Can I Take Vitamin C Everyday

Whats The Best Way To Take Vitamin C

Both experts stress that the best way to take vitamin C is through food. Whole foods contain a vitamin and micronutrient complex which cannot be fully replicated in vitamin supplements, says Dr. Serino. Also, your body absorbs more of the vitamin through food than through a supplement.

In my experience, most people do not need to supplement with vitamin C since it is abundant in food, says Greaves. The best sources of vitamin C are foods like bell pepper, brussels sprouts, strawberries, and citrus fruit. For example: A half cup of raw red pepper has about 95 mg of vitamin C.

If you dont like any of that stuff, you can eat a medium potato and a cup of red cabbage to get your daily dose. If youve got guava around, youll get 206 mg from eating just one!

Make sure to eat a few servings of fruits and vegetables each day, and youll likely have more than enough vitamin C to make your body happy. Its important to know that research doesnt show any benefit of supplementing with vitamin C beyond the recommended daily intake, says Greaves. So more is definitely not better!

Use The Right Concentration Vitamin C For Your Skin Type And Concerns

Different products may contain a wide variety of concentrations of vitamin C. In general, they range from below 5% all the way up to 30%, Dr. Hogan says, and this ingredient can have different effects at those concentrations.

Those with dry or sensitive skin probably want to stick with lower concentrations, around 5%, which are less likely to be irritating. But those with more oily skin or with more extensive pigmentation issues to tackle can handle higher concentrations. However, as SELF explained previously, the effects begin to plateau after 20%, so theres usually no need to go higher than that.

You Can Use Vitamin C With Retinol But Be Cautious

In the past it was thought that you should avoid using vitamin C products with retinoids at all costs. And that is still sort of true. They work best in different skin environments, so using them at the same time may make both less effective. And because they can have similar effects on the skin, experts do still advise against using these two ingredients together, Dr. Hogan says.

Using them in the same part of your routine can cause irritation, Dr. Lamb says, but its okay to use them on the same day at different times. Experts generally advise using vitamin C products in the morning and retinoids at night.

Also Check: What Vitamins Should Take To Get Pregnant

/8can You Have Too Much Of Vitamin C

Taking Vitamin C doesn’t pose any damage or harmful side-effects but it’s worth noting that having a dosing schedule is important. Have it before your meals, once every day to see a difference in your health. If you consume it in excess, it can get unabsorbed or lead to gastrointestinal issues like diarrhoea.

How Much Vitamin C Should You Take

• Bottom line

Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient with many vital functions in your body.

It helps strengthen your immune system, aids collagen production and wound healing, and acts as an antioxidant to protect your cells from free radical damage .

Vitamin C is also known as L-ascorbic acid, or simply ascorbic acid.

Unlike other animals, humans cannot synthesize vitamin C on their own. Therefore, you must get enough of it from foods or supplements to maintain good health (

Also Check: What Vitamins Or Supplements Should I Take

What Are The Best Sources Of Vitamin C

The good news is that its super easy to get enough Vitamin C in your diet. In fact, its estimated that the average intake of Vitamin C is 85mg per day for women, and over 100mg per day for men!

Fruit and veggies, in particular citrus fruit and chilli, are some of the richest sources of Vitamin C that you can get your hands on. To give you some perspective, heres their Vitamin C content per 100 grams:

• Lime 347mg
• Orange 55mg
• Strawberries 45mg

Fruit juice contributes a significant amount of Vitamin C as well, but it is a concentrated source of energy and sugar, so its best to stick to whole fruits instead.

And heres another fun fact: Vitamin C is added to food as a preservative. Youll see it on the label of packaged products listed as ascorbic acid or the numbers 300 to 304.

How Much Vitamin C Do You Need

Heres a fun fact for your next game of trivia: the human body cannot produce Vitamin C, so it must come from food. Generally speaking, adults should have 45mg of Vitamin C every day. If youre pregnant or breastfeeding and over the age of 18, your target bumps up to 60mg and 85mg per day respectively.

Image: iStock.

Recommended Reading: Which Vitamin Is Good For Your Hair

What Are The Benefits Of Taking 1000mg Of Vitamin C

Here are 7 scientifically proven benefits of taking a vitamin C supplement.

• May reduce your risk of chronic disease. …
• May help manage high blood pressure. …
• May lower your risk of heart disease. …
• May reduce blood uric acid levels and help prevent gout attacks. …
• Helps prevent iron deficiency. …
• Boosts immunity.

Best Natural Ingredients For Your Skin

Vitamin C serums can be topically applied to the skin and may provide benefits such as protection against damage caused by UV exposure, including collagen damage and wrinkling. And while its no replacement for sunscreen, a vitamin C serum routinely applied before sun exposure may help prevent premature aging of the skin. It may also help protect against pigmentation issues by interfering with melanin synthesis. Youll see many options of vitamin C serums including ones with additional ingredients, such as vitamin E or hyaluronic acid.

Don’t Miss: What Vitamins Should I Take During Perimenopause

May Reduce Your Risk Of Chronic Disease

Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can strengthen your bodys natural defenses .

