Vitamin C Deficiency: How to Increase Your Vitamin C Levels

Could you be low in vitamin C?

From an early age, we're taught that vitamins and minerals are essential to our well-being. If you already eat a balanced diet or take a multivitamin, you may assume you have everything you need. But if you really want to focus on your health, it helps to get to know the nutrients that are often missing from a typical daily diet.

Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid, is essential for building healthy body tissue, from muscles to cartilage. Yet many people don't get enough vitamin C from their diet.

In this short guide, we'll go over the potential signs of a vitamin C deficiency and the steps you can take, besides eating vitamin C-rich foods, to reach healthy vitamin C levels.

Vitamin C deficiency and mood

Do you wake up feeling low, or do you often catch colds?

The following symptoms may be those of a serious vitamin C deficiency:

Tiredness

- If you're exhausted every morning, you might think that's normal. Plenty of people need several cups of coffee to get going, right? However, your tiredness may not be down to a lack of caffeine or sleep. Tiredness is often the first warning sign of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency). This is sometimes called vitamin C fatigue.

Stress

- It's normal to feel nervous from time to time. If you have a presentation at work or an important social event, your palms may get sweaty and your heart rate may speed up. But if you feel more stressed than usual for no particular reason, a lack of vitamin C could also be playing a part.
In fact, a vitamin C deficiency can be linked to a whole range of negative feelings, from sadness to irritability and beyond.

Does vitamin C give you energy?

Many people find that this nutrient is exactly what they need to boost their focus and enthusiasm.

While it's important to develop coping strategies for your mental health, increasing your vitamin C intake could help lift your mood so you can approach each day with more energy.

Physical signs of a vitamin C deficiency

While the first signs of a vitamin C deficiency often take the form of emotional and psychological symptoms, a chronic lack of vitamin C will start to show physically.

Why? As we briefly mentioned, vitamin C contributes to tissue formation.

Vitamin C is essential for collagen formation.
Collagen is a major component of skin, muscles, cartilage, blood cell membranes and other body tissues.
Without enough vitamin C, our connective tissues lack collagen, making them weaker and less elastic.
Let's now look at some specific signs to watch out for.

Vitamin C and skin health

Collagen gives our skin a youthful, plump look. As we age, we naturally lose collagen and skin elasticity. As a result, we may develop signs of ageing, including:

Sagging skin
Hollow cheeks
Fine lines from repeated facial expressions.
While wrinkles and loss of skin volume are inevitable for most of us, a lack of vitamin C can speed up the signs of ageing.

As well as supporting healthy collagen production, vitamin C plays other roles in keeping skin youthful.

Oxidative stress occurs when UV rays, smoke, environmental pollution and other harmful substances come into contact with our skin. Over time, this can lead to signs of ageing. Antioxidant vitamin C can play a protective role, helping the skin cope with oxidative stress. That's why vitamin C serums are such popular skincare products.
A severe vitamin C deficiency can also lead to uneven, bumpy skin texture, known as “goosebump skin”.
To improve the look and texture of your skin, make sure you get more vitamin C.

Bruising and skin healing problems

You probably know that sailors used to suffer from scurvy, but what is this old disease?

As we said, vitamin C is essential for building healthy tissue. Without it, the following can happen:

Bleeding gums
Old wounds reopening
Slow wound healing
While the symptoms above may seem dramatic, a milder vitamin C deficiency can still cause unpleasant symptoms, such as skin that bruises easily.


Discomfort
Beyond the more visible symptoms, a vitamin C deficiency can also lead to everyday aches and irritation.

Elbows, knees and other joints are cushioned by cartilage. With age, thinning cartilage can cause discomfort. If your body doesn't produce enough collagen to form healthy cartilage, your joints may be stiff, swollen or painful.


Other physical signs
Other obvious outward signs of a possible vitamin C deficiency include:

red, irritated hair follicles
Curly body hair
Curved, spoon-shaped fingernails
thin, brittle hair and nails.

Vitamin C and immunity

As well as the symptoms we've already mentioned, a vitamin C deficiency can make you more vulnerable to colds and other illnesses.

Here's why that makes perfect sense:

A vitamin C deficiency can weaken key parts of the immune system, from the skin barrier to blood cells.
As your body spends extra energy trying to heal wounds and repair tissue without enough vitamin C, there may be fewer resources left to fight infections.

Where can you find vitamin C?

How do you get at least 95 mg of vitamin C?

Some fruits and vegetables are naturally rich in this essential nutrient. Oranges are perhaps the best-known source of this vitamin. They contain about 70 mg each.

Other foods rich in vitamin C include:

Red pepper - 95 mg in ½ cup.
Kiwi - 70 mg per cup
Tomato - 20 mg per cup
Ready to add more vitamin C to your routine? One option is to eat more of these fruits and vegetables. Another is to make or buy juices rich in vitamin C.


Supplements

Let's be honest, not everyone has the energy to stock up on fresh fruit and vegetables regularly, let alone find recipes to use them.

In those cases, another option is vitamin C supplementation.

However, not all vitamin C supplements are created equal.

When you take vitamin C, it may not be 100% bioavailable (able to be absorbed).
What happens to the ascorbic acid that isn't absorbed? Excess vitamin C is eliminated in urine, which means you won't benefit from its potential benefits for skin healing and immune support.

Some supplements are more bioavailable than others, which means our body can absorb a higher percentage of their vitamin C. That's why liquid supplements are 4x more bioavailable than powders or pills.

When it comes to your vitamin C supplement, an adequate intake and quality are key. If your wellness goals include lifting your mood, getting glowing skin and feeling better every day, consider adding our Multivitamins, Probiotic or even Marine Collagen, which provide the daily dose of vitamin C, to your daily nutrient routine and see the difference for yourself.

Sources:

Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. Adult Scurvy. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10570371/

Cutis. Keratosis pilaris, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18856156/

Healthline. Vitamin C Deficiency Symptoms. https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-c-deficiency-symptoms#TOC_TITLE_HDR_15

The Mayo Clinic. Can vitamin C improve your mood?https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/vitamin-c/faq-20058030#:~:text=For%20adults%2C%20the%20recommended%20daily,Nausea

The Mayo Clinic. Is it possible to take too much vitamin C? https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/benefits-vitamin-c/faq-20058271#:~:text=The%20link%20between%20vitamin%20C,after%20they%20received%20vitamin%20C.

WebMD. Vitamin C Sources. https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/ss/slideshow-vitamin-c-sources

Medical News. Vitamin C Therapeutic Uses. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Vitamin-C-Therapeutic-Uses.aspx

The University of Rochester. Vitamin C. https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?contenttypeid=19&contentid=vitaminc#:~:text=In%20adults%2C%20the%20treatment%20is,C%20deficiency%20with%20no%20symptoms.