The Benefits Of Vitamin A & C

We may fail to realize this but Vitamin A is one of the vitamins that offer numerous benefits. We can obtain vitamin A from food sources like animal kidney and liver, fish liver oils, fruits and vegetables that are yellow-orange in color like melon, orange, mango, peach, carrots & others which contain beta carotenes (one of the components of vitamin A) dairy products like milk, cheese cream, butter & eggs and certain green vegetables like broccoli, spinach, and lettuce. Beta Carotene can be converted into Vitamin A when more supply is required by the body.

One of the foremost benefits of Vitamin A is in helping promote better vision and eyesight. Studies have indicated that despite the advancement in medical practices and technology, there is still a growing increase statistically when it comes to people getting blind. Deficiency of this vitamin would often lead to the weak vision which in the long run may lead to complications & eventually blindness.

It has been noted that most accidents that occur while driving especially at night are caused mainly by people not being able to see where they are going or having what you call night blindness. If night blindness is not addressed immediately it may lead to permanent blindness in the long run. Vitamin A has long been used to help prevent this and has helped in restoring vision for those whose cases are not advanced.

Vitamin A has also been reputed to help you attain naturally healthy skin & maintain a good complexion. It helps your skin retain moisture, prevents having blackheads and breakouts, and aids in the treatment of pimples and acne as well as other skin ailments. Vitamin A even helps in delaying the aging process that is why it is an important ingredient in most anti-aging products.
 
But the most important benefit that Vitamin A could provide is that it contains properties that could work against dreaded cancer. Vitamin A helps protect against lung cancer. There have been studies conducted and shows that vitamin A does play an important role against this sickness.
 
It is advised though that you don’t just prescribe by yourself to take any vitamin A supplement. It is best to consult a doctor for improper doses that could be toxic to the body. It is better to get enough vitamin A from healthy sources like fruits, vegetables & animal sources.
 
Because of its popularity and widespread use as a dietary supplement, Vitamin C may be more familiar to the general public than any other nutrient. Studies show that more than 40% of older Americans take Vitamin C supplements. In some regions of the country, almost 25% of all adults, regardless of age, take vitamin C. Outside of a multivitamin, vitamin C is also the most popular supplement among some groups of registered dietitians & 80% of the dietitians who take vitamin C take more than 250 milligrams.

Vitamin C also called ascorbic acid, is a term that literally means “no scurvy.” Some 250 years ago, a British physician found that sailors given citrus fruits were cured of scurvy which is the result of a vitamin C deficiency. Dehydroascorbic acid and ascorbic acid are the active forms of vitamin C found in food. Most supplements contain only ascorbic acid. Levels of ascorbic acid in the blood rise to the same degree following the consumption of both vitamin C-containing foods and ascorbic acid.

Because of its role in collagen formation and other life-sustaining functions, vitamin C serves as a key immune system nutrient and a potent free-radical fighter. This double-duty nutrient has been shown to prevent many illnesses, from everyday ailments such as the common cold to devastating diseases such as heart disease.

Physicians are often asked whether or not vitamin C is also an effective way of fighting cancer. While there is a growing body of scientific evidence to suggest that vitamin C is useful in the prevention of cancer, the jury is still out on its effectiveness as a cancer treatment. However, its low cost & astonishing lack of toxicity make it an extremely attractive candidate for further testing.

Cancer experts said the “overwhelming” evidence still suggested vitamin C was not an effective treatment. Studies during the ’70s first suggested the administration of high doses of vitamin C could help treat cancer, but later research did not back this up. There are many substances that have been shown to kill cancer cells in the lab but failed to fulfill that promise when tested in people says Henry Scow croft of UK-based Cancer Research, Inc. 

In the latest study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers conducted laboratory experiments that simulated clinical infusions of vitamin C on a range of nine cancer and four normal cells. In five of the cancer lines, there was a 50% decrease in cell survival, while normal cells were unaffected.

Vitamin C’s benefits are continually in question but one thing is for sure though, that eating a healthy, balanced diet, including plenty of fresh fruit & vegetables, is an effective way to reduce the risk of getting cancer in the first place…!