"Honey, Where is my Ester C?"

You've seen the billboard ads: a person with a red runny nose and tissues asking for his favorite remedy.

The season of common colds is approaching and people are concerned with preventing or lessening the effects of the common cold.

Yes, we all know the basics. Only building your immune system can helps prevent the common cold. So, sleep well, eat a healthy diet high in vitamins and minerals, exercise in moderation and maintain an ideal body weight. Also limit stress, alcohol, smoking, and temperature extremes. Washing hands regularly after contact with people and especially before touching your own eyes, nose and mouth.

But who lives under those conditions with the holidays season approaching? For those of us who don't, research has suggested that vitamin C can boost the immune system in people under some type of stress. Vitamin C is an excellent antioxidant as it can protect and repair the cells and tissues (i.e. collagen) in the body.

Ester C is a type of Vitamin C. While Ester C offers all the benefits of regular Vitamin C combined with Calcium, but it also offers an improved absorption rate and is gentle on the stomach.

Ester C: the Vitamin C that's gentler on the stomach

Vitamin C was isolated in 1928. It is known as ascorbic acid. It is the acidity that leads traditional vitamin C to cause stomach agitation in people who are sensitivity to acidity, such as pregnant women. This stomach agitation led to the invention of Ester C some twenty five years ago.

An Arizona physician named Edwin Goertz, MD, discovered Ester-C while seeking help for his arthritic wife. Goertz's spouse couldn't tolerate traditional forms of vitamin C because it upset her stomach. So he came up with the idea of mixing water, ascorbic acid and calcium ascorbate to arrive at a non-acidic alternative that he dubbed "Ester-C". Ester-C has a neutral pH that helps protect you from the stomach upset that can accompany other Vitamin C products.

Ester C: Vitamin C with improved absorption and retention

Ester-C is the most advanced form of Vitamin C available. It has been specially formulated for faster absorption and retention so you can obtain the maximum benefits of vitamin C quickly. By "esterfying" Vitamin C with calcium and bioflavanoids, this formula is estimated to be absorbed 400% faster than regular Vitamin C.

In an animal trial, two groups were fed equal amounts of either ascorbic acid or Ester C. They tested the blood and urine levels of Vitamin C for four hours. The animals fed the Ester C had higher blood levels of Vitamin C, suggesting better absorption in comparison to normal Vitamin C.

Research suggests the availability of Ester C seems to indicate it is different from that of normal Vitamin C, and it is appears to benefit from the presence of the threonate and other Vitamin C metabolites, which help improve its absorption to the tissues.

Vitamin C can help some people prevent common colds

As mentioned before, Vitamin C helps people in the more extreme physical conditions, such those as living in rather cold temperature or taking strenuous physical training. For example, Vitamin C helps prevent athletes from coming down with the sniffles. Generally, taking extra Vitamin C does not help most people from catching the common cold.

Vitamin C may help smokers too

Vitamin C supplements can help reduce the high rate of Vitamin E depletion that occurs in smokers. If a person is under oxidative stress, have low Vitamin C intakes, then Vitamin E doesn't do its job as well as it should and gets destroyed. Vitamin C supplements appear to reduce this tendency in smokers.

How much Vitamin C is needed?

Ever since Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling took mega-doses of vitamin C, the medical community has debated the optimal dosage intake of this vitamin. The RDA (Recommended Daily Allowance) is 60 mg, however, the optimal daily intake of Vitamin C has not yet been determined. It is not uncommon to find 500mg in standard multi-vitamins, or even 1000mg in effervescent tablets.

Disclaimer: Consult your physician before altering your diet or taking supplements. It is your responsibility to evaluate the accuracy, completeness and usefulness of any information, opinion or advice contained in the above article.

Autor: Jimson lee

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