VIATAMIN C TO PREVENT PARANOIA, ANXIETY ATTACKS, AND BLACKOUTS!

I made this thread because I notice a lot of people are having psychological problems such as paranoia, and anxiety attacks when they take cannabis and I wanted you all to know this can be prevented.

First let me explain how this happens. THC, which is a chemical in cannabis, is a stimulants and stimulants effect the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands produce chemicals that give us that rush we get when we are startled by someone waking you up really fast, when you are about to get into a fight, or if you are about to have some sex with someone you just met.

When you smoke cannabis, particularly a potent variety, you are flooding your body with these stimulants which inturn release stress chemicals. Now these aren't bad IF your body has what's needed to counteract them such as dopamine, serotonin, and more importantly VITAMIN C.

Vitamin C helps your body slow down the release of the stress hormones that give the effects of you feeling like you have to react something because of something. In the case of stimulants they are the thing causing the reaction.
This is why people who do a lot of coke, eat a lot of sugar, and take a lot caffeine, have a paranoia about them and come off as "crazy". In the case of light stimulants like coffee and soda, unless you truly know these people and spend time with them it would seem that they are just cautious UNTIL you live with them and see they are indeed on the edge.

All these negative things can be prevented with a healthy diet and a good dose of vitamin c as well as sunshine which effects the eyes and get's the brain to release serotonin which is a relaxing chemical such as the effects of eating turkey or a high carbohydrate meal like spaghetti.

When you take cannabis in any form, make sure you take it 30 min- 1hr. before you ingest the cannabis and take at least 500mg but if you are taking something like hash and if you live an active lifestyle take 1000mg. You should have the vitamin c in powdered form as much as possible for maximum absorption. A new product on the market is called emergen-C(http://www.walgreens.com/store/prod...TID=100143&skuid=sku393884&V=G&ec=frgl_640058) does this very thing for and all you have to do is mix it with your drink.

Another thing that you can and should do if you smoke a lot but don't want to constantly take vitamin C before each session is to take metamucil with the vitamin C. What this does is slow the absorption and excretion of the vitamin C which means the effects will last longer than usual because Vitamin C is water soluble and exits the body system relatively fast if it's not used.

Metamucil contains pysillium husk that have mucilage in it. This is a sticky substance that slows absortion of nutrients and allows more of them to be used than not. It is also excellent for people who workout or have diabetes and need to keep their insulin levels constant.

You may not see a major effect when you first start this method if you are already low in vitamin c BUT if you take vitamin C everday, it will build up and within one week you should be able to enjoy herb without negative mental side effects.

This same method applies to mushrooms. Peace.

Here's an article showing some scientific proof how vitamin C helps with stress:

http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9908/23/vitaminc.stress/

Stressed out? Vitamin C is possibly the perfect chill pill
OJ
VIDEO
CNN's Dr. Steve Salvatore reports on vitamin C and stress study findings.
Windows Media 28K 80K


August 23, 1999
Web posted at: 1:03 p.m. EDT (1703 GMT)

By Medical Correspondent Dr. Steve Salvatore

NEW ORLEANS (CNN) -- Heading to another stressful day at the office? Consider pouring an extra glass of orange juice in the morning. Vitamin C may help the body manage stress more effectively, scientists said this week.

"We found that giving rats large doses of vitamin C essentially abolished the secretion of stress hormones," said P. Samuel Campbell of the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

Test rodents that did not receive the vitamin experienced three times the level of stress hormones, according to Campbell and other researchers, who presented their findings at the American Chemical Society conference in New Orleans.

In addition to fighting stress, vitamin C helped boost the body's natural defenses, they said.

"We think that from what we see, vitamin C may in fact provide for better immune system function under stress so individuals are better able to combat illness," Campbell said.

While the test subjects were rats, researchers say they can apply the findings to humans.

"There are reports that ultramarathon runners having vitamin C have a lower incidence of upper respiratory infection than those not taking vitamin C; the same thing with military recruits responding to basic training," Campbell said.

One 8-ounce glass of orange juice provides 97 milligrams of vitamin C. The U.S. Recommended Daily Allowance ranges from 50 to 60 milligrams for adults.

