Maybe it is Vitamin C, and you’re seeing the results just now, coincides with stopping it !!!

Ascorbic acid looks like a “super vitamin” ONLY because it forces the ONLY remaining NAD⁺-producing pathway — kynurenine — to run faster, by reducing iron and enabling tryptophan catabolism, generating just enough NAD⁺ to keep a dying system limping along.

Let’s walk through this step by step.

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1. When nicotinic acid is absent, the body has ONE way to make NAD⁺:

Burn tryptophan through the kynurenine pathway.

And that pathway:
* requires Fe²⁺ to be reduced and active
* produces toxic quinolinates
* inflames the system
* consumes massive amounts of tryptophan
* still makes only a trickle of NAD⁺
* is meant as an emergency, not a normal route

This is the “crisis mode” metabolism.

When nicotinic acid is missing, everything bottlenecks, everything becomes inefficient, and the system becomes redox-starved.

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2. Ascorbic acid enters here as a biochemical “accelerant,” NOT a healer

If no nicotinic acid is available, the desperate body reaches for ascorbate, because:

Ascorbate reduces Fe³⁺ → Fe²⁺, which is REQUIRED for kynurenine enzymes to fire.

Those enzymes include:

* IDO/TDO: convert Tryprophan → N-formylkynurenine
* Kynurenine 3-monooxygenase
* 3-Hydroxyanthranilate 3,4-dioxygenase

Every one of them is iron-dependent and requires the iron to be in the reduced (Fe²⁺) state to operate.

Ascorbate is the most potent biological Fe³⁺ → Fe²⁺ reducer in the system.

So what does it do?

AA feeds electrons to iron → iron feeds the kynurenine furnace → furnace produces tiny pulses of NAD⁺ → person feels temporary “improvement.”

This is literally how vitamin C earns its reputation in a niacin-deficient physiology.

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3. What people interpret as “ascorbic acid is amazing” is actually:

“Ascorbic acid temporarily forces more NAD⁺ through the ONLY available route: burning tryptophan.”

This is the critical distinction:

Ascorbate is NOT beneficial here.

It is enabling a pathological workaround.

It is:
* accelerating tryptophan sacrifice
* sustaining inflammatory kynurenine flux
* amplifying iron-driven oxidative chemistry
* helping keep the emergency NAD synthesis trick trickling
* giving the illusion of “feeling sharper / anti-inflammatory / energetic”

Why?
Because the body finally has a bit more NAD⁺ — not because ascorbate “heals.”

The body is simply forced to burn its own amino acids and redox stability to make NAD⁺, and ascorbate is enabling that.

This is why:
* people feel temporarily better
* megadosing seems “stimulating”
* collapse returns when it wears off
* dependency forms
* stress/inflammation paradoxically worsen over time
* and MASSIVE Tryptophan (Trp) depletion follows

Ascorbate is not helping.

It is making the emergency backup pathway run hotter.

That’s why people misinterpret it.

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4. Once nicotinic acid + free-fraction Trp are restored, the illusion ends immediately

When you supply the actual missing ingredients:

Nicotinic acid → direct, clean NAD⁺ synthesis

Correct Trp fraction → stops emergency catabolism

Then:
* kynurenine shuts OFF
* Fe²⁺-dependent enzymes quiet

* overall oxidation load collapses
* NADPH/glutathione regenerate — NOTE: i do not think this is good, speaking to the free radical actual oxidant “vitamin C” actually is
* free Trp rises
* NAD⁺ is made properly
* serotonin/melatonin normalize

* tissues repair
* mitochondrial leakage calms
* quinolinates fall

Now what happens if someone keeps high-dose ascorbate?

It becomes a functional anti-niacin:
* keeps Fe²⁺ elevated → *unwantedly* reactivates tryptophan degradation
* consumes NAD(P)H to recycle itself
* binds/associates with NA/NAM and burdens clearance
* reopens the emergency NAD synthesis loop you’re trying to shut down

And suddenly people feel worse on vitamin C.

Because the illusion only works when the system is collapsing.

– – – – –

• In niacin-deficient physiology, high-dose ascorbate can appear helpful because it:

◦ Reduces Fe³⁺ → Fe²⁺, keeping kynurenine-pathway enzymes active.
◦ That keeps tryptophan burning → generates a trickle of NAD⁺ → people feel a transient “lift.”

• But mechanistically, that means:
◦ It’s supporting a pathological backup route (Trp → kynurenine → NAD),
◦ Not solving the underlying nicotinic acid deficiency.

• Once you replete nicotinic acid + free-fraction Trp, that same ascorbate:
◦ Becomes a load on NAD(P)H,
◦ Helps keep Fe²⁺ available for kynurenine enzymes you now want quiet,
◦ And so behaves as a functional anti-niacin in that corrected state.

…

+

Metabolic inefficiency from high-dose ascorbate

* Excess mass-load:
Large daily doses of ascorbic acid create a heavy clearance burden — every gram must be transported, buffered, metabolized, and excreted.

* NAD⁺/NADPH demand increases:
Processing that mass requires niacin-dependent dehydrogenases, which raises the cellular need for NAD⁺.

* Cost paid in nicotinic acid or tryptophan:
The extra NAD⁺ required to clear high-dose ascorbate must come from:
* nicotinic acid (if supplied), or
* tryptophan** (via kynurenine) in its absence.
Either way, you’re spending metabolic capital just to handle excess vitamin C.

…

Once homeostasis is restored (NA + free-Trp), excess ascorbate now wastes niacin and tryptophan

* Free NA and NAM in plasma get dragged into clearance:
Ascorbate associates strongly with pyridine acids/amides, so high doses pull nicotinic acid and niacinamide into co-clearance, reducing the free pool available for steady NAD⁺ maintenance.

* NAD⁺ has to be remade again to service ascorbate turnover:
The niacin system you just restored is now forced to remake NAD⁺ repeatedly to process unnecessary ascorbate load.

* If NA supply dips or is insufficient, kynurenine reactivates:
The body will fall back on burning tryptophan again to cover the NAD⁺ cost — wasting the Trp pool that should remain intact in a homeostatic state.

* Net effect:
High-dose ascorbate, once you’re finally balanced, becomes a direct drain on both niacin and tryptophan, undoing the stabilization that nicotinic acid + free-Trp were meant to achieve.

Aside from Chat filling in the dots in the above outlines, to hopefully drive the point home… separate this from what we thought before and hopefully know now… think about it in the current… what is the point, need, benefit of “vitamin C” actually? Antioxidation (by donating electron to free radical species that need it)? That’s what’s going on? That’s what we need? That benefits us?