What Does Science Say about Vitamin C?

There is an ever-growing list of afflictions and conditions vitamin C is suggested to improve or prevent, but not all are backed by science, including:

• Neurodegenerative Diseases This includes conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis, Huntington’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. In a review published in July 2017 in the journal Nutrients that looked at the literature on vitamin C and neurodegenerative diseases, scientists found promising results using vitamin C to treat neurological diseases in animal studies, but human studies are both limited and lacking in evidence. Many studies also used vitamin C supplements to evaluate the effects, and not vitamin C from food.
  

• Various Cancers While the National Cancer Institute notes that intravenous-administered high-dose vitamin C may help improve the quality of life of cancer patients, vitamin C as a cancer treatment isn’t approved by the FDA. A study published in July 2018 in the International Journal of Cancer surveyed 182,000 women over 24 years and found that breast cancer risk for those who consumed more than 5.5 servings of fruits and veggies daily dropped by 11 percent. While there is an association between eating lots of fruit and veggies and having a reduced risk of cancer, there’s no direct link to vitamin C as a cancer treatment yet.

• Eye Issues, Like Cataracts and Macular Degeneration Studies, such as one published in June 2013 in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging, have shown nutrients like vitamin C and E may play a role in preventing age-related eye disease. The eye has a high metabolic rate, which causes the production of harmful free radicals of that damage cells in the body. The prevailing theory is that because vitamin C is such an effective antioxidant — a protector of the body’s molecules — it may play a role in fighting off free radicals that lead to eye disease, per the June 2013 study.

• Psychiatric Disorders, Including Depression and Anxiety Several smaller scale studies have shown an association between vitamin C and its positive effects on mood and related disorders, such as depression and anxiety. This includes a study published in July 2018 in the journal Antioxidants, which found that study participants with higher levels of vitamin C in their system reported having a brighter mood. Because vitamin C helps maintain organs like the brain, the study notes there are “biological justification for a positive effect of vitamin C on mood,” but more research is needed to prove that vitamin C can beat the blues.

• Common Cold How many times have you been told to take vitamin C when you’re sick? When you feel the flu coming on, Moore says gulping down a bunch of vitamin C supplements probably won’t do much to prevent it.
  

One thing Moore says there is evidence for is vitamin C does help the body absorb more iron from food, especially nonheme iron from meat-free food sources. Pairing vitamin C–rich foods with iron-rich foods — for example, spinach with orange segments, or black beans with salsa — is especially important for people who are vegan, vegetarian, or anemic, and for women of childbearing age, Moore says.

Eat wisely, Eat good and Stay safe. Yours in the garden Farm2Markt.