90 mg of Vitamin C causing erectile dysfunction, low libido, 24/7 painful penis sensitivity

[Systemlord]

This morning I took 45 mg vitamin C instead of the usual 90 mg vitamin C for the first time in years. Today my erections were the hardest and most sensitive they’ve been in the last 9 years. My libido was starting to surge today!

Back in 2019 when I was off TRT for eight months I could only tolerate 4 ounces of orange juice which equates to around 40 mg of vitamin C. I had erections even off the TRT.

To see if I was onto something I went and took the missed 45 mg of vitamin C and instantly my erections became soft and I had also been dealing with my ring finger getting red and inflamed at the tip which would swell up from time to time and I would have to get the white pus drained out.

The reason I took the missed vitamin C amount is because my leg muscles were starting to twitch like crazy. The twitching remains.

I found something that says high doses of vitamin C supplements can negatively affect muscle adaptation and performance.

Now my finger is turning red and swelling up after taking the full dose vitamin C supplement @ 90 mg. Now my penis, groin area is back to the feeling of uncomfortable sensitivity which is somewhat annoying and painful.

Now I have stomach cramping again.

Now I feel strange mentally and the taste in my mouth is bitter and tangy.

It feels like an acid burning sensation in my penis and groin area.

Same thing occurs whether I drink 8 ounces of orange juice or 90 mg of vitamin C supplement. I don’t know whether or not to cut vitamin C out of my diet or not.

I just solved the cause of my erectile dysfunction!

I can’t believe it!

I can’t wait till tomorrow because I’m not going take any vitamin C at all, and my libido and erectile strength are going to be amazing, I can’t wait.

How is it possible that a normal dose of vitamin C is causing erectile dysfunction, low libido, painfully penis sensitivity, skin inflammation and stomach cramping?

My fu***** body is weird!

WTF?

 

[Melody68]

Not sure if you're joking or not. While I'm happy for you (since I'd love such an experience in myself if I could get it), such an effect must be coincidence and/or a predisposition to a placebo effect. I would re-examine the day to see if I had done other things differently; I'm guessing that something else is causing your positive and negative experiences . . .

 

[Systemlord]

Not sure if you're joking or not.

I rarely take myself serious, but this is not one of those occasions, I am dead fu***** serious! I’m standing beside myself bewildered and shocked! I must admit, I sound like a deranged person.

My erections and libido would usually improve later in the evenings and when waking up in the morning. After taking all my medicines and supplements, my libido and erectile strengths would disappear.

This has been going on for 4 years!

I actually thought it was the beta blocker causing the problems, which I have completely tapered off and it is completely out of my system.

Tomorrow I will take no vitamin C whatsoever and we’ll see what happens and I’ll report back.

The tangy taste in my mouth is a dead giveaway I’m on the right track.

I shouldn’t have to remind you of my vitamin D sensitivities, I can’t handle anything beyond 600 IU or a vitamin D level of 26. It just might be that I don’t have a vitamin D sensitivity at all.

I would assume vitamin D helps you absorb vitamin C and if that’s the case….

You see my erectile function and libido always worsened as I increase my vitamin D, that’s ass backwards. It’s supposed to be the other way around.

 

[Melody68]

Regardless of the cause, I hope you're at least enjoying the benefits of your newfound discovery!

 

[Systemlord]

Regardless of the cause, I hope you're at least enjoying the benefits of your newfound discovery!

I will be tomorrow.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

I must admit, I sound like a deranged person.

Lol, yes you do. I have some sympathy though, because I react poorly to at least 90% of common vitamins and supplements. I'm always amazed that people can take standard mega-dose multivitamins and feel well on them. There are multiple ingredients in there that individually will ruin my well-being (niacinamide, C, B1, B2, B6, A, D, high dose E, and zinc are among the worst offenders).

You have a couple things going on that interact to produce disastrous results. The first is the aforementioned exceptional sensitivity to supplements. The second: your ability to discern health-related cause and effect relationships accurately is quite poor. No one is as good at this as we'd like to be, including myself (many notable failures here in my past), however, you are more challenged in this respect than most.

