'C' Is Health's Most Powerful Letter in the Alphabet
Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is found mainly in fruits and vegetables as a water-soluble vitamin that is an essential part of life. This specific vitamin is an essential component of the body required to form and maintain bones, blood vessels, and skin. Vitamin C is perhaps the most popular vitamin among the common nutrients and is said to uphold the body’s natural equilibrium. Vitamin C along with sodium, potassium, and calcium salts are commonly used as antioxidant food additives. Once ingested, vitamin C is readily absorbed by the intestines and continues through the watery components tissues that make up the human body. As a result, collagen protein build-up occurs while doubling as an antioxidant along the way (Michael W. Smith, 2007).
Function
In humans, vitamin C is a highly effective antioxidant, acting to lessen oxidative stress, a substrate for ascorbate peroxidase,as well as an enzyme cofactor for the biosynthesis of many important biochemicals. Vitamin C acts as an electron donor for eight different enzymes.
Deficiency
Scurvy is an avitaminosis resulting from lack of vitamin C, since without this vitamin, the synthesised collagen is too unstable to perform its function. Scurvy leads to the formation of liver spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. In advanced scurvy there are open, suppurating wounds and loss of teeth and, eventually, death. The human body can store only a certain amount of vitamin C,and so the body soon depletes itself if fresh supplies are not consumed.
Scurvy (N.Lat. scorbutus) is a deficiency disease. Scurvy results from insufficient intake of vitamin C, which is required for correct collagen synthesis in humans. The scientific name of vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is derived from the Latin name of scurvy, scorbutus. Scurvy leads to the formation of spots on the skin, spongy gums, and bleeding from all mucous membranes. The spots are most abundant on the thighs and legs, and a person with the ailment looks pale, feels depressed, and is partially immobilized. In advanced scurvy there are open, suppurating wounds and loss of teeth.
Symptoms
Girl with a scorbutic tongueDark purplish spots on skin, especially legs.
Spongy gums, often leading to tooth loss.
Bleeding from all mucous membranes.
Pallor
Bleeding gums.
Sunken eyes
Opening of healed scars and separation of knitted bone fractures.
Nosebleeds
non-stopping diarrhea
nail loss
It has been shown that smokers who have diets poor in vitamin C are at a higher risk of lung-borne diseases than those smokers who have higher concentrations of Vitamin C in the blood.
Daily requirements
The North American Dietary Reference Intake recommends 90 milligrams per day and no more than 2 grams per day (2000 milligrams per day).Other related species sharing the same inability to produce vitamin C and requiring exogenous vitamin C consume 20 to 80 times this reference intake.There is continuing debate within the orthodox scientific community over the best dose schedule (the amount and frequency of intake) of vitamin C for maintaining optimal health in humans.It is generally agreed that a balanced diet without supplementation contains enough vitamin C to prevent scurvy in an average healthy adult, while those who are pregnant, smoke tobacco, or are under stress require slightly more.
High doses (thousands of milligrams) may result in diarrhea in healthy adults. Proponents of alternative medicine (specifically orthomolecular medicine)claim the onset of diarrhea to be an indication of where the body’s true vitamin C requirement lies, though this has yet to be clinically verified.
United States vitamin C recommendations
Recommended Dietary Allowance (adult male) 90 mg per day
Recommended Dietary Allowance (adult female) 75 mg per day
Tolerable Upper Intake Level (adult male) 2,000 mg per day
Tolerable Upper Intake Level (adult female) 2,000 mg per day
Government recommended intakes
Recommendations for vitamin C intake have been set by various national agencies:
40 milligrams per day: the United Kingdom's Food Standards Agency
45 milligrams per day: the World Health Organization
60 mg/day: Health Canada 2007
60–95 milligrams per day: United States' National Academy of Sciences
The United States defined Tolerable Upper Intake Level for a 25-year-old male is 2,000 milligrams per day.
Alternative recommendations on intakes
Some independent researchers have calculated the amount needed for an adult human to achieve similar blood serum levels as vitamin C synthesising mammals as follows:
400 milligrams per day: the Linus Pauling Institute.
500 milligrams per 12 hours: Professor Roc Ordman, from research into biological free radicals.
3,000 milligrams per day (or up to 300,000 mg during illness): the Vitamin C Foundation.
6,000–12,000 milligrams per day: Thomas E. Levy, Colorado Integrative Medical Centre.
6,000–18,000 milligrams per day: Linus Pauling's personal use.
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