Rhonda Patrick· PhD
in today's discussion of vitamin C we'll cover a few broad areas I'll give you a general overview of vitamin C that includes food sources of vitamin C recommended oral intakes which vary across the life span and what happens when a person is deficient I'll talk about the many roles and there's a lot that vitamin C plays in the body especially as a cofactor in antioxidant and as a critical component of immune function I'll describe the metabolic disposition of vitamin C in other words how the body metabolizes the vitamin and where it ends up which is quite a bit different from most other small molecules then I'll talk about some really interesting data on intravenous administration of vitamin C although it's not that typical means of getting this essential vitamin it offers promise as a therapeutic strategy against cancer and some other serious health concerns as I alluded to earlier I'll drill down on the role that vitamin C plays in viral defence then I'll get into some really cool stuff some of which was news to me like differences in bioavailability in the various forms of vitamin C and whether oral liposomal vitamin C is better than the regular oral form I'll bring up some concerns about whether vitamin C can blunt the effects of exercise especially in terms of mitochondrial biogenesis and function improved insulin sensitivity glucose utilization and enhanced immune function I'll describe some of the ways in which vitamin C can improve outcomes of severe viral infections in ways you might not have thought about like reducing the number of days spent on mechanical ventilation I'll talk about how vitamin C plays a role in fatty acid oxidation which could have implications for people trying to lose weight I'll also address one of the big questions that people often have about vitamin C does it cause kidney stones of course I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about safety so I'll discuss that too and absolutely no discussion about vitamin C it would be complete without mentioning the common cold it's probably the most extensively studied infection regarding the effects of vitamin C