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While you really feel a chilly approaching, you would possibly attain for a vitamin C complement for its health-strengthening properties. “Vitamin C is a necessary nutrient, which implies that we have to get it from meals or dietary supplements to ensure that us to fulfill our wants,” says Tamar Samuels, RDN, cofounder of Culina Well being primarily based in New York Metropolis.
The Nationwide Institutes of Well being’s Workplace of Dietary Dietary supplements recommends that adults get 75 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C per day for girls and 90 mg every day for males; people who smoke ought to get a further 35 mg per day, and pregnant and breastfeeding girls ought to get 85 and 120 mg, respectively.
RELATED: Am I Getting Sufficient Vitamin C?
In accordance with the Mayo Clinic, most individuals supply sufficient vitamin C by way of food regimen alone — it’s available in citrus fruits, peppers, tomatoes, and berries, amongst different vegetables and fruit. And whereas getting your vitamin C by way of meals is greatest, you might go for vitamin C dietary supplements to fill within the gaps or get the next dose. “Most vitamin C dietary supplements begin with 100 to 500 mg per capsule, which is certainly larger than the vitamin C content material present in vitamin C–wealthy meals,” Samuels says.
That mentioned, you might be susceptible to consuming an excessive amount of vitamin C in case your mixed consumption from meals and dietary supplements exceeds 2,000 mg per day, per the ODS. And keep in mind, it’s all the time a good suggestion to let your physician or dietitian learn about any dietary supplements you are taking or plan to take, as they are often hazardous or work together with different medicines you’re taking. Particularly, vitamin C dietary supplements could also be dangerous for folks taking statins and sure sorts of most cancers medication.
So what are the potential advantages of upper ranges of vitamin C? Right here, discover 5 advantages of vitamin C dietary supplements supported by analysis.
RELATED: The Scientific Well being Advantages of Vitamin C
1. Vitamin C Dietary supplements Can Assist Scale back the Size and Severity of Sickness
It’s unlikely that vitamin C can shield you from coming down with a chilly, however supplementing with it could assist scale back the size and severity of your illness, in response to one evaluate. Of the research the researchers checked out, all of which concerned supplementing with greater than 200 mg of vitamin C per day, some discovered that vitamin C lowered the length of colds. Although the outcomes have been considerably various, with some exhibiting no profit, the researchers concluded that supplementing with vitamin C should still be worthwhile because it’s protected and cheap.
Vitamin C dietary supplements could aid you recuperate from extra critical diseases, as effectively. In accordance with a meta-analysis, vitamin C dietary supplements lowered the size of intensive care unit stays by about 8 p.c and shortened the length of mechanical air flow for sufferers by 18.2 p.c. For the research, vitamin C doses of 1,000 to three,000 mg have been used.
2. Supplementing With Vitamin C Treats Scurvy
It might come as no shock that scurvy — a illness that outcomes from vitamin C deficiency — is usually handled with vitamin C supplementation. In accordance with analysis, the advice is to take 1,000 to 2,000 mg of vitamin C for the primary two or three days of therapy, 500 mg a day for the following week, then 100 mg a day for as much as three months afterward.
“Nearly all of folks handled for scurvy expertise symptom enchancment inside 48 hours and are absolutely recovered inside 14 days,” says Kelly Springer, RD, founder and CEO of Kelly’s Alternative primarily based in Skaneateles, New York.
RELATED: The Prime Meals Excessive in Vitamin C — and Why the Nutrient Is So Important
3. Vitamin C Dietary supplements Shield Varied Facets of the Coronary heart
Vitamin C helps the guts in a couple of methods. For one, it could assist with blood strain administration. In accordance with one meta-analysis, vitamin C dietary supplements (the median dose was 500 mg) helped folks with hypertension scale back their systolic blood strain by 4.85 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and their diastolic blood strain by 1.67 mm Hg.
Different analysis has discovered that top vitamin C consumption was related to a decrease danger of stroke, most importantly amongst those that took between 200 and 550 mg of vitamin C a day.
In accordance with one evaluate, vitamin C deficiency elevated the danger of mortality from heart problems, doubtless as a result of vitamin C could enhance blood vessel operate and lipid profiles.
Nevertheless, the present literature gives little assist for the widespread use of vitamin C supplementation to cut back cardiovascular danger or mortality. Moreover, there’s not sufficient analysis to indicate that vitamin C dietary supplements can stop heart problems or that being poor within the vitamin could put you at elevated danger of dying from it.
4. Vitamin C Can Decrease the Threat of Gout
Gout, a painful type of inflammatory arthritis, is brought on by having an excessive amount of uric acid within the physique, in response to the Facilities for Illness and Management Prevention. Consuming a nutritious diet with restricted alcohol consumption can decrease the danger of gout — and vitamin C dietary supplements will help as effectively.
“Some research have discovered that vitamin C could reasonably scale back uric acid ranges in individuals who have gout,” Samuels says. In accordance with one meta-analysis, vitamin C dietary supplements (the median dose was 500 mg) lowered serum uric acid by 0.35 mg per deciliter (mg/dL). Regular uric acid ranges are 1.5 to six mg/dL in girls and a couple of.5 to 7 mg/dL in males, in response to one evaluate.
5. Vitamin C Could Make Most cancers Therapies Extra Efficient
At this level, it’d be improper to say vitamin C can stop or treatment most cancers, however it could be a helpful addition to most cancers therapy. A evaluate from 2021 discovered that vitamin C consumption was related to higher outcomes for these with breast most cancers, together with decrease charges of recurrence, cancer-specific mortality, and all-cause mortality.
And it seems that vitamin C could enhance customary remedies as effectively, says Michelle Zive, PhD, RD, a vitamin coach primarily based in San Diego. In accordance with one other evaluate from 2021, vitamin C works with and enhances the results of some chemotherapy and most cancers medication in these with pancreatic most cancers.
It’s price noting, nonetheless, that many of the analysis on this topic includes taking vitamin C intravenously quite than orally, Samuels says. Anybody present process most cancers therapy ought to seek the advice of with their healthcare suppliers earlier than taking vitamin C or every other dietary supplements due to the dangers of potential interactions with their most cancers remedies.
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