How To Use It
Apply vitamin C as a serum in the mornings that is, after cleansing and before applying moisturizer and sunscreen. I think the best vitamin C skin care products are serums because they are more effective at penetrating the skin barrier than, say, a cream or toner, says Chapas.
Then, be patient. Most skin care products take time to start working, and vitamin C takes a little longer, even with daily use. According to Wexler, you wont notice any significant changes in your skin for six to eight weeks. If you have sensitive skin, do a skin test first, as the high acidity can be irritating.
What Does Vitamin C Do For Your Immune System
The most important function of vitamin C for the immune system is to promote the production of lymphocytes and phagocytes, which are white blood cells that help protect the body against infections.
Vitamin C also protects leukocytes from the harmful effects of free radicals, which helps them to act more effectively.
As a result, vitamin C has been used for many years to prevent scurvy in sailors. Maintaining a normal level of vitamin C can also speed recovery from flu and cold, but does not prevent them.
Vitamin C is an anti-inflammatory, it helps get rid of free radicals that can damage cells and tissues. It also allows you to use vitamin C for wound healing, because reduced inflammation promotes faster healing.
It is known that vitamin C as an anti-inflammatory agent can reduce coughs and wheezing in smokers by reducing oxidative stress.
Vitamin C can also speed up recovery from sore throat, all thanks to its anti-inflammatory properties.
The anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin C can also help with allergies by reducing inflammation, swelling and related symptoms that occur as a result of an allergic reaction.
Which Foods Are The Best Sources Of Vitamin C
Foods high in vitamin C include:26
- Red and green peppers
- Joint pain
People with low levels of vitamin C can also develop iron-deficiency anaemia.17
People at risk of scurvy include those whose diets lack fruits and veg, perhaps because of illness, alcohol abuse or smoking: it reduces how much vitamin C is absorbed by the body, increasing your need for the nutrient.28
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Is Vitamin D Good For Getting Pregnant
Vitamin D has been linked to a variety of health benefits. For women trying to conceive, it appears to be linked to better fertility, as well as a healthy pregnancy. Because of these potential benefits, SGF screens all female patients for vitamin D deficiency as part of their initial screening process.
How Long Does It Take For Your Body To Digest/absorb Vitamin C
As long as you consume close to your recommended daily amount of vitamin C, your body will absorb approximately 80% of your vitamin C intake within 24 hours. If your intake levels fall significantly below your RDA, however, your intake levels can slow to as little as 50% absorption over a 24-hour period.
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Role In Redox Balance
There is a constant balance between oxidants and antioxidants in the body that helps to maintain redox homeostasis. This means that when there is an increase the production of ROS, the bodys response will be to increase of the activity of endogenous antioxidant systems through a mechanism of redox signaling . In addition, antioxidants can be obtained from exogenous sources along with the endogenous antioxidant system, these exogenous antioxidants play an important role in maintaining the redox balance. The endogenous antioxidant systems comprise antioxidant enzymes and antioxidant molecules . Vitamin C, vitamin E and flavonoids are among the exogenous antioxidant molecules ingested in the diet. There are also molecules that function as metal chelators , avoiding the production of the hydroxyl radical through the Fenton and Haber-Weiss reaction . An increase in reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that exceeds the ability of the antioxidant system to counteract the increase of ROS leads to an oxidative stress state.
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Learn About Your Vitamins And Minerals: Vitamin C And Zinc
Inspired by the Sight and Life publication Vitamins and Minerals: A Brief Guide, we continue with our Learn About Your Vitamins and Minerals series by discussing vitamin C and zinc.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that plays an important role in many physiological processes. As an antioxidant, vitamin C protects cells of the body from damaging effects of free radicals and helps build healthy immune systems. Vitamin C stimulates the activity of white blood cells which support our defenses against infections, such as a common cold. Vitamin C also plays a role in improving the absorption of non-heme iron in the gut, and regulating cellular iron uptake and metabolism.
