Holiday Burnout & Vitamin C: The Hidden Link | Healing Optimized
The holidays are supposed to be joyful — but let’s be honest. Between family gatherings, travel, late nights, and endless to-dos, this season can leave you run-down. There’s real science behind why.
Your body’s stress response is tightly connected to your vitamin C levels, especially through your adrenal glands — the small but powerful organs that produce cortisol and other stress hormones. These glands actually hold some of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in your entire body.
When you’re under pressure — whether it’s flight delays, family tension, lost sleep, or exposure to every bug being passed around — your adrenals burn through vitamin C at an accelerated rate. It’s the raw material they need to keep up. Chronic stress equals chronic vitamin C depletion.
Why the Holidays Hit Harder
Most of us enter the busiest time of year already stretched thin. Add in travel, gift spending, crowded airports, and disrupted sleep, and your vitamin C demand skyrockets — often five to ten times higher than usual.
The problem? We humans can’t make vitamin C ourselves. Almost every other mammal can, and when they’re stressed, their bodies automatically ramp production from a few thousand milligrams to well over ten thousand. We lost that ability due to a missing liver enzyme — meaning we’re completely dependent on what we consume.
So when you’re stressed, under-slept, and eating less cleanly than usual, your body’s reserves drain fast. That’s why so many people end up sick right after the holidays — not from bad luck, but from pure depletion.
Why the Type of Vitamin C Matters
During stress, your body needs vitamin C that it can actually absorb and use efficiently. Standard ascorbic acid — the common synthetic form — is harshly acidic and often causes digestive upset, especially when your stomach’s already tense.
Bio Active-C was designed to solve that problem.
Its buffered, neutral-pH sodium ascorbate base supports gentle absorption, while the multi-pathway delivery system ensures vitamin C reaches your adrenals and cells quickly — even when transport proteins are saturated. It delivers what your body’s trying to access, without the waste.
Plus, Bio Active-C contains ribose, which directly supports ATP (cellular energy) production. That’s why people often feel less fatigued and more focused under stress — it helps restore the energy that stress drains.
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Your Holiday Strategy
If there’s one thing to take away: don’t wait until you’re run-down. Support your system before and during stressful stretches.
Dr. Brett Earl’s simple protocol:
Begin increasing your vitamin C two to three days before travel.
Take 2,000–3,000 mg daily during high-stress or high-exposure periods.
Use it before and after big gatherings, travel, or late nights.
If you feel something coming on, increase your dose — your body’s needs rise sharply when fighting illness.
Continue higher doses through the recovery period (October–January).
Because Bio Active-C is buffered and highly bioavailable, you can comfortably reach therapeutic levels without digestive upset.
The Bottom Line
The holidays will always bring stress — travel hiccups, late nights, and long to-do lists are part of the season. But exhaustion, illness, and burnout don’t have to be.
Your adrenal glands are working overtime right now. Give them what they actually need — not just the bare minimum to avoid scurvy, but enough to thrive under pressure.
Start now. Support your stress response. Stay well this season.
— Healing Optimized