Vitamin C

Vitamin C plays an important part in the everyday function of our cells. It has many roles, some of which include helping with the healing of injuries, maintain the health of your teeth and gums, and helps your body absorb iron.¹The most commonly advertised role of vitamin C is its ability to help with your immune system, but a common misconception is that vitamin C gets rid of colds. The truth behind that is that vitamin C can help prevent colds by building up your immunity or it can help with decreased the effects of a cold, but it does not rid you of it. ¹ This is important to keep in mind because the human body can’t make its own vitamin C. ²

Mammals like goats, dogs, and cats can make vitamin C through their livers, but through time and many genetic mutations, human cells no longer can make it. ² This is most likely due to humans were getting vitamin C readily from other sources like fruits and leafy greens so through out time, the need to make it went away. ² The way genetic mutations usually work is that when you lose something that had a good function, you don’t survive, but the opposite was true with the stop in production of vitamin C in human cells. Apes, chimps, and gorillas also have the genetic mutation that doesn’t allow them to produce vitamin C, which might mean that our primate ancestors had the mutation first and it carried through to the human cells today. ²

Because of this mutation and the importance of vitamin C in the functioning of human cells, it is good to make sure you are getting enough. There is a lot of debate as to how much vitamin c a person need daily, but the most commonly used and recommended amount is 100mg-200mg a day along with a balanced diet.³

References:

¹Vitamin C functions. www.dsm.com. https://www.dsm.com/products/quali-c/en_US/vitamin-c/functions.html (accessed Oct 13, 2017)]

²De Tullio, M. C. (2010) The Mystery of Vitamin C. Nature Education 3(9):48 http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/the-mystery-of-vitamin-c-14167861 (accessed Oct 15, 2017)

³ Examine.com. (2017, July 11) Vitamin C - Scientific Review on Usage, Dosage, Side Effects. Examine.com. Examine.com. (accessed Oct. 11, 2017)