Hi Angiew,
How has your health been since then?
IMO, you ask an intelligent question.
Next month I will turn 64 years old. I virtually
never get sick, e.g.
maybe one light headache every other year, and maybe a sinus drainage, i.e. "cold?" once every other year or three (or four?) [certainly nothing that even comes close to sending me to bed]. I take no drugs whatsoever, although I have taken an aspirin a number [15-20?] of times in my life [if the headache bothered me enough]. I quit exercising years ago. My diet, relative to the population as a whole, is good, but
FAR from perfect. I am, IMO, probably at
least 20 pounds overweight [if not 30]. I am a lacto-vegetarian, for what that might be worth [eating a relatively small amount of cheese], although I do consume, occasionally, small amounts of meat on a pizza.
What about blood work and medical exams, any problems?
I have not been to a doctor since 1971 [when I was in college and it was free (when I burnt myself with some hot popcorn oil)], so I would not know anything about my "blood work." Up until I started with Bowel Tolerance dosing of ascorbic acid, although my health was [relatively] quite good [I exercised fairly extensively], I still did get an [approximately] annual "cold" or so [certainly more extensive, i.e. somewhat more severe and definitely longer lasting, than anything that I have had in the past 19 years].
That [all] being said, my health/physical condition is definitely
not perfect! I continue to show the typical signs of aging, e.g. gradual loss of strength, graying of the hair, wrinkling, etc., etc. I no longer have "20/20" vision, although I do not [yet]
require glasses [other than occasionally to read particularly fine print, or see detail from a long distance]. I'm pretty sure my hearing has gone down some. I very
occasionally get a [mysteriously] slight shaking in my right forearm, i.e. hand [possibly the beginning of "Parkinson's," which my 84 year old Mother has had a mild case of for 20 years]. I would say the most obvious health issue I have had to deal with is my teeth. I have a mouth full of silver/mercury amalgam fillings [and have had them since I was young]. Because of the slight occasional forearm shaking [that began around 5(?) years ago], I had a hair analysis done at that time, and it came back with an unmeasurably low amount of mercury. (They listed 4 possible categories: high, medium, low, and unmeasurable, and I was certainly glad about being in the latter category [given all of the mercury in my mouth]!) As an aside, I assume that the Bowel Tolerance doses of ascorbic acid I ingest daily probably chelated [and continues to chelate] out any mercury getting into my system from the fillings [but I'll probably never know that for sure].
Any indicators of pro-oxidant effect of such high dosage?
This question surprises me, Angiew. Each molecule of ascorbic acid has two "extra" electrons. These electrons are, by definition, reducing, i.e.
anti-oxidixing. Like Owen wrote, if the body needs the ascorbate to perform "oxidant" type activities, it simply takes and/or makes what it wants, e.g.
dehydroascorbate as a virucidal, etc., etc.
Thanks for your questions, Angiew.
Best of health to you,
David