There are heaps of different vitamins and minerals your body needs to function effectively. Subsequently, being insufficient in any one of these nutrients can cause serious declines in performance, and even your health.
Interestingly, there is some evidence to suggest that supplementing with certain vitamins and minerals beyond the ‘normal’ level that your body needs to function can provide additional benefits.
And this is especially true when it comes to Vitamin C.
What is Vitamin C?
Vitamin C (also known as “ascorbic acid”) is an essential vitamin that plays a myriad of roles in the human body. It is considered “essential” because it cannot be made with your body, and therefore must be obtained through your diet.
As far micronutrients go, Vitamin C is arguably the most well known due to its ability to prevent sailors at sea dying from scurvy -- a horrible disease that is caused by Vitamin C deficiency.
In addition to being able to prevent the onset of scurvy, Vitamin C is hands down the most potent antioxidant found in your blood. This is because it is “water soluble” (meaning it dissolves in liquid) and can subsequently scavenge the harmful free radicals found in your blood very easily.
Due to its potent effect as an antioxidant, Vitamin C has been said to improve immune system health, stave off inflammation, and prevent several chronic diseases including heart disease, cancer, and even obesity.
But is this really the case?
Vitamin C Benefits
As I have already alluded to, Vitamin C is one of the most potent antioxidants in your body. Moreover, it supports numerous physiological processes in your body -- all of which means that its supplementation can be extremely beneficial.
1. Boosts Immunity
Have you ever wondered why your grandma suggests eating oranges when you are sick?
Vitamin C, baby.
As we have already discussed at length, after consumption, Vitamin C enters the blood. Once in your blood, it picks up and removes harmful free radicals throughout your body. Within this, it also helps increase the functional abilities of your white blood cells.
This, in turn, improves immune system function, making you less susceptible to disease and illness [1].
If your goal is to get as jacked as possible, then getting into the gym consistently is key. And let me tell you, Vitamin C will keep you training, and making progress, all year round.
2. Accelerates Recovery
In addition to scavenging free radicals, Vitamin C also reduces inflammation.
As a result, it has been shown to reduce exercise induced muscle damage and facilitate recovery after training [2]. This means that if you are training multiple times per week, you can keep the quality of your sessions high -- which may contribute to long term gains in strength and size.
However, it is important to note that some of this post exercise muscle damage (and the inflammation associated) has been shown to actually stimulate the growth of new muscle tissue. This means that when taken in extremely high amounts, there is reason to believe that Vitamin C could blunt training adaptations.
This means that if you want to use Vitamin C to promote recovery without losing out on any gains, you need to make sure you stay within the recommended dosages.
3. Lowers Blood Pressure
High blood pressure is one of the most common health issues to plague western nations -- and given that it can seriously increase your risk of cardiovascular disease and heart attack, it is bad news.
Fortunately research has shown that Vitamin C supplements can reduce the stiffness of your arteries, increasing blood flow throughout your body. When this occurs over a long period of time through chronic supplementation, it can lead to lasting reductions in blood pressure [3].
If you want to be lifting for a long time, then it looks like Vitamin C is going to be a pretty good choice.
4. Lowers Blood Cholesterol
In conjunction with high blood pressure, having high blood cholesterol is also a key risk factor for the onset of heart disease -- with particular emphasis on “low density lipoprotein”(LDL) cholesterol.
LDL cholesterol is known as “bad” cholesterol because it is what causes the accumulation of plaque on the walls of your arteries. This buildup is what increases your risk of cardiovascular disease.
But Vitamin C has been repeatedly shown to reduce LDL cholesterol, improving your health in the process [4].
5. Enhances Mood
In conjunction with all these potent effects on physical health, it appears that Vitamin C can improve your mental health too.
Vitamin C plays an important role in neural function. As a result, long term Vitamin C deficiency has been shown to cause nervousness and anxiety, while also contributing to emotional instability [5].
With this in mind, its supplementation has been linked to improvements in mood and emotional wellbeing, in conjunction with reductions in symptoms of depression and anxiety [6].
Applying this to your training, there is reason to believe that supplementing with Vitamin C can keep you motivated to train hard and train often -- which is going to play a very big role in your long term training success.
6. Maintains Cognitive Health
Lastly, Vitamin C has also been linked to the maintenance of cognitive health and function as you transition into older age.
Research has shown that one of the main drivers of age-related cognitive decline, as well as things like dementia and Alzheimer's disease, is inflammation around the tissue of the brain, nervous system, and spinal cord.
And remember what reduces inflammation?
Bingo, Vitamin C.
Taking this into consideration, people who consume higher amounts of vitamin C have been shown to have lower risk of experiencing declines in brain health and cognitive function [7] -- suggesting it has a serious protective effect.
How Much Vitamin C Should I Take?
So, this is where things get a little bit interesting.
The recommended daily intake of Vitamin C is 75mg for adult women, and 90mg for adult men. This would be considered the minimum amount required to maintain your health and avoid developing a deficiency.
However, much of the research discussed above used much higher doses than that recommended here. In fact, most research showing positive effects of Vitamin C on health use between 1 and 6 grams per day.
With this in mind, the tolerable upper limit is suggested to be around 2 grams per day -- although again, higher dosages have been used in the research with no apparent negative side effects.
So what does that mean for you?
In short, taking anywhere between 1 and 3 grams of Vitamin C per day should be more than enough to obtain all the health benefits above without the risk of serious side effects.
Which leads us to our next point quite nicely.
Side Effects of Vitamin C
In most individuals, Vitamin C has been shown to be extremely safe -- however, there are a few circumstances where caution is advised.
Supplementing with more than 500mg per day has been proposed to cause the development of kidney stones in people who are prone to them. This means that if you have a history of kidney stones (or people in your family do), it would be in your best interest to seek medical advice before supplementing with higher doses.
Finally, one study also found that people who supplement with high doses of both Vitamin C and Vitamin E may increase risk of disease and illness -- although this appears to only occur in people who smoke [8].
So, if you smoke, I would encourage avoiding supplementing with both Vitamin C and E at the same time.
Final Points
Vitamin C appears to be one of the most well tolerated supplements on the planet -- which is good news, because it has been shown to improve several important aspects of mental and physical health.
If you want to boost your immune system, recover faster, and stave off a myriad of diseases, then look no further.
References
- Carr, Anitra C., and Silvia Maggini. "Vitamin C and immune function." Nutrients 9.11 (2017): 1211.
- Braakhuis, Andrea J. "Effect of vitamin C supplements on physical performance." Current sports medicine reports 11.4 (2012): 180-184.
- Juraschek, Stephen P., et al. "Effects of vitamin C supplementation on blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials." The American journal of clinical nutrition 95.5 (2012): 1079-1088.
- McRae, Marc P. "Vitamin C supplementation lowers serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides: a meta-analysis of 13 randomized controlled trials." Journal of chiropractic medicine 7.2 (2008): 48-58.
- Harrison, Fiona E. "A critical review of vitamin C for the prevention of age-related cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease." Journal of Alzheimer's Disease 29.4 (2012): 711-726.
- Kocot, Joanna, et al. "Does vitamin C influence neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders?." Nutrients 9.7 (2017): 659.
- Zandi, Peter P., et al. "Reduced risk of Alzheimer disease in users of antioxidant vitamin supplements: the Cache County Study." Archives of neurology 61.1 (2004): 82-88.
- Hemilä, Harri, and Jaakko Kaprio. "Vitamin E supplementation and pneumonia risk in males who initiated smoking at an early age: effect modification by body weight and dietary vitamin C." Nutrition Journal 7.1 (2008): 33.
