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Heart attacks are the number one cause of death worldwide, so it makes sense to discover the cardiovascular health benefits of vitamin C. There’s a condition called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Sometimes people believe it’s caused by consuming too much cholesterol, but it’s not. Your body actually makes its own cholesterol in large amounts. It may show up to heal damage to a blood vessel, but it’s not the cause.
Discover the cardiovascular health benefits of vitamin C
Today , we’re gonna talk about vitamin c in relationship to cardiovascular health .
Now since heart attacks are the number one single cause of death worldwide , it’s a good idea just to understand all the different pieces of this puzzle so you can then , minimize , the damage that could happen to your body , and prevent the problem .
Now , you have this thing called atherosclerosis .
Harding of the arteries .
Sometimes people think it’s caused by consuming too much cholesterol .
It’s not .
It’s been proven that it’s not caused by cholesterol .
Cholesterol is is made by your body in large amounts .
It’s gonna come in there to heal something , but it’s not the actual cause .
Damage to arteries and Vitamin C
The cause is a structural weakness within the blood vessel itself .
Now , the very most inner lining of the artery has something called endothelial cells .
And these are kind of collagen cells , and you need vitamin c to keep these really , really strong
So vitamin c is a cofactor to help support the production of collagen in vascular smooth muscle .
You actually have muscles around the arteries that make it contract and relax .
So , that elasticity is very , very important .
You don’t want it to be stiff and rigid , and , I’ve already done videos on how insulin can make your arteries very , very rigid and thick , but just realize that too much insulin , which causes insulin resistance , can be one of the key factors of causing a vitamin c deficiency in the first place .
Now there’s been over 478 clinical trials , involving supplementing with vitamin c that shows significant improvement in endothelial function .
So it’s definitely one of the key factors involved with cardiovascular disease because if that inner wall becomes damaged , there comes the cholesterol , there comes the calcium , there comes the protein to form the clot .
And vitamin C is also necessary to prevent the clot from breaking off and causing a stroke or even a heart attack .
So it’s really important .
So if we take a look at classic vitamin c deficiency , scurvy , you have one of the symptoms , fragility of blood vessels .
Basically , these blood vessels are easily damaged .
Without that vitamin C , you can’t make the collagen to keep it really strong .
So the big question is how do you become deficient in vitamin c ?
Number 1 , by developing insulin resistance because your your insulin’s too high because you need the insulin to pull in vitamin c .
Number 2 , which is probably the most common , is poor eating habits .
You’re not consuming enough vegetables .
An average American consumes 1.6 cups of vegetables per day .
That’s just not gonna be enough .
You get a lot of the vitamin c from the vegetable family .
And then you also have , you know , being a smoker , you can become deficient .
Taking medications , drinking alcohol , having digestive problems .
These are all things that can interfere with your ability to absorb vitamin c .
foods are high in vitamin C
Some foods that are high in vitamin c , bell peppers , all the leafy greens , sauerkraut , cabbage , and pretty much all vegetables will have vitamin c .
I urge you to consume foods high in vitamin C, including bell peppers, cabbage, sauerkraut, and leafy greens. Nearly all vegetables have vitamin C.
So vitamin c is a real key player in cardiovascular health simply because all the vegetables are made out of collagen .
And without that vitamin c , you’re not gonna have a good structure .