Showing posts with label Vitamin C. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vitamin C. Show all posts

Saturday, April 28, 2012

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.

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Vitamin C as a food additive

Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. It is also a cofactor in at least eight enzymatic reactions including several collagen synthesis reactions that cause the most severe symptoms of scurvy when they are dysfunctional. Vitamin C is purely the L-enantiomer of ascorbate; the opposite D-enantiomer has no physiological significance.
The vast majority of animals and plants are able to synthesize their own vitamin C, through a sequence of four enzyme-driven steps, which convert glucose to vitamin C. Among the animals that have lost the ability to synthesise vitamin C are simians and tarsiers, which together make up one of two major primate suborders, the anthropoidea, also called haplorrhini. Vitamin C is one of the safest and most effective nutrients, experts say.
But the benefits of vitamin C may include protection against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease, and even skin wrinkling. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is necessary for normal growth and development. Unlike most mammals and other animals, humans do not have the ability to make their own vitamin C. Therefore, we must obtain vitamin C through our diet.
However, test on all segments of human population is not possible before providing food safety certificates and categorizing a safe food additives. So, what is the solution then, for avoiding the harmful effects of food additives? There are two ways for this- one, to know what all are the safe additives and what food additives are extremely risky.

Others: Vitamin E      Vitamin B6

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Vitamin C also known as ascorbic acid

Vitamin C or L-ascorbic acid or L-ascorbate is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species. It is also a cofactor in at least eight enzymatic reactions including several collagen synthesis reactions that cause the most severe symptoms of scurvy when they are dysfunctional.
Vitamin C is purely the L-enantiomer of ascorbate; the opposite D-enantiomer has no physiological significance. During this process semidehydroascorbic acid radical is formed. Ascorbate free radical reacts poorly with oxygen, and thus will not create a superoxide. Among the animals that have lost the ability to synthesise vitamin C are simians and tarsiers, which together make up one of two major primate suborders, the anthropoidea, also called haplorrhini. This group includes humans.
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is necessary for normal growth and development. Vitamin C is one of many antioxidants. Antioxidants are nutrients that block some of the damage caused by free radicals. The body is not able to make vitamin C on its own, and it does not store vitamin C. It is therefore important to include plenty of vitamin C-containing foods in your daily diet. Some cereals and other foods and beverages are fortified with vitamin C. Fortified means a vitamin or mineral has been added to the food.
As consumer interest in this subject, so often misunderstood, is growing late, then we present some key facts about various food additives. Food additives are used to enhance the taste, texture, shelf life and nutritional properties of food.

Others: Potassium carbonate             Alpha-lipoic acid

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Vitamin C

Vitamin C is the human body in the food for the small intestine absorption. Once the absorption, distribution to all of the water-soluble structure in the body.Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for humans and certain other animal species.In animals these reactions are especially important in wound-healing and in preventing bleeding from capillaries.
All species that do not synthesize ascorbate require it in the diet.The uses and recommended daily intake of vitamin C are matters of ongoing debate.The vast majority of animals and plants are able to synthesize their own vitamin C, through a sequence of four enzyme-driven steps, which convert glucose to vitamin C as food additives.
It is countered by arguments that humans are very good at conserving dietary vitamin C, and are able to maintain blood levels of vitamin C comparable with other simians, on a far smaller dietary intake.If these fishes are housed in seawater with algae and phytoplankton, then vitamin supplementation seems to be less important, it is presumed because of the availability of other, more ancient, antioxidants in natural marine environment.
Vitamin c is the main purpose of improving immunity, prevent cancer, heart disease, stroke, protection of the teeth and gums, etc. In addition, insist on time vitamin c can also make the skin, reduce melanin calm and so reduce shading and freckles, make the skin fair-skinneds in vain. Food rich in vitamin c, green peppers, a cauliflower orange, grape juice, tomatoes, say, in all the vegetables, fruits, vitamin c content are many.

Other products : Xanthan Gum           Carrageenan             Vitamin B2