Staying Young Secret of the Week

Vitamin C Does More Than Fight the Common Cold

Everyone knows that gulping down big glasses of orange juice is one way to fend off the common cold, but vitamin C is starting to get a lot of credit for health benefits that go far beyond fighting the sniffles. In fact, it's turning out that this important supplement is a great tool for your anti-aging arsenal.

Start with your skin. A 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when more than 4,000 women aged 40 to 74 were asked to consume higher amounts of vitamin C in their diet, they found a lower likelihood of a wrinkled appearance and less skin dryness and atrophy than other test subjects who consumed  less vitamin C. The theory: vitamin C helps stimulate collagen growth.

Other studies have explored the benefits of vitamin C for just about every body part. An International Health News article by Hans R. Larsen MSc ChE listed this impressive set of research results:

• The National Institute on Aging found that elderly people who take vitamin C and E supplements have a 50 percent lower risk of dying prematurely from disease than do people who don't.
• A study in California found that people who consume more than 750 mg/day of vitamin C reduce their risk of dying prematurely by 60 percent.
• People who suffer from asthma, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, and heart disease have much lower levels of vitamin C in their blood than healthy people do.
• Very large doses of vitamin C (up to 2,000 mg/day) help reduce asthma symptoms.
• Vitamin C concentrations in the blood of rheumatoid arthritis patients are extremely low. Vitamin C may protect against further damage to inflamed joints.
• An adequate intake of vitamin C is effective in lowering the risk of developing cancers of the breast, cervix, colon, rectum, esophagus, larynx, lung, mouth, prostate, and stomach.
• 500 mg/day of vitamin C for 10 years or more has been found to cut the risk of developing bladder cancer by 60 percent.
• The spread of breast cancer due to free radical damage can be controlled through intake of increased amounts of vitamin C.
• 3,000 mg/day of vitamin C has been found to effectively prevent further polyp growth in colon cancer, and a vitamin C intake of more than 157 mg/day has been found to reduce the risk of developing colon cancer by 50 percent.

It all makes quite a compelling case for keeping an eye on your vitamin C intake. As for daily dosage, the recommended requirement is only 60 milligrams, but many nutrition experts feel that amount is far too low, suggesting that it should be raised to 200 mg/day and that you should actually aim for 1,000 mg/day. That's the equivalent of eating 14 oranges, so you'll likely need to take a supplement to achieve that goal.