But some nutrition researchers think that benchmark is outdated. A higher daily dose is required to reap the greatest medical benefits, they say. Most experts recommend at least 200 mg per day.

"The RDAs ... were established to prevent deficiencies, but as we are getting more research, there is a new philosophy -- that is, what we can do to promote health," said Chris Rosenbloom of Georgia State University.

Experts warn not to overdo it. For some, an excessive use of vitamin C can backfire.

"People who have kidney stones should not take excess vitamin C, because vitamin C is converted to a compound which can form stones," Rosenbloom explained.

Here's another showing it's effects on humans and stress:

http://www.annieappleseedproject.org/vitcminstres.html

Vitamin C Minimizes Response to Psychological Stress

By Hannah Cleaver

BERLIN (Reuters Health) Jul 22 - Vitamin C supplements may provide beneficial effects for people under stress, according to the results of a new study. The findings indicate that individuals with high blood levels of ascorbic acid exhibit fewer physical and mental signs of stress when subjected to acute psychological stressors than do subjects with lower levels of vitamin C.

The study, published in a recent issue of Psychopharmacology, showed that objective and subjective stress indicators were consistently lower in people with high levels of vitamin C. Recovery from a stressful situation was also faster.

Dr. Stuart Brody led a team based at the University of Trier in Germany, which studied 120 patients, half of whom received 1000 mg of vitamin C in three sustained-release pills (Cetebe; GlaxoSmithBeecham, which also funded the study). Controls received placebo and were subjected to the same tests.

Dr. Brody told Reuters Health that "the subjects were asked every 10 minutes how they rated their stress levels on a scale of 1 to 10. This continued even after the induced stress, for 40 minutes afterwards." The researchers also measured "objective measurements of stress, such as systolic blood pressure and levels of cortisol, the stress hormone."

The Trier Social Stress Test, which includes mathematic tasks and public speaking, was used to induce stress, Dr. Brody explained.

The tests were conducted every day for 2 weeks. Those taking the vitamin C dealt with stress better. The average increase in blood pressure was 31 mm Hg among the placebo subjects compared with 23 mm Hg for those on vitamin C. The return to normal blood pressure and cortisol levels was also faster for the test patients than for the controls.

He added that people felt less stressed when they were saturated with vitamin C.

"This kind of high dose of vitamin C improves stress management," he said. "And I would say that it should be considered as part of an approach to dealing with stress."

Dr. Brody cautioned that "this is different vitamin C than you get from oranges, or even the general powder forms...I'm not sure you would get the same results from natural vitamin C."

wow very nice. thank you

Already aware of it but thanks for sharing the info. I didnt read all of it but also note that blackouts are also common due to a low blood sugar level. Typically with people who have problems or if they havent eaten for awhile have this more commonly happen.

robobond, yes I'm aware of the low blood sugar being the cause of blackouts BUT A LOT of people now a days don't eat the right carbohydrates that keep their blood sugars leveled throughout the day and even if they eat before taking cannabis they can still blackout due to what they eat not giving them a good source of constant levels of blood sugar.

Also, alot of peple just eat mostly meat which is not going to supply you with what you need as far as blood sugar.

The reason why vitamin C can help this from happening even if you didn't have a good amount of carbs is because, as I stated earlier, it helps keep the stress hormones low. Stress hormones use up most of your blood sugar.

This is why cortisol is mostly talked about when they are talking about people gaining weight in fat. This is because if you have a lot of cortisol in your system your body will burn up carbs quick and put the fat to be stored into fat cells. This will also cause more thc to be stored into fat cells and less to used which means your chances would be higher to fail a test and also you won't get as high as you would if your fat was being used mostly as opposed to your carbs.

I can go on with this but most people aren't going to go in depth with these things so I advise to just stick with the vitamin C method and then build up from there. Peace.

I like to buy a 1/2 gallon of orange juice loaded with vitamin c a week. Juice from concentrate sucks. Support United States growers and buy Florida juice. As a added benefit to the vitamins and potassium, you get some quick natural sugar that helps when you got a buzz.

