Mobile Paramedic
IV Therapy In your Home
Highland Park, TX

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that is essential for human health and is found in citrus fruits, fresh vegetables, and Amla (gooseberries). The daily requirement for vitamin C is 100 milligrams per day. Humans and other primates cannot synthesize ascorbic acid due to a deficiency of a specific enzyme, which is why vitamin C is necessary for wound healing, plays a role in iron absorption, and acts as a prophylactic agent against scurvy. It is important to note that ascorbic acid is not the same thing as vitamin C, which is a complex of nutrients, enzymes, coenzymes, antioxidants, and trace minerals. Some companies add natural ingredients to ascorbic acid and call it natural vitamin C, but the proportions of these natural ingredients are often not the same as they are in nature, and it is important to get a balanced complex of nutrients, not just isolated ascorbic acid. Natural vitamin C is more expensive to produce but is worth it for optimal health as it is better absorbed and utilized by the body than synthetic ascorbic acid, which can deplete the body of other important nutrients and lacks the full complex. James Lind is known for his work on the substitution of vitamin C in the English Navy, and Linus Pauling first advocated for the consumption of high doses of ascorbic acid to prevent and treat the common cold. Scurvy is a condition characterized by bruising, swollen gums, and poor wound healing, and is caused by a deficiency of vitamin C.