In order to live, oxygen needs to reach the cells in your body. Oxygen is carried through your body in the hemoglobin in your red blood cells, according to the Public Broadcasting Service. Certain vitamins help your body deliver oxygen to cells, use oxygen and protect against the by-products of depleted oxygen in your body. However, if you're thinking about supplementing with any vitamins for oxygen, check with a health care professional first, especially if you have a medical condition.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E helps transport oxygen to your brain cells, according to the "Doctor's Guide to Natural Medicine" by Paul Barney. It also provides antioxidant action. While your body needs oxygen for its cells to produce energy, when cells burn oxygen, they form free radicals, an oxygen by-product. Free radicals can damage cells, DNA and tissues in your body. This damage is referred to as oxidation. An antioxidant vitamin helps to neutralize free radicals, according to "The American Dietetic Association Complete Food and Nutrition Guide" by Roberta Larson Duyff.
The recommended daily allowance for vitamin E is 15mg, according to the U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements. It can be found in wheat germ oil, almonds, sunflower seeds, peanut butter, spinach, broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, mangoes, kiwis, corn oil and soybean oil. Most Americans eat a diet that does not provide an adequate daily amount of vitamin E, according to the ODS. Vitamin E is a fat soluble vitamin that also has anti-inflammatory action. Your body also uses vitamin E in immune function, regulating gene expression, cell signaling and other metabolic processes. The upper limit for vitamin E is 1,000mg daily, according to the Merck Manuals.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C enhances oxygen transport in your body, in part because it boosts your absorption of iron. Your body cannot deliver oxygen to cells without iron because iron is needed to form oxygen-transporting hemoglobin. Vitamin C also works with vitamin E as an antioxidant, according to Marie Dunford and J. Andrew Doyle in "Nutrition for Sport and Exercise." In fact, all the antioxidant vitamins--A, C and E--work together, so when there is a deficiency or an excess in one, it can lessen the benefits of the other antioxidant vitamins. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that removes free radicals from fluids outside of and inside of your body's cells. Vitamin C's antioxidant action might help prevent or delay onset of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and other diseases that oxidative stress plays a role in, according to the ODS. Vitamin C also improves immune function.
The RDA for vitamin C is 75mg for women and 90mg for men. Citrus fruits, tomatoes, potatoes, strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwifruit, red and green peppers, broccoli and Brussels sprouts are food sources of vitamin C. Be careful about overdoing it with megadoses of vitamin C because you put yourself at risk of diarrhea, urinary stones and impaired copper absorption, according to Asker Jeukendrup and Michael Gleeson in "Sport Nutrition." The upper limit for vitamin C is 2,000mg daily, according to Merck.
Vitamin B2
Vitamin B2, also called riboflavin, is used in your body to form a coenzyme that is important for cells in their use of oxygen, according to Elmhurst College of Illinois. Riboflavin helps release energy from carbohydrates, and it is needed for body growth and producing red blood cells, according to the National institutes of Health.
The RDA for men is 1.3mg daily and the RDA for women is 1.1mg daily. You'll find this vitamin in eggs, lean meats, nuts, legumes, green leafy vegetables, dairy products, and fortified cereals and breads. This vitamin is water soluble, so you excrete leftover riboflavin in your urine and there is no known toxicity from this vitamin, according to the National Institutes of Health. The upper limit for this vitamin is unknown, according to Harvard Medical School.
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