Many animals synthesize their own vitamin C, however, humans cannot do that because we lack the enzyme gluconolactone oxidase which is involved in vitamin C synthesis. Therefore we need vitamin C in our diets. The primary natural plant sources of vitamin C include citrus fruits , tomatoes, and green leafy vegetables . Other sources include dairy products, kidney and the liver of those animals who are able to produce their own vitamin C.
Deficiency can be prevented by adequate consumption of foods rich in vitamin C, or through supplements.
Zinc
Zinc deficiency can be prevented by adequate consumption of foods rich in zinc. Fortifying staple foods and processed foods with zinc, as well as taking supplements also helps to prevent deficiency.
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Vitamin C Turns Into Natural Body Hydrogen Peroxide Once Daily Need Is Met
July 5, 2012 | RMN
One of the nice things about Nature is her simplicity and resource management. Oxygen docs including Linus Pauling know that your body needs somewhere around 8-10 grams of vitamin C daily, and if you take more, as taught by extraordinary biochemist Dr. Charles H. Farr for many years
All the Vitamin C overage we take is turned into Hydrogen Peroxide, you bodys first line of defense of your immune system.
WoW! Thats WHY that stuff works. The rest of the story.
This explains how suddenly Vitamin C megadoses magically have such curative effects. The body then naturally uses 4 antioxidant enzymes to turn the peroxide into water and singlet O oxygen, the greatest good free radical fighter and healer of all.
The media naturally lies and tells us oxygen creates free radicals, to scare you away from it and buy their drugs instead, but dont buy the free radical theory THEORY lie.
Free radicals come from toxins getting into the body and interrupting and ripping apart normal chemical processes, leaving all the fragments free radicals for active oxygen to mop up. If you do not have enough active oxygen you naturally have problems, and no one these days has enough OXYGEN or PLANT MINERALS.
The active oxygen does all the wonderful things in the long list that Vitamin C gets the credit for.
VITAMIN C MOPS UP THE NUCLEAR AGE
Vitamin C mops up free radicals from radiation andrepairs DNA.
How Does Vitamin C Boost Your Immunity And Improve Your Health
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that assists in the formation and maintenance of bones, blood vessels, and skin while strengthening your immunity. This nutrient is found naturally in several foods, especially in fruits and vegetables. Additionally, vitamin C supplements are also available.
As one could expect, COVID-19 has forced people to focus more on protecting themselves from illnesses and infections by strengthening their immunity. This article reviews the impact vitamin C has on your immunity and health.
Vitamin C An Essential Nutrient
Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid is a water-soluble nutrient and antioxidant that can neutralize unstable compounds and help prevent or reverse cellular damage in our bodies. It is also involved in various biochemical processes related to immune health.
Major benefits of Vitamin C include:
The Impact of Vitamin C on Immunity
Vitamin C is a critical micronutrient. It contributes to your immune defense system by supporting multiple cellular functions of your bodys adaptive immune systems. Being an antioxidant, it can also fight free radicals in the body, thereby decreasing inflammation and boosting immunity. It can keep your skin healthy and enable it to act as a barrier against toxic compounds entering your body.
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Best Vitamin C Supplements
There are a few different types of vitamin C supplements you can take if you choose to take one, like:
- Vitamin C tablets/capsules
And if you dont like tablets or struggle to take them:
- Vitamin C drink sachets
- Vitamin C oral sprays
Kids may prefer to take vitamin C gummies.
Wondering which is best for you? Have a read of our article on 11 of the best vitamin C supplements.
Blood Pressure And Vitamin C
Vitamin C diminishes the pressure in and around blood vessels. Subsequently, when pressure builds around our blood vessels, high blood pressure is imminent. Consequently, High blood pressure leads to a heart attack. Adults with high blood pressure would benefit from taking a vitamin C supplement. However, vitamin C alone will not eliminate high pressure, but it will absolutely help.
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Potassium Helps Regulate Muscle And Heart Contractions
The nervous system helps regulate muscle contractions.
