Vitamin C is a very important vitamin that is require by our body. Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin. It helps to maintain our skin and connective tissue. It is also will help the bowel (or guts) to absorb iron for the production of blood cells. We can say that vitamin C supplement can be given as part of treatment for anemia.
Many animals can synthesizes vitamin C in their body however some mammals like guinea pigs, humans and some other primates cannot so we have to take vitamin C orally either taking food that contains vitamin C or taking the vitamin C supplement in tablet. There is a continuing debate about the optimum requirement of the vitamin C. For UK Standard Agency the requirement is 40mg per day while US Food and Nutrition Board is between 60-95mg per day. Some researchers have calculated the amount of vitamin C needed for human (to achieve similar blood serum level of vitamin C synthesizing mammals) between 400 – 18000mg per day. Because of the ongoing debate, I would like to personally advice my patients to take between 50-100mg daily during normal days and 500mg – 1000mg daily during acute stage (common cold or any form of infection).
Scurvy is a condition or disease that is associated by lacking of vitamin C. This condition will cause a person to be easily fatigue, bleeding and poor wound healing. In healthy people, vitamin C deficiency is extremely rare. It usually affects people will chronic illness such as cancer or malabsoprtion syndromes. The condition is also common in alcoholism and those who are malnourish.
Vitamin C is largely found in fruit and vegetables especially citrus fruit, tomatoes, spinach, potatoes and broccoli. Please take note that vitamin C will easily be destroyed by heat and light. Do not over heated or over cooked your vegetables and do not put your vitamin C tablets under direct light. Foods that rich with vitamin C ideally should be put in a cool and dark place and should be prepared and cook as quickly as possible.
There is some evidence show that by taking high dose of vitamin C as a daily basis will reduce the risk from catching the common cold. Some people claimed that it will also reduce stress and help our body to combat with the infections by enhance the immune system.
However, it is good to remember that anything that is too much or too little is not good. Taking too much vitamin C also increase risk of diarrhea however that condition will quickly resolves after we stop taking high dose of vitamin C. There are some orthodox views that relate vitamin C with kidney stones and iron overload. This is base on the argument that large amounts of vitamin C may contribute to the formation of oxalate-type kidney stones due to vitamin C metabolic conversion to oxalic acid. A recent study by Dr Gary Curhan and colleagues at Harvard, Brigham and women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital and they have come to the conclusion that 40mg daily intake of vitamin C may have significant protection against kidney stones in both men and women. Therefore, the increased amounts of oxalate observed in urine may have been artifactually produced and have no relation to what happens in the body. In terms of increase iron overload, it is true that vitamin C increases iron absorption when iron is needed, however it also seems to increase excretion of iron when there is excessive amount of iron in the body.
As a conclusion, vitamin C is a very important element in our diet. So, make sure that you take enough fruits and vegetables in your meal.
Reference:
1) Understanding food and nutrition by Dr Joan Webster – Gandy. The British Medical Association.
2) http://www.wordiq.com/definition/vitamin_C
3) http://www.vitamincfoundation.org/faqdoc.html
4) http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w99/kidneystones.html
