Some Important Facts About Vitamin C
If you could take only a single vitamin, it must be Vitamin C or ascorbic acid. The function of vitamin C in the body is not completely understood. Chemically it functions as a reducing agent. Vitamin C concentrates in the organs and tissues of high metabolic activity such as the adrenal and pituitary glands, the brain, eyes, ovaries and other vital tissues.
Functions of Vitamin C
One of the most important functions of Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is in the synthesis and maintenance of collagen.. Collagen is the protein-like cement that supports and holds the body’s tissues and organs together. Collagen cannot be formed without ascorbic acid and in the absence of collagen, our body’s most extensive tissue system, we would disintegrate and dissolve away..When there is deficiency in Vitamin C , it results to disturbance in collagen production causing occurrence of fearful aspects of scurvy, the brittle bones that fracture at the slightest impact since collagen provides bones with their elasticity and toughness, the weakened arteries that rupture the bleed,etc. The gradual deterioration of collagen formation is associated with the entire aging process.
Vitamin also functions as a powerful detoxifier in the body. It negates the effects of heavy metals such as lead, mercury, and arsenic, the carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide of air pollution and many other carcinogens which if not detoxified can cause cancer.
Vitamin C also increases the therapeutic of various drugs and medicines such as aspirin and insulin, while at the same time reducing their toxic side effects. In large doses , Vitamin C has antiseptic and bacteriocidal qualities. In very large doses about 10 grams to 1000 grams, it helps kill viruses.
Vitamin C Deficiency
Severe deficiency of Vitamin C leads to the sickness known as scurvy. The symptoms include hemorrhage into the muscles and skin, tenderness and aching of joints, a general weakening of connective tissues, lethargy, loss of appetite and anemia.
The following are symptoms of scurvy :
- failure of strength
- skin becomes sallow and dusky
- the gums swell and ulcerate
- teeth drop out
- breath becomes foul
- blood penetrates the muscles and other tissues causing a severe bruising
- in final stage deep exhaustion and diarrhea
- as well as pulmonary and kidney trouble leading to death.
Vitamin C and the Mind
Mental symptoms of Vitamin C deficiency are fatigue, listlessness, lassitude, confusion and depression. The face wears a haggard frowning, “pained” expression with a careworn knitted brow.
Confusional states in the elderly often mistakenly considered as senility may be due to Vitamin C deficiency and will clear with intake of 1000milligrams of Vitamin C daily for three weeks.
Vitamin C in doses of one to two grams at a time works as a tranquilizer for the anxious. Due to the vitamin’s sedative effects , similar doses help the insomniac fall asleep.
A dosage of 3 to 30 grams of Vitamin C daily are helpful in severe mental illness, where the sufferers is stressed by extreme anxiety. Possibly also Vitamin C acts to detoxify a brain poison, as Vitamin C helps convert a body chemical , adrenochrome to leucoadrenochrome, a non-toxic substance. One theory of schizophrenia is that the substance adrenochrome is converted instead to adrenolutin, a toxin which causes hallucination and bizarre sensory dys-perception.
Most animals can manufacture their own Vitamin C through a four-step enzymatic glucose conversion process. However, human beings and other primates have lost that ability and must absorb the nutrient from dietary sources. Guinea pigs and most bats must also obtain Vitamin C from their diets.
Despite its natural abundance, Vitamin C is a relatively delicate nutrient. It decomposes at 190 degrees Celsius and can be destroyed through broiling, grilling, or frying. Boiling fruits and vegetables that contain Vitamin C will not destroy the nutrient, but it does leech easily into the water. If that water is discarded, the nutritional benefits are lost.
Once absorbed, Vitamin C has an astonishingly short 30 minute biological half life in the bloodstream. This means that the nutrient decays in just 30 minutes, and ongoing supplements of Vitamin C are necessary for optimum absorption. Nearly 90 percent of the nutrient is absorbed in the small intestines, and of that, 75 percent will be excreted within 24 hours because it cannot be effectively stored by the body.
Despite its natural abundance, Vitamin C is a relatively delicate nutrient. It decomposes at 190 degrees Celsius and can be destroyed through broiling, grilling, or frying. Boiling fruits and vegetables that contain Vitamin C will not destroy the nutrient, but it does leech easily into the water. If that water is discarded, the nutritional benefits are lost.