My suggestion then would be to default towards the most minimalistic approach to supplementation and medication possible. Really, this is a good idea for everyone, but it becomes essential when a delicate constitution is mixed with a confused sense of causality.

For example, I was biting my tongue watching the iron supplementation in the context of a male on a carnivore diet. Unless you have chronic internal GI bleeding, it would have been virtually impossible for you to be truly iron deficient, regardless of ferritin level (not always a perfect indicator of iron status).

So if I were your health coach, my advice to you would be to continue with an animal-based diet, take your jatenzo, and that's it. Consider anything beyond that with extreme caution and observe effects closely, changing only a single variable for extended lengths of time.

 

[Systemlord]

The ED and low libido is caused by excess iron. Yesterday I lowered my vitamin D and vitamin C dose together and since both of these help you absorb iron, it’s got to be the iron.

I had recently been supplementing iron to treat an unknown medical condition, which turned out to be hypotension which is why I stopped the beta blocker as many of you already know.

I have been supplementing iron for three weeks last month after no iron supplementation for three months. All I need to do is wait for my iron and ferritin levels to drop again.

It’s also very possible that my body hasn’t returned to normal since stopping the beta blocker 7 days ago. I’m still noticing some lingering symptoms that I had while on the beta blocker that come and go.

 

[Systemlord]

I found a relationship between vitamin D, vitamin C, and iron with regards to estrogen. Vitamin C increases estrogen, vitamin D and iron decreases it.

Young women tend to have high estrogen levels and low iron levels due to monthly blood loss.

As women age they no longer lose iron through menstruation, so their iron levels increase significantly. At the same time estrogen levels decrease.

I was supplementing massive doses of iron when I didn’t need it, and therefore since stopping iron supplementation, my iron levels are going to naturally drop. I’ve only been off iron supplementation for a week and a half.

I’ve always noticed when I play around with my vitamin D, vitamin C and iron doses. It seems to affect my erectile quality significantly.

I need to get my iron and ferritin levels down to where they were a month ago before I started iron supplements to treat hypotension.

I noticed my muscles got really hard, bigger and looked more sculpted two weeks before I experienced the hypotension, two days after supplementing iron, my muscles went soft and flat and I lost that tone I had achieved.

Estrogen increases muscle mass, decreases fat mass. I had my estrogen levels checked and at the time my total testosterone was 592 and estrogen was 18. This was when I was still taking iron supplements.

 

[Swilsondc]

I wonder how common the relationship between vitamin C and ED is. I’ve never come across this but that may be from a lack of reading on the topic. I assume you are just taking a standard form of vitamin C? I have read a lot about the benefits of taking higher doses of vitamin C. I take 1500mg/day! I do have ED which Test therapy and Cialis help but I may try to lower my vitamin C and see what happens just for the heck of it.

 

[Systemlord]

After supplementing calcium for a week, 6000 per day for the first 3-4 days, then tapering to 2000 and then 1000 per day and stopping, then starting high dose vitamin D (1200) and then stopping and returning to 600 IU, I still have a calcium deficiency!?

I swear at 800 IU D3 is where the low calcium symptoms seem to get start (numbness, tingling in the hands, feet and legs), then I come down to 600 IU D3 and I'm worse off calcium wise than before I started supplementing.

Anything over 600 IU D3, that's 800 IU is where the lower back pain starts minutes after taking it and gets worse the higher my vitamin D.

At 1200 IU D3, muscle twitching, spasms in the throat muscles, legs and GI, bone pain is more intense than when at this vitamin D level. Taking 600 IU and 1000 mg calcium I feel miles better but I run into vitamin D deficiency in the evenings when I felt perfectly fine all day.

Consuming almond milk with vitamin D (176 IU D3) and calcium (400 mg) walk back these symptoms immediately last night!

This low calcium would explain my vitamin D problem, because low calcium decreases the half-life of the biologically active form of vitamin D and can cause or aggravate vitamin D deficiency.

Three days ago my vitamin D was measured at 32, taking 1200 IU D3, three days later at 600 IU D3, I'm deficient in both vitamin D and calcium!

