How Much Extra Vitamin C is Essential Depends on Your Body Weight

Vitamin C is known as an immune-support nutrient and is important in protecting your body against severe viral illnesses. But how much vitamin C is needed for the body?

Research at New University of Otago, Christchurch in New Zealand has identified, for the first time, exactly how much extra Vitamin C humans need to ingest, relative to their body weight, to maximize their immune health.

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‘Vitamin C intake can be easily increased by consuming vitamin C-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables or by taking a vitamin C supplement.’

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Vitamin C is known to be essential for good immune function and works by helping white blood cells fight infection.

Your Body Weight Determines How Much Extra Vitamin C is Needed

The study, published in the international journal Nutrients, found that for every 10 kg of excess weight a person carries, their body needs an extra 10 milligrams of Vitamin C daily, which will help to optimize their immune health.

"Previous studies have already linked higher body weight with lower Vitamin C levels," said lead author Anitra Carr, associate professor from the University’s Department of Pathology and Biomedical Science.

"But this is the first study to estimate how much extra daily Vitamin C is actually needed for people, relative to their body weight, to help maximize their health," she added.

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Carr suggested that the findings could potentially help heavier people better protect themselves from such illnesses because obesity is a known risk factor for Covid. Obese people can also be at increased risk of severe illness due to the infection.

The results from this study therefore suggest that increasing your Vitamin C intake if overweight might be a sensible response, Carr said.

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Another major complication of Covid-19 is pneumonia. Patients with pneumonia are known to be low in Vitamin C.

Several research has shown that "Vitamin C decreases the likelihood of people getting pneumonia and decreases the severity of it, so finding the right levels of Vitamin C to take if you are overweight may help to better support your immune system", Carr said.

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The study determined that someone weighing 90 kg would need to take an extra 30 milligrams of Vitamin C to achieve the optimal goal of 140 mg/day; while someone weighing 120 kilograms would need at least an extra 40 milligrams of vitamin C daily to achieve the optimal 150 mg/day.

The easiest way to increase daily Vitamin C intake is by upping the consumption of Vitamin C-rich foods such as fruits and vegetables or by taking a Vitamin C supplement, Carr said.

Source-IANS