Heal yourself with vitamin C

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Vitamin C, naturally found in citrus fruits like guava, orange, kiwi,

papaya, grapefruit, mango, and lemon, and in some vegetables like

green pepper and broccoli, is very famous for its cold fighting

abilities. But we generally commit the mistake of ignoring the other

essential roles carried by this vitamin, and the very common

deficiency is causing many troublesome 'taken for granted' diseases,

that can develop into potentially fatal diseases like anemia and

scurvy.

 

Vitamin C is vital in healing injuries like scars, burns, and

bruises; building up, strengthening, and healing bones and connective

tissues like tendons and ligaments; maintaining and developing blood

vessels and consequently fighting heart attacks and strokes due to

better blood vessel dilation; preventing the loosening of teeth and

the bleeding of gums; healing and relieving the urinary tract; acting

together with calcium and vitamin D to heal and prevent diseases

concerned with weaker and easily fractured bones like osteoperosis

and diseases of the joints and cartilage like osteoarthritis; and

preventing and treating scurvy. This is due to the important role of

vitamin C in forming the protein collagen, which is a major part of

the extracellular matrix that supports and gives shape to most

tissues. Creams and shampoos containing cooling menthol can cause

nasty irritations if applied to burns, and it is best to avoid them

and take more vitamin C instead, and salty water like sea water

cleans and helps heal injuries and burns faster, but is not effective

if vitamin C is down. Vitamin C also fights and prevents to some

extent diseases like cancer and asthma, and this is due to its

antioxidative and detoxifying nature. Other functions of vitamin C

include strengthening the immune function, fighting depression,

reducing constipation as a natural laxative, increasing iron

absorption which produces haemoglobin and thereby preventing anemia,

and participating in the synthesis of the thyroid hormone which is a

main player in body metabolism. The effect of vitamin C on fat

metabolism through the thyroid can sometimes be the reason for

obesity, where another influencing factor is vitamin B12, which is

only available in animal products (preferably fish, for its high

calcium, vitamin D, and omega 3 oil content and for its good taste),

and is directly involved in fat metabolism.

 

The gift of vitamin C lies in giving people the ability to be healthy

throughout their entire lives, and that is something we cannot

ignore! According to the Institute of Medicine, the RDA for vitamin C

is 75mg for women, and 90 mg for men; with an additional 35mg for

smokers, due to the increased oxidative stress brought on by smoking,

and with the RDAs for pregnant and breast feeding women being 85mg

and 120mg respectively. But those RDAs are no where near enough

according to researchers like Linus Pauling, who rejects the current

RDAs as being based only on the prevention of deficiency diseases

like scurvy, and not on the prevention of chronic diseases and the

promotion of optimal health, and recommends a minimum intake of 200

to 250mg daily for healthy individuals. The half life of vitamin C in

the human body is very short (about 30 minutes), which causes vitamin

C to deplete very quickly if a person stops taking vitamin C, and

this is the reason for its very common deficiency. It is also

arguable that the intake of vitamin C has to be higher for females

than for males, due to the lower bone densities in females which

makes them much more vulnerable to osteoperosis. If there is a

disease, it is often recommended to take on a daily basis 500 to

1000mg of vitamin C, to meet the increased demand for vitamin C which

is required to fight the disease (doses greater than 2000mg may lead

to diarrhea, rashes, and other problems, and have to be consulted by

a physician), where Vitamin C supplements can be useful. It is good

to rely on fresh fruits and vegetables to meet recommended intakes of

vitamin C, and not on juices made from concentrated fruits, which are

often misleadingly low in vitamin C. Otherwise, it will be necessary

to take vitamin C supplements, or to check the vitamin C content of

juice boxes, which should be in the range of 20mg vitamin C per 100ml

of juice or more, so that adequate intake is not difficult to

achieve.