A critical reassessment of landmark pharmacokinetic research reveals that widespread claims about high-dose vitamin C supplementation being wasteful rest on a fundamental misinterpretation of absorption data. While it is true that bioavailability percentages decline sharply above 200mg, the absolute amount of vitamin C absorbed continues to increase meaningfully at higher doses. According to seminal research by Mark Levine and colleagues published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a 1,000mg dose delivers approximately 500mg of actual vitamin C into the bloodstream—2.5 times more than a 200mg dose achieves. This distinction between percentage bioavailability and absolute absorption has profound implications for how clinicians and patients should evaluate supplementation strategies. The confusion between these two metrics has led to systematic underestimation of high-dose vitamin C efficacy.
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