Yes, I’m aware of this study. We have been discussing it at the Vitamin C foundation forum. A couple of things I would point out:
* Endurance athletes struggle with getting sick. Their immune systems are put under a lot of stress so they tend to get colds easily as well as flu. Taking vitamin C will help to prevent this which will increase training time. So which is more important, muscle adaptation without vit C, or more training time with?
* No raw endurance markers are measured that I can see (although I don’t have access to the whole study). How about distance/time, average speed, average power? Nothing along those lines are mentioned and so all the study does is scare people without anything meaningful being mentioned.
* 1,000 mg per day? Through most of my time competing in cycling events and training, I would take (and still do) 8 to 12 grams per day (that’s 8,000 to 12,000 mg)! I was still competitive with my age group. Considering the time I had available to train, I think I did ok, even staying with guys who were 10 to 12 years younger at my peak. I just don’t see anything to this study. At the very least, we need more data to support the claims. Like tangible measurements of endurance.
Yes, I’m aware of this study. We have been discussing it at the Vitamin C foundation forum. A couple of things I would point out:
* Endurance athletes struggle with getting sick. Their immune systems are put under a lot of stress so they tend to get colds easily as well as flu. Taking vitamin C will help to prevent this which will increase training time. So which is more important, muscle adaptation without vit C, or more training time with?
* No raw endurance markers are measured that I can see (although I don’t have access to the whole study). How about distance/time, average speed, average power? Nothing along those lines are mentioned and so all the study does is scare people without anything meaningful being mentioned.
* 1,000 mg per day? Through most of my time competing in cycling events and training, I would take (and still do) 8 to 12 grams per day (that’s 8,000 to 12,000 mg)! I was still competitive with my age group. Considering the time I had available to train, I think I did ok, even staying with guys who were 10 to 12 years younger at my peak. I just don’t see anything to this study. At the very least, we need more data to support the claims. Like tangible measurements of endurance.
Also, I thought a study with fourteen people seemed awfully small…