Vitamin C For Anxiety and Better Skin? Get Out of Town!
We’re all getting our medicine cabinets ready for Fall and Winter. Of course We immediately run for the Vitamin C when we have a cold or feel the flu coming. But skin?
Dr. Axe, a doctor who promotes food as medicine, tells us that Vitamin C is absolutely necessary for healthy, pretty skin and wound repair, and also for improving mineral absorption, fighting free radicals along with colds and flu, enhancing the effect of drugs used for chemotherapy and as a cancer remedy for some forms of cancer. Oh, and it lowers the risk of stroke. (This should be in the WOW section!)
You can read Dr. Axe’s article HERE
When he mentioned SKIN, I had to check it out a little further. I found a fascinating report from Oregon State University that discusses the need for Vitamin C in your diet, applied topically and as a supplement. You might want to read it on your own. Click HERE As a summary:
NOTE: The body doesn’t produce Vitamin C on its own. (Remember the crew on the Mayflower? Scurvy?) So we need to eat enough of the frutis and vegetables that contain it, but it’s NOT going to hurt to supplement it with Vitamin C.
PLEASE NOTE: VITAMIN C in tablet form does not get the job done! I’ll publish a separate article about this next week, but in a nutshell: WE WANT LIPOSOMAL VITAMIN C for best absorption. You can buy it at Amazon. The ones we’ve been purchasing for a couple of years now are:
Liposomal Vitamin C Capsules
Liposomal Vitamin C Liquid packets (Livon Brand)
Their report says that Vitamin C is found in high levels of both the dermis and the epidermis, where it supports the skin cells in many ways, but (surprise-surpise) the level DROPS as we age.
Our skin, which especially requires it for producing collagen, receives it through the bloodstream. The bloodstream has absorbed it from the colon, so hello clean colon benefits and My Miracle Tea! This is one explanation for why our skin looks better after drinking the tea! This is new to me!!!!
But we can also apply it topically for even more results! “Oral supplementation with vitamin C effectively increases vitamin C levels in the skin,” reports a study at Oregon State University.
As I said, I have a very nice Vitamin C serum that I’ve loved for a long time. I’ll let you Google that on your own.
Bottom Line: We need Vitamin C in our regular multi-vitamin, or by itself, and through topical creams … it all helps.
But now hear this: When I saw that it was one of the Settle Down ingredients I searched a bit more and it turns out Dr. Maria is spot on:
Vitamin C is also helpful for for anxiety!!! (I feel there’s a great rhyme there that could be turned into a song. 😀 )
Not even Dr. Axe mentions that. But it IS documented in numerous places and at the top of my research was a study for high school students with anxiety before taking tests. The research was done by a division of the National Institutes of Health, so that’s legitimate. (You can read it online HERE )
This study examined the effects of oral vitamin C supplements in 42 high school students, in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.
The students were given either vitamin C (500 mg day(-1)) or a placebo. Plasma concentrations of vitamin C and blood pressure were measured before the intervention and then one day after the intervention.
Anxiety levels were evaluated for each student before and after 14 days following supplementation with a standardized anxiety evaluation test.
Results showed that vitamin C reduced anxiety levels and led to higher plasma vitamin C concentration compared to the placebo. The mean heart rates were also significantly different between the vitamin C group and the placebo control group. Present study results not only provide evidence that vitamin C plays an important therapeutic role for anxiety but also points toward a possible use for antioxidants in the prevention or reduction of anxiety.
This suggests that a diet rich in vitamin C may be an effective adjunct to medical and psychological treatment of anxiety and improve academic performance.
And Dr. Maria has her own information on Vitamin C for stress:
Researchers from McGill University in Canada gave 26 elderly patients 500 milligrams of vitamin C each day for 10 days. Utilitzing a standardized Mood Status test, the reasearcher found that afer an average of 8.2 days, the vitamin C reduced mood disturbance by 71% and reduced psychological distress by 51%
My interpretation: A little “Settle Down” capsule is a quick dosage of these benefits that go right to the blood stream to quickly address anxiety.
No wonder it works! No wonder we love it!
Sounds like it’s time to make sure we’ve got plenty of Vitamin C Serum for our skin…. and Vitamin C either as a supplement or a little bit in Settle Down for stress