14 Months Off Meds — Bloods Better

I came off five medications in February 2024. Statins for 11 years. Asthma inhalers for 46 years. Allopurinol for 10. Antihistamines for decades. Fourteen months later? Still off them. Zero supplements. Not even vitamin C.

And vitamin C’s the poster child for supplement marketing, right? Billions of pounds industry. Built on a 1970 book by Linus Pauling — two-time Nobel Prize winner. Chemistry. Peace. Brilliant scientist. New factories had to be built to keep up with demand. The vitamin C industry exploded. Still going today. Here’s the problem. He was wrong.

Fifty years of clinical trials later (WMTWL-3401, meta-analysis), extensive research consistently shows: vitamin C will not stop you catching a cold. It might — might — help you get over it eight percent quicker. That’s a few hours if you’re ill for a few days.

Prof. Daniel Davis, immunologist (WMTWL-3402), explains why. And here’s my proof: off all meds, no supplements, and my bloods are better now than when I was medicated. If vitamin C was the answer, I’d have bought it. I didn’t need it. Here’s why.

February 2024. Sat in my GP’s office. Nervous. I’d lost three stone by then. Four and a half by the time I finished. Eighteen:six fasting. Non-UPF eating. Daily fermented foods. Energy up. Sleep solid. Inflammation down. And I wanted to stop my medication. All of it.

Expected pushback. Warnings. “You can’t just stop statins.” “Your asthma will come back.” “Gout flares without allopurinol.” He looked at my weight chart. My fasting routine. My energy levels.

Said: “Let’s try it. I’ll monitor closely. Monthly blood tests for three months. If anything worsens, we restart.” Stopped them all. Five medications. Gone. March 2024. One month later. First blood test back. Total cholesterol: 7.0 mmol/L. Down from 8.0 in December 2023 while I was ON statins.

LDL: 4.7. Down from 5.6 on statins. Triglycerides: 2.3. Down from 2.6.

My GP looked up from the screen: “Your lipids are better now than when you were medicated. Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” Eleven years of statins hadn’t fixed my cholesterol. They’d masked the problem. Made it worse, actually.

One month of fixing insulin resistance? Better results. No pills. April 2025. Fourteen months off all meds. HbA1c: 37. lowest on record. Out of pre-diabetic range. ALT (liver enzyme): 23. Lowest ever. Was 69 on statins — liver stress. CRP (inflammation marker): 1.0. Near-zero inflammation.

Zero gout flares. Zero asthma symptoms. Zero allergy issues. And I didn’t take a single supplement.

Not vitamin C. Not vitamin D. Not omega-3. Not probiotics. Just food.

Whole foods. Fermented foods. Thirty, forty plants per week. Nuts, seeds, herbs, spices. Kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir. My GP’s response? “Bloody hell, what’ve you been doing?”

Same thing Prof. Daniel Davis would tell you: your immune system doesn’t need boosting. It needs balance. Supplements won’t fix a broken system. They’ll just… sit there. Doing nothing.

Or worse — creating toxicity. Your body tightly regulates vitamin levels. Excess isn’t helpful. It’s stressful. And vitamin C? The poster child for supplement marketing? Won’t stop your cold. Clinical trials. Done. Proven. Eight percent faster recovery. That’s it. If you’re ill for three days, you might save six hours.

Not worth the money. Not worth the hype. I spent decades thinking I needed pills to be healthy. Statins for cholesterol. Allopurinol for uric acid. Inhalers for breathing. Antihistamines for allergies. Turns out? I needed food. Real food. Diverse food. Fermented food. Fix the inputs, the outputs sort themselves. Fourteen months. Still off medication. Still no supplements. And my GP’s monitoring me annually now. Not monthly. Not quarterly. Annually. Because the data’s stable. The system’s working.

So why does Prof. Daniel Davis say vitamin C won’t stop your cold? Because that’s what the clinical trials show. Linus Pauling (WMTWL-3403, 1970 book) — brilliant scientist, two Nobel Prizes — cherry-picked his data. Published a book. Boom. Vitamin C boom.

