Simply put, there will be an obvious benefit and a troublesome consequence:
Eating a lot of VC can quickly increase your immunity, which is good for preventing and accelerating the recovery of colds. But long-term high-dose intake will make the blood vessel wall brittle and increase the risk of stroke.
Main physiological functions of vitamin c
1, promoting the biosynthesis of collagen. Conducive to faster healing of tissue wounds;
Vitamin C participates in many reactions in the body, such as redox process, and plays an important role in biological redox and cell respiration. From the tissue level, the main function of vitamin C is related to the synthesis of intercellular substance. Including collagen, the matrix of teeth and bones, and the connection between capillary endothelial cells. Therefore, when vitamin C deficiency causes scurvy, it is accompanied by collagen synthesis defect, which is characterized by difficult wound healing, tooth formation disorder, capillary injury causing a large number of blood stasis points, and blood stasis points fuse to form ecchymosis.
Vitamin C and scurvy have a long history. Hippocrates was the first person to mention scurvy. He described the soldiers' gums festering and their teeth falling off. . . ; Early sea travel attracted people's attention to scurvy. Three or four months after the fleet left the port, the crew often suffered from scurvy, and people began to find that this was due to the lack of fresh vegetables and fruits in sea travel. 1932, British military doctors isolated crystal substances with scurvy resistance from lemon juice. 1933, Swiss scientists synthesized vitamin c, also known as ascorbic acid. Modern research shows that VC is very important to human health;
1. The synthesis of collagen needs the participation of vitamin C, so without VC, collagen can't be synthesized normally, which leads to the disorder of cell connection. The human body is composed of cells, which are connected by intercellular substance, and the key component of intercellular substance is collagen. Collagen accounts for 1/3 of the protein of the body, which generates connective tissue and constitutes the bones of the body. Such as bones, blood vessels and ligaments. , determine the elasticity of the skin, protect the brain, and contribute to the healing of human trauma.
2. scurvy. The strength of vascular wall has a great relationship with VC. Microvessel is the smallest of all blood vessels, and its wall may be only one cell thick. Its strength and elasticity are determined by collagen, which is responsible for connecting cells and has the function of cement. When VC is insufficient in the body, microvessels are easy to rupture and blood flows to adjacent tissues. When this happens on the skin surface, it will produce congestion and cyanosis; When it happens in the body, it can cause pain and joint swelling. In severe cases, bleeding of stomach, intestine, nose, kidney and periosteum may occur, and even death may occur.
3. Gingival atrophy and bleeding. A healthy chewing gum tightly wraps every tooth. Gingiva is soft tissue, which is prone to atrophy and bleeding when lacking protein, calcium and VC.
4. Prevent arteriosclerosis. It can promote the excretion of cholesterol, prevent cholesterol from depositing on the inner wall of arteries, and even dissolve the deposited atherosclerotic plaques.
5. It is a strong water-soluble antioxidant. It can protect other antioxidants, such as vitamin A, vitamin E, unsaturated fatty acids, etc., and prevent free radicals from harming human body.
6. Treat anemia. It can reduce trivalent iron which is difficult to be absorbed and utilized into ferrous iron, promote the absorption of iron by meridians, improve the utilization rate of iron by liver, and help to treat iron deficiency anemia.
7. Prevent cancer. Rich collagen contributes to the antioxidant effect of Legong, resisting the damage of free radicals to cells and preventing cell variation. Prevent nitrite and secondary amine from forming strong carcinogen nitrosamine. Someone once dissected a patient who died of cancer and found that the VC content in the patient was almost zero.
8. Protect cells, detoxify and protect liver. In human life activities, it is very important to ensure the integrity and normal metabolism of cells. Therefore, glutathione and enzymes play an important role.
Glutathione is a short peptide composed of glutamic acid, cystine and glycine, which has redox effect in the body. It exists in two forms, namely oxidation type and reduction type, and reduction type plays an important role in ensuring the integrity of cell membrane. VC is a strong antioxidant, which reduces oxidized glutathione to reduced glutathione through its own oxidation, thus playing an antioxidant role.
Enzymes are catalysts for biochemical reactions, and some enzymes need free sulfhydryl (-SH) to keep their activity. VC can reduce disulfide bond (-S-S) to -SH, thus improving the activity of related enzymes and playing an antioxidant role.
As can be seen from the above, as long as VC is sufficient, VC, glutathione and -SH will form a powerful combination of anti-oxidation, scavenging free radicals, preventing lipid peroxidation and toxic effects of certain chemicals, and protecting the detoxification ability of the liver and the normal metabolism of cells.
9. Improve human immunity.
Leukocytes are rich in VC, and when the body is infected, VC decreases sharply. VC can enhance the chemotaxis and deformability of neutrophils and improve their bactericidal ability.
Promote the generation of lymphocytes and improve the body's ability to identify and kill foreign cells and malignant cells.
Participate in the synthesis of immunoglobulin.
Improve the activity of complement esterase in CI and increase the production of complement CI.
Promote the production of interferon, interfere with the transcription of virus mRNA, and inhibit the proliferation of virus.
10. Improve the body's emergency response ability. Abnormal stimuli to the human body, such as severe pain, cold, lack of oxygen, strong mental stimulation, etc., will trigger a state of tension against abnormal stimuli. This state is accompanied by a series of organisms, including sympathetic nerve excitement, adrenal medulla and increased secretion of corticosteroids. Adrenaline and norepinephrine secreted by adrenal medulla are converted from tyrosine, which requires VC.