The effect of vitamin C on the healing of wounds

Dietary Sources, Bioavailability, and Functions of Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) and Its Role in the Common Cold, Tissue Healing, and Iron Metabolism

Ascorbic acid is also popularly known as vitamin C or ascorbate. It is a water-soluble vitamin. Ascorbic acid is necessary for bone formation, wound healing, connective tissue growth, and the maintenance of healthy gum tissue. Antioxidants like ascorbic acid shield the body from free radical damage. In many illnesses and conditions, vitamin C is employed as a medicinal agent. It improves the immunity of the body, reduces the severity of allergies, and aids in the management of infectious disorders. Additionally, ascorbic acid has health benefits for conditions including atherosclerosis, cancer, the common cold, iron deficiency anemia, etc. Therefore, continuous efforts may open new avenues to understand the importance of vitamin C in managing various diseases.

The Impact of Chronic Kidney Disease on Nutritional Status and Its Possible Relation with Oral Diseases

Several studies have demonstrated a strong relation between periodontal diseases and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The main mechanisms at the base of this link are malnutrition, vitamin dysregulation, especially of B-group vitamins and of C and D vitamins, oxidative stress, metabolic acidosis and low-grade inflammation. In particular, in hemodialysis (HD) adult patients, an impairment of nutritional status has been observed, induced not only by the HD procedures themselves, but also due to numerous CKD-related comorbidities. The alteration of nutritional assessment induces systemic manifestations that have repercussions on oral health, like oral microbiota dysbiosis, slow healing of wounds related to hypovitaminosis C, and an alteration of the supporting bone structures of the oral cavity related to metabolic acidosis and vitamin D deficiency. Low-grade inflammation has been observed to characterize periodontal diseases locally and, in a systemic manner, CKD contributes to the amplification of the pathological process, bidirectionally. Therefore, CKD and oral disease patients should be managed by a multidisciplinary professional team that can evaluate the possible co-presence of these two pathological conditions, that negatively influence each other, and set up therapeutic strategies to treat them. Once these patients have been identified, they should be included in a follow-up program, characterized by periodic checks in order to manage these pathological conditions.

Vitamin C in disease prevention and cure: an overview

The recognition of vitamin C is associated with a history of an unrelenting search for the cause of the ancient haemorrhagic disease scurvy. Isolated in 1928, vitamin C is essential for the development and maintenance of connective tissues. It plays an important role in bone formation, wound healing and the maintenance of healthy gums. Vitamin C plays an important role in a number of metabolic functions including the activation of the B vitamin, folic acid, the conversion of cholesterol to bile acids and the conversion of the amino acid, tryptophan, to the neurotransmitter, serotonin. It is an antioxidant that protects body from free radical damage. It is used as therapeutic agent in many diseases and disorders. Vitamin C protects the immune system, reduces the severity of allergic reactions and helps to fight off infections. However the significance and beneficial effect of vitamin C in respect to human disease such as cancer, atherosclerosis, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and metal toxicity however remains equivocal. Thus further continuous uninterrupted efforts may open new vistas to understand its significance in disease management.

Inadequate levels of essential nutrients in developed nations as a risk factor for disease: a review

Inadequate levels of essential nutrients is a most important factor in environmental health, leading to an almost monotonic increase in the incidence, morbidity, mortality, and associated costs of 'diseases of affluence' that has persisted for circa a century. Such an unprecedented human tragedy can be explained by the (1) flawed belief that essential nutrients can be replaced by xenobiotic molecules--a fundamental error, (2) failure to recognize that the levels of certain essential nutrients in diets available in the environment are not adequate to produce optimum health, longevity or resistance, and (3) failure to recognize that the refined diet has a lower essential nutrient content. Such beliefs contribute to early death in affluent nations.

The antioxidant vitamins

This article is an attempt to study the metabolic functions of vitamin C and E together. Such a study must necessarily be imcomplete owing to the extreme richness of the literature. The increasing importance of the work on free radical reactions, their toxicity and carcinogenic action, and also their relation to the metabolism of metals, particularly iron, copper, selenium, and zinc, shows a number of metabolic pathways with which both vitamins interact. It is hoped that this article will indicate future research possibilities.

Effect of ascorbic acid on guinea pig skin collagen synthesis. I. Total collagen

A deficiency of ascorbic acid caused a decreased uptake of 3H-proline into guinea pig skin collagen and a further decrease in the 3HO-proline formation; inanition from pair-feeding was not a contributing factor. An anemia developed in the completely deficient animals which was prevented with low levels of ascorbic acid in another group.