Need to boost your mood? Take vitamin C.
Added 14.10.2010
Feeling down in the dumps? Here's a way to lift your mood up to the ranks of cloud nine: take vitamin C.
In a new study, vitamin C has been found to reduce mood disturbance - a key feature in conditions like stress, depression and pain - by 34%. The effects of vitamin C seem to work best in people with the lowest levels of vitamin C.
Are you at risk of low levels of vitamin C?
The truth of the matter is that very few of us actually have an adequate intake of vitamin C - and this has a lot to do with modern yet poor agricultural and manufacturing processes as well as unhealthy diets and lifestyles. That said, some of us are at an even higher risk of low vitamin C levels for example, hospitalised patients, or people with asthma or inflammatory bowel disease. If you are a smoker, pregnant or elderly, chances are your levels are also low.Vitamin C will have you smiling
This is not the first time that a study has linked low vitamin C levels to mood disorders and more and more research is divulging just how important this vitamin is in regulating hormones, especially serotonin, which is key to mental and emotional well-being.So now you know vitamin C can help your mood, how else can it benefit you and where's the best place to get your hands on some?
What else can vitamin C do for you?
- Lower high blood pressure
- Lower LDL (bad) cholesterol
- Stroke prevention
- Diabetes preventions
- Cancer prevention
- Gout prevention
- Reduces levels of lead in the blood.
Dr. Bo Nielsen's comments:
Humans are one of the very few animal species that are not able to produce vitamin C ourselves and must obtain it from dietary and/or supplement sources. The best food sources for vitamin C are bell peppers, spinach, broccoli, strawberries, apples, oranges and kiwis. BUT, and this is a big but, the content of vitamin C in food today is dramatically lower than even just 10 years ago because of our agricultural and manufacturing processes. Listen to what a scientific study determined: the content of vitamin C in spinach today has decreased by 58%; in strawberries it has decreased by 67% and the content of vitamin C in apples has gone down by 80%! Just to wrap our heads around these facts: we would have to eat five times as many apples and three times as much broccoli and spinach to compensate for a decade of nutrient quality. It is no wonder then why over 60% of people do not get enough vitamins and minerals from diet alone! Given this information, many researchers recommend to take at last 1000 mg of vitamin C in supplement form. However, I personally take 9000 mg of vitamin C daily for many years now following a personal recommendation from the late double Nobel Prize winner Dr. Linus Pauling.
References:
Block, G. & all. "Vitamin C in plasma is inversely related to blood pressure and change in blood pressure during the previous year in young black and white women." Nutritional Journal. December, 2008.
Choi, H.K. & all. "Vitamin C intake and the risk of gout in men: a prospective study." Archives of Internal Medicine. Vol. 169, Issue 5. 2009.
McRae, M.P. & all. "Vitamin C supplementation lowers serum low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides: a meta-analysis of 13 randomised controlled trials." Journal of Chiropractic Medicine. Vol. 7, Issue 2. June 2008.
Harding, A. & all. "Plasma vitamin C level, fruit and vegetable consumption, and the risk of new-onset type 2 diabetes mellitus - The European Prospective Investigation of Cancer - Norfolk Prospective Study." Archives of Internal Medicine. Vol. 168, issue 14.
Howe, G.R. & all. "Dietary factors and risk of breast cancer: combined analysis of 12 case-control studies." J Natl Cancer Inst. 1990.
Yokoyama, T. & all. "Serum vitamin C concentration was inversely associated with subsequent 20-year incidence of stroke in a Japanese rural community." Stroke Journal. 2000.
Dawson, E.B. & all. "The effect of ascorbic acid supplementation on the blood levels of smokers." Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 1999.
Kurt Svedros; Förbundsordförenade, Riksförbund Hälsofrämjandet & Vegetariska Svenska Föreningen, Stockholm 2006-05-23.
