vitamin c in humans overview of facts and figures
Vitamin C in Humans
Vitamin C plays a vital and central role in the human body and is responsible for over 300 hundred bodily functions.
Vitamin C is important to Humans because it is vital to the production of collagen and is fundamental for building strong tissue.
Vitamin C is also important because it helps protect the fat-soluble vitamins A and E as well as fatty acids from oxidation.
Vitamin C prevents and cures the disease scurvy, and can be beneficial in the treatment of iron deficiency called anemia.
Vitamin C is also required for the absorption of trace minerals from foods and liquids. Collagen is one of the most prevalent substances in the body as it is found in abundance in the fibres contained in connective tissue. Connective tissue gives our body form and supports our organs.
Collagen is required in all these areas of the body. Type 1 - Connective tissue of skin, bone, teeth, tendons, ligaments, fascia, organ capsules Type 2 - Cartilage Type 3 - Connective tissue of our organs (liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.) Type 4, 5 - The separating layer between epithelial and endothelial cells as well as between skeletal or smooth muscle cells (basal lamina), kidney glomeruli, lens capsule, and Schwann and glial cells of the nervous system. As you can see, collagen is everywhere in the body, and vitamin C plays a role in the formation of collagen.
So, how is vitamin C involved in collagen synthesis? When collagen is produced, Vitamin C is used during a complex series of events that occur both inside and outside the cell.
Vitamin C is contained within the C where it adds hydrogen and oxygen (hydroxylates) to two amino acids called proline and lysine. From this reaction a precursor molecule is formed called Procollagen which then creates collagen on the outside of the cell.
Vitamin C is used in the endocrine system to produce a wide range of hormones and is required to balance the effects of stress and the release of adrenaline in the blood stream. Failure to counteract stress hormones can have major implications in the rest of the body including the creation of weak collagen as all available Vitamin C is being used in the production of adrenaline or producing the balancing hormones that counteract adrenaline release.
Linus Pauling and Mattias Rath stipulated that heart disease was a condition of insufficient Vitamin C and not a disease as classified by western medicine. The more a person is subjected to stress the less Vitamin C is available to perform bodily functions such as creating collagen, this in turn leads to weak collagen that is then prone to leaking blood on a micro level around the capillary walls, veins and arteries. The bodies’ short-term reaction to this is to stop the leakage by using cholesterol. However, this is only a short-term response and if Vitamin C is still depleted on a long-term basis the resultant build up of cholesterol ends up blocking the natural blood circulation which eventually leads to strokes, heart attacks and other associated circulatory illnesses.
By increasing Vitamin C intake the body reduces the level of cholesterol production, as it is no longer required to fill the gaps left by weak collagen. The blood vessels can be built stronger if the optimum amount of Vitamin C (Linus Pauling took up to 10 grammes of Vitamin C per day) is ingested and therefore the collagen that is created is not weakened by the lack of Vitamin C.
Vitamin C plays a vital and central role in the human body and is responsible for over 300 hundred bodily functions.
Vitamin C is important to Humans because it is vital to the production of collagen and is fundamental for building strong tissue.
Vitamin C is also important because it helps protect the fat-soluble vitamins A and E as well as fatty acids from oxidation.
Vitamin C prevents and cures the disease scurvy, and can be beneficial in the treatment of iron deficiency called anemia.
Vitamin C is also required for the absorption of trace minerals from foods and liquids. Collagen is one of the most prevalent substances in the body as it is found in abundance in the fibres contained in connective tissue. Connective tissue gives our body form and supports our organs.
Collagen is required in all these areas of the body. Type 1 - Connective tissue of skin, bone, teeth, tendons, ligaments, fascia, organ capsules Type 2 - Cartilage Type 3 - Connective tissue of our organs (liver, spleen, kidneys, etc.) Type 4, 5 - The separating layer between epithelial and endothelial cells as well as between skeletal or smooth muscle cells (basal lamina), kidney glomeruli, lens capsule, and Schwann and glial cells of the nervous system. As you can see, collagen is everywhere in the body, and vitamin C plays a role in the formation of collagen.
So, how is vitamin C involved in collagen synthesis? When collagen is produced, Vitamin C is used during a complex series of events that occur both inside and outside the cell.
Vitamin C is contained within the C where it adds hydrogen and oxygen (hydroxylates) to two amino acids called proline and lysine. From this reaction a precursor molecule is formed called Procollagen which then creates collagen on the outside of the cell.
Vitamin C is used in the endocrine system to produce a wide range of hormones and is required to balance the effects of stress and the release of adrenaline in the blood stream. Failure to counteract stress hormones can have major implications in the rest of the body including the creation of weak collagen as all available Vitamin C is being used in the production of adrenaline or producing the balancing hormones that counteract adrenaline release.
Linus Pauling and Mattias Rath stipulated that heart disease was a condition of insufficient Vitamin C and not a disease as classified by western medicine. The more a person is subjected to stress the less Vitamin C is available to perform bodily functions such as creating collagen, this in turn leads to weak collagen that is then prone to leaking blood on a micro level around the capillary walls, veins and arteries. The bodies’ short-term reaction to this is to stop the leakage by using cholesterol. However, this is only a short-term response and if Vitamin C is still depleted on a long-term basis the resultant build up of cholesterol ends up blocking the natural blood circulation which eventually leads to strokes, heart attacks and other associated circulatory illnesses.
By increasing Vitamin C intake the body reduces the level of cholesterol production, as it is no longer required to fill the gaps left by weak collagen. The blood vessels can be built stronger if the optimum amount of Vitamin C (Linus Pauling took up to 10 grammes of Vitamin C per day) is ingested and therefore the collagen that is created is not weakened by the lack of Vitamin C.