Do you need more Vitamin C in your diet?  This article begins a series of posts about Nutrition Alerts – signals that your body may be lacking in a certain nutrient.  We’re going to look at some symptoms that you might be having, and then the benefits of certain nutrients that can help improve your symptoms.

If you have a health challenge where natural nutrition can help, you can start feeling better and also start getting side benefits – because all-natural vitamins build better health in lots of ways. For example, you might stop getting nose bleeds, and also be strengthening your immune system so that you get sick less often – all by taking Vitamin C.

Today let’s look closer at Vitamin C, the ‘Infection Fighter’ nutrient.  Evaluate if you may have a Vitamin C deficiency, or simply need to add a little more on a daily basis.

Vitamin C is one of the nutrients that are depleted in your body when you are under stress.  Today, unfortunately, most of us are under stress – living busy lifestyles and dealing with different types of challenges including illness, infection, surgery, exhaustion, anxiety, and even pollution.  Many of us are under more stress than the normal, everyday stress.

If you are a woman and take a birth control pill, you may need extra Vitamin C.  If you smoke, your body needs extra Vitamin C.  Alcohol depletes Vitamin C in your body as well.  Collagen in your skin needs Vitamin C, and as you age you require more Vitamin C to regenerate collagen.

Some nutrition alerts may indicate you need more Vitamin C in your daily diet.

Nutrition Alerts:

• Do you bruise easily?
• Do you have bleeding gums?
• Do you get nosebleeds?
• Do you have varicose or spider veins?
• Are your wounds and fractures slow to heal?
• Do you get chronic infections or shortness of breath?
• Do you have allergies or asthma symptoms?
• Are you sick frequently?
• Do you have polyps in your colon?

Vitamin C Benefits

• Helps allergies (it’s a natural antihistamine)
• Powerful antioxidant
• Helps prevent and treat common cold
• Helps your body absorb iron and calcium
• Reduces risk of heart disease
• Reduces risk of cancer
• Reduces risk of cataracts
• Helps prevent ligament and tendon injuries
• Protects from radiation (xrays)

Humans, unlike 99% of animals, cannot produce Vitamin C in our bodies.  It is a water soluble vitamin and so it is not stored in your body. You need to get Vitamin C in your diet regularly. The way you test if you are getting too much is through a ‘bowel tolerance test’. If you get too much Vitamin C, diarrhea may occur. If that happens, you simply reduce the amount you use until you get normal stools.

What I like about Shaklee’s Vitamin C is that it is a sustained release formula, which means that it is absorbed into your body over a period of hours so that you don’t get too much all at once and so that your body can use more of it (your body can only absorb so much at a time).  The other thing I like is that it is a whole-food sourced vitamin that is non-irritating and gentle on your stomach.

Visit here too learn more about:  Sustained Release Vitamin C.  If you need a chewable form, or have a child that can benefit from chewables, Shaklee makes a high quality, all-natural source:  Chewable Vitamin C.