Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, is a water-soluble vitamin that must be obtained through our diet.

Vitamin C is required for the synthesis of collagen, an important structural component of blood vessels, tendons, ligaments, and bone. Vitamin C also plays an important role in the synthesis of the neurotransmitter, norepinephrine. Neurotransmitters are critical to brain function and are known to affect mood. In addition, vitamin C is required for the synthesis of carnitine, a small molecule that is essential for the transport of fat to cellular organelles called mitochondria, for conversion to energy and eecent research also suggests that vitamin C is involved in the metabolism of cholesterol to bile acids.

Vitamin C is most known as a highly effective antioxidant. Even in small amounts vitamin C can protect the body from damage by free radicals. Vitamin C may contirbute to the regeneration of other antioxidants such as vitamin E.

vitamin C for supplementation for athletes has been shown in multiple studies that blood and plasma levels of are diminished and one of them reached a conclusion that that blood vitamin C levels even decreased in athletes ingesting 100 mg per day.

This may suggest vitamin C needs are increased in those who exercise regulary. Athletes receiving a one-gram vitamin C supplemention showed an increased work capacity at a heart rate of 170 beats per minute in one of the studies, while placebos that served as self-controls during vitamin C supplementation repeatedly demonstrated decreased blood plasma levels.

Vitamin C can improve the amount of iron that the body absorbs by forming a chelate with ferric iron at acid pH that remains soluble at the alkaline pH of the duodenum.

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