You think getting too much of a good thing does not hurt you? In this article, I will present why too much of vitamin C can ruin your plans of growing muscles fast and gaining strength.
Researchers from United Kingdom discovered that mega doses of ascorbic acid or vitamin C can slow down the recovery of your muscles after a workout.
The study involved healthy men to take 1000 mg of vitamin C every day.
This amount is above the required vitamin C every day.
The results revealed that these men experienced a significant decrease in their muscle strength.
Their strength diminished even with intense workout including running for one whole week.
This group who took vitamin C was also compared to the group who did not take the supplements.
The group who skipped the supplements had significantly better gain in terms of muscle strength and growth.
There were previous studies, however, that showed that moderate intake of vitamin C, from 100 to 500 mg a day, can actually speed up the recovery of muscles.
But this British study revealed that more vitamin C may not necessarily be better.
In fact, it even slows down the recovery process.
The suspicion of the researchers was that very high doses of vitamin C reduces the number of scavenger cells dramatically.
These scavenger cells clean up the debris from muscle damage.
Furthermore, these cells signal your brain that the body requires immediate repair.
I recommend limiting your vitamin C intake to 500 mg every day.
This is the same amount recommended by a Japanese study for prevention of common colds.