Why Is Vitamin C Needed For Optimum Health?
This micronutrient can help support our body in many ways. In this section we will discuss the roles played by this water-soluble vitamin in helping to maintain our health and physiological functions.
Foods rich in Vitamin C:
This vitamin is found in fresh fruits and vegetables like broccoli, green peppers, spinach, cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, potato, peas, as well as in oranges, lemons, limes, grapes, watermelons , grapefruits, kiwi, cantaloupe etc.
As this vitamin has very low storage in our body, we need to eat these foods as part of a healthy diet to get our daily supply.
Functions of Vitamin C:
Antioxidant function:
Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant and can help protect our body from the action of free radical mediated oxidant damage that can happen during normal cell function and in response to exposure to pollutants and toxins.
This vitamin can help protect the integrity of biomolecules like lipids, protein, and nucleic acids from oxidant damage.
Immune function:
Vitamin C can enhance our immune function by helping protect our barrier function against infection.
It plays a key role in the stabilization of our collagen that in turn helps preserve skin health. Scurvy—a disease of vitamin C deficiency causes weakening of collagen, impairment of wound healing ability and compromised immune function that can lead to infections.
Vitamin C may also play a role in leukocyte function—these are cells that are vital to help fight disease and vitamin C may help with chemotaxis and phagocytosis which are processes that help track down and arrest infectious pathogens attacking our body.
Epigenetics:
Vitamin C may also play a role in DNA and histone methylation and in turn play a role in epigenetics which deals with how genes are expressed in individuals.
Other factors:
Vitamin C also may play a role as a cofactor in carnitine and catecholamine levels that are needed for our everyday physiological function.
In this section we have reviewed why Vitamin C is important for our everyday health. As always, I pray that you will keep a focus on your health and live long and strong!
