Vitamin Supplements

Over the years, no other vitamin has received as much media attention, hype, and hoopla as vitamin C. Thanks in great part to its most prominent and outspoken advocate, Linus Pauling, millions of people religiously consume large amounts of vitamin C in hopes that it might cure them of everything from the common cold to cancer.

Despite all this attention, the average person isn’t sure what to believe about this highly touted nutrient. Furthermore, until recently, most physicians weren’t sure what to tell their patients. Research has now provided us with many of the answers.

Like the B vitamins, vitamin C is water-soluble, meaning that it dissolves in water. Excessive amounts are excreted in the urine.

Vitamin CBasic Functions

• Vitamin C is involved in the formation of connective tissue and bones. It also helps keep the body’s tiny blood vessels (capillaries) strong and prevents them from bleeding.

• Vitamin C can promote the healing of wounds, particularly in the aftermath of surgery.
• Vitamin C stimulates the production of several important bodily hormones and brain chemicals.
• Vitamin C is an antioxidant and thus appears to help protect the body against some of the potentially damaging chemical reactions of oxygen. In particular, it interferes with the production and activity of free radicals, toxic substances that seem to contribute to cell damage, disease, and aging.

• Vitamin C plays a critical role in many aspects of the body’s immune system. It stimulates the production of certain classes of antibodies, which are important for fighting illness and infection. It also promotes the production of natural compounds like interferon that can resist viral infections within the body.
• In high doses, vitamin C can minimize allergic reactions by interfering with the release of histamines. Vitamin C reduces the levels of histamine circulating in the blood.
• Vitamin C blocks the formation of nitrosamines, potentially cancer-causing compounds. Nitrosamines—produced in the stomach from chemicals (called nitrites) found in foods such as ham, sausages, and hot dogs—have been associated with an increased risk of certain cancers, especially those of the digestive system.
• Vitamin C is involved in the metabolism of folic acid. It is essential for converting the inactive form of folic acid into the active form.
• Vitamin C helps the body absorb iron by keeping the iron in an unoxidized form that is easier to use. If a person consumes vitamin C and iron at the same time, the body will better absorb the iron.
• Vitamin C influences the body’s absorption of other minerals, too, sometimes increasing absorption and sometimes decreasing it. Vitamin C may slightly decrease the absorption of copper, for example. This may be particularly useful for people with the life-threatening condition called Wilson’s disease, in which the body cannot rid itself of copper and thus is exposed to toxic levels of the mineral.
• Vitamin C stimulates the excretion of lead, thereby decreasing the concentration of lead in body tissues. High lead levels in the blood can cause serious problems, especially in children, including impaired intelligence.

Signs of Vitamin C Deficiency

Because the body cannot store vitamin C, you need to consume this potentially powerful nutrient regularly. Vitamin C is so plentiful in readily accessible fruits and vegetables, however, that serious deficiencies are rare in the United States and other developed countries. When a deficit does occur, symptoms do not develop overnight. In fact, they may not surface until shortages have persisted for several months—usually four to six.

Mild vitamin C deficits are more common than serious ones but are still relatively rare. Often they are associated with some illness or lifestyle habit that interferes with the body’s intake or utilization of vitamin C. Smoking, stress, diabetes, and chronic diseases can increase the body’s need for vitamin C. A mild deficiency may produce signs and symptoms such as fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle weakness, and susceptibility to infections.

Scurvy is the best-known disorder associated with severe deficits of vitamin C. The term scurvy comes from the Italian word scorbutico, which refers to an irritable, whining, discontented, neurotic person. When scurvy occurs (rarely in the United States), its symptoms include lethargy; fatigue; a change in personality; rough, dry, scaly skin; swollen, bleeding gums and lost teeth; hemorrhages of blood vessels; anemia (due to scurvy-related bleeding or poor iron absorption); slow healing of wounds; pain in the bones and joints; and increased susceptibility to infections.

How Much Vitamin C Do You Need?

When determining how much vitamin C you should take, keep in mind that environmental stress increases your need for this nutrient. So does the use of drugs, birth-control pills, and cigarettes. Also note that the most efficient way to attain maximum absorption, therefore, is to take vitamin C in multiple small doses.

Vitamin C Optimal Daily Allowance

Although the RDA of vitamin C is only 60 mg for adults, we strongly believe that you can benefit from higher doses—perhaps about 10 times higher. We think that accumulating evidence that vitamin C protects against cardiovascular disease, some forms of cancer, and cataracts strengthens the case for taking higher doses of vitamin C.

We generally recommend an optimal range of 250 to 1,000 mg of vitamin C per day. For the average individual, we suggest a dose of 500 mg. If you are in one or more of the risk groups described in “Who’s at Risk for Vitamin C Deficiency?” however, we advise you to move toward the high end of our range.

Vitamin C Food Sources

Vitamin C is widely available in both plant and animal foods. Fruits and vegetables such as green peppers, ‘broccoli, potatoes, leafy green vegetables (spinach and turnips), strawberries, tomatoes, melons, oranges, and other citrus fruits are good sources of vitamin C. More modest levels of the nutrient are found in meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products. Grains do not contain vitamin C.

Note that the vitamin C content of any particular food item can vary, depending on factors such as growing conditions, time in storage, and cooking methods used. Vitamin C is highly unstable in the presence of heat, light, and water. Even chopping food into smaller sections can cause the loss of some vitamin C.

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