Vitamin C and stress hormones in women with chronic stress
What it found
Taking 1000 mg of vitamin C daily for two months lowered raised stress hormones in women.
Women who did not take the supplement saw no meaningful change.
What they found
Studies in people
Cortisol levels dropped
In women taking vitamin C, average cortisol fell from 780 to 446 nmol/L in one group. In another group it fell from 657 to 515 nmol/L over two months.
DHEA-S levels dropped
The second stress hormone also went down in the vitamin C groups. It fell from 13.9 to 9.9 in one group and from 12.8 to 7.8 in another.
No change without vitamin C
Women who kept their usual diet without extra vitamin C showed no meaningful shift in either hormone over the same period.
What the authors conclude
- They say that women with raised stress hormones due to chronic stress can use vitamin C to bring those levels closer to normal.
- Their findings suggest a daily dose of 1000 mg is enough to produce this effect over two months.
How it was done
The authors wanted to see if vitamin C could lower high levels of cortisol and another stress hormone called DHEA-S. These hormones can stay raised because of ongoing, everyday stress.
They studied 69 women who had raised levels of these stress hormones. The women were split into three groups based on their hormone readings, then randomly assigned to take 1000 mg of vitamin C a day or to keep their diet unchanged. Hormone levels were checked again after two months.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This trial only included women, so we cannot be sure the same results would happen in men.
- It measured hormone levels but did not track whether lowering them improved how the women felt or their long-term health.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Astghik Medical Center, Armenia; Yerevan State Medical University Named after Mkhitar Heratsi, Armenia; Yerevan State Medical University after M. Heratsi, Armenia
The paper
- Title
- Vitamin C supplementation alleviates hypercortisolemia caused by chronic stress
- Type
- Randomised controlled trial
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Beglaryan N, Hakobyan G, Nazaretyan E (2024). Vitamin C supplementation alleviates hypercortisolemia caused by chronic stress. Stress and health. doi:10.1002/smi.3347PubMed 38010274DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error