Vitamin C, which is also known as ascorbic acid, is an essential nutrient which your body needs for optimum health. It is also one of the most potent antioxidants that you need from food and other sources because it is not produced by the body.
You need to take plenty of vitamin C especially as you grow older because age causes your natural vitamin c levels to decrease.
Here are the health benefits of vitamin C:
1. It helps to strengthen your immune system
Vitamin C is an important substance which helps to strengthen your immune system and protect you from infections. It makes your body capable of healing your wounds more quickly. It also helps to nourish your teeth and bones.
2. It helps your body fight common colds
Vitamin C can work as a potent antihistamine which helps to alleviate the effects of common colds and stuffy nose.
3. It helps to protect your body from free radicals
As a potent antioxidant, vitamin C helps to protect your body from free radicals which can lead to severe medical problems such as atherosclerosis and cancer.
4. It helps to lower your blood pressure
Another important benefit of vitamin C to your body is its ability to lower your blood pressure. When your blood pressure is maintained at normal levels, you are actually protected from complications brought by hypertension which include heart attacks and strokes.
5. It promotes normal functioning of your blood vessels
Aside from its ability to give you a healthy blood pressure, vitamin C is also able to facilitate the normal dilation of your blood vessels. The proper functioning of your blood vessels can help to protect you from cholesterol, atherosclerosis, congestive heart disease and angina pectoris, a disease which is caused by insufficient supply of blood to your heart.
6. It helps to reduce lead levels in your blood
Vitamin C helps to reduce lead toxicity in your blood.
For people living in urban areas, the possibility of having high levels of toxic lead in the blood is not debatable. Lead toxicity is a major factor that can cause behavioral problems, learning disabilities and poor IQ in children. It can also cause kidney damage and high blood pressure to adults.
7. It helps to protect your eyes from cataracts
Vitamin C helps to increase blood flow to your eyes to keep its lenses clear, thus protecting you from the risk of getting cataracts as you age. Insufficient blood flow into the eyes causes its lenses to turn cloudy. This could develop into cataract – an eye disease which is characterized by cloudy or opaque lenses which results in the decrease or loss of eyesight.
