Vitamin C Source, Importance, Symptoms, Benefits, Dose, COVID 19

This is Why We need Vitamin C Everyday| Source, Importance, Symptoms, Benefits, Dose, COVID 19- Know Me

Vitamins are essential nutrients in order for our bodies to function properly and obviously, Vitamin C falls into this category. Vitamin C is also known by another name called Ascorbic Acid, but I will refer to it as Vitamin C. Most of us will get Vitamin C through actually ingesting it.

How Do We Get Vitamin C?

You can get it intravenously through, say like an IV bag but again, most of us are going to be putting it in in our mouth in the form of say like, an orange, a grapefruit, or other citrus fruits.

Even certain leafy greens like cabbage, broccoli even peppers and tomatoes have Vitamin C and of course, we can always give Vitamin C through supplementation.

How Vitamin C is Absorbed Into Our Body?

Everything we put in our mouths be it fruits, vegetables or supplements. It will eventually make its way down to the stomach where it moves through the small intestine and is absorbed in what we call the distal small intestine.

The distal type is the same distance or further from the point of origin and so, it's going to be absorbed at the end of the small intestine and we've pulled it into the bloodstream.

What is Water vs Fat Soluble Vitamins?

When we are taking about absorbing Vitamins into the body and into the bloodstream, it’s important to have this discussion about fat soluble Vitamins vs water soluble Vitamins. Vitamin C being one of those water soluble vitamins.

These water soluble vitamins are quickly absorbed into the body and can be transported freely throughout the fluid environment of the body like the blood stream.

 But if we compare it to fat soluble, considering the analogy of oil and water, they don't like each other and so those fat soluble vitamins don't circulate freely in all the fluid environments of the body. And they need a carrier or transporter to move them throughout the bloodstream to target tissues.

But once those fat-soluble vitamins reach their target tissues and can do their job, if there are too many or too many fat-soluble vitamins, they or the excess can be stored in the liver or adipose tissue.

If you have been taking fat-soluble vitamins for a long time, you can remove any or all of them from storage sites such as the liver and adipose, these are the benefits of fat-soluble vitamins. 

It also has its drawbacks, which means that you can store a lot of it there, and taking more fat-soluble vitamins than water-soluble vitamins can lead to toxicity or early toxicity levels.

Why Vitamin C is Important?

Because water-soluble vitamins once reach their target tissue and do their work, if there are any excess, water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C will not be stored in the liver or fat.

Therefore, given the potential of pros and cons, it is more important to consume water-soluble vitamins daily, as you are less likely to become toxic or have low levels of toxins in water-soluble vitamins because they will not be eaten. Will be stored in the tissues and excreted in the urine instead.

It is important to take Vitamin C daily. Sometimes it is difficult to get all the vitamins and nutrients from your diet, especially if you are really busy. Sometimes it is very convenient to take them by supplementation.

Vitamin C is water-soluble and highly heat resistant, so cooking food with Vitamin C can spoil it. For example, if you are cooking bell pepper then and there Vitamin C is degraded. 

So it always advisable that Vitamin C containing food should be consumed in a salad format which keeps the Vitamin C in intact and makes it more available towards our body.

Did you know that our body is bombarded with many superoxide anions or reactive oxygen species every day? It also damages DNA and proteins in the membrane or increases the risk of inflammation. Ascorbic acid has a negative role in scavenging these reactive oxygen species.

How Vitamin C is an Antioxidant?

One of the amazing function of Vitamin C is that it’s known as a powerful antioxidant. But do you know what the word even mean “Antioxidant” is?

Antioxidants are amazing substances that can help combat or neutralize potentially harmful compounds call free radicals or reactive oxygen species.

Free radicals are created just because you breathe and consume oxygen. So, when our cells use oxygen to make our cells' energy source called ATP or Adenosine Triphosphate, most of the oxygen used is actually reduced to water so basically harmless.

But about 4 to 5% of that oxygen is not and becomes these free radicals or reactive oxygen species and these are damaging to components of our cells. It’s known to create what is called Oxidative Stress or Oxidative Damage and so you are starting to see this connection to antioxidant.

Suppose a free radical comes in contact with your cell membrane and tries to take an electron or may be a protein in the cell or maybe even the DNA and when it tries to steal that electron, it damage that component of the cell and can even create a chain reaction of damaging of components and what these antioxidants do is that they can donate an electron to that free radical to neutralize and stabilize it. That’s why Vitamin C is pretty good.

What Are The Symptoms of Vitamin C Deficiency?

Rough Skin

Joint Pain

Extensive Bruising

Healing Problems

Weakness in your Bones

Fatigue

Horrible Mood

Sudden Weight gain

Reddish-Brown Hair

Which Disease Resulting From a Lack of Vitamin C?

Vitamin C deficiency leads to a disease called scurvy, characterized by bleeding and pulpy gums. This possibly happens due to problem in the connective tissue probably collagen levels are low.

If it is untreated these could be many associated problem so Vitamin C deficiency is pretty common but it is treatable with adequate amount of Vitamin C or uptaking some amount of supplement.

What Are The Benefits of Vitamin C?

Vitamin C is crucial for wound healing and collagen synthesis. It speeds up the wound healing process and helps in the stages of collagen biosynthesis. Additionally, research has shown that Vitamin C can promote good cardiovascular Heath. It also reduces the chance of heart attack or stroke.

Vitamin C has many benefits for skin and hair. Because it promotes collagen synthesis, it is beneficial for your skin. Vitamin C absorbs iron in the gut and therefore reduces the chances of vitamin C iron deficiency.

Can Vitamin C Help Us To Fight Against COVID 19?

Ascorbic acid cannot kill the covid 19 virus. It has been shown that all severe covid cases are associated with low Vitamin C levels. When the level of Vitamin C in the patient's body is low, the risk of pneumonia is very high.

Not only Vitamin C along with Vitamin C, healthy foods which are enriched in Vitamin, Macro, and micronutrients along with that plenty of fluids, adequate amount of sleep, lowered stress levels, and getting rid of bad habits can overall boost your immune system.

And this will indirectly help your body fight against viruses. None of these items or factors can individually contribute towards immune boosting but overall they can help your body’s immune system to perform better.

How Much Vitamin C We Should Consume?

For adults, the recommended daily amount of Vitamin C is 65 to 90 mg with an upper limit of 2000 mg per day. Vitamin C doesn’t have adverse effect if you consume it in a large proportion but it might cause some discomfort in your gastrointestinal tract but it’s rare and vary in different individuals.

So you can take all the daily limits of Vitamin C from food. Instead of taking Vitamin supplements prefer to have food intake is always better.

Conclusion

The Moral of the story is a glass of lemonade or a glass of orange juice has a lot of health benefits more than we think. It can reduce inflammation, help in prevent iron deficiency, boost our immunity, can manage blood pressure, decrease the risk of cardiac health, and many more. 

So we should remember one thing, we should eat and consume foods which are rich in Vitamin C but at the same time, we should cook our food in a way that should not degrade Vitamin C. We should consume more salads and raw fruits.