Vitamin C Health Benefits

Out of all the vitamins and minerals that this earth provides us with, vitamin C is the most famous of them all due to the numerous health benefits that it offers the human body. As a result, it has consistently been the top selling nutritional supplement in health food stores for many decades, and all indicators suggest that its popularity will continue to increase for many more years to come.

Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, actually has quite an interesting history as it is one that is rooted in war and death.

Prior to and throughout much of the 18th century, sailors onboard ships belonging to the major military powers of Europe would set off for long voyages at sea to fight enemy forces and explore new lands. However, many of these sailors would never return home as large numbers died onboard their vessels as a result of a disease known as scurvy.

It was later discovered, by the British, that if sailors had regular access to citrus fruits such as limes, the incidence of scurvy was dramatically reduced and the crew remained healthier and far fewer died.

Eventually, the British Navy carried citrus fruits on all its voyages and soon acquired the nickname “limeys” in reference to the lime juice that their sailors consumed. Today we know that citrus fruits contain vitamin C, a deficiency of which can cause the disease scurvy.

As a result, many historians attribute Britain’s naval supremacy at the time partly due to vitamin C, as it allowed the British sailors to remain healthier so that they could better fight and conquer their enemy, many of whom were weak, sick and dying due to a lack of vitamin C.

Why Is Vitamin C Important?

Ascorbic acid is a water soluble vitamin that has an extremely diverse range of effects in the body. Due to the fact that it is water soluble, it is important to ensure that you are getting a constant and regular daily supply as otherwise you may develop a deficiency.

For most people, the best way to do this is by taking supplements, as eating lots of fruit throughout the day may lead to acid erosion of the teeth and yeast infections such as candida.

The following video, provided by Living Now Life Coach Bianca, talks about the health benefits of vitamin C and is what we shall be focusing on in the rest of this article.

All vitamins result in biological effects within the body, therefore, in order to understand why vitamin C is beneficial for your health it is also important to understand these effects. So lets have a look at these first, and then afterwards the main health benefits that ascorbic acid provides.

Antioxidant

Ascorbic acid acts as an antioxidant within the body. An antioxidant is simply something that inhibits the oxidation of other molecules. A good example of oxidation can be seen when you cut an apple in half.

After exposure to air, the inside flesh of the apple will slowly start to become oxidized causing it to turn brown in color. What causes this change in appearance are free radicals, which are produced as a by-product of the oxidation reaction.

Free radicals are like tiny invisible bullets that are constantly flying around you. If you get hit by one of these bullets, they can damage your DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) and cause errors in cell replication leading to damaged or abnormal cells.

Members of the medical community have long suspected that free radicals lead to diseases such as cancer and heart disease, and can also accelerate the aging process especially that of the skin.

However, despite these harmful effects, free radicals do actually play many important roles within the body. They are for example, used by your immune system to help destroy invading pathogens and extremely low levels of free radicals can cause a person to feel weak and tired.

Where they become a problem however, is when your body is exposed to an excess amount of free radicals and this is when they can start to cause disease and accelerate the aging process.

As an antioxidant, vitamin C helps to protect you against the harmful effects of free radicals by inhibiting or slowing down oxidation reactions within the body thereby minimizing the amount of free radicals that can do you harm.

Note: Because vitamin C is a water soluble antioxidant, much of its effects are confined to non lipid regions of the body such as the blood plasma and the cell cytosol. As a result, it tends to be most effective at binding to free radicals and neutralizing them rather than preventing oxidation from occuring.

Collagen

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the human body, and as a result, it is found in many important places such as your skin, blood vessels, bones and teeth. Two important amino acids that are necessary for collagen formation are lysine and proline both of which are converted to hydroxylysine and hydroxyproline in the presence of ascorbic acid.

If you don’t have enough vitamin C in your body then the production of collagen can be adversely affected, which subsequently affects the integrity of your connective tissue.

When this occurs a person is said to suffer from scurvy and they can experience symptoms such as bleeding gums, teeth falling out, degradation of blood vessel walls and delayed or impaired healing of skin wounds. Put quite simply, once your collagen starts to fall apart, so do you!

Beauty

Most people who have an interest in anti-aging treatments and trying to look young for as long as possible will already be aware of the importance of collagen. It is after all, used in cosmetic surgery as an injectable to plump up the lips, although most non surgical treatments focus on stimulating collagen production rather than inserting it into the body.

One popular way of doing this is with vitamin C serums. These are topically applied lotions that contain high concentrations of ascorbic acid, typically around 10-20%, and have been shown to be very effective in helping to boost collagen levels underneath the skin.

As a beauty treatment, this can have the effect of delaying the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, reducing sagging of the skin and reversing damage caused to the skin by the sun.

There is one downside to using ascorbic acid however, and that is it’s very sensitive to light and oxygen exposure. As a result, ascorbic acid can go rancid easily which can then result in an increase in free radical damage when it is applied to the skin.

Fortunately, scientists have developed a much more stable form of vitamin C called tetrahexyldecyl ascorbate and this can be found in the higher end skin care products.

Cardiovascular

As collagen is also important for maintaining healthy blood vessel and artery walls, vitamin C can indirectly help to improve cardiovascular health. Once your arteries become damaged, such as due to long term smoking or high blood sugar levels, the body attempts to repair that damage with cholesterol.

