The Necessity Of Vitamin C
Everyone is familiar with vitamin C and knows it functions as an antioxidant and an immune booster.
Vitamin C, also known as L-ascorbic acid is a popular vitamin. There are nearly 60,000 PubMed studies documenting the impact Vitamin C has on just about every system in the body! Studies show it can reduce Asthma symptoms, aids in the production of anti stress hormones, is needed to metabolize folic acid, tyrosine and phenylalanine. protects against the harmful effects of pollution, will combat cancer while protecting from infection and enhancing immunity. Vitamin C can combine with heavy metals and render them harmless so that they can be eliminated fro the body. Did you know you need extra vitamin C after a stressful incident or long periods of stress? It helps restore cortisol levels. Vitamin C may reduce levels of low-density lipo-proteins (the "bad cholesterol"), while increasing high-density lipo-proteins (the "good cholesterol"), helps protect against abnormal blood clotting, reduces high blood pressure, helps to prevent atherosclerosis, promotes collagen, promotes gum and connective tissue health, promotes the release of oxytocin (warm, fuzzy feeling), and promotes wound and burn healing.
Vitamin C is also an enzyme cofactor; making it necessary for an enzymes proper function.
Enzymes are dependent for proper chemical functions in our bodies and are key necessities for good health.
Here's an Interesting Tip! Vitamin C used with Vitamin E (another antioxidant), works synergistically, meaning they compliment each other to the degree that when taken together have an even greater effect. They actually reinforce and extend the others antioxidant activity. Keep that in mind!
Natural Sources of Vitamin C
Natural sources of vitamin C includes foods such as berries, citrus and other fruits, green vegetables (see below) and several herbs (Eastern White pine needles, burdock root, nettle, plantain, violet leaves). Make sure you get lots of these! Vitamin C is water soluble and so it is not stored in our bodies. Our bodies also do not make it and so it is essential to obtain it from our foods we eat. We need a steady, continued source of it everyday, throughout the day, is best.
You can see what foods have the highest mg content of Vitamin C in the list below.
Kiwifruit, Zespri SunGold 1 fruit (81 g) 131
Grapefruit juice, pink, raw ¾ cup (6 ounces) 94 Orange juice, raw ¾ cup (6 ounces) 93 Strawberries 1 cup, whole 85 Grapefruit juice, white, raw ¾ cup (6 ounces) 70 Kiwifruit 1 fruit (74 g) 69 Orange 1 medium 65
Sweet red pepper, raw ½ cup, chopped 59 Broccoli, cooked ½ cup 51
Grapefruit, raw ½ medium 44
Brussel sprouts, cooked ½ cup 37
Potato, white, flesh and skin 1 medium, baked 22 Tomato, red, ripe, raw 1 medium 17 Banana, raw 1 medium 10
Apple, raw 1 medium 8 Spinach, raw 1 cup 8
If Vitamin C can be depleted, what can deplete it?
Alcohol, smoking, stress, illness, antidepressants, anticoagulants, oral contraceptives, steroids and several other drugs reduce level of vitamin C in your body. Smoking causes a serious depletion! If any of these are you, you are advised to supplement your vitamin C. If you are not eating 9 servings of fruits and vegetables a day, you should supplement.
What is The Recommended Dosage of Vitamin C? (RDA)
Life Stage Age Males (mg/day) Females (mg/day) Infants 0-6 months 40 (AI) 40 (AI) Infants 7-12 months 50 (AI) 50 (AI) Children 1-3 years 15mg 15mg Children 4-8 years 25 25 Children 9-13 years 45 45 Adolescents 4-18 year 75 65 Adults 19 years + 90 75 Smokers 19 years + 125 110 Pregnancy 18 years - 80
Pregnancy 19 years + 85
Breast-feeding 18 years - 115
Breast-feeding 19 years+ 120
The strange thing is...the RDA is just enough to prevent Scurvy- The amount of vitamin C required to help prevent chronic disease is higher than the amount required for the prevention of scurvy.
If the average adult ate a diet with the recommended nine daily servings of fruits and raw or steam-cooked vegetables, together with one 6 oz glass of orange juice this could provide a good amount of vitamin C a day. This kind of diet can do wonders to keep you away from chronic disease, unfortunately that isn't the diet of most people.
Supplementing Vitamin C And How Much Vitamin C Should You Take?
Vitamin C (L-ascorbic acid) is available in many forms, but there is little scientific evidence that any one form is better absorbed or more effective than another, other than liposomal C. Most experimental and clinical research uses ascorbic acid or its sodium salt, called sodium ascorbate. Natural and synthetic L-ascorbic acid are chemically identical and there are no known differences regarding biological activities or biovailabilty.
