Copper Toxicity + Deficiency Paradox – How To Treat

Bluebell

Member
Joined
May 24, 2013
Messages
585
@Blue Water how are you doing now with your copper status?
And I would suggest getting your water tested for copper (you can do it yourself very cheaply with a home test), as copper in the water can deposit in the hair and confound hair test results. You'd want to rule that out.
 
OP
B

Blue Water

Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2020
Messages
268
@Blue Water how are you doing now with your copper status?
And I would suggest getting your water tested for copper (you can do it yourself very cheaply with a home test), as copper in the water can deposit in the hair and confound hair test results. You'd want to rule that out.
For those wondering, basically more or less the same. I can tell my copper status is still dysregulated. I feel like if I eat liver, I temporarily feel better but then crash and get crazy immune problems. Serum copper still slightly low yet there is no way I am deficient in copper. When serum copper dips below a certain point, I crash and get viruses. Honestly it is very weird. I gave up trying to even figure out what is going on.
 

Olmec

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2023
Messages
52
Location
England
Important (potential?!) context/relationship for vitamin C (ascorbate) & copper, although please note its from a paper dated 1989...

This is the key to understanding ascorbate's role in copper metabolism.
In all of the papers I just cited, the authors hypothesize that copper deficiency and scurvy are largely the same disease because they share incredibly similar symptom profiles. This makes sense in light of ascorbate's role, which is perfectly elucidated by one of the [1989] paper titles: Ascorbate Enhances Copper Transport from Ceruloplasmin into Human Cells! Ascorbate is helping ceruloplasmin in the final hand-off to the cells, so that copper can complete its job as a co-factor in a multitude of enzymatic processes.

You know how vitamin C is important for collagen cross-linking? Guess what, so is copper.
You know how vitamin C improves the endothelium/vasculature? Guess what, so does copper.
...
I posit that ascorbate (when taken appropriately) will actually improve anemia. Copper supplementation has been shown to solve anemia in some cases.

Unfortunately, we do not have very much data about the most optimal time to take ascorbate. There is just the one study looking at 75 minutes pre-food and 75 minutes post-food. Most studies have not looked at the timing of events and this is why the understanding of the copper hand-off has gone under the radar. As you can see, it actually flips Morley's hypothesis on its head! Ascorbate improves copper metabolism, regardless of whether it comes from food!

Recommendation:
The ascorbate dose 75 minutes post-food is where the increased enzyme activity took place. So perhaps an hour after a meal, when copper is freshly circulating, but before it heads to the liver for storage?
 
Last edited:

golder

Member
Joined
May 10, 2018
Messages
2,851
Important context/relationship for vitamin C (ascorbate) & copper:
Great post! Definitely going to try some vitamin C around 1 hour after my evening meal! Now to find a safe vitamin C source..
 

Olmec

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2023
Messages
52
Location
England
@TheSir
Context: The quote I posted was from an old thread from 2018, talking about a paper from 1989.

Presumably there's more recent research showing that vitamin C is actually a copper antagonist and chelates copper out of the body.
 

Olmec

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2023
Messages
52
Location
England
@golder
I second the Quali-C comments from above: in my experience, VitC supplements like ACEROLA (supposed to be non synthetic vit c, but containing 90% of synthetic Vit C) or preparations of aspirin with Vit C give me headaches within 10 hours.

I've tried Quali-C and it's the only brand so far who suits with my brains.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom