Vitamin C is one of the most well known vitamins, but do you really know what it is and what it does? That's what this article will show you: everything you've ever needed to know about Vitamin C. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient for good health and wellness. Your body is unable to manufacture vitamin C, so you should ensure that you get enough from the foods you eat and nutritional supplements. Vitamin C has many different functions in the body, including: Required for creation of collagen Vitamin C is essential for your body to create collagen, a protein your body uses to create skin, scar tissue, ligaments, tendons, and blood vessels. Antioxidant Activity Vitamin c is a powerful antioxidant, meaning that it protects your cells from oxidation by free radicals. The damage caused by free radicals has been linked to disease and aging. Vitamin C, as an antioxidant, can help counteract free radicals. Deficiencies If your body lacks vitamin C, you can develop conditions such as bleeding and bruising easily, hair and tooth loss, joint pain and swelling, decreased wound-healing rate, anemia; decreased ability to ward off infection, and in severe cases, scurvy. Scurvy is the most famous of the effects of a lack of vitamin C, due to the effect that scurvy had on the navies of times past. It took centuries before anyone realized that this devestating disease was from the lack of nutritious foods that contained vitamin C. Of course, we've all heard the story of Captain Cook and others who beat scurvy with limes, hence why British sailors are call limies! Sources: vitamin C is available from many different sources. Especially good sources are citrus fruits, Australian bush plum, strawberries, tomatoes, goji berries, broccoli, and more. There are also some good Vitamin C nutritional supplements that you can use. Vitamin C is a very important nutritional component. Be sure that your body gets enough of it!