How much do you need?
If you follow a balanced diet, it’s pretty easy to get full. Adult women (who are not pregnant or breastfeeding) need 75 mg of vitamin C per day; men, 90 mg. A 1/2 cup of raw red bell peppers or 3/4 cup of orange juice is enough, and 1/2 cup of cooked broccoli is the program minimum. Your body does not produce or store vitamin C, so you must eat it every day.
Risk group.
The most likely people include people with general poor nutrition, kidney disease, who are on dialysis, heavy drinkers and smokers. You’ll need an additional 35 milligrams of vitamin C a day to help repair the damage caused by free radicals that are produced by smoking.
Slow wound healing
When you get injured, the levels of vitamin C in your blood and tissues go down. Your body needs it to produce collagen, a protein that plays an important role in every stage of skin repair. And vitamin C helps neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that fights infection, work well.
Bleeding gums, nosebleeds, bruises
Vitamin C keeps your blood vessels healthy and helps blood clot. Collagen is also essential for healthy teeth and gums. One study showed that people with gum disease who ate grapefruit for 2 weeks noticed that their gums did not bleed as much.
Weight gain.
Early studies have found a link between low levels of vitamin C and more body fat, especially belly fat. This vitamin may also play a role in how well your body burns fat for energy.
Dry, wrinkled skin.
People who follow a healthy diet with lots of vitamin C may have smoother, more delicate skin. One possible reason: Because vitamin C is an antioxidant, it can help protect your skin from free radicals.
Tired and irritable.
In a very small study, 6 out of 7 men who had low vitamin C levels said they felt tired and irritable. This suggests a connection, although other things may play a role as well. Another study involving 141 office workers found that giving them vitamin C made them feel less tired within 2 hours, especially if their levels were initially low. The effect then lasted for the rest of the day.
Weak immune system.
Since vitamin C performs several functions related to your immune system, it should not surprise you that you are more likely to get sick and may have a harder time recovering if you are deficient in vitamin C. There is some evidence that vitamin C can help protect you from diseases such as pneumonia and bladder infections. It may even reduce your chances of heart disease and some cancers.
Vision loss
If you have age-related macular degeneration (AMD), it can worsen faster without vitamin C, other antioxidants and certain minerals. Getting enough vitamin C from foods may help prevent cataracts, but we need more research to better understand this relationship.
Scurvy
Before the 1700s, this potentially fatal disease was a huge problem for sailors. Today it is relatively rare, but possible if you get as little as 10 mg of vitamin C a day or less. People with scurvy also have problems such as loose teeth, cracked nails, sore joints, brittle bones and stubby body hair. When you increase your vitamin C levels, the symptoms begin to improve in a day and are usually cured within 3 months.
