The food we eat everyday regulates the effectiveness of our body’s performance. The activity to only rely on supplements and workout isn’t how to achieve a good and healthy body; instead, how we naturally supply our body with nutrition counts the most in our routine.
People believe in fad diet routines, which give unachievable visions and lack any nutritional content. The pandemic situation taught us a lot about what we were doing wrong and where to go next for improving our lifestyles. Now, we cannot deny that our body stands active and working because we choose to put specific nutrition and mandatory vitamins inside us.
One of those eminent and mandatory vitamins required by our body in abundance is that Vitamin C. Vitamin C is one vitamin that isn’t produced by our body. We need to supply it from external natural sources rich in vitamin c. Vitamin C is mainly available in citrus fruits and some vegetables such as Kiwi, oranges, strawberries, spinach, etc.
Our daily recommended intake of vitamin c differs in both the gender; 75 mg in women and 90 mg in men. Natural sources of Vitamin C are not always enough to provide the recommended vitamin c in our everyday life, making it ordinary and necessary to rely on supplements prescribed by your nutritionist or physician.
Here are some of the known benefits one should know about Vitamin C, which makes it a mandatory vitamin for our body even though it isn’t produced inside us.
Helps in managing High Blood Pressure
Vitamin C has been recommended as one of the sources of reducing high blood pressure in a person. Fruits rich in vitamin c could help lower blood pressure levels even in individuals who do not suffer from high blood pressure conditions.
High Blood pressure is the root cause of heart disease in most older or middle-aged adults. Vitamin C relaxes the blood vessel that carries blood from the heart. Hence, this also reduces the blood pressure levels diminishing the risk of heart diseases.
In one of the analyses on 29 human studies, it was found that vitamin C supplement reduced the upper value of the blood pressure by 3.8 mmHg and lower value by 1.5 mmHg in healthy people. In people with high blood pressure, vitamin c helped reduce the upper value by 4.9 mmHg and the lower value by 1.7 mmHg.
But this does not mean that one should only rely on vitamin c and leave his/her treatment aside as the long or short-term effects of vitamin c on blood pressure aren’t confirmed yet.
Useful for preventing the risk of Chronic Diseases
Since vitamin c is a good source of antioxidants, it is an excellent natural defense for our body to reduce many chronic diseases. Antioxidants prevent the free radicals in the body from accumulating and damage the cells, which could lead to the development of chronic illness due to oxidative stress occurring inside our body.
The more vitamin c we consume, the more our blood becomes rich in antioxidants, which is a good source of preventing chronic diseases like cancer or autoimmune diseases.
Useful in preventing Iron Deficiency
Iron is a crucial element in our body as it is responsible for developing more red blood cells in the blood and regulating oxygenated blood throughout the body. Several fruits and vegetables rich in iron sources, such as spinach, but maybe poorly absorbed in the blood in some people.
Vitamin c helps convert these poorly absorbed iron into a more comfortable form and enables enough iron in the body. Vitamin C could curb iron deficiency by absorbing a good portion of iron from iron-rich foods and diminishing the risk of anemia or even curing it.
Good for Immune System
During the times of COVID, experts and doctors have recommended people through media and other sources to consume more and more vitamin c due to its efficiency to improve immune system functioning. Lymphocytes and phagocytes (White Blood Cells) are produced more as the immune system is healthy, preventing the body from invading infections and viruses.
By strengthening the immune system, vitamin c also supports skin health by providing the skin a strong barrier against harsh external pollutants. Also, as more white blood cells in the body, the wound recovery time would automatically speed up due to enough vitamin c inside the body.
Good for memory and thinking
As there is more oxidative stress surrounding the central nervous system, there would be an increased chance of dementia, especially in older adults. Dementia is a broad term that includes all the diseases related to memory loss and impaired thinking abilities.
Hence, enough antioxidants in the blood levels could lead to a good memory and thinking in individuals. Vitamin C happens to be a good source of antioxidants, which helps prevent impaired thinking and reduce the risk of dementia.
It might help in diminishing Uric Acid levels in the Blood.
When the waste product released by our body known as uric acid tends to assemble in the joints and crystallize, that develops further into a form of arthritis known as Gout. Gout is an excruciating kind of arthritis that leads to inflammation of joints and swelling.
An increased level of uric acid in the blood is responsible for the Gout attack. Hence, consuming a fair amount of vitamin c reduces uric acid chances in the blood by disposing of the waste material out of the body. The lesser there will be uric acid in the blood, the fewer gout attacks in a person.
These are some of the known advantages of Vitamin C that could help improve overall health and improve several health conditions in a person.
