Why You Need Vitamin C To Stay Young, Healthy and Beautiful
Author: Sarah Harrigan
As we grow older we are told we need to take multi-vitamins to keep our bodies functioning at peak form. There are dozens of different multi-vitamins on the market, how do we choose the right one? Your main choice should be determined by how much vitamin c your multi-vitamin contains.
Vitamin C is the wonder vitamin, your body uses it for tons of things: the healing of wounds, for creating tendons, ligaments, blood vessels and the maintenance of cartilage, bones and teeth. How does vitamin C help in all that you might ask? Vitamin C is used in the production of collagen, a protein that acts as connective tissue - sort of a glue to hold the body together. Collagen is particularly useful in the skin, where it works with elastin to give us healthy, firm, youthful skin. Elastin is what makes the skin flexible and pliable.
Vitamin C is a water soluble vitamin, this means that it can be dissolved in water meaning that all the benefits of it are dissolved as well. We cannot store vitamins as we are over eighty percent water ourselves so we need a large intake of vitamins daily. As adults we need between 75-90 mgs of vitamin C a day to remain healthy. An adequate supply of Vitamin C means your body will always be able to produce collage, which means your skin will remain smooth and firm, keeping away those fine lines that come from aging.
Vitamin C is also an anti-oxidant which prevents damage to the body from free radicals. Free radicals are the by products created when the body transforms food into energy. When these free radicals build up over time they trigger the aging process causing us to develop things like arthritis, heart disease and many other problems. Vitamin C and other anti-oxidants fights free radicals. Vitamin C also is used to prevent split ends in your hair, gingivitis, prevents your skin from becoming rough or dry as we stated above with the collagen production, and prevents the decay of the enamel on our teeth which prevents the teeth from becoming yellow and looking old.
You'd be surprised to know that vitamin C in anti-aging products maybe? Well don't be, it's labelled as ascorbic acid and is found in many over the counter brands. Vitamin C is a very volatile product though and it oxidizes quickly and then becomes useless. If your anti-aging product goes from white to a yellowish hue then your vitamin c has oxidized and is useless. Throw it out and buy a new bottle. Just because you are using vitamin c topically doesn't mean you shouldn't take it as a vitamin supplement, the more vitamin c in your system the easier it is for your body to produce collagen and repair those skin cells. Without collagen, the glue that holds your skin cells together you're bound to get sagging folds on your face and fine lines around your eyes. So now you know why you need vitamin c to stay young, go out and have an orange or two.
About the Author: For more information by Sarah Harrigan on getting beautiful skin visit http://www.asheskinproducts.com for products that work fast to remove marks, pigmentation, get rid of acne scars and to even your skin tone. Also available are a wide range of do it yourself facial masks, whitening cleansers, face scrubs and cosmetics.
