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We’re all familiar with vitamin C because of the many things it can do for us. Vitamin C boosts our immune defenses and makes us more resilient against infections. Research also suggests that vitamin C helps reduce the duration of common cold symptoms.

Another use we have for vitamin C is as a skin antioxidant that fights the signs of aging. We also know that vitamin C is important for the production of collagen, the protein that gives our skin elasticity. Maintaining healthy levels of vitamin C is said to reduce the appearance of wrinkles and promote the repair of damaged skin.

But recently, reports of another therapeutic use for vitamin C have emerged. According to the latest studies, vitamin C can be used to treat sepsis. Researchers found that patients with sepsis have abnormally low vitamin C levels, but giving them high doses of vitamin C through the veins caused substantial clinical improvements in them. Two recent studies also reported that vitamin C reduced the mortality rate of sepsis.

What is sepsis?

Sepsis is not uncommon in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that at least 1.7 million American adults develop sepsis each year, and nearly 270,000 die because of it. Statistics also show that one in three patients who die in the hospital have sepsis.

Sepsis is a life-threatening condition caused by the body’s extreme response to an infection. This infection can occur in any part of your body — for instance, in your skin, lungs or urinary tract. If you have a weakened immune system or a pre-existing condition like diabetes, cancer or kidney disease, you may have a higher risk of sepsis than others.

Sepsis occurs when a bacterial infection is not immediately treated, resulting in a massive immune response. This response is often damaging to organs and can lead to organ failure. Sepsis can also cause blood pressure to dip to dangerously low levels. When this happens, a patient can go into septic shock. Septic shock is more severe and more likely to kill a patient than sepsis.

Vitamin C shows promise as a natural treatment for sepsis

According to researchers at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Medicine, decades of research have failed to produce an effective treatment for sepsis. Today, patients still rely on the same old antibiotics and supportive care, spending an average of six to nine days in the hospital or longer, depending on their condition.

But recent studies show that vitamin C may be a promising new treatment for sepsis. Patients with the condition are said to be deficient in this immune-boosting nutrient. In several clinical trials, researchers found that injecting high doses of vitamin C into the veins of sepsis patients helped improved their blood vitamin C levels. In fact, intravenous injection worked much better than oral administration.

A wealth of information as to how vitamin C benefits sepsis patients is now available, thanks to these clinical trials. The VCU researchers summarized the roles of vitamin C in the treatment of sepsis as follows:

• It helps reduce oxidative stress and inflammation.
• It promotes the body’s natural production of vasopressors or chemicals that help tighten the blood vessels to raise blood pressure.
• It helps enhance immune cell function.
• It improves blood vessel function.
• It helps put the patient’s immune response back under control by influencing the expression of immune-related genes.

The researchers said that these findings, which have also been replicated in animals, build a compelling case for the use of vitamin C as a treatment for sepsis. But most importantly, vitamin C treatment, even at high doses, didn’t cause any adverse effects in clinical trials, making this essential nutrient an even more promising natural medicine for fatal sepsis and septic shock.

Vitamin C benefits and sources

Our bodies aren’t capable of producing vitamin C, so we have to source this essential nutrient from the foods that we eat. Having healthy vitamin C levels is important for maintaining good health because it’s involved in different biological processes and offers numerous health benefits.

Here are seven remarkable things vitamin C can do for our health.

• Helps prevent chronic disease — Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant vitamin that can reduce oxidative stress — the result of an overproduction of free radicals inside the body. Oxidative stress causes inflammation, as well as harmful cell damage linked to the development of chronic diseases.
• Helps manage blood pressure — According to both human and animal studies, vitamin C helps relax blood vessels, which, in turn, reduces blood pressure.
• Reduces the risk of heart disease — Besides blood pressure, vitamin C can also reduce other risk factors of heart disease, such as high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
• Helps prevent gout attacks — Gout is linked to high uric acid levels, which cause joints to become painfully inflamed. But a study involving 1,387 men found that those with the highest vitamin C intake had the lowest uric acid levels. Healthy individuals who also take vitamin C supplements were found to have a 44 percent lower risk of gout.
• Helps prevent iron deficiency — Research shows that vitamin C helps improve the absorption of iron from diet, especially from plant-based foods. Iron from plant-based sources is poorly absorbed by the body, but having ample amounts of vitamin C helps with the conversion of plant-derived iron into a form that’s much easier to absorb.
• Boosts immunity —  Your immune system requires vitamin C for many immune-related processes to run smoothly. In addition, vitamin C protects immune cells from free radicals by neutralizing their harmful effects. Therefore, if you have enough vitamin C, your immune system becomes an even more reliable defense system.
• Helps preserve brain function — As a powerful antioxidant, vitamin C can protect your brain cells from the damaging effects of oxidative stress and inflammation. According to studies, eating foods rich in vitamin C and taking vitamin C supplements can help keep dementia at bay and preserve cognitive abilities even in old age.

Women are advised to get at least 75 mg of vitamin C from their diet per day, while men are required to get at least 90 mg per day. Here are the 10 best foods to eat for your daily dose of vitamin C.

• Guavas
• Kiwifruit
• Bell peppers
• Strawberries
• Oranges
• Papaya
• Broccoli
• Tomato
• Snow peas
• Kale

Vitamin C is an important nutrient that performs crucial functions inside our bodies. Unfortunately, we do not produce vitamin C, so we need to get this vitamin from our daily diet. Besides supporting the health of our skin, vitamin C also promotes the optimal functioning of our immune system. Its antioxidant and immune-boosting properties are what makes vitamin C a promising treatment for sepsis. To experience the health benefits of vitamin C, incorporate more plant-based sources of this nutrient into your daily diet, and enjoy better heart health, younger-looking skin and a stronger immune system.

Sources:

Health.Harvard.edu

Healthline.com 1

Healthline.com 2

MDPI.com

CDC.gov

MayoClinic.org

MyFoodData.com