The Vitamin for Total Health

Indispensable Vitamin 

No less than the site Bodybuilding.Com said this about Vitamin C: "Whether you want to lose fat or build muscle - or both - an active lifestyle means you need Vitamin C! And a lot of it!" No wonder then it's the vitamin for total health.

An active lifestyle is the key to good health. For sure, you cannot be healthy and grow to a ripe old healthy age without being active. And an active life urgently needs Vitamin C. But activeness sometimes triggers stress which the body cannot take in great degrees. This leads to free radical damage manifesting as colds, cough, and even flu. Ever experienced working out so hard (and especially if you workout hard the first time) and then getting the flu after? That's oxidative stress.

To fight this off, you need Vitamin C--and not just one pop of 500 mg. You may need more to fight the stress already wreaking havoc in you. One time, I felt like the flu was about to burst in me any minute due to heavy workouts. Paracetamol was not strong enough. So I took about 10 capsules of non-acidic Vitamin C (Vital-C) a day. After a day I was okay--when before, it took me 1 week or more to recover from the flu.

Experts say (non-acidic) Vitamin C is the safest vitamin to take. It's water soluble so extra amounts easily get washed off when you urinate within 24 hours. There's a pro and con to this--pro is you never get (non acidic) Vitamin C overdose or side effects. Con is you cannot store Vitamin C in your body so you need to take it daily. The Vitamin C you took today, though in extra doses, will be gone the next day.

Vitamin C is necessary to repair body tissues. It is vital for forming collagen which is a protein for forming skin and repairing skin wounds, tendons, ligaments, cartilages, bones, and even blood vessels. With the latter, Vitamin C helps firm up arterial walls to protect them from too much blood pressure. Vitamin C forming collagen is necessary for fighting aging and stress that damage cells.

Vitamin C is also a powerful antioxidant that frustrate free radical damage, especially when the body transforms food into energy. When we're exposed to toxins in food, water, and the air (like secondhand cigarette smoke), antioxidants like Vitamin C neutralizes them.

With weight loss, Vitamin C takes on another major role--aiding metabolism. Besides helping with proteins that push out fat, it helps synthesize L-carnitine (an amino acid) in the body that enables the mitochondria burn fatty acids. If you're a serious weight loss buff, you should take enough Vitamin C each day. And enough is not just one capsule a day.

These and more are what Vitamin C does for us. No wonder it's the vitamin for total health. And going back to why one capsule a day won't suffice for your Vitamin C needs, it's obvious that it won't do for all the above functions, and many other functions not stated here. Your body needs to fight off the toxins and free radical damage of the past while it is fighting the present toxins getting into your body by the hour plus the present free radical damage. And then, it has to prepare for the coming toxins and free radical activities in the near future. What more if you're sick? One capsule a day cannot solve of that. See what I mean?

And the safest way to take extra doses of Vitamin C is to take non-acidic Vitamin C like Vital-C.