Eventually, this cholesterol can build up and form plaques which can restrict or impede blood circulation throughout the body (atherosclerosis). In severe cases, this can lead to a stroke, heart attack or sudden cardiac death.

With enough vitamin C however, you can help to keep your circulatory system healthy by preventing the formation of cholesterol deposits and by doing so reduce your risk of suffering from cardiovascular disorders.

Immune System

The idea that vitamin C can help to benefit the immune system was popularized by the Nobel prize winner Linus Pauling who advocated taking high doses of ascorbic acid at the first signs of a cold. However, there is some debate in the medical community as to whether vitamin C is actually beneficial for the immune system.

Some argue that ascorbic acid can stimulate immune cell production and make one more resistant to the common cold, while others argue that ascorbic has little effect on how likely you are to catch a cold. So at the moment, the effects of vitamin C on the immune system cannot be stated with certainty until more research is carried out.

What is less in dispute however, is the effect that vitamin C has on the release of histamine. This is a compound that triggers an inflammatory response within the body, and is largely responsible for the symptoms associated with the common cold such as a runny nose and sore throat.

So even if ascorbic acid doesn’t reduce the likelihood of you getting a cold, it may help to alleviate the severity of the symptoms that you experience.

This is perhaps why ascorbic acid has gained a reputation for being a useful supplement to take when you have a viral infection. However, such effects generally only come from taking mega doses of vitamin C that are measured in grams, as anything less than this will most likely not yield noticeable results.

What Are The Health Benefits Of Ascorbic Acid?

Now that you have seen some of the roles that vitamin C plays within the body, below is listed a summary some of the main health benefits that are attributed with taking this vitamin.

• Acts as an antioxidant to protect your body against free radical damage.

• Needed for the production of collagen which can help to maintain healthy skin.

• Important for maintaining the integrity of connective tissue.

• May reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disorders.

• Intravenous vitamin C may be beneficial for treating cancer.

• Helps the body to better absorb iron and calcium.

• Can be used topically to lighten the skin and slow down facial aging.

• Assists in wound healing.

• May reduce incidence of atherosclerosis.

• Promotes healthy teeth and gums.

• Needed to prevent scurvy.

• May help to detoxify the body of environmental pollutants.

• May boost white blood cell production and function.

• May help to prevent the onset of age related macular degeneration via its antioxidant effects.

• Reduces the risk of hypertension by lowering blood pressure.

• Can temporarily boost blood circulation.

• Reduces risk of cataract formation in the eyes.

• Required by every cell in the body.

• Works synergistically with vitamin E.

Vit-C Videos

How Much Ascorbic Acid Do You Need?

Since the body cannot store vitamin C it is important that you get a regular supply of it.

The recommended daily allowance (RDA) for vitamin C is set at 40-70mg, but most nutritionists and dietitians believe that you need at least 500-1000mg each day and this can usually only be achieved by taking vitamin C supplements.

Linus Pauling recommended taking 2-9g of pure ascorbic acid and going up to 20g to treat some disorders.

Where Do You Get It?

Vitamin C is mainly found in fruits and berries, although it is also found in some vegetables.

If you eat a healthy balanced diet, you should be getting a decent amount of vitamin C just from the foods that you eat.

Who Needs Vitamin C Supplements?

Anyone who is looking to promote optimal levels of health would benefit from taking ascorbic acid supplements.

In particular, athletes, smokers, people under high amounts of stress, women taking contraceptives, people taking antibiotics and those recovering from surgery may require more vitamin C than the average person and so would also benefit from taking vitamin C supplements.

Vitamin C can be purchased in powder form as pure ascorbic acid or in tablets/capsules mixed with a bioflavonoid complex. Some people believe that the bioavailability of ascorbic acid is enhanced by the presence of these bioflavonoids, as this more closely resembles how vitamin C is found in nature.

Since the body cannot store vitamin C, it has also been argued that taking large doses at once can be wasteful as most of it will be excreted by the body in your urine.

As a result, some doctors, such as Bill Sardi, recommend taking 500mg doses spread out throughout the day every few hours to maintain optimal blood levels of vitamin C. However, as shown in the video below, Linus Pauling does not believe that taking high doses of ascorbic acid is wasteful.

For those who do wish to take high doses of vitamin C, a calcium buffered form known as Ester-C can be more gentle on the stomach.

Vitamin C can also be obtained from rose hip supplements as these are a very rich natural source of vitamin C.

It is recommended that you do not take vitamin C with meals or with fat, as some studies have shown that fat can cause vitamin C to promote the formation of cancer causing chemicals. Just to be safe, avoid taking vitamin C 4 hours before or after a meal.

Overall, ascorbic acid is considered to be a very safe supplement to take as your body will excrete what it does not need.

However, some studies warn of vitamin C causing kidney stones when taken at high doses, although this has been disputed. A small percentage of people may also experience breathing difficulties when taking vitamin C, although this usually occurs when taking supplements rather than pure ascorbic acid powder.

Signs Of Deficiency

Some of the signs of a vitamin C deficiency are:

• Scurvy
• Repeated infections
• Bleeding gums
• Brittle dry skin
• Anemia
• Joint disorders
• Depression
• Tooth decay

Best Food Sources

Some of the best food sources to obtain vitamin C naturally from your diet are:

• Blackcurrants
• Oranges
• Strawberries
• Bell peppers
• Broccoli
• Kiwi fruit
• Rosehips