However, altered blood potassium levels can affect nerve signals in the nervous system, weakening muscle contractions.
Both low and high blood levels can affect nerve impulses by altering the voltage of nerve cells .
The mineral is also important for a healthy heart, as its movement in and out of cells helps maintain a regular heartbeat.
When blood levels of the mineral are too high, the heart may become dilated and flaccid. This can weaken its contractions and produce an abnormal heartbeat .
Likewise, low levels in the blood can also alter the heartbeat .
When the heart does not beat properly, it cannot effectively pump blood to the brain, organs and muscles.
In some cases, heart arrhythmia, or an irregular heartbeat, can be fatal and lead to sudden death .
Summary: Potassium levels have a significant effect on muscle contractions. Altered levels can cause muscle weakness, and in the heart, they may cause an irregular heartbeat.
How Much Vitamin C Is Enough
Most of the studies Moyad and his colleagues examined used 500 daily milligrams of vitamin C to achieve health results. That’s much higher than the RDA of 75-90 milligrams a day for adults. So unless you can eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, you may need to take a dietary supplement of vitamin C to gain all the benefits, Moyad says. He suggests taking 500 milligrams a day, in addition to eating five servings of fruits and vegetables.
“It is just not practical for most people to consume the required servings of fruits and vegetables needed on a consistent basis, whereas taking a once-daily supplement is safe, effective, and easy to do,” Moyad says. He also notes that only 10% to 20% of adults get the recommended nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily.
Moyad says there is no real downside to taking a 500-milligram supplement, except that some types may irritate the stomach. That’s why he recommends taking a non-acidic, buffered form of the vitamin. “The safe upper limit for vitamin C is 2,000 milligrams a day, and there is a great track record with strong evidence that taking 500 milligrams daily is safe,” he says.
Continued
Still, American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dee Sandquist, RD, suggests doing your best to work more fruits and vegetables into your diet before taking supplements.
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You Can Match It To Your Skin Type
This is because its available in different concentrations, ranging from 5% strength to 30%.
As an indicator, if you have dry or sensitive skin, then you may want to use a lower concentration. Meanwhile, oiler skin tends to be able to tolerant more higher concentrations.14
Top tip: Serums are the most effective way of getting vitamin C as they are more concentrated.
References And Recommended Reading
Grano,A. & De Tullio, M. C. Ascorbic acid as a sensor of oxidative stress and aregulator of gene expression: The Yin and Yang of Vitamin C. Med Hypoth69, 953â954 .
Grollman,A. P. & Lehninger, A. L. Enzymic synthesis of L-ascorbic acid in differentanimal species. Arch Biochem Biophys.69, 458â467 .
Halliwell,B. Vitamin C and genomic stability. MutatRes 475, 29â35 .
Knowles,H. J. et al. Effect of ascorbate onthe activity of hypoxia-inducible factors in cancer cells. Cancer Res.63, 1764â1768.
Nishikimi,M. & Yagi, K. Molecular basis for the deficiency in humans of gulonolactoneoxidase, a key enzyme for ascorbic acid biosynthesis. Am J Clin Nutr 1203Sâ1208S .
Poliseno, L. et al. A coding-independent function of gene and pseudogenemRNAs regulates tumour biology. Nature465, 1033â1038 doi10.1038/nature09144.
Nature194
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Vitamin C Strengthens The Immune System
Perhaps vitamin Cs best-known benefit is the positive effect it has on the immune system. In a review published in November 2017 in Nutrients, vitamin C was found to support the immune system by protecting against oxidative stress, aiding in microbial killing, and decreasing the potential for tissue damage. A deficiency in this vitamin has been shown to increase the rate of infections. Its unlikely that loading up on vitamin C once you start sniffling will keep you from getting a cold, but it could help you recover more quickly, according to a prior review.
Can Vitamin C Help With A Cold
Ascorbate is also a potent virucide that can destroy many viruses including the cold virus. This is only possible at relatively high doses, and not at vitamin levels.
