Roper
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Best Answer
Although many people will swear that vitamin C will help you to live longer, no scientific evidence fully supports this. In fact, it is possible to overdose on vitamin C. Of course, having the recommended amount of vitamin C will keep a person healthy, thus increasing life over someone who does not get this daily amount. Taking more than this does not show to increase life. The U.S. daily recommended amount of vitamin C is 90 mg/day for an adult male and 75 mg/day for an adult female.
Vitamin C is the source of many health myths. Vitamin C does not prevent the common cold, but some initial evidence suggests that 200 mg/day of vitamin C can decrease the duration of the cold. No evidence exists that mega-doses of vitamin C prevent cancer, although one flawed study reported so in 1976. This study is the source of the myth surrounding vitamin C’s ability to increase life span.
Since ancient times, it has been known that eating fresh, leafy plants and fruits kept disease away, but vitamin C was not discovered and isolated until 1912, and it was not named until 1928. Vitamins, as a whole, were not discovered until