Antioxidants are molecules that boost the immune system. They do so by protecting cells from harmful molecules called free radicals.

When free radicals accumulate, they can promote a state known as oxidative stress, which has been linked to many chronic diseases .

Studies show that consuming more vitamin C can increase your blood antioxidant levels by up to 30%. This helps the bodys natural defenses fight inflammation .

SUMMARY

Vitamin C is a strong antioxidant that can boost your blood antioxidant levels. This may help reduce the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease.

Approximately one-third of American adults have high blood pressure .

High blood pressure puts you at risk of heart disease, the leading cause of death globally .

Studies have shown that vitamin C may help lower blood pressure in both those with and without high blood pressure.

An animal study found that taking a vitamin C supplement helped relax the blood vessels that carry blood from the heart, which helped reduce blood pressure levels .

Moreover, an analysis of 29 human studies found that taking a vitamin C supplement reduced systolic blood pressure by 3.8 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 1.5 mmHg, on average, in healthy adults.

In adults with high blood pressure, vitamin C supplements reduced systolic blood pressure by 4.9 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure by 1.7 mmHg, on average .

7 ).

13 ).

Use Vitamin C Serums In The Morning

Theres certainly no law against using vitamin C products in the evening, but you may get the most benefit from using them in the morning. In general vitamin C products should be applied in the morning before heading out for the day, when UV radiation is at its highest, Dr. Hogan says.

But vitamin C becomes less effective when exposed to light, so its important to give it time to absorb into your skin before going outside, SELF explained previously. You dont need to wait a specific amount of timeas long as its absorbed, youre good to go.

You May Like: Which Hair Vitamins Work Best

How To Take It

The best way to take vitamin C supplements is 2 – 3 times per day, with meals, depending on the dosage. Some studies suggest that adults should take 250 – 500 mg twice a day for any benefit. Talk to your doctor before taking more than 1,000 mg of vitamin C on a daily basis and before giving vitamin C to a child.

Daily intake of dietary vitamin C is listed below.

Pediatric

• Men over 18 years: 90 mg
• Women over 18 years: 75 mg
• Pregnant women 14 – 18 years: 80 mg
• Pregnant women over 18 years: 85 mg
• Breastfeeding women 14 – 18 years: 115 mg
• Breastfeeding women over 18 years: 120 mg

Because smoking depletes vitamin C, people who smoke may need an additional 35 mg per day.

The dose recommended to prevent or treat many of the conditions mentioned in the Uses section is often 500 – 1,000 mg per day.

How Much Vitamin C Do I Need

This amount ranges by gender and age. Here are daily guidelines, although some research suggests that certain populations such as athletes may benefit from higher intake.

• Children : 15 mg
• Children : 25 mg
• Children : 45 mg
• Female teenagers : 65 mg
• Male teenagers : 75 mg
• Women: 75 mg

How Much Vitamin C Is Too Much?

Depending on age, different caps for intake exist. Here are the ULs:

• Children : 400 mg
• Children : 650 mg
• Children : 1,200 mg
• Children : 1,800 mg
• Adults: 2,000 mg
• Pregnant or lactating adult women: 2,000 mg

You May Like: What Vitamin Is For The Skin

Vitamin C Can Do A Lot Of Good For Your Body But Not If It Leaves You Nauseated Or You Forget To Take It Every Day Here’s The Best Time To Take Your C

irishe4kaaa/ShutterstockVitamin C is an antioxidant powerhouse that may help shorten the duration of common colds and improve healing after surgery and thats not allcheckout 13 more potential health benefits of vitamin C. But to get the most from your supplements, you have to take C at the right time of day.

Also known as L-ascorbic acid, vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. This means it is easily absorbed into body tissue. Unlike fat-soluble vitamins, water-soluble vitamins cant be stored by your body, so you need to replenish vitamin C regularly by eating C-rich foods or by taking supplements. Excess C and other water-soluble vitamins are cleared from your blood by your kidneys and excreted in your urine.

The National Institutes of Health experts recommend that men get 90 milligrams of vitamin C a day women should aim for 75 milligrams. If you smoke, add 35 mg to those values. Smoking can deplete vitamin C these are the signs you may be deficient in vitamin C.

Another option is to split up your doses, says Zembroski: This can improve absorption, reduce the chance that it will make you nauseated, and it can help keep your blood levels high all day as you wont be excreting as much of it in urine. Scheduling your dose after the same meal each day will help you remember to take it, he says.

/7the Recommended Daily Intake Of Zinc

The recommended dietary allowance for zinc in men above 19 years is 11 mg a day and for women, it is 8 mg. During pregnancy and lactation, the requirement of zinc slightly increases. Pregnancy and breastfeeding women must take slightly more at 11 mg and 12 mg of zinc respectively. Taking high amounts of zinc might cause fever, coughing, stomach pain, fatigue, and many other problems. Consuming more than 100 mg of supplemental zinc daily for 10 or more years increases the risk of prostate cancer. Up to 40 mg of zinc is considered safe for consumption.