But he was wrong. Multiple randomized controlled trials since then (WMTWL-3401, meta-analysis). Thousands of participants. The conclusion’s clear: Vitamin C does not prevent colds.

It might — might — reduce cold duration by about eight percent. That’s eight hours saved if you’re ill for four days. Not prevention. Mild symptom reduction. And only in people who take it regularly, not just when they feel a cold coming on. Prof. Davis explains the mechanism: your immune system is balanced. Not boosted. Not suppressed. Balanced. When you supplement excessively, you’re asking your body to work harder. Regulate levels. Excrete excess. Deal with toxicity.

Your body knows how much it needs. A normal, varied diet provides it. Unless you’re malnourished — genuinely deficient — supplementation doesn’t help. And in some cases? It harms.

High-dose vitamin C? Your body excretes most of it. Vitamin A? Toxicity risk if overdosed. Iron? Can cause oxidative stress if you’re not deficient. Calcium? Linked to increased heart disease risk in supplement form. Prof. Davis’s message: balance over boosting. Your immune system fights infections, kills cancerous cells, regulates inflammation. Every day. Without you notiing. It doesn’t need a boost. It needs support. Sleep. Real food. Low stress. Movement. Not pills.

Now, here’s the exception. Vitamin D. UK government recommends it. Clinical trial (WMTWL-3404, VITAL study 2022) showed 22 percent reduction in autoimmune disease risk for people over 67 who supplemented. That one’s legitimate. Because most of us in the UK are deficient. Not enough sunlight. Especially October to March. So vitamin D? Fine. Take it if your GP recommends it.

But vitamin C? Multivitamins? Immune-boosting blends? Save your money. Prof. Davis is clear: if you’re eating a reasonably balanced diet, deficiency’s rare. And if you are deficient? A blood test will show it. Your GP can prescribe what you actually need. Not a blanket multivitamin. A targeted intervention. I had my bloods done four times in 14 months. Zero deficiencies flagged except ferritin (iron storage), which dropped during extended fasting. Now addressed without doing anything – no supplements Just good food after the 21 day fast. But vitamin C? Fine. B vitamins? Fine. Magnesium? Fine. Food did the job.

Right. Here’s what you do. Stop buying vitamin C. Unless your GP’s told you you’re deficient — which is rare — you don’t need it. Instead: One: Eat whole foods. Vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, fermented foods. Diverse. Thirty plants per week.

Two: Get your bloods done. Annually if you’re healthy. More often if you’re managing a condition. Ask your GP for a full panel. Vitamin D, B12, ferritin, folate. See what’s actually low.

Three: Supplement only what’s deficient. And only under GP guidance. Don’t guess. Don’t self-prescribe based on a wellness influencer’s Instagram post. Test. Supplement strategically. Retest.

I came off five medications without needing supplements because I fixed the system. Fasting lowered insulin. Non-UPF eating reduced inflammation. Fermented foods rebuilt my microbiome. Sleep regulated hormones. Movement improved insulin sensitivity. T e system worked. The pills weren’t needed. And vitamin C? Never crossed my mind. If you’re currently taking supplements “just in case” — multivitamins, immune boosters, high-dose C — ask yourself: do I actually need this? Or am I just… hoping? Hope’s expensive. Evidence is free. Get your bloods done. See what’s real. Supplement what’s proven deficient. Everything else? Food.

If you want to understand how I came off medication safely, I’ve got a full timeline in the Rhythm Club. Blood tests. GP consultations. Month-by-month data. Link’s in the description.

And this is critical: never stop medication without GP supervision. I had monthly blood tests for three months. Then quarterly. Then annual. Close monitoring. Safety net. Data-driven decisions. This is educational content, not medical advice. Speak to your GP before changing your fasting pattern, diet, or medication. But if you’re wondering whether you need that vitamin C supplement?

Prof. Daniel Davis says no. The clinical trials say no. And I’m 14 months off five medications without it. Food first. Pills last.