Vitamin C deficiency

Hypovitaminosis C, which is a lack of vitamin C in the biological organism, can significantly affect the quality of a person's life, since a sufficiently large deficiency of vitamin C can provoke the development of a disease such as scurvy.

Causes vitamin C deficiency

For adults, vitamin C deficiency is the most common type of vitamin deficiency. It is the low content of ascorbic acid (as this vitamin is also called) that causes the greatest discomfort and destruction to the patient's body.

The main reasons for vitamin C deficiency, which most often provoke its lack:

• Violation of the dosage or timing of taking acetylsalicylic acid.
• The same applies to medications based on estrogens (female sex hormones), as well as long-term use of oral contraceptives.
• Low amount of plant products rich in this vitamin in the human diet. This includes: strawberries, citrus fruits, rose hips, beets, tomatoes, black currants, cabbage, potatoes, sea buckthorn, bell peppers, carrots, green onions and many other products.
• Ignoring such meat products in your diet as liver, brain matter and meat itself. But in this case, these bioproducts should not be processed thermally, for a long time and under a slightly open lid.
• If a patient needs hemodialysis due to a certain pathology.
• Excessive consumption of alcoholic beverages can cause vitamin C deficiency.
• Hyperthyroidism is an endocrinological syndrome caused by hyperfunction of the thyroid gland.
• Vitamin C deficiency can be caused by a disruption of the absorption function of the gastrointestinal mucosa, which can cause intestinal upset (diarrhea) or if there is no hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice (achlorhydria).
• Disturbances in the process of removing vitamin C from the body, caused by the high speed of this process.
• A number of chronic inflammatory diseases.
• There is a high need for this vitamin during the period when a woman is expecting a child, as well as during the period of breastfeeding a newborn.
• Chronic stress condition.
• Thyrotoxicosis is a condition in which, for some reason, the body has too much thyroid hormone.
• Malignant neoplasm.
• The injury received.
• Burn damage to the skin.
• Consequences of surgical intervention.
• Long, exhausting diets.

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Symptoms vitamin C deficiency

If the patient's body lacks ascorbic acid, he may experience a number of negative factors that should not be ignored. After all, vitamin C deficiency can affect the formation of connective tissues, in which it takes the most active part. The presence of the required amount of ascorbic acid in the human body contributes to an adequate process of iron absorption, as well as active healing of wounds and burns of various origins. Just like vitamin E, ascorbic acid has high antioxidant properties.

The following signs of vitamin C deficiency are identified:

• When a person's body lacks this essential vitamin, its defenses are significantly reduced, which leads to the fact that this person is characterized by increased morbidity. Before he had time to cure one disease, he had already "caught" another.
• The diseases themselves are more severe and last longer than in people with normal vitamin C levels.
• If this diagnosis concerns young children, they may lag behind their peers in development, both in terms of height and mental retardation.
• Decreased general tone of the patient.
• Pain in the "bone tissues"; pain appears when moving.
• Irritability or, conversely, decreased emotional activity, apathy.
• Memory impairment.
• The fragility of blood vessels increases, which can lead to the formation of hematomas in subcutaneous, skin and muscle tissue.
• The gums begin to bleed.
• Frequent nosebleeds.
• The likelihood of developing caries increases.
• Anemia is a blood disorder characterized by a deficiency of erythrocytes (red blood cells) and hemoglobin in the blood.
• Loss of appetite.
• The skin becomes dry.
• Weight loss.
• There is a change in heart rate and blood pressure.
• Swelling of the joints may occur.
• With a high deficiency of vitamin C, scurvy is diagnosed, which, among other things, is characterized by a high degree of bleeding from the gums or vessels located in other tissues.
• With such characteristics, the patient's body temperature may rise.
• In severe stages of scurvy, ulcers that do not heal for a long time begin to appear on the patient’s body.
• Subsequently, complications of an infectious nature are observed, which, if proper assistance is not provided, can result in odontogenic sepsis and death.

Diagnostics vitamin C deficiency

In order to determine the disease, the diagnosis of vitamin C deficiency includes:

• Analysis of patient complaints.
• Visual examination of the patient by a specialist.
• A biochemical blood test that reveals vitamin C deficiency.

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Treatment vitamin C deficiency

First of all, a patient with such a diagnosis needs to normalize his diet by introducing a sufficient amount of products rich in this vitamin. And also, treatment of vitamin C deficiency includes ascorbic acid preparations.

For this purpose, the attending physician may prescribe ascorbic acid in the form of pills or tablets. The medicine is prescribed to the patient in a daily amount of 50 to 100 mg. Rosehip decoction or tea with lemon will also do.

The vitamin C deficiency-replenishing drug Cevicap is administered to the patient orally with food. The drug is available in the form of drops. One drop of the drug contains about 5 mg of ascorbic acid. For newborns and small patients, it is recommended to dilute the drug with a small amount of water, juice, tea or add it to food before use. It is advisable to divide the recommended daily amount of the drug into two or three doses.

If the drug is prescribed to prevent vitamin C deficiency, then the recommended dose for newborns and children under one year is 25-40 mg of the drug, which corresponds to five to eight drops per day. Babies between the ages of two and eleven are prescribed 50 mg, which corresponds to ten drops per day. Teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 are prescribed 75-100 mg, which corresponds to 15-20 drops per day.

