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Painful Urination With Vitamin C Supplements

Painful Urination With Vitamin C Supplements?
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I started supplementing Vitamin C, using Garden of Life Vitamin Code Raw Vitamin C, which is extremely high rated, but even on a lower dose than the recommended starting dose, I experienced pain emptying my bladder…

After reading in James Wilson’s Adrenal Fatigue book about adrenal fatigue and Vitamin C, and researching some more on it, I decided to add Vitamin C supplementation to my daily regimen, to promote recovery of my adrenal fatigue.

Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome

I went for Garden of Life’s Vitamin C as it is the best rated Vitamin C supplement out there.

However, the starting dose was two capsules a day, and I started on one a day, which, within days, caused pain when urinating. A pain so bad I thought I could have a UTI!

So, I stopped taking the Vitamin C and it subsided over a few days. I decided to stop all supplements that I am taking and slowly reintroduce them one by one, to confirm if it was the addition of Vitamin C giving me this problem.

It’s my luck that even the best quality Vitamin C would cause me issues!

So I stopped them all for a week, and then added in my Selenium and B complex… after three days, I was feeling OK. Then I reintroduced Vitamin D (and Vitamin K, always taken together), and still felt OK. I added in my cod liver and omega three which was also fine, and after another few days, I added in the Vitamin C, which I took in the morning, and had pain within a few hours of taking it, so I stopped and haven’t taken it again.

Doing some research, these possibilities for why came up:

  • Interstitial cystitis (chronic inflammation of the bladder wall and certain foods or supplements can cause a flare up). It could be possible that this form of Vitamin C is acidic and acidity is an enemy of interstitial cystitis.
  • Could it be the digestive enzyme blend that is included in it.
  • Could be an oxalate problem.
  • This brand may not be buffered, so I could try a buffered brand such as Ester-C.

So, trying another brand can be better for some people, we’re all different, after all.

I’ll have a think and do some more exploring and let you know how it goes. It’s never just simple, is it?!

UPDATE: I since switched to Solgar Vitamin C and have had no issues whatsoever but have noticed a lot less colds and illnesses through supplementing with it.

Have you experienced something similar? Let me know in the comments below. 

You can click on the hyperlinks in the above post to learn more and see references to information given.

About Author

Rachel Hill is the highly ranked and multi-award winning thyroid patient advocate, writer, speaker and author behind The Invisible Hypothyroidism. Her thyroid advocacy work includes writing articles, authoring books, producing her Thyroid Family email newsletters and speaking on podcasts and at events about the many aspects thyroid disease affects and how to overcome these. She is well-recognised as a crucial and influential contributor to the thyroid community and has a large social media presence. Her bestselling books include "Be Your Own Thyroid Advocate" and "You, Me and Hypothyroidism".

10 Comments

  • Terri
    July 15, 2021 at 3:55 am

    I started taking NUTRAFOL WOMENS BALANCE HAIR GROWTH SUPPLEMENT and had extreme burning when urinating. Went to 3 different doctors before they figured out what was causing it. There is vitamin C ascorbic acid in Nutrafol. I was in so much pain when urinating that I was in tears and dreading going when I had too. I even stopped drinking anything for several days because it was so bad!!

    Reply
  • Anita
    July 26, 2020 at 9:12 am

    Taking too much vitamin C (500 mg) is enough /per day for a body — if you take more mgs it CAN CAUSE BURNING when you pee; also can cause kidney stones. Solgar is a gr8 brand.

    Reply
  • Robert Wachsmuth SR
    February 8, 2020 at 3:05 am

    Painful urine from vitamin c
    Went to urologist she gave me sonograms ,antibiotics for a infection and FLOMAX.
    I have takin vitamin c before and never had this problem.Must be a bad batch.
    Stopped taking it the PAIN is gone.

    Reply
    • vivi
      October 3, 2020 at 5:42 pm

      Hi Robert!
      Did you find any solution? I was also able to consume vitamin c in any dose, but since ai had UTI treated with antibiotics last year, I can’t take any supplements and also vitamin C from food causes me painfull bladder. I am not able to consume any vitamin c and that scares me a lot!

      Reply
  • Sue Harder
    July 25, 2019 at 10:35 am

    Could other vitamins cause painful urination? I have been taking multiple vitamins. I have painful urination. I do not have UTI so I know it is not that. Thank you so much.

    Reply
  • John rod
    January 11, 2019 at 10:45 pm

    Hi I’m from the philippines thanks for this article it was celar to me that the main cause of painful urination is the vitamins C that I’m taking right now so I had ti stopped taking it ..

    Reply
  • Logan
    November 5, 2018 at 3:22 pm

    I just started taking this exact same brand last week and I started having painful spasms when I urinate. I’ve never had a UTI so I was uncertain what was going on. I take quite a few vitamins and I wondered if any of them could cause an issue. I cut back to just taking Garden of Life vitamin C and my Omega 3 fish oil. No change. I mentally went through everything that had changed in the past week and realized the only new thing was the C. I’m 86ing the C and seeing if it gets better. I’m glad I found your blog entry…was beginning to think I was crazy.

    Reply
    • Rachel Hill
      November 6, 2018 at 2:38 pm

      Sorry to hear you had the same reaction to this brand Logan, but glad you’ve gotten to the bottom of it now!

      Reply
  • Debra
    October 10, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    I’m having the same burning pain with Vit C…in the two & a half years since this article, have you found a Vit C brand that doesn’t cause you the pain? Please share information? ThDebraanks!

    Reply

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