One small placebo-controlled trial consisting of 11 men showed that the oral administration of 4 g of vitamin C resulted in a greater vitamin C concentration in plasma over a four-hour period when vitamin C was encapsulated in liposomes compared to unencapsulated vitamin C. Therefore, liposomal encapsulation could increase vitamin C bioavilability.
Many health experts that are "in the Know", would recommend the bowl tolerance of intake for vitamin C. The worse symptom of taking more C than you should is diarrhea. So you just simply back off some. 80% of adults can tolerate 10 to 15 grams of ascorbic acid fine crystals in 1/2 cup of water, divided into 4 doses per 24 hours without having diarrhea. in fact, read this quote from a very popular board certified cardiologist.
"In 1970, I discovered that the sicker a patient was, the more ascorbic acid he would tolerate by mouth before diarrhea was produced. At least 80% of adult patients will tolerate 10 to 15 grams of ascorbic acid fine crystals in 1/2 cup water divided into 4 doses per 24 hours without having diarrhea. The astonishing finding was that all patients, tolerant of ascorbic acid, can take greater amounts of the substance orally without having diarrhea when ill or under stress. This increased tolerance is somewhat proportional to the toxicity of the disease being treated. Tolerance is increased some by stress (e.g., anxiety, exercise, heat, cold, etc.) (see FIGURE 1). Admittedly, increasing the frequency of doses increases tolerance perhaps to half again as much, but the tolerances of sometimes over 200 grams per 24 hours were totally unexpected. Representative doses taken by tolerant patients titrating their ascorbic acid intake between the relief of most symptoms and the production of diarrhea were as follows:
TABLE !Condition | Grams Abcorbic Acid per 24 hours | | Number of Doses per 24 Hours |
| | | |
Normal | 4-15 | | 4-6 |
Mild Cold | 30-60 | | 6-10 |
Severe Cold | 60-100+ | | 8-15 |
Influenza | 100-150 | | 8-20 |
ECHO, Coxackievirus | 100-150 | | 8-20 |
Mononucleosis | 150-200+ | | 12-25 |
Hayfever, Asthma, | 15-20 | | 4-8 |
Environmental & Food Alergy | | | |
Burn, Injury, Surgery | 25-150+ | | 6-20 |
Anxiety, Excercise, other mild stresses | 15-25 | | 4-6 |
Cancer | 15-100 | | 4-15 |
Ankylosing Spondylitis | 15-100 | | 4-15 |
Reiters Syndrome | 15-60 | | 4-10 |
Acute Anterior Ureitis | 30-100 | | 4-15 |
Rheumatoid Arthritis | 15-100 | | 4-15 |
Bacterial Infection | 30-200+ | | 10-25 |
Infectious Hepititis | 30-100 | | 6-15 |
Candidiasis | 15-200+ | | 6-25 |
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" Thomas E Levy MD, JD"
* For reference: 1 gram (g) = 1000 milligrams (mg)
It's A Good Idea To Supplement Your Vitamin C
Because it's a good idea to have a Vitamin C supplement I would like to suggest 6 of my favorite vitamin C supplement sourcess.
This is what Purality Health has to say about it!
"Do you take vitamin C? If you do, then there’s something you need to know ...
Lots, if not most vitamin C supplements are filled with GMOs! Here’s why:
Vitamin C is created through a natural fermentation process using a starch ingredient.
And most vitamin C manufacturers use corn. While that may seem harmless, almost all corn grown
today is genetically modified (GMO). GMO corn produces proteins that are toxic to certain pests in
order to increase crop yield. There’s a lot of debate in the scientific community regarding GMOs' effect on humans. But until the science is settled… You may want to take control of your health. ..."
Ok. So, if GMOs are harmful to pests, doesn't it stand to reason that it harmful to us?!
Stop taking low quality GMO or China sourced vitamin C!
4. Suzy Cohen's Vitamin C with Lavitol DHQ (Lavitol DHQ is a powerful antioxidant that helps recycle vitamin C while limiting its oxidation. The ingredient has also been shown to support cardiovascular, respiratory, immune, eye, skin, liver, and endocrine health.
6. And, then the Brighteion Store has several sources of vitamin C available, all excellent,
non GMO and not China sourced. See below!
Here's to our health!
Val
Davis JL, Paris HL, Beals JW, et al. Liposomal-encapsulated ascorbic acid: influence on vitamin C bioavailability and capacity to protect against ischemia-reperfusion injury. Nutr Metab Insights. 2016;9:25-30. (PubMed)
And, by the way vitamin C is great for your skin when applied topically!
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