Ascorbic acid or Vitamin C serves a lot of purposes. It aids in wound healing, boosting immunity, maintaining healthy skin, blood vessels, bones, and cartilage, as well as in protecting and keeping cells healthy. Its deficiency can cause scurvy. (Source).
Let’s check out all about Vitamin C – The functions, recommended dose, foods that have the Vitamin, deficiency, toxicity and more.
What Is Vitamin C? And What Are The Functions Of Vitamin C?
Ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C, is a water-soluble nutrient that helps in protecting cells and keep them fit and healthy. This indicates that it can be dissolved in water and supplied to the body’s tissues, but because it cannot be effectively stored, it must be consumed daily through food or supplements.
A powerful antioxidant, Vit C can neutralize harmful free radicals and therefore control infections and even play a key role in healing wounds. It helps in making various chemical messengers and hormones used in the nerves and brain. The vitamin is also necessary to make fibrous protein collagen that runs across several systems in the body: bone, immune, nervous, blood, cartilage, and others.
Discovered in 1932, nutritionists throughout knew that something in citrus fruits helped prevent scurvy, a condition that killed as many as two million sailors between 1500 and 1800.
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How Much Vitamin C Do I Need?
Adults 19 to 64 years old require 40 mg of it every day. All of the vitamins you require should be available in your everyday diet. You must consume it daily because it cannot be stored by the body.
What Happens If I Take Too Much Vitamin C?
Taking excessive doses of vitamin C (more than 1,000 mg per day) might lead to:
Stomach pain
Diarrhoea
After stopping this vitamin supplementation, these symptoms should go away.
What Are The Recommended Amounts?
- RDA: For people aged 19 and older, the recommended daily allowance is 90 mg for men and 75 mg for women. The dosage rises to 85 mg and 120 mg daily for pregnancy and nursing, respectively. An additional 35 mg of it over the RDA is advised for smokers since smoking might reduce the body’s vitamin c levels.
- UL: The daily maximum unlikely to have detrimental effects on health is known as the Tolerable Upper Intake Level. The recommended daily allowance (UL) for vitamin is 2000 mg; exceeding this can cause diarrhea and other gastrointestinal problems. Amounts above the UL are occasionally used, but only under restricted circumstances, such as when under medical supervision or in controlled clinical trials.
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What Are The Food Sources Of Vitamin C?
Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of this vitamin. (Source)
- Citrus (oranges, kiwi, lemon, grapefruit)
- Bell peppers
- Strawberries
- Tomatoes
- Cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower)
- White potatoes
Deficiency Of Vitamin C: The possible Disorders And Their Symptoms
Its insufficiency is uncommon, but it can happen if you consume fewer than 10 milligrams of the vitamin every day for a month or more. The highest risk factors for deficiency in industrialized nations are a diet low in fruits and vegetables, smoking or prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke, and drug and alcohol misuse. The most typical indications of a deficit are as follows.
- The symptoms of scurvy, the primary illness associated with severe vitamin deficiency, are brought on by the loss of collagen, which weakens connective tissues:
- Skin bruises and patches brought on by bleeding from blood vessel breaks.
- gum swelling or bleeding, and eventual tooth loss
- hair fall
- delayed skin wound healing
- lethargy, and weary
- Anemia from an iron deficiency is caused by poor non-heme iron absorption. (Source)
Toxicity Of Vitamin C In Case Of Excess Of Vitamin A
The daily maximum for all adults is 2,000 mg. Large doses of these vitamin supplements may result in: even though an excess of dietary vitamin is unlikely to be hazardous. Diarrhea. Nausea.
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