Once absorbed, Vitamin C has an astonishingly short 30 minute biological half life in the bloodstream. This means that the nutrient decays in just 30 minutes, and ongoing supplements of Vitamin C are necessary for optimum absorption. Nearly 90 percent of the nutrient is absorbed in the small intestines, and of that, 75 percent will be excreted within 24 hours because it cannot be effectively stored by the body.
Acting as an antioxidant, one of vitamin C important functions is to protect LDL cholesterol from oxidative damage. (Only when LDL is damaged does cholesterol appear to lead to heart disease, and vitamin C may be one of the most important antioxidant protectors of LDL.)1 Vitamin C may also protect against heart disease by reducing the stiffness of arteries and the tendency of platelets to clump together.
The antioxidant properties of vitamin C are thought to protect smokers, as well as people exposed to secondhand smoke, from the harmful effects of free radicals. A controlled trial demonstrated the ability of 3 grams of vitamin C, taken by nonsmokers two hours prior to being exposed to cigarette smoke, to reduce the free radical damage and LDL cholesterol oxidation associated with exposure to cigarette smoke. The smoke-induced decline in total antioxidant defense was also diminished. These beneficial effects were not observed in nonsmokers under normal conditions (no free radical exposure).
Vitamin C is needed to make collagen, the "glue" that strengthens many parts of the body, such as muscles and blood vessels. Vitamin C also plays important roles in wound healing and as a natural antihistamine. This vitamin also aids in the formation of liver bile and helps to fight viruses and to detoxify alcohol and other substances.
Recently, researchers have shown that vitamin C improves nitric oxide activity.
Nitric oxide is needed for the dilation of blood vessels, potentially important in lowering blood pressure and preventing spasms of arteries in the heart that might otherwise lead to heart attacks. Vitamin C has reversed dysfunction of cells lining blood vessels.
The normalization of the functioning of these cells may be linked to prevention of heart disease.
Evidence indicates that vitamin C levels in the eye decrease with age and that supplementing with vitamin C prevents this decrease, possibly leading to a lower risk of developing cataracts.8 9 Healthy people have been reported in some, but not all, studies to be more likely to take vitamin C and vitamin E supplements than are people with cataracts.
Vitamin C has been reported to reduce activity of the enzyme, aldose reductase, in people. Aldose reductase is the enzyme responsible for accumulation of sorbitol in eyes, nerves, and kidneys of people with diabetes. This accumulation is believed to be responsible for deterioration of these parts of the body associated with diabetes. Therefore, interference with the activity of aldose reductase theoretically helps protect people with diabetes.
Vitamin C may help protect the body against accumulation or retention of the toxic mineral, lead. In one preliminary study, people with higher blood levels of vitamin C had much lower risk of having excessive blood levels of lead.13 In a controlled trial, male smokers with moderate to high levels of lead received supplements of 1,000 mg per day of vitamin C, 200 mg per day of vitamin C, or a placebo.14 Only those people taking 1,000 mg per day of vitamin C experienced a drop in the blood lead levels, but the reduction in this group was dramatic.
People with recurrent boils (furunculosis) may have defects in white blood cell function that are correctable with vitamin C supplementation. A preliminary study of people with recurrent boils and defective white blood cell function, found that 1 gram of vitamin C taken daily for four to six weeks, resulted in normalization of white blood cell function . Ten of twelve people receiving vitamin C became symptom-free within one month and remained so for periods of one to three years without additional supplementation. The other two people required long-term vitamin C supplementation to prevent recurrences.
A double-blind trial found that 500 mg of vitamin C per day for one year reduced the risk of developing reflex sympathetic dystrophy (a painful nerve condition of the extremities), after a wrist fracture.
In a small, preliminary trial, vitamin C (500 mg twice daily) combined with rutoside (500 mg twice daily), a derivative of the flavonoid, rutin, produced marked improvement in three women with progressive pigmented purpura (PPP), a mild skin condition. Although not a serious medical condition, cosmetic concerns lead people with PPP to seek treatment with a variety of drugs. The vitamin C/rutoside combination represents a promising, non-toxic alternative to these drug treatments, but larger, controlled trials are needed to confirm these preliminary results.
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