How much Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is optimal for health? To answer this question, I’ll examine the association between circulating levels of Vitamin C with all-cause mortality risk. Then, which dietary Vitamin C intake corresponds to optimal plasma levels? Let’s have a look!

A variety of studies have investigated associations between plasma (or serum) Vitamin C with all-cause mortality risk:

• In a 4-year study of 1,115 older adults (average age ~79y), plasma vitamin C values greater than 66 uM (micromolar) were associated with significantly decreased all-cause mortality risk, when compared with values less than 17 uM (Fletcher et al. 2003).
• In a 12-year study of 725 older adults (average age, 73y), plasma vitamin C values greater than 52 uM were associated with significantly reduced all-cause mortality risk (Sahyoun et al. 1996). Interestingly, the most reduced mortality risk was found in those with plasma Vitamin C values greater than 89 uM, a value that can only be attained with dietary Vitamin C intakes greater than 1000 mg/day (more on this below!).
• In a 16-year study of 8,453 middle-aged adults (average age ~49y), serum Vitamin C values greater than 45 uM were associated with significantly reduced all-cause mortality risk, when compared with values less than 17 uM (Simon et al. 2001).
• In a 13-year study of 948 older adults (average age, 67y), serum Vitamin C values greater than 55 uM were associated with significantly reduced all-cause mortality risk, when compared with values less than 13.5 uM (Wang et al. 2018).
• In a 13-year study of 1,054 older adults (average age ~76y), elevated plasma levels of Vitamin C (risk ratios were reported without the actual Vitamin C concentration) were associated with significantly decreased all-cause mortality risk (Bates et al. 2011).
• In a 4-year study of 19,496 older adults (average age ~59y), plasma Vitamin C values greater than 48 uM in men and 59 uM in women (both in quintile 3, shown below) were associated with significantly reduced all-cause mortality risk (Khaw et al. 2001). The most reduced all-cause mortality risk included average Vitamin C values of 73 uM for men and 85 uM for women (shown below in quintile 5), values which require greater than 500 mg of dietary Vitamin C/day (more on this also below!).

Studies that show weaker or no association between the plasma Vitamin C concentration with all-cause mortality risk include Loria et al. (2000) and Jia et al. (2007). In Loria et al. (2000), 9,450 middle aged adults (~48y) were followed for 12-16 years. Men in the highest Vitamin C quartile (> 74 uM) had significantly reduced all-cause mortality risk, when compared with men in the low plasma Vitamin C group (< 28 uM). Although a similar association was identified for women, significance was lost after multivariable adjustment. In Jia et al. (2007), although plasma Vitamin C values less than 61 uM were associated with increased all-cause mortality risk in older adults (median age, ~80y) that were studied for ~7.5 years, these data were not statistically significant (p-value = 0.18). However, the study sample size (398 subjects) may have been too small to detect significant effects.

Collectively these studies show that low circulating levels of Vitamin C may be related to an increased mortality risk, whereas plasma values greater than ~50 uM are consistently associated with reduced all-cause mortality risk. How much dietary vitamin C is required to attain 50 uM+?

As shown below, the RDA for dietary Vitamin C is 90 mg for males and 75 mg for females older than 19 years (Institute of Medicine 2000).