Vitamin C is essential for repair and growth of tissues throughout your body. It is also an antioxidant, meaning it helps block long-term damage caused by unstable molecules. Vitamin C is also water-soluble, meaning any leftover amount leaves your body when you urinate, and you need to consistently include it in your diet to avoid a potentially serious deficiency.
Scurvy
A severe vitamin C deficiency is known as scurvy. Symptoms of scurvy typically begin about three months after you stop getting the right amount of vitamin C in your diet. Initial symptoms in adults can include feelings of fatigue, weakness, irritability and pain in the limbs. Initial scurvy symptoms in children can include irritability, fever, poor weight gain, diarrhea and lack of appetite. Many early symptoms of scurvy might be attributed to reduced levels of the nutrient carnitine, which helps derive energy from fat, or diminished synthesis of a neurotransmitter called norepinephrine.
Connective Tissue Defects
Progressive scurvy can lead to serious defects in the body's connective tissue. The first noticeable sign might be bruise-colored spots on the skin. Other signs and symptoms might include hair loss, swelling in the lower extremities, tooth loss and weakened blood vessels. Weakened vessels can contribute to worse problems, such as bleeding gums, poorly healing wounds, severe joint pain from bleeding within the joints and blurred vision from bleeding inside the eyes.
Heart Disease Risk
Being deficient in vitamin C might increase your risk of heart attack, strokes and peripheral artery disease, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Because vitamin C can act as an antioxidant, it might reduce your risk by slowing down hardening of arteries and reducing damage caused by high "bad" cholesterol levels. The best way to maximize your heart health with vitamin C is to get it from food because food contains other beneficial antioxidants and nutrients.
Cancer Risk
Being deficient in dietary vitamin C might increase your risk of having certain cancers. According to the Nurses' Health Study, premenopausal women who had a family history of breast cancer were 63 percent more likely to get breast cancer when they only ate an average of 70 mg of vitamin C per day, in contrast with those who had an average of 205 mg per day. Other research suggests that increasing your intake of dietary vitamin C might reduce your chances of getting stomach cancer, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. However, researchers can't pinpoint vitamin C as the sole nutrient responsible for cancer reduction because foods that contain vitamin C also contain other beneficial antioxidants and other nutrients.
Other Potential Effects
Although a minor vitamin C deficiency might not cause serious health problems, not getting your ideal daily intake might limit your body's health potential. For instance, preliminary information suggests that vitamin C could be helpful for boosting your immune system, improving your vision when you have uveitis, decreasing your blood sugar when you have diabetes, treating allergy-related health problems such as asthma and eczema, and reducing sunburns and redness, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Ask your doctor whether he thinks you should increase your intake of vitamin C.
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