600 IU D3 doesn't cause nausea, excessive urination, 800 IU D3 does and lower back pain starts.

So I just took 1500 mg calcium half hour ago and my normal body order has returned. I haven't smelled like this since lasts August when I started the carnivore diet.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

Please stop the insanity and just eat food. I love you bro, but these are the ramblings of a hypochondriac madman that shouldn't be taking anything that wasn't prescribed by a doctor.

 

[Systemlord]

Please stop the insanity and just eat food.

I've tried that, it doesn't work.

 

[FunkOdyssey]

I've tried that, it doesn't work.

I have not seen any threads you started that begin with "I just ate nutritious food for a couple weeks and it feels like acid is burning my genitals off." You have only started threads like that in relation to your supplement misadventures.

 

[Systemlord]

I could spend an hour in the sunlight tomorrow instead of taking the vitamin D supplement, and take the calcium supplement.

If I were to take 500 mg of calcium citrate and by noon tomorrow, I would experience extreme lightheadedness and delirium. It’s very intense.

I just found out that beta blockers can deplete CoQ10, melatonin, and calcium.

Maybe I’m still going through withdrawal.

 

[Systemlord]

Please stop the insanity and just eat food.

Okay, I'll try it your way, 30 minutes of sunshine, shirt off, 10 ounces of almond milk = Vit-D 192 IU and 400 mg calcium.

 

[Seagal]

Thread 'Orthorexia -- obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating' Orthorexia -- obsession with proper or ‘healthful’ eating

Think about if this applies to you regarding supplements.

 

[Systemlord]

I only take potassium, vitamin D and vitamin C. I’ve actually cut back on a lot of supplements. I am of the mindset supplement what you can’t keep elevated and get the rest from food.

Remember, I stopped iron supplements, a little more than three months ago.

No obsession here. I’m locked into taking these because in the past I’ve needed them and it’s time to find out if I actually need these supplements anymore.

 

[Systemlord]

Well short term success has been made as unbelievable as that might sound. I woke up I didn't take any supplements, almond milk together with my whey protein shake.

I ate two chicken breasts, same as last night and the outcome was dramatically different. Last night after eating the two chicken breasts I immediately got hot flashes, heart palpitations, muscle pain in hands and feeling mentally high.

This morning these symptoms were mild in comparison and almost unnoticeable.

One thing I always noticed whenever I lowered my iron, vitamin C and D, for one day I would get amazing erections and it was never repeatable unless I lowered the dose again.

I believe the beta blocker was causing side effects I mistook for iron and vitamin D deficiencies (red hands, fingertip swelling, fatigue, ED, muscle weakness, numbness in hands and feet) not to mention stopping the iron supplements cause the hypotension to occur caused by the beta blocker which I should have stopped years ago when starting Jatenzo.

It seems the beta blocker was the actual cause of all the symptoms on TRT and supplementing iron, vitamin C and D added more symptoms on top of the symptoms from the beta blocker.

Unbelievable!

I fully expect my hemoglobin and hematocrit levels to drop now that I’m not taking vitamin D and vitamin C supplements, which would help me absorb more iron.

I can't believe I feel this good and even better, my erections almost 100% today.

 

[Systemlord]

Please stop the insanity and just eat food.

Thanks for the bright idea because it worked!

 

[FunkOdyssey]

Thanks for the bright idea because it worked!

Wonderful news. They aren't harmless, and you don't need them. It defies all logic when people say they have some kind of biological dependence on an isolated supplemental nutrient that didn't exist 50 or 100 years ago.

I have a bin in the basement with about 200 supplements in it, known as the supplement graveyard. Over the last 20 years, I probably spent tens of thousands of dollars on supplements. I will never do any precise math around this because my wife would divorce me. In retrospect, it was a complete waste of money, and the vast majority of them (like 98%) make me feel worse in some way than my normal baseline.

I take exactly two supplements now: lutein/zeaxanthin, which prevents me from getting eye strain headaches from staring at three monitors all day at work, and a deliberately non-absorbable form of magnesium that helps regulate my GI tract. And testosterone, obviously. That's it.