7 Ways to Know You Have Vitamin C Deficiency
Vitamin C is good for your health because it is required for the important functions in the body. The amount of daily recommended vitamin C for men is 90mg and for women is 75mg per day. Therefore, low vitamin C level can impose serious impacts to health. There are roughly about seven ways to know if you are low in vitamin c, but I first want to cover some confusions about vitamin c.
Confusions about Vitamin C
- Vitamin C is also known as “ascorbic acid”. The first confusion is between synthetic vitamin c and natural vitamin c. If you look this up, you’ll be told that they’re the same. There’s no difference between synthetic vitamin c and natural vitamin c. Chemically they’re the exact identical molecules. Well, in different studies, if you actually read them, mainly talk about the absorption rate but in nature they’re very different. In fact, ascorbic acid which is now called vitamin c really is just one little piece of the vitamin c complex in nature. You never see just plain ascorbic acid but when you see the studies that show there’s no difference between synthetic versus natural, they’re really only talking about absorption rate. They’re not talking about if vitamin c created an effect in the body. They’re mainly talking about; it absorbs at the same rate in the same amount but I want to know if will it actually fix my problem?
- Even the gentle man who discovered vitamin c back in 1939 said that you can’t cure scurvy with isolated ascorbic acid. Scurvy is a severe vitamin c deficiency and I’m not saying that there are no benefits from synthetic vitamin c. I just want to let you know there’s a huge difference between synthetic versus what you see in nature that is part of the vitamin c complex. And most of the synthetic vitamin c that is sold out there is made by China and they make it from sulfuric acid in corn starch.
Composition of Vitamin C
Can you tell the synthetic Vitamin C are same thing as what we have in nature? I don’t think so. In nature, vitamin c comes as a complex. Following are the components of this complex.
- You have ascorbic acid as one part. Vitamin C is used as Ascorbate in the body
- You also have vitamin p which is the bioflavonoids part and p stands for permeability because it’s related to vascular permeability and this is why if you’re deficient you tend to have more bleeding because there’s more leaking through your capillaries.
- You also have vitamin k as part of the vitamin c complex too. So that’s included in a lot of functions and the j factor has to do with increasing oxygen in the lung. Green vegetables, soyabean, canola oil and meat are some of the vitamin K foods.
- You also have copper as a trace mineral within the vitamin c complex in an enzyme form called tyrosinase which is involved in rebuilding collagen.
Importance of Vitamin C
Now the best way to get vitamin C is from;
- Food or food concentrates from lemon or lemon juice. The problem with lemon juice is that it’s heated and heat destroys vitamin C. So, if you’re going to use lemon juice to get your vitamin c, make sure you get it from actual lemons. Blend the whole lemon with a glass of water and a teaspoon of electrolyte powder. It tastes great.
- Fruits high in vitamin C are all types of citrus fruits
- You can get vitamin C from peppers, any type of peppers, green peppers, red peppers etc.
- Vitamin c is in cabbage
- In the berries
- Highest vitamin C is in sauerkraut. One cup of sauerkraut could give you up to like 10times the vitamin c that your body requires each day.
Functions of Vitamin C
- When you take vitamin c, the duration of your cold can be a little bit less
- Your immune system needs vitamin c. The purpose of Vitamin C is to boost your immunity
- Vitamin C is good for connective tissue and also
- It supports the walls of the capillaries to make sure they don’t leak.
- Vitamin c is a very powerful antioxidant. In one study scientists tested in a lab. They took vitamin c and they wanted to see if it was a really good antioxidant. They found that it was actually a pro-oxidant. what does that mean?
Vitamin C as a Pro-oxidant
Very simply if you envision a free radical which is a kind of an unpaired electron. Took a little plate and try to spin it on your finger. You had two different weights on either side to balance it out. As it spins right then you took one of these weights off. You can compare that to a free radical because it’s an unpaired electron.
We have something that’s not going to balance and since this thing is spinning you can have a lot of damage with this unstable radical molecule. An antioxidant comes in and donates that missing electron. so now it can be balanced and spin and be more stable. But if you’re going to take ascorbic acid or any synthetic antioxidant and what’s going to happen?
It’s going to donate its electron and then it itself is going to be unpaired. It becomes a free radical in nature and in your body you always have networks of antioxidants. So when one donates an electron it can then receive another electron from another antioxidant and they can share their electrons.
Relation between Vitamin C & E
In fact, vitamin C helps to regenerate vitamin E (Tocopherol) with this very same mechanism. Let’s say for example, you have a lot of problems in your arteries and vitamin E is donating the electrons and you also took vitamin C. vitamin C can help recharge the vitamin E. So, it can then start donating more of these electrons to help with this antioxidant effect.
7 Ways that You can Determine if You’ve Vitamin C Deficiency
- Bleeding Gums: If you brush your teeth and there appears red little streaks on your toothbrush and bleeding from your gums, chances are you’re low in vitamin C and you have bloody gums.
- Small Red + Purple dots: you might have small little red and purple dots on your skin. Sometimes you see them in the lower leg, sometimes they can be anywhere on the body. But this is an indication of low vitamin c.
- Bruising: Vitamin K1 also present in the vitamin C complex. Well, vitamin K helps to prevent bleeding. So, it’s kind of coagulation and it’s going to help you prevent this excessive bleeding when you injure yourself. But if you have a vitamin C deficiency without any injury no reason for bruising and you get a bruise you might want to look at a vitamin C deficiency.
- Dry & scaly skin: Dry skin can be due to vitamin C deficiency. As a side note, the chemical structure of vitamin C is very similar to glucose. So, if you’re consuming sugar at the same time you’re consuming vitamin C. Guess what’s going to take priority? The glucose, this is why kids and adults who consume a lot of sugar are usually always low in vitamin c. Also, if you’re a smoker you’re going to be deficient in vitamin C because of the need for vitamin C goes way up.
- Chicken skin: It is a condition where reddish or white scars appear on skin. In the back of the arms, you can see these little bumps that you have and they’re slightly red or it could be on the legs or your thighs, that could be a vitamin c deficiency. It could also be an omega-3 fatty acid deficiency as well.
- Nose bleeds: Nose bleeding is a symptom of low vitamin C.
- Dry splitting hair: which is another indication that you are low in vitamin C. Split end hair treatment is to increase your vitamin C intake
Sources of Vitamin C
Now the best way to get vitamin C is from;
- Food or food concentrates from lemon or lemon juice. The problem with lemon juice is that it’s heated and heat destroys vitamin C. So, if you’re going to use lemon juice to get your vitamin c, make sure you get it from actual lemons. Blend the whole lemon with a glass of water and a teaspoon of electrolyte powder. It tastes great.
- Fruits high in vitamin C are all types of citrus fruits
- You can get vitamin C from peppers, any type of peppers, green peppers, red peppers etc.
- Vitamin c is in cabbage
- In the berries
- Highest vitamin C is in sauerkraut. One cup of sauerkraut could give you up to like 10times the vitamin c that your body requires each day.