Back in 1970, the book Vitamin C the Common Cold and the Flu was published. The author was Linus Pauling, who is the only individual awarded two un-shared Nobel prizes in the world and probably the most important biochemist of the 20th century.
it is especially important that everyone know that he can protect himself to a considerable extent against the disease and its consequences by the use of this important nutrient, vitamin C – Linus Pauling, Nobel Prize
Paulings book became a national bestseller, and many people credit Paulings book for the decline in mortality rate of heart disease after it was published. .
Heres something interesting, why do animals never get a cold?
Animals dont suffer from colds because they make their own ascorbate in the body continuously. They have this advantage over us. We cant produce our own so we must relay on external sources.
Our challenge is that we must provide our bodies with a continuous supply of vitamin C if we want the same health benefits that animals naturally get, since most of them produce their own vitamin C in the liver.
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Vitamin C And Neuronal Differentiation Maturation And Survival
The effect of ascorbate on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells into neurons in vitro is associated with an increase in the expression of genes involved in this process . Lee et al. found that cells treated with ascorbate significantly increased the expression of NeuroD, Notch, BMP2, and BMP7, genes associated with the differentiation of neuronal and astrocytic cells. The same study demonstrated that vitamin E and glutathione do not have the same effect as ascorbate on neuronal cell differentiation so that the mechanism involved might not be directly related with its antioxidant effect . An increase in neurite formation in neurons in vitro due to the potentiating effect of 2-glucoside-L-ascorbic acid on the nerve growth factor has also been shown. This is an effect that the authors also attributed to a different mechanism given its antioxidant properties . An increase in the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor associated to the presence of ascorbate has also been observed in cell culture. BDNF activates the Ras-MAP kinase pathway, which contributes to cell survival by enhancing the expression of the enzymes of the endogenous antioxidant system .
Are There Any Other Special Considerations
Adverse affects may occur between vitamin C and anticoagulant drugs such as warfarin , decreasing their action. Nicotine products, oral contraceptives/estrogens, tetracyclines, barbiturates, and aspirin may decrease levels of vitamin C.
Vitamin C may increase absorption of iron and lutein. Although some evidence suggests that large doses of supplemental vitamin C may interfere with the absorption and metabolism of vitamin B12 found in food, other studies have shown no such effects.
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Lets Look At The Details
L-ascorbic acid is the chemical name for vitamin C. Scientists around the world have found that this substance has amazing neurological, cardiovascular, immunological, and other benefits.
Neurological Benefits
The neurological benefits of vitamin C are profound and well-researched. This substance stimulates the production of a variety of enzymes involved in cognition. While the brain naturally produces these enzymes, it fails to produce them if you have a vitamin C deficiency.
Vitamin C supplementation reduces bone loss in animal models. This vitamin also appears to help the body eliminate toxic metals like mercury, lead, and cadmium. Collagen is an important part of your cartilage, skin, and other tissues, and vitamin C supplementation increases collagen production.
Vitamin C contributes to essential collagen synthesis for joints and bones Feel Joints includes 200mg of Vitamin C, 250% of your daily recommended intake.
Why Do We Need Vitamin C At All
Ascorbic acid is a water-soluble vitamin found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. Often, we think of citrus fruit as the best vitamin C delivery system, but you can also get it from peppers, tomatoes, and cauliflower.
Once its in your system, the C helps your immune system function at its best and protect against damage from free radicals. Plus, ascorbic acid is needed to make collagen, that wondrous protein that helps heal wounds and keep our skin looking young and lovely .
Our bodies cant make vitamin C on their own, so its important that we get enough ascorbic acid from food or other outside sources.
Vitamin C deficiency is fairly rare in Western countries, but it can happen. If you take a long break from fresh produce , its possible to get scurvy which causes inflamed gums, skin spots, depression, and eventually death.
Its not common or likely if you have access to healthy food and produce, but its good to be mindful of your vitamin C intake all the same.
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