I think you may be on to something that some of us have known for quite a while lotty (which does not belittle the importance of your thread), that a healthy diet, rich in vitamines, minerals, proteines and carbohydrates, poor in fat and sugar, improves your life in just about every sense, reduces stress and anxiety, makes you smarter, more alert and more reactive, even to the high. I eat about as much fruit in a day that many people do in a week, but alas it does not remove the anxiety/paranoia trait in Cannabis. I basically do believe that Cannabis does not create anxiety/paranoia, it simply unleashes a register of emotions that resides within you - just as it can make you anxious it can send you into a state of uncontrolled laughter for no particular reason. So in that sense a vitamine C rich diet will improve your physical and mental health, and make the Cannabis experience a more positive one.

Yeah I take vitamin C supplements everyday... 300mg in my multivitamins and then a 1000mg supplement.

I still experience paranoia and anxiety attacks, but I've never had a blackout.
This is why I only smoke when I can drink alcohol too, to deal with the paranoia and anxiety (more of just freaking out because I think I can't breathe and my heart is beating too fast and hard)

Natural, do you take the vitamin C within an hour before you smoke because this is VERY important due to the fact that vitamin C is water soluble, which means if it isn't used, it will get excreted. So even if you take a good amount, it isn't going to prevent the negative effects from cannabis because most of it will be pissed out.

Also, some nutrients in multivitamins actually lower the absorption of other nutrients which will in turn up your need for more vitamin C if they aren't taken in the right ratio. Peace.

Rosy cheeks, even though you eat a lot of fruit, it still depends on how active you are and other things that "stress" your body because these things will use up the vitamin C.

Another thing to consider is that fruit even though good in vitamn C levels, aren't going to give you 500mg-1000mg, in one sitting unless you juice a lot such as myself and even then it's what your juicing and not just the fact that your juicing a fruit because blending different fruits and vegetable can actually achieve an excellent rate of vitamin c absorption and usage due to the phytochemicals, while still slowing down the rate of excretion due to the soluble fibers as well as the phytochemiclas.

Also, as I stated in the previous post, do you take the fruit within an hour before you smoke BUT in the case of fruit, even though it still has a good amount of vitamin C, unless you eat a diet HIGH in soluble fibers that can hold onto the vitamin C for a good length of time, along with the vitamin C supplement, it isn't going to prevent these problems. People also don't drink good fluids to disperse the vitamin C and to get it released from the soluble fibers and most of it will most likely get shitted out.

The secret is timing and WHAT you're eating. This is why supplements are very useful because even though most people think they are getting enough on certain nutrients, a lot of time they aren't due to the fact that other things they eat are preventing the vitamins from being absorbed and used properly.

Like I stated, if you try the method I SPECIFICALLY stated you shouldn't have these problems.

Also, like I stated earlier, if you levels are already low which most people's are, it will take a week for your body to get tottaly saturated with the vitamin C.

So if you workout AND smoke strong cannabis, eating fresh fruit throughout the day and taking a 500mg-1000mg vitamin C supplement(depending on your cannabis' potency) within an hour before you take cannabis, is the perfect routine to enjoy cannabis without problems.

ALso, the metamucil will help keep the vitamin C in your blood longer than usual OR you can take vitamin C ester which is a fat soluble vitamin C which helps it stay in your system longer as well. Peace.

Alright, I will try that, and if I register a positive effect I will give you credit for it.

Lotty - I can see where your going with this. I would like to see other people's results also. But when you say, that the vitamin C builds up... then, would you still need to take it one hour before smoking?

Like some of these posters who take vitamin C everyday, you would have thought it "built up" enough to counteract the negative effects of pot. Anyways, thanks for posting this once again, and I hope that it can help people. I havne't really had the chance to test this out at all, because I haven't had any pot. But now I do, and I may try this. I have the emergen-c...

very interesting indeed

for the past few weeks i have been eating more fruit like oranges and bananas at lunch..I also cut out the fast food to see how I felt if I didn't eat it, or just ate less of it...I found that those two things have put me in a better overall mood and I do not get paranoid after smoking like sometimes happens

I was told the OJ method while in Holland a few years ago. I was unaware of the "sun shine" method. Last 4:20 I had a friend "white" out at my party and with a little OJ and a damp cloth he was fine in 15 min. Thanks for the post.

Germ

Indica2006, we must be on the same thinking plane because I was just meditating on the very same thing you asked!.

