VITAMIN C
Benefits: Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential water soluble vitamin that the body cannot manufacture. Good food sources include vegetables and citrus fruits. Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant and helps the body to make collagen – critical for connective tissue, skin, gums, blood vessels. Deficiency (Scurvy) in developed nations is rare.
Colds – Vitamin C may prevent getting a cold and reduce the duration of cold symptoms. Its greatest impact on cold prevention has been observed in people taking vitamin C and then experiencing severe physical stress such as running a marathon. Up to a 52% reduction in developing cold symptoms shortly after the event was reported in a Cochrane database analysis.
Fatty liver (non alcoholic fatty liver disease) markers (ALT, GGT, AST) have been shown to improve with 200 to 1000 mg of vitamin C with meals.
Covid 19 – Many so-called “experts” have claimed that taking more than 100 mg/day of vitamin C or even megadoses up to 8000 mg/day will prevent Covid 19 infection, reduce duration or reduce severity of the disease are not backed up by reputable science. The FDA to its credit has cracked down on some of the perpetrators of these false claims.
Hypertension – A small (n31) randomized cross-over study showed modest reductions (7 mm Hg) in systolic BP in type II diabetes taking 500 mg of vitamin C twice/day. The reduction appears to be due to an improvement in endothelial cell function.
Gout/ Hyperuricemia – Vitamin C of 500 mg/day has been associated with lower serum uric acid levels and an approximate 40% reduction in gout risks.
Quality: No form of vitamin C over another has been shown to be superior.
How much should you take? A 100 mg of Vitamin C is adequate for most adults. Taking more than 500 mg daily will increase your risk of cataracts, more than 1000 mg/day can promote kidney stones, GERD and diarrhea can occur with doses > 2000 mg/day.
Safety: The following products have been tested by independent labs and found to not have heavy metals and to contain the amount of vitamin C consistent with their labels.