]]

I would try a larger dose. It won't hurt you, and if you do find it revs up anything, you can just stop, or decrease. Vitamin C is eliminated fairly quickly from our bodies. It's not stored at all. Hopefully you will find it helps, fingers crossed.

[[lk...]]

Pam.......................Is it common to rev? Lord knows I don't need that to happen. I just jumped from my xanax last night so don't need anything extra to ruin the already bad sleep. i didn't know that C would ramp. Hmmmmmm

 

Thoughts?

 

Lisa

[[Di...]]

Oh no - don't get me wrong!!!  I haven't heard of anyone complaining that it revs any s/x. Quite the opposite in fact, but of course we are all different and we have to use caution when we take any kind of supplement.

 

All I meant is that you could try increasing the dose and if you did have a problem it's not something that would be long lasting. Sorry I didn't mean to worry you. Just try increasing the dose by a little bit each day until you find the dose that might help you. I'm currently taking 4000mg per day, but other people take more and other people take less.

[[lk...]]

LOL Pam....You didn't worry me....I was just over her grumbling like OH IT FIGURES lolol I will try 1000mg tonight for a few days and see what happens. If that doesn't work we will go from there. Maybe then i will have to add some during the day. Now that doesn't make you sleepy when you take it during the day does it?

 

Lisa

[[Di...]]

Well, I'm in a strange situation at the moment. My sleep issues still haven't resolved themselves, after a week of reducing my taper, holding, and changing back to Omega 3 from Krill Oil. Nothing has helped.

 

So I'm now wondering about the Vit C. I honestly have no idea how these things work, but it definitely was a big help for over a month. Now I'm wondering if somehow the dose I was taking has somehow "reset" my cortisol levels and I need to reduce what I'm taking. So I'm reducing back to 1000mg per day to see what happens, and I'm not taking any at night, just in the morning.

 

Maybe the sleep problem has nothing to do with any of these things, and I'm just going through one of those "difficult" patches. My dose is getting pretty low now, and some people do have troubles in the low doses. I'm just going to hold for another day or two and if things haven't improved I'm just going to plough on regardless. I am sleeping, with the help of alternating an AD and doxylamine, so I'm okay with that. It's more important for me to get off the valium now, and then I can worry about the other stuff later.