Your vitamin C is doing something your doctor never mentioned

Most people think of vitamin C as the thing they take when they feel a cold coming on.

That's not wrong.

It's just not the whole story.

Researchers at Hirosaki University in Japan analyzed MRI scans and blood samples from 2,044 adults over the age of 64. The finding was that lower vitamin C levels in the blood were consistently linked to lower gray matter volume in the brain, even after accounting for age, physical activity, diabetes, and smoking.

Not just immune function.

Brain tissue.

→ Read the study here 

So the question isn't whether vitamin C matters.

It's whether you're actually getting enough of it.

And most people aren't.

The RDA for vitamin C is 90mg for men, 75mg for women. That number was set to prevent deficiency — not to optimize brain health or support the kind of blood plasma levels seen in the healthier participants of this study.

The foods that move the needle aren't exotic. One red bell pepper has more vitamin C than an orange. A cup of strawberries gets you close to the daily baseline on its own. Kiwi, broccoli, guava and mango are all higher than most people realize.

But if your diet is inconsistent, and most people are, your blood levels will reflect that.

And now we know your brain will too.

Until next time,

Kashif Khan

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