Vitamin C's Immune Benefits

Let's talk about the immune benefits of vitamin c .

Now , vitamin c does a lot of different things , but its influence on your immune system is quite amazing .

Let's talk about it .

Now vitamin c deficiencies are actually very common .

You can have what's called the subclinical vitamin c deficiency where you're not majorly deficient but you're just deficient enough to cause a weakness within the immune system .

I'm gonna talk more about that .

Vitamin c is a water soluble , nutrient .

So it has a low storage capacity .

So unless you're constantly getting vitamin c , you can be deficient within weeks .

Vitamin c is a very powerful antioxidant .

So when you have free radicals , which are basically molecules with unpaired electrons , so you you're supposed to have 2 to balance it out .

Let's say you just have 1 and it becomes a free radical .

So it can damage certain things in the body .

Vitamin c comes in there and donates an electron to stabilize the molecule .

So it can actually help counter free radical damage .

Alright .

As far as immune benefits , it can enhance antibodies .

Antibodies are proteins that fight pathogens , microbes that shouldn't be in your body .

Also , it will increase neutrophil motility .

Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell .

It's like a phagocyte that cleans things up .

It engulfs and kills certain microbes and it speeds up the motility of these little guys right here .

Number 3 , it enhances your b cells or b lymphocytes .

It's a type of white blood cell which then increases antibodies .

We've already mentioned that right here .

Number 4 .

It enhances the t cells , another type of lymphocyte that helps you fight off infection .

Number 5 .

It can increase interferon .

Now interferon is a hormone that kills infected cells and their surrounding neighbors .

So it is a very powerful immune compound that our bodies make .

So you can see one big benefit of vitamin c is it helps fight infection .

Now , when you're deficient in vitamin c , if you're very deficient you have scurvy .

But I think there's different levels of scurvy so there could be subclinical versions of this or major versions .

You're not gonna probably see a full blown scurvy case .

But the point I wanna bring up about vitamin c deficiencies , especially scurvy which is the , major vitamin c deficiency , is that it makes you susceptible to certain infections .

With scurvy , it has the ability to increase susceptibility to fatal infections like pneumonia .

Scurvy is often followed by infectious epidemics .

What does that mean ?

It means that when you have an infection , they can actually develop scurvy .

Why is that ?

Because infections increase the need for vitamin c .

Your white blood cells accumulate vitamin c .

They need the vitamin c to function .

So if you're using your immune system more , you're gonna deplete your vitamin c reserves especially if you're not putting it back .

So this is another way that someone could be deficient .

Number 1 , they're not consuming enough in their diet .

Number 2 , they get an infection .

It puts stress on the immune system and that's another way that you could be deficient .

Minimally , 200 milligrams per day .

A good source of vitamin c would be sauerkraut , leafy greens , bell peppers , any of the , spicy hot peppers , jalapenos , red peppers are really high in vitamin c .

Now , if you're gonna take a supplement , make sure that you take a whole food base complex vitamin c , not a synthetic .

The synthetic version of vitamin c , is called ascorbic acid .

And one of the ways they make it is they combine cornstarch and sulfuric acid .

So sometimes people tell you that the synthetic version is the same as the natural .

There's no difference .

But I have a hard time believing that sulfuric acid in cornstarch is the same as something from actual food .

And if you haven't