What is vitamin c good for | Vitamin c benefits and side effects

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that the body needs to keep muscles, blood vessels, tissues of several body parts healthy.

It is also known for its antioxidant properties that help us fight free radicals that can lead to inflammation, early signs of aging.

Collagen is a crucial structural element present in our connecting tissues composing tendons, cartilage, ligaments, bones, teeth.

Besides, this component has appreciable tensile strength that influences skin elasticity. Its degradation leads to wrinkles and loose skin.

This vitamin is also known as ascorbic acid considered useful in wound healing processes and collagen production.

Ascorbic acid assists this abundant protein in our body to support our body constitution. 

Although we need to maintain a healthy amount of this vitamin to ensure health as everything in excess has some side effects to overcome.

What is vitamin c good for?

This ascorbic acid ensures the development and maintenance of our body cells and prevents the skin from wrinkles.

Besides, the vitamin supports the immune system and helps fight cardiovascular diseases, prenatal deficiency.

It is a crucial antioxidant that facilitates wound healing.

The initial symptoms of its deficiency are fatigue, frail bones, bleeding or swollen gums, weak or pain in joints, feeble wound healing. A serious deficiency may lead to scurvy.

Benefits Of Vitamin C

1. Benefits for skin

Vitamin C benefits for skin are huge – protects from free radicals like UV rays, keeps your skin hydrated, prevents wrinkles and dark patches, improves skin elasticity. It is an amazing antioxidant and nutrient to nurture your skin.

2. Benefits weight loss

This water-soluble nutrient efficiently oxidizes your body fat, also referred to as fats metabolization, while active physical exercises.

Ascorbic acid is a strong antioxidant that helps us extract energy from fats and protein.

Moreover, people with vitamin C deficiency struggle with weight loss and have more belly fat.

3. May lower risk of cancer

People who have an adequate amount of ascorbic acid in their regular diet tends to have a lower risk of certain cancer – including lung, colon, or breast cancer – than those found with vitamin C deficiency.

Yet, vitamin C intake alone cannot prevent cancer altogether. Its regular intake may merely reduce the chances of developing cancer.

4. Helps improve iron absorption

This water-soluble vitamin converts iron into simpler forms so that our body can easily absorb the contents from food rich in iron.

Therefore, this way intake of ascorbic acid helps rescue the deficiency of iron. Iron is an essential component in hemoglobin that transports oxygen to a different part of the body.

Moreover, studies indicate that regular consumption of vitamin C alone can help avert anemia or say deficiency of iron.

5. Decreases the amount of uric acid in the blood

Our blood acts as a transportation for several useful components like nutrients, oxygen, and by-products like uric acid, carbon dioxide.

The excess quantity of uric acid in blood leads to gout, a type of arthritis that causes pain and inflammation.

When the quantity of uric acid in the blood goes high, it crystallizes and deposits near/around the joints that trigger pain in that area.

However, studies indicate that regular intake of this vitamin can reduce the chances of developing gout to 44% in adults.

6. Keep your heart active and working

Vitamin C is a heart-friendly vitamin that keeps your heart working lowering the bad cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and improving the level of nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide is a vasodilator that relaxes the inner walls of our blood vessels and widens them for easier transportation of blood from one part to another, reducing pressure on our heart.

Regular intake of this vitamin increases the amount of nitric oxide and reduces the level of bad cholesterol improving your heart health.

7. Reduces the chances of diseases

Ascorbic acid as an antioxidant protects cells from harmful free radicals and assists our immunity to fight for diseases.

Regular intake of vitamin C escalates the number of antioxidants in the body that enhances our immune system to fight inflammation.

Free radicals may lead to oxidative stress responsible for several chronic diseases.

8. Helps lower blood pressure

The vitamin can relieve your blood vessels reducing blood pressure levels.

Additionally, research studies on humans and animals provide that vitamin C intake lowers a healthy adult’s systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

However, lowering our blood pressure is not the primary goal of this vitamin.

Thus, we should not utterly depend on vitamin supplements to get rid of high blood pressure problems.

9. Good for your brain

Dementia, the term used for poor memory, occurs due to oxidative stress near our central nervous system.

This central nervous system involves the brain, spinal cord, and nerves connecting every body part.

It (dementia) is found more common in people who suffer from vitamin C deficiency.

Studies indicate that antioxidants like vitamin C help us improve our brain functioning reducing oxidative stress.

It helps keep your memory and nervous system working actively.

Besides, people who get an adequate quantity of this vitamin have better thinking and cognitive abilities.

How much vitamin c per day

It is a water-soluble vitamin and thus we cannot store it in our bodies for long. It makes it a more desirable vitamin for the body on daily basis.

However, we can ensure its intake from food abundant in nature. Also, it is a more stable and recommended way to have a nutrient.

Still, people who are unable to get an adequate quantity of vitamins from food can lead to the supplements consulting an expert.

The daily requirements of vitamin C for healthy adults:

• Men – 90mg
• Women – 50mg

Food Sources

The best way to fulfill the daily requirements of this vitamin is through food sources of vitamin C as mentioned below.

• Vitamin C vegetables: tomato, potato, red and green pepper, green vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage.
• Vitamin C-rich fruits: citrus fruits, kiwi, strawberry, cantaloupe.

Side effect

Food sources of vitamin c are quite beneficial than heading to supplements to fulfill the body’s daily requirements.

However, if you take vitamins in greater quantity than required can have adverse effects as nausea, diarrhea, heartburn, insomnia, vomiting, stomach cramps.

Although the highest dose an adult can handle is 1000-2000 mg per day and that for children is 400-500 mg a day.

But it is recommended to take supplements as per doctors’ advice as they will ensure the amount improves your health accounting on the health conditions.