Also Check: When To Start Giving Baby Vitamin D Drops

Can You Take Vitamin C Long Term

The ingestion of oral vitamin C supplements can cause kidney stones in some people, especially when taken in high doses. It is associated with a greater risk of significant side effects when taking oral vitamin C supplements over 2,000 milligrams a day for a long period of time. If you have any medical tests to perform, tell your doctor that you are taking vitamin C supplements.

Things You Need To Know Before Using Vitamin C For Your Skin

Between brightening dark spots and helping to protect against UV damage, theres a lot vitamin C can do for your skin. But the type of vitamin C serum you select, as well as how you use and store it, can significantly affect how much you actually get out of it.

Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that brightens dark spots, smooths fine lines, and, importantly, scavenges free radicals from the environment, pollution, and UV radiation, Sara Hogan, M.D., dermatologist at UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica, tells SELF. Over time, those free radicals can damage the skin, leading to premature signs of aging, and increase your risk for skin cancer. So protecting against UV damage with an antioxidantand, of course, daily SPFis important.

However, not all vitamin C products are created equaland they can be irritating and finicky to use in some cases, Angela Lamb, M.D., director of Westside Mount Sinai Dermatology Faculty Practice, tells SELF. Its important to read the label on the product and know what youre really getting , especially if you have sensitive skin.

So, before you start going down the path of finding a vitamin C product for your face, peep these expert tips to get the most out of your vitamin C serum.

Read Also: Can Vitamin C Help With Erectile Dysfunction

Vitamin C Can Help Prevent Cancer

Per the NIH, there is an abundance of research supporting that vitamin C can help keep cancer at bay. “Most case-control studies have found an inverse association between dietary vitamin C intake and cancers of the lung, breast, colon or rectum, stomach, oral cavity, larynx or pharynx, and esophagus,” they reveal.

/8the Best Time Of The Day To Have Vitamin C

Even though scoring all vitamins and minerals is essential for healthy living, not all of them are synthesized by our body in the same way. Hence, one must pay attention on how you have them.

While Vitamin C is a largely helpful nutrient, it is a water-soluble nutrient, which is best absorbed when you take them empty stomach. An ideal way would be to take your supplement first thing in the morning, 30-45 minutes before your meal. If you plan to take your Vitamin C later in the day, make sure there is a good gap after your meals so that it gets absorbed well.

Another way to match up on your requirement is to have a Vitamin -C rich diet, which you can have through the day.

Recommended Reading: Is Vitamin E Cream Good For Under Eyes

/7the Recommended Daily Intake Of Vitamin C

The Recommended Dietary Allowance of Vitamin C for men above 19 years is 90 mg and for women is 75 mg daily. During pregnancy and breastfeeding the daily need increases to 85 mg and 120 mg respectively. Smokers are advised to take an extra 35 mg of this vitamin as smoking can deplete vitamin C levels in the body.

Taking more than 2000 mg of Vitamin C in a day can lead to gastrointestinal distress and diarrhoea. When this water-soluble vitamin is present in the body in excess, it switches roles and acts as a tissue-damaging pro-oxidant instead of an antioxidant. This can even increase the risk of kidney stones.

/7the Right Way To Take Zinc

To ensure maximum absorption of zinc from diet add different varieties of food like meat, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate and others. Our body readily absorbs the nutrient from animal sources of foods as compared to plant sources. Also, take zinc in a smaller dose to absorb it more efficiently. Pairing zinc-rich food with protein also increases the chances of absorption.

Don’t Miss: How Do I Get More Vitamin C

Can You Take Too Much Vitamin C

The tolerable upper intake for adults is 2 grams of Vitamin C consuming more than that can result in diarrhea and other unpleasant GI disturbances, says Greaves. She admits that severe side effects from too much ascorbic acid are very rare, but you may experience some discomfort if you take too much. Its pretty much impossible to have a vitamin C overdose, but lets not test that out.

The real problem with taking more vitamin C than you need is that it all goes to waste. Up to 100 mg a day of vitamin C will get almost completely absorbed, says Francesco-Maria Serino, MD, PhD. Above 100 mg a day and the fraction of vitamin C absorbed is progressively smaller. If you take more than 1 gram of vitamin C per day, less than 50% is actually absorbed and its eliminated by the kidneys.

That literally means that a 500 mg vitamin C supplement mostly gets peed down the drain.

Why Do People Take Vitamins

Almost everyone is taking some vitamins to help provide the needed nutrients and minerals for their body to grow and flourish. Some people may use vitamins to strengthen their hair, bones, or acne. The majority of the people have decided to take vitamins daily, and only a handful dont.Multivitamins are a great way to overcome whatever inadequacy your body suffers from. They are extremely beneficial for your hair, nails, bones, skin, and overall health, as well as your growth. They are a great way to promote the growth of whatever component you think your body lacks. Many people have started incorporating vitamin C in their skincare rituals to get rid of their dull and wrinkly skin and make it glow and radiate.

Recommended Reading: How Much Vitamin D Is Needed Per Day