But if the drug is used for medicinal purposes, then the previously recommended figures increase two to five times, depending on the degree of vitamin C deficiency in the patient’s body.

This medicine should not be prescribed in case of hypersensitivity of the patient's body to ascorbic acid and/or other components of the drug.

All kinds of multivitamins are also used - a complex preparation, which necessarily includes vitamin C. Today, the modern pharmacological market is ready to provide a fairly long list of drugs of this therapeutic group. For example, these include ginvit, vitrum, gerovital, biovital, vidaylin - M, aerovit, berokka, geksavit, kvadevit, gendkvit, supralin, undevit and many other vitamin complexes.

Vitrum is recommended for use by adult patients and adolescents who have already reached the age of 12, one tablet after the main meal once a day.

Contraindications to the use of this medication include increased intolerance of the patient's body to the components of the drug, as well as in the case of a tendency to allergic reactions or if the patient has a history of hypervitaminosis A.

Depending on the severity of the pathology, doctors divide this disease into three stages:

• Stage I – minor deficiency of ascorbic acid. Therapy is carried out on an outpatient basis. Ascorbic acid is prescribed either in the form of tablets, in the dosage specified above, or, if the situation has worsened, in the form of a 5% solution, administered intramuscularly to the patient in a dosage of 1 or 2 ml. Together with this drug, a medicine is prescribed that contains vitamin P as a base. For example, this can be quercetin, antistax, corvitin, venza, endotelon, calcium dobesilate, rutin and others.

Quercetin is prescribed to such a patient in a daily dosage of 0.1 - 0.15 g. The drug in question is contraindicated in case of hypersensitivity to quercetin and drugs with P-vitamin activity.

• Stage II – moderate vitamin deficiency in the patient’s body. Treatment of vitamin C deficiency is performed in a hospital setting. The patient is prescribed a corrected diet, which should contain 120 to 150 g of protein per day. Preparations with the active substance ascorbic acid are prescribed at a rate of 0.5 g or more per day.
• Stage III is a severe stage of the disease (stage III scurvy). Diet is adjusted, and medications with the active substance ascorbic acid are administered to the patient at a rate of 1.0 g or more per day. At least a third of this amount should be administered parenterally.

In case of severe disease, a high therapeutic effect is shown by a combination of 5% sodium ascorbate solution, which is taken in a volume of 1-2 ml, and a glucose solution. This tandem enters the patient's body through a vein, which increases its effectiveness and reduces the time after which the expected therapeutic effect occurs.

In order to improve the patient's condition as quickly as possible, 0.15 to 0.3 g of drugs, the main component of which is vitamin P, as well as 0.02 g of vitamin B1 preparations and 0.01 g of riboflavin (a substance actively involved in the processes of protein, carbohydrate and fat metabolism, in the visual function of the eyes and the synthesis of hemoglobin) are added to the therapy protocol.

The duration of treatment for vitamin C deficiency is usually about a month, but a person is obliged to maintain the level of ascorbic acid in his body at the proper functional level throughout his life.

If the therapy is carried out on small children, then usually the child receives the increased dosage permitted for his level for about a week, then the amount of the drug administered is reduced, and the therapy also lasts about a month.

Prevention

In the course of long-term clinical studies, the average amount of ascorbic acid that a person needs to take per day to avoid this pathology was established:

• If a person has no health problems, his daily dosage of the vitamin in question is 0.1 g.
• For women who are “in position” and carrying their baby, the daily dosage of the vitamin is 0.4 g.
• For women who are already breastfeeding their newborn, the daily dosage of the vitamin is 0.6 g.

The main prevention of vitamin C deficiency concerns mainly nutrition. The diet of any person should contain a sufficient amount of food products that are rich in this vitamin. These are, first of all, fruits, berries and vegetables, as well as meat products such as liver, brain matter and meat.

A person should lead an active and healthy lifestyle, eliminating bad habits from it. It would not be superfluous in the spring, when the body has spent its vitamin reserves during the winter, to regularly practice a monthly preventive intake of a vitamin complex.

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Forecast

The answer to this question largely depends on the severity of the pathology and its duration at the time of diagnosis. If the first symptoms of vitamin C deficiency appeared more than a year ago, then the prognosis for vitamin C deficiency is favorable, but not entirely satisfactory, since it will not be possible to completely restore the patient's body in this case. During this time, such changes have occurred in it that cannot be reversed.

If the case is severe and no therapeutic effect can be achieved during three months of treatment, then it is unlikely that this will be possible in the future. The patient will have to be content with constant maintenance therapy for the rest of his life.

If the pathology was minor and medical assistance arrived on time, the prognosis for vitamin C deficiency will definitely be favorable.

Constant diets, stressful conditions and other negative factors can lead the human body to a decrease in its defenses, when it remains unprotected against numerous infections and other diseases. And the reason for this is the deficiency of vitamin C in the human body. Its lack reduces the body's resistance, makes a person sluggish and apathetic. Therefore, in order for the quality of your life not to suffer, you should pay more attention to the signals of your body and at the first signs of vitamin deficiency, undergo a preventive course of therapy. But still, the main protection of your body is a complete diet rich in vitamins and minerals.

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