Vitamin C is an important antioxidant in humans. As a reducing agent vitamin C is required in a number of metabolic reactions including the pathways that are involved in collagen synthesis. Vitamin C is essential to health in humans and deficiency of vitamin C results in the development of scurvy, a disorder whereby collagen formation becomes impaired and this results in internal bleeding and death. Scurvy is rare in developed nations as most Western diets provide adequate vitamin C to prevent the disease. However, this does not mean that the Western diet contains enough vitamin C for optimal health. In fact, evidence suggests that many do not acquire enough dietary vitamin C to prevent deteriorations in health that are related to chronic sub-clinical intakes of vitamin C. Chronic low intakes of vitamin C may cause disease through increased free radical dmage. In particular, the elderly are at a high risk of poor vitamin C status because they tend to have lower nutrient absorption in combination with lower food intakes.
For example, researchers have investigated the ascorbic acid levels of 830 elderly subjects aged 65 to 74 years living in a south Wales town1. Of the subjects sampled, 93 % were living at homes, and so most of the subjects were not institutionalised. The blood vitamin C concentration of the leukocytes was observed to decline with advancing age in the subjects. In addition, the values obtained for the elderly subjects were significantly lower than those values obtained for younger subjects in other studies. The researchers then assessed the diets of the subjects, and in particular obtained information about the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that they ate. The data showed a correlation between the vitamin C blood levels of the subjects and the amount of fresh fruit and vegetables in their diets. The correlation between fruit intake and blood vitamin C was the strongest correlation. Women and non-smokers had higher vitamin C blood levels compared to men, and non smokers, respectively.
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