Medical Reference Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid)

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, meaning that your body doesn’t store it. We have to get what we need from food, including citrus fruits, broccoli, and tomatoes.

You need vitamin C for the growth and repair of tissues in all parts of your body. It helps the body make collagen, an important protein used to make skin, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels. Ascorbic acid powder is needed for healing wounds, and for repairing and maintaining bones and teeth.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant, along with vitamin E, beta-carotene, and many other plant-based nutrients. Antioxidants block some of the damage caused by free radicals, substances that damage DNA. The build-up of free radicals over time may contribute to the aging process and the development of health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and arthritis.

It’ s rare to be seriously deficient in Ascorbic acid, although evidence suggests that many people may have low levels of Ascorbic acid. Smoking cigarettes lowers the amount of Ascorbic acid in the body, so smokers are at a higher risk of deficiency.

Signs of vitamin deficiency include dry and splitting hair; gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) and bleeding gums; rough, dry, scaly skin; decreased wound-healing rate, easy bruising; nosebleeds; and a decreased ability to ward off infection. A severe form of Ascorbic acid deficiency is known as scurvy.

Low levels of Ascorbic acid have been associated with a number of conditions, including high blood pressure, gallbladder disease, stroke, some cancers, and atherosclerosis, the build-up plaque in blood vessels that can lead to heart attack and stroke. Getting enough vitamin C from your diet — by eating lots of
fruit and vegetables — may help reduce the risk of developing some of these conditions. There is no conclusive evidence that taking vitamin C supplements will help or prevent any of these conditions.

Ascorbic acid plays a role in protecting against the following:
Common Cold
Despite the popular belief that Ascorbic acid can cure the common cold, the scientific evidence doesn’t support the notion. Taking vitamin C supplements regularly (not just at the beginning of a cold) produces only a small reduction in the duration of a cold (about 1 day). The only other piece of evidence supporting Ascorbic acid for preventing colds comes from studies examining people exercising in extreme environments (athletes such as skiers and marathon runners, and soldiers in the Arctic). In these studies, foodchem Ascorbic acid did seem to reduce the risk of getting a cold.

Heart Disease
Some studies — though not all — suggest that Ascorbic acid, acting as an antioxidant, can slow down the progression of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). It helps prevent damage to LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, which then builds up as plaque in the arteries and can cause heart attack or stroke. Other studies suggest that Ascorbic acid may help keep arteries flexible.

Results of scientific studies on whether Ascorbic acid is helpful for preventing heart attack or stroke are mixed. Ascorbic acid doesn’t lower cholesterol levels or reduce the overall risk of heart attack, but evidence suggests that it may help protect arteries against damage.

In addition, people who have low levels of Ascorbic acid may be more likely to have a heart attack, stroke, or peripheral artery disease, all potential results of having atherosclerosis. Peripheral artery disease is the term used to describe atherosclerosis of the blood vessels to the legs. This can lead to pain when walking, known as intermittent claudication. But there is no evidence that taking Ascorbic acid supplements will help.

The best thing to do is get enough Ascorbic acid through your diet. That way, you also get the benefit of other antioxidants and nutrients contained in food. If you have low levels of Ascorbic acid and have trouble getting enough through the foods you eat, ask your doctor about taking a supplement.

High Blood Pressure
Population based studies (which involve observing large groups of people over time) suggest that people who eat foods rich in antioxidants, including vitamin C, have a lower risk of high blood pressure than people who have poorer diets. Eating foods rich in Ascorbic acid is important for your overall health, especially if you are at risk for high blood pressure. The diet physicians most frequently recommend for treatment and prevention of high blood pressure, known as the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet, includes lots of fruits and vegetables, which are loaded with antioxidants.

The role of green tea extract

The role of green tea extract1 antibacterial
Tea polyphenols as a broad-spectrum, high efficiency, low toxicity of antimicrobial agents in many countries the world has been recognized by scholars. Among the many anti-bacterial tests, it was found Proteus vulgaris, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus mutans, Clostridium, Lactobacillus, Vibrio cholerae, and many other pathogens, especially intestinal pathogens has varying degrees of inhibition and cytotoxicity. At the same time it can effectively prevent antibiotic-resistant staph infection, for hemolysin ECG and EGCG also inhibit the activity. In addition, tea polyphenols on human skin can be caused by pathogenic fungi, such as head white ringworm, ringworm white macular blister, bubble-like white sweat and stubborn ringworm ringworm and other parasitic fungi also has a strong inhibitory effect.
2. Antiviral
Japanese researchers found that: tea polyphenols inhibit the A and influenza B virus effect, and studies have shown that catechins in Switzerland on the human respiratory system compliance spore Virus (RSV) are inhibited. In addition, tea polyphenols for gastroenteritis viruses, hepatitis viruses, plant viruses also have a strong inhibitory effect against.
3. Anti-cancer, anti-mutagenic effect
Of tea polyphenols can prevent cancer, anti-cancer, anti-mutation studies have been reported in many countries abroad. Numerous studies confirm that polyphenols not only inhibit a variety of chemical carcinogen induced mutations, can also inhibit some of the mixed carcinogens (tobacco fog concentrated drug, coal tar, smoked fish extracts, X-ray) and mutagenicity . So the tea for a variety of cancers: esophageal cancer, stomach cancer, liver cancer, colon cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer have different levels of prevention and treatment.
4. AntioxidantIn normal life activities, the body will continue to produce harmful metabolites and free radicals. The nature of free radicals and lively, with strong oxidation, can induce the oxidation of unsaturated fatty acids in vivo, resulting in lipid peroxidation. It is the generation and accumulation, and destruction of the biofilm will be restricted to normal function, affecting the normal metabolism of active substances, trigger hepatitis, cancer, aging and cardiovascular disease and many other aspects. So clear the body of harmful free radicals, to guarantee peoples health is extremely important.
 Polyphenols are a class of chemicals containing polyphenol hydroxyl, esters can easily be oxidized to provide protons H, so that they have significant antioxidant characteristics. The antioxidant capacity of tea polyphenols are 18 times more vitamin E, vitamin C, 3 to 10 times. This powerful antioxidant polyphenols ability to eliminate free radicals in the body, food additives blocking the N-nitroso compounds, inhibition of lipoxygenase activity and lipid peroxidation, so that in anti-cancer, anti-cancer, anti-mutagenic, anti-aging, prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases, hepatitis and many other aspects of the performance of a superior disease prevention, treatment efficacy.