Vitamin C is possibly one of the most touted vitamins for good reason. It’s essential for helping your body fight off disease and infection, and it promotes wound healing. What’s more, some research suggests that vitamin C can help lower blood pressure levels and reduce the risk of heart disease by preventing plaque buildup in arteries. Understanding how vitamin C benefits your body can help you better understand why it plays such an important role in human health.
Aids iron absorption
Vitamin C improves your body’s ability to absorb iron, which is vital to preventing anemia. If you have trouble absorbing or maintaining your iron levels, increasing vitamin C intake may help. You can get vitamin C through foods like bell peppers and oranges, but also from supplements and other sources.
- It helps your body absorb non-heme iron from food. Heme is the part of meat that contains haemoglobin and myoglobin—two proteins responsible for transporting oxygen throughout the body. Non-heme is found in plants and vegetables such as broccoli and spinach; it’s also known as plant protein since it does not contain haemoglobin or myoglobin (and therefore cannot transport oxygen). Vitamin C helps your body absorb this form of iron when you eat these fruits or vegetables raw.
Improves wound healing
Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for the body and helps with wound healing. It helps make collagen, a tissue that binds cells together in the skin. Vitamin C also aids in the production of certain proteins needed to keep wounds from getting infections.
Fights against free radicals
Free radicals are unstable molecules that damage cells. The body’s defenses against these molecules include antioxidants, which neutralize free radicals. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and helps to protect the body from oxidative stress. It is also water-soluble, meaning it can be easily excreted from your system if you take too much of it at once or for an extended period of time. This makes it a safe supplement for most people (but not everyone), since you will not build up storage levels of this vitamin in the body if you don’t need them—and if you do need more than usual due to illness or injury, there’s no risk of overdosing on vitamin C by taking too much for short periods of time.
Prevents scurvy
The definition of scurvy is fatigue, anemia, bleeding gums, and loose teeth. It’s rare in the United States to suffer from this disease because it can be prevented by consuming enough vitamin C.
The main symptoms of scurvy are:
- Fatigue and weakness
- Dull skin (lack of color)
- Sore or swollen gums that bleed easily
- Loose teeth
Prevents gout
Gout is a type of arthritis that occurs when uric acid builds up in your body. This painful condition causes red, swollen joints and aching pain, usually on one side of your body. Vitamin C can help prevent gout by lowering uric acid levels in the blood.
You should also be aware that high blood pressure is one of the biggest risk factors for developing gout—and vitamin C plays a vital role in keeping it low. In addition to helping break down cholesterol into bile acids that support healthy digestion, vitamin C has been shown to reduce weight gain and improve insulin sensitivity (which helps keep blood sugar levels stable).
Vitamin C benefits your body in many ways.
Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant that can help fight off colds and the flu. Vitamin C can also help your body absorb iron, which keeps your skin, hair and nails healthy.
Additionally, vitamin C helps to prevent scurvy. Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C and causes symptoms such as fatigue or weakness, swollen gums that bleed easily, loss of teeth and bruising easily. If you don’t get enough vitamin C in your diet or through supplements, this condition could develop quickly if you’re exposed to prolonged periods without food (for example when traveling).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Vitamin C benefits your body in many ways. It helps with the absorption of iron, wound healing, fights against free radicals and prevents scurvy. It also prevents gout and improves joint health. We hope you enjoyed learning about these awesome benefits!
