Three great reasons to take Vitamin C after a workout.
1. Muscular contraction propels lymph fluid through the lymphatic system propelling bacteria and macrophages towards the spleen for filtration and re-entry into the blood stream. Vit. C can help during the interim to reduce susceptibility to airborne vectors and micro-organisms.
2. Vit. C is responsible for donating Hydroxyl groups ( OH) to the amino acids proline and lysine (Major components of cartilage {joint} tissue) creating "Hydroxy-Lysine and Hydroxy-Proline" thereby facilitating joint repair (depending on duration or intensity of training)
3. Increasing Glutathione is important to reduce too much free radical damage. Consider the following abstract:
Vitamin C elevates red blood cell glutathione in healthy adults
CS Johnston, CG Meyer and JC Srilakshmi
Department of Family Resources and Human Development, Arizona State University, Tempe 85287.
We examined the effect of supplemental ascorbic acid on red blood cell glutathione. Subjects consumed self-selected vitamin C-restricted diets, and, under double-blind conditions, ingested placebo daily for week 1 (baseline), 500 mg L-ascorbate/d for weeks 2-3, 2000 mg L- ascorbate/d for weeks 4-5, and placebo daily for week 6 (withdraw). Mean red blood cell glutathione rose nearly 50% (P < 0.05) after the 500-mg period compared with baseline, and the changes from baseline for individual subjects ranged from +8% to +84%. However, the increases in plasma vitamin C and red blood cell glutathione were not correlated (r = 0.22). At the 2000-mg dosage, mean red blood cell glutathione was not significantly different from the value obtained at the 500-mg dosage. After the placebo-controlled withdraw period, red blood cell glutathione did not differ from baseline. These data indicate that vitamin C supplementation (500 mg/d) maintains reduced glutathione concentrations in blood and improves the overall antioxidant protection capacity of blood.
