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If you really feel a chilly approaching, you may attain for a vitamin C complement for its health-strengthening properties. “Vitamin C is a vital 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 each 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 via weight loss program alone — it’s available in citrus fruits, peppers, tomatoes, and berries, amongst different fruit and veggies. And whereas getting your vitamin C via meals is finest, chances are you’ll go for vitamin C dietary supplements to fill within the gaps or get a better dose. “Most vitamin C dietary supplements begin with 100 to 500 mg per capsule, which is unquestionably increased than the vitamin C content material present in vitamin C–wealthy meals,” Samuels says.
That mentioned, chances are you’ll be prone 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 at all times a good suggestion to let your physician or dietitian find out about any dietary supplements you’re 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 varieties of most cancers medicine.
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 defend 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 evaluation. 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 diminished the period of colds. Despite the fact that the outcomes had been considerably assorted, with some displaying no profit, the researchers concluded that supplementing with vitamin C should be worthwhile because it’s protected and cheap.
Vitamin C dietary supplements might make it easier to recuperate from extra severe sicknesses, as nicely. In accordance with a meta-analysis, vitamin C dietary supplements diminished the size of intensive care unit stays by about 8 p.c and shortened the period of mechanical air flow for sufferers by 18.2 p.c. For the research, vitamin C doses of 1,000 to three,000 mg had 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 remedy, 500 mg a day for the subsequent week, then 100 mg a day for as much as three months afterward.
“The vast majority of folks handled for scurvy expertise symptom enchancment inside 48 hours and are totally recovered inside 14 days,” says Kelly Springer, RD, founder and CEO of Kelly’s Alternative primarily based in Skaneateles, New York.
RELATED: The High Meals Excessive in Vitamin C — and Why the Nutrient Is So Crucial
3. Vitamin C Dietary supplements Defend Numerous Features of the Coronary heart
Vitamin C helps the center in a couple of methods. For one, it could assist with blood stress 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 stress by 4.85 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) and their diastolic blood stress by 1.67 mm Hg.
Different analysis has discovered that prime vitamin C consumption was related to a decrease threat of stroke, most importantly amongst those that took between 200 and 550 mg of vitamin C a day.
In accordance with one evaluation, vitamin C deficiency elevated the chance of mortality from heart problems, probably as a result of vitamin C might enhance blood vessel perform and lipid profiles.
Nonetheless, the present literature gives little assist for the widespread use of vitamin C supplementation to cut back cardiovascular threat or mortality. Moreover, there’s not sufficient analysis to point out that vitamin C dietary supplements can forestall heart problems or that being poor within the vitamin might put you at elevated threat of dying from it.
4. Vitamin C Can Decrease the Danger of Gout
Gout, a painful type of inflammatory arthritis, is attributable to 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 chance of gout — and vitamin C dietary supplements might help as nicely.
“Some research have discovered that vitamin C might 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 evaluation.
5. Vitamin C Could Make Most cancers Therapies Extra Efficient
At this level, it’d be unsuitable to say vitamin C can forestall or treatment most cancers, however it could be a helpful addition to most cancers remedy. A evaluation 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 might enhance customary therapies as nicely, says Michelle Zive, PhD, RD, a diet coach primarily based in San Diego. In accordance with one other evaluation from 2021, vitamin C works with and enhances the consequences of some chemotherapy and most cancers medicine in these with pancreatic most cancers.
It’s value noting, nonetheless, that many of the analysis on this topic entails taking vitamin C intravenously relatively than orally, Samuels says. Anybody present process most cancers remedy ought to seek the advice of with their healthcare suppliers earlier than taking vitamin C or some other dietary supplements due to the dangers of potential interactions with their most cancers therapies.
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