Benefits Of Vitamin C

Vitamin C is essential in order for your body to function more efficiently. It is also known as ascorbic acid. Many people take Vitamin C, knowing that it is good for their body but do not fully know why.

This vitamin is a water-soluble vitamin, which means that any vitamin that is not used is removed during urination, which helps to prevent overdose. Vitamin B is another water-soluble vitamin. These vitamins are both stored in the liver, so that your body can fully get the effects from the vitamin.

Surprisingly, it has been found that humans were once able to create their own Vitamin C naturally by themselves. This is no longer the case. Somehow, this ability was lost over several generations. There are certain animals which still possess this natural functional ability. But not the primates and guinea pigs. Hence you often hear of research studies, including those that involve Vitamin C, being conducted on guinea pigs based on this similar characteristic to the humans.

Vitamin C helps in collagen production. Collagen is a substance found in various parts of your body. They can be found in your connective tissues, smooth muscle cells, skeletal cells, and cartilage. Vitamin C plays a critical part in the process of hydroxylation to amino acids. With this process of adding hydrogen and oxygen, procollagen is produced. This process happens when your body requires it. Vitamin C also helps to prevent Vitamins A and E from oxidizing as well.

Scurvy is one health effect that is seen when you have a deficiency of Vitamin C. This is not a condition that is seen very often today, except in alcoholics, because they tend to get many of their calories from their alcohol consumption. Scurvy can be a very bad illness, because it has such health symptoms as bleeding gums, bruising more easily, healing more slowly, joint pain, and decrease of muscle tone.

To ensure that you get enough Vitamin C in your diet, you need to make sure that you eat some citrus fruits, including limes, oranges, grapefruits, and limes. Other natural sources of Vitamin C are potatoes, tomatoes, and green peppers.

To make sure that all people are getting the proper amount of Vitamin C, a recommended daily allowance has been set. This recommended amount is normally somewhere in the range of 60 to 90mg daily. Americans normally consumer about 72mg daily of Vitamin C.

The good news is that scurvy can be prevented with just 5 to 7mg of Vitamin C and you can take as much as 2000mg daily without any health effects. Any Vitamin C over this dosage will not cause permanent problems, but you may experience diarrhea.

A myth about Vitamin C is that the more Vitamin C that you take, the longer that you will live. However, this myth is disputed by a study by the Mayo Clinic which showed that the reverse is true. Still, it is important that you get the recommended daily allowance. And it is best from natural food sources. If you find that you do not consume enough Vitamin C, then there are always supplements that you can turn to.

Article Source: http://www.articlemonk.com

Evelyn Lim writes on natural home remedies at her blog. For more tips and practical ideas, please visit her site at www.natural-remedy-secrets.com.
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