Technically, you don't have to take it every time BUT when you consider the fact that most people are constantly moving around and being active even if it's just a little walking, their vitamin C levels are naturally going to drop and then when they smoke, after a while they aren't going to be able to keep their stress hormones at a low level due to the lack of the chemical, which is vitamin C, not telling the glands to release low levels.

Now, I thought about this more and have come to the conclusion that if you want to get the high from weed and other stimulants to be calming one yet still "focused" and also keep getting higher from the same weed as time goes on at different times of taking it, you should take the vitamin C right after you smoke also and also on the days you don't smoke and do it throughout the day with every meal in doses of 200mg and then build up to what you see fit for you.

If my theory is correct, you should received the same effect that the participants in the trial received and that's a building up of the body releasing such low levels of stress hormones to the point the high will have no choice but to go up due to stress not bringing it down. Within two weeks at the most these effects should start to take place.

What this does is train the glands to release small levels of stress hormones and also trains the body to convert to using more fat as energy in times of stress, which means more of a high off of the same amount of weed you normally take because cannabinoids are fat soluble and if fat is becoming your main soruce of energy that means the cannabinoids will do their job and not be stored as fat.

Aslo, when you take it after the smoke you are essentially doing the same think JUST achieving the outcome faster then you normally would if you only took it before.

Stimulants are things that enhance growth of things IF they are giving the right chemicals BUT if you aren;t supplying the need the body will breakdown instead of repair itself from the stimulation and this is why you eat within an 1.5 hour before and after you workout. It gets the muscle to have enough energy to do it's job for the workout and the food repairs it after the workout because it will be stressed out from the activity.

This is most likely the main reason why people usually don't get panic attacks when they firts smoke as they do when they continue to smoke as time goes on. They are essentially teaching their glands to release more stress hormones than they did on their first puffs because they aren't giving the glands the chemical to tell it to stay releasing the glands at a low level. This is chemical seems to be vitamin C.

Here's something that may help my theory about taking vitamin C throught the day to increase it's effects of cannabis BUT this deals with iron absorption:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=835510&dopt=Abstract

Vitamin C, the common cold, and iron absorption.

* Cook JD,
* Monsen ER.

A sizable segment of the population was found to be taking large quantities of vitamin C to reduce the number or severity of upper respiratory infections. To determine the affect of this supplementation on iron balance, multiple radioiron absorption tests were performed in 63 male subjects. The increase in iron absorption from a semisynthetic meal was directly proportional to the amount of ascorbic acid added over a range of 25 to 1,000 mg. The ratio of iron absorption with/without ascorbic acid at these two extremes was 1.65 and 9.57, respectively. The relative increase was substantially less when the test meal contained meat. A large dose of vitamin C taken with breakfast did not effect iron absorption from the noon or evening meal. A telephone survey of 100 individuals revealed that 67 were taking supplemental ascorbic acid in doses ranging as high as 2 g daily. The average intake of supplemental ascrobic acid in this population was 280 mg daily. If taken only with breakfast, this level of supplementation would produce a nearly 2-fold increase in the amount of iron absorbed daily. If taken in divided doses with each mean, the increase in iron absorption would be more than 3-fold.

PMID: 835510 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This is what I really want you to take notice to:

"If taken only with breakfast, this level of supplementation would produce a nearly 2-fold increase in the amount of iron absorbed daily. If taken in divided doses with each mean, the increase in iron absorption would be more than 3-fold."

If you take the vitamin c in divided doses you would achieve MORE of an effect than you would taking it all at once.

Now, in our case it's a little different because we are dealing with something that stimulates it's usage which means we would have to take it in divided doses BUT at certain times.

Also remember vitamin C is an acid so since we will be taking a lot daily try to take it with a meal or preferably something that has soluble fiber in it to keep the vitmain C absorbing at a constant rate throughout the day which will also means more of an effect it has on the cannabis' high.

Like I stated in an earlier post, metamucil is perfect for this because it has mucilage which slows down absorption of nutrient and gets more to be used due to it's high absorption of water. Peace.

lotty said:

Natural, do you take the vitamin C within an hour before you smoke because this is VERY important due to the fact that vitamin C is water soluble, which means if it isn't used, it will get excreted. So even if you take a good amount, it isn't going to prevent the negative effects from cannabis because most of it will be pissed out.

