The Multipurpose Antioxidant Vitamin

Author: donkinoy

Slice an apple into half, and yes it turns brown. A copper penny suddenly becomes green, or an iron nail when left outside, will rust. What do all these events have in common? They are samples of a process known as oxidation. If the sliced apple is drizzled with a fresh lemon juice, however, the rate where the apple turns brown is slowed. It is because the Vitamin C in the lemon juice slows the speed of oxidative damage.

Since its discovery 65 years back, vitamin C comes to be known as the "wonder worker." Because of its role in collagen formation and other life-sustaining functions, Vitamin C is an integral immune system nutrient and a potent free-radical fighter. This double-duty nutrient has been shown to prevent many illnesses, from everyday ailments including the common cold to devastating diseases for example cancer.

The water-soluble vitamin C is famous in the scientific world as ascorbic acid, a phrase that actually means "without scurvy." We depend on ascorbic acid for many areas of our biochemical functioning; yet human beings are among only a handful of animal species that can't produce their own supply of vitamin C. Such as these other animals, including primates and guinea pigs, we have no choice but to get this nutrient through food or our diet.

Vitamin C can boost the body's resistance from different diseases, including infections and certain types of cancer. It strengthens and protects the body's defence mechanism by stimulating the activity of antibodies and defense mechanisms cells for example phagocytes and neutrophils.

Vitamin C, for antioxidant, helps reduce the activity of toxins. Free-radicals are by-products of normal metabolism that may damage cells and hang the stage for aging, degeneration, and cancer. It shouldn't come as any surprise that vitamin C are being used for cancer treatment. In large doses, Vitamin C is sometimes administered intravenously included in cancer treatment.

Vitamin C prevents toxin damage within the lungs and might assistance to protect the central nervous system from such damage. Free radicals are molecules with an unpaired electron. On this state, they're highly reactive and destructive to all that gets within their way. Although free-radicals happen to be implicated in many diseases, there're actually part of our bodies chemistry.

As an antioxidant, vitamin C's primary role is to neutralize free radicals. Since ascorbic acid is water soluble, it may work both inside and outside the cells to combat free radical damage. Vitamin C is a good source of electrons; therefore, it "can donate electrons to free radicals for example hydroxyl and superoxide radicals and quench their reactivity."

The versatile vitamin C also works together with glutathione peroxidase (a major free radical-fighting enzyme) to revitalize vitamin E, a fat-soluble antioxidant.Besides its act as a direct scavenger of free radicals in fluids, next, vitamin C also leads to the antioxidant activity inside the lipids.

Optimal health, however, needs a balance between free radical generation and antioxidant protection. Among the functions of Vitamin C is to find and quench these free radicals before they create too much damage.

However, there's research to show that vitamin C may become a pro-oxidant. In other words, vitamin C, under certain conditions anyway, may act in a manner that is opposite to its intended purpose. It's raised concern among thousands of people who supplement their diets with vitamin C...but that is another story.
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Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/supplements-and-vitamins-articles/the-multipurpose-antioxidant-vitamin-5096344.html

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