Vitamin C is an essential nutrient everyone must include in their regular diet. While experts recommend getting vitamin C straight from fruits and vegetables, some people also rely on supplements. Vitamin C benefits your health in several aspects including immunity-boosting, protecting from chronic diseases, and many more. Try to get at least the recommended daily intake for vitamin C which is 75 mg for women and 90 mg for men.
Vitamin C Health Benefits
Just by including some freshly squeezed lemon juice or kale smoothie, you can get the benefits of vitamin c for your health. So, let’s take a look at some of the health benefits brings to your table.
1. Good Source of Antioxidants
Being a powerful antioxidant, vitamin c helps in building the body’s natural defenses. Therefore it protects the cells from harmful free radicals that can cause oxidative stress. This oxidative stress can result in many chronic diseases.
According to researchers, incorporating vitamin c into your regular diet can increase the antioxidant levels in the blood by up to 30%. Thus, it works great as an anti-inflammatory agent as well.
2. Immunity Booster
One of the most important vitamin c health benefits is its ability to boost your immunity system. vitamin c generally builds the immune system stronger in two ways.
First, it helps in the production of white blood cells, also known as lymphocytes and phagocytes. These two types of cells are very helpful in protecting the body against infections. Secondly, it encourages the white blood cells to function better by protecting them from free radicals.
3. Vitamin C Protects from Heart Diseases
Vitamin C benefits your health a great deal by offering protection from cardiovascular diseases. It reduces the risks of heart diseases by regulating blood pressure levels. It not only reduces the pressure of blood vessels but also takes care of the supply of nitric oxide, which relaxes the blood vessels.
Besides, the advantages of vitamin c for your heart by lowering serum cholesterol levels and maintaining a normal heart rate.
4. Prevents Iron Deficiency
Are you suffering from anemia or iron deficiency? Although it’s quite common for women, it can cause several other health issues. By simply including more vitamin C in your regular diet, you can get rid of this problem.
One of the most important benefits of taking vitamin C is its ability to improve the absorption of iron in the body. Just by taking 100 mg of vitamin C, you can increase your iron absorption by up to 67%!
5. Boosts Memory
Do you know that dementia affects over 35 million people worldwide and mostly older adults? The issues with poor memory can be caused by oxidative stress and inflammation near the brain, spine, and nerves.
The benefits of vitamin C include the nutrient’s memory-boosting power. Being an antioxidant-rich compound, it can reduce inflammation and the risk of getting cognitive issues or memory loss.
6. Treats Common Cold and Cough
If you think that simply having some lemon or other vitamin c rich foods can help you with common coughs and colds, then you are wrong. While vitamin C is not a cure for colds, it can prevent more serious complications such as pneumonia.
Vitamin C benefits your respiratory system mainly by strengthening the immune system. However, there is no scientific evidence of it directly benefiting colds and coughs.
7. Vitamin C Benefits for Skin
One of the most known health benefits of taking vitamin C is the way it helps your skin. It not only helps in deterring premature aging but also locks the moisture in. It reduces wrinkles, dryness, and uneven skin tone significantly.
Additionally, vitamin C for face benefits includes increased collagen production which is extremely useful in treating sunburns.
8. Heals Wounds Faster
By producing collagen, vitamin C can work wonders in healing skin, muscle, and other tissues. It facilitates the growth of the connective tissues and in return, it helps in speeding up the process of healing wounds.
In addition to that, vitamin C facilitates the synthesis of collagen. Thus, offering strength and stability to the tissues to protect them from damage.
9. Reduces the Risk of Vision Loss
Can you believe that regular consumption of vitamin C in the right amount may protect you from the risk of losing vision? Well, you have heard it right!
The benefits of vitamin C include its ability to lower the chances of cataracts. When taken with other important nutrients such as vitamin E, beta-carotene, zinc, and copper, it can reduce the risk of Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and visual acuity loss. Besides, it also ensures the proper functioning of retinal cells and helps in the treatment of uveitis.
10. Vitamin C Benefits for Hair
If you are suffering from dandruff-related issues, vitamin C can be your solution. It fights against bacteria causing dandruff that leads to improper hair growth. In fact, it also contains antiviral properties to fight against the dry and itchy scalp.
In addition to that, vitamin C benefits your hair by fighting against the free radicals that hinder hair growth. It promotes healthy hair by locking the moisture and preventing breakages.
Vitamin C Side Effects
Too much of anything is bad for your health and it applies to vitamin C as well. There can be severe side effects of vitamin C if you don’t keep a count of your regular consumption. Let’s take a look at some of the health hazards of vitamin C when overdosed.
Digestive Distress
The most common result of vitamin C overdose is digestive issues. Over 2,000 mg is considered extreme and it can result in severe diarrhea. However, this is generally caused by vitamin C supplements and not the foods that contain vitamin C.
Kidney Stones
One of the major side effects of vitamin C is the risk of getting kidney stones. Excessive vitamin C is emitted from the body as oxalate which typically exits the body via urine. In some cases, this compound can bind to minerals and form crystals, mostly in the form of kidney stones.
Overdose of Iron
If you are suffering from any kind of health risk related to iron accumulation in the body, such as hemochromatosis, then be cautious with vitamin C supplements. Limitless intake of vitamin C can lead to iron overload and therefore cause serious damage to different organs including the heart, liver, pancreas, thyroid, and central nervous system.
High Blood Sugar
One of the main disadvantages of vitamin C is the risk of high blood sugar levels. In older people with diabetes, doses of more than 300 mg daily can even cause death from heart disease.
Risk during Pregnancy
For pregnant women, regular intake of vitamin C should be strictly monitored. While a dose of 85-120 mg per day is a common recommendation, excessive consumption can cause harm to the unborn baby.
So, the next time you are having your favorite orange juice for breakfast, remember all the ways it is benefiting your body. But don’t forget the stay within the limit otherwise you can harm your body as well.