Also, some nutrients in multivitamins actually lower the absorption of other nutrients which will in turn up your need for more vitamin C if they aren't taken in the right ratio. Peace.

Click to expand...

No, but I have tried it before. One of the old hippies at a medical club here swears by it. I noticed no difference really... Same thing with taking vitamin C and mushrooms... didn't make a difference IMO.

Natural, maybe it didn't work for you because your levels are naturally low. If you smoke a lot of strong cannabis and are active you will have low levels and just taking it the first time isn't going to receive a dramatic result.

Now, I think the younger you are or the less stressful your life is as far working out, taking stimulants and doing strenuous things, the faster the results will be.

If you try my method for no more than two weeks such as the study did, I will think there will be a high chance of it curing these negative effects and if you keep with this regime, will most likely cause you to get higher off of the same weed due to the reason I explained in my previous post..

The only thing that will be different is taking the vitamin right after you smoke also. Peace.

I found something else that may help my theory on vitamin C enhancing the cannabis' high by getting fat to be used as energy.

The only difference is that I feel it happens due to a low level of stress hormones which means more fat will be used because stress hormones like cortisol, mainly use sugars for energy. This could explain the munchies effect that most usually get due to a drop in blood sugar.

They feel it's cause of a chemicla called carnitine.

http://cmbi.bjmu.edu.cn/news/0604/13.htm

Vitamin C depletion correlates with lower body fat, not weight loss during short-term diet
Too little vitamin C in the blood stream has been found to correlate with increased body fat and waist measurements. Nutrition researchers from Arizona State University report that the amount of vitamin C in the blood stream is directly related to fat oxidation – the body's ability to use fat as a fuel source – during both exercise and at rest.

Bonnie Beezhold, a graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Carol Johnston, presented the most recent study, on the impact of vitamin C depletion on a short-term diet, on April 3 at Experimental Biology 2006 in San Francisco. The presentation was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Nutrition, Inc. (ASN).

Before beginning a controlled four-week, low-fat diet, 20 obese men and women were randomized by gender and body weight into either a Vitamin C group, taking a 500 mg vitamin C capsule daily, or a control group, taking a capsule, identical in appearance to the vitamin, containing a placebo. Neither participants nor researchers knew who was receiving which capsule until the study was over. All participants consumed a low-fat diet that the researchers adjusted individually to promote slow weight loss (about two pounds per week). The diet contained 67 percent of the USRDA (recommended daily allowance) for vitamin C (40 mg/d).

At the beginning of the clinical trial, participants with the lowest concentrations of vitamin C in their blood had the highest body fat mass and tended not to oxidize fat well compared to their less obese counterparts. As the participants moved through the four week diet, with a steady amount of vitamin C being consumed, blood vitamin C concentrations increased 30 percent in those taking vitamins and fell 27 percent in the control group whose only vitamin C intake was the 67 percent of the USRDA contained in the food. As vitamin C blood concentrations fell, so did the participants' ability to oxidize fat (an 11 percent reduction).

The highly-controlled diet worked for all participants. Although body fat mass decreased slightly more in the vitamin C group, approaching but not reaching statistical significance, both groups lost an average of nine pounds, indicating that vitamin C depletion did not appear to affect the ability to lose weight in the short term. But because the study supported early findings in Dr. Johnston's laboratory of a decrease in fat oxidation, the researchers are now studying whether the impact of vitamin C status is associated with a gradual gain in body fat in non-dieting individuals.

It is important to understand the impact of vitamin C deficiency, says Dr. Johnston, because it affects about 15 percent of adults in the United States, up from only 3-5 percent 25 years ago. She believes the increased processing of the food supply is part of the problem, since vitamin C in foods is destroyed by exposure to light, oxygen, and/or heat.

How does vitamin C affect fat oxidation and thus the risk for weight gain and obesity? Vitamin C is an essential cofactor for the biosynthesis of a small protein-like molecule known as carnitine. Carnitine functions to shuttle fat molecules to the site of fax oxidation in tissue cells. When cells do not have access to fat molecules, feelings of fatigue ensue since energy metabolism is affected. Moreover, fat tends to accumulate in tissues when carnitine concentrations are reduced.