Do Vitamin C Supplements Make You Feel Queasy? Here's Why & What To Do

Yes, the beloved old-school vitamin can make some people feel queasy. However, there's an easy fix—if you've ever felt not-so-hot after tossing back a vitamin C supplement, you might be choosing the wrong formula. Here's how to select a supplement that's gentle on your gut. 

So we highly recommend you take a higher-dose vitamin C supplement to fully leverage all of its health benefits, but check your labels: If your supplement only has ascorbic acid, you might run into stomach discomfort. See, your gut is well equipped to utilize plain ascorbic acid (by itself) in lower doses (like, 500 milligrams or less). "In the higher potency plays, 500 milligrams plus, you're going to end up excreting quite a bit," says Ferira. "It's just not going to be well utilized," as the gut isn't set up for that—and that's why you may face some queasiness. 

Not to mention, this potent formula features an array of bioflavonoids from 100% whole citrus fruits (like lemon, Key lime, grapefruit, sweet orange, and mandarin orange) to buffer vitamin C from oxidation—that way, the essential vitamin can deliver on its whole-body antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.* So if you've experienced queasiness from vitamin C supplements in the past, "you might want to try this as a new experience," Ferira adds. "That won't be the case when we've enrobed our vitamin C with lipids and citrus bioflavonoids. It has a gentleness."* 

Some vitamin C supplements can cause an upset stomach. However, all you need to do is find a high-quality formula that calls on bioactive lipids and bioflavonoids to help usher and buffer vitamin C in the gut (ahem, like ours).* While bioavailability and dosage are both important to keep in mind, it's a lot easier to stick to the supplement routine if said supplement is easier on your stomach.