01/07/2024
Help Your Body Beat The Summer Heat!
As the temperature starts to rise outside, our bodies can need extra support. Good nutrition is the first priority but with busy schedules, added activities, extra sun, travel and even sweating, your body can be deprived of vitamins that you need.
Vitamin C to the Rescue
According to research, vitamin C helps support your body to better deal with high temperatures and can prevent serious problems caused by excessive heat, such as heat stroke and heat rash. Ascorbic acid has been shown to help support sweat glands and prevent burn out in warmer temperatures. Vitamin C, a key antioxidant, also protects skin from sun damage and improves the production of collagen in the skin. In the summer, added fruit in your diet can provide higher levels of vitamin C or add extra vitamin C to your diet through a supplement.
Research has shown that vitamin C (ascorbic acid) supplementation helps the body physiologically respond to heat stress. It reduces the likelihood of developing heat-related illnesses such as heat rash and heat exhaustion, and it can also be used to treat heat rash that's already developed. In addition to this, vitamin C supplementation reduces the length of time it takes the body to adjust to a new hotter environment, known as heat acclimatisation - it does this possibly by helping revive the body's sweat glands and keeping them from tiring out due to the heat.
Working as an antioxidant, Vitamin C may help the body protect itself from cell damage by encouraging the production of collagen and the growth of new tissue as well as helping tissue repair itself. These antioxidant effects may help protect the skin from sun damage, including photo-aging.
Preliminary research also suggests that vitamin C may be promising as a natural anti-histamine, as well as a powerful antioxidant. Vitamin C may help lessen the symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis, possibly most effectively when combined with a plant-derived flavonoid called quercetin, that may help prevent the body from producing histamine. You can find quercetin in red wine, tea and olive oil, as well as in berries and other dark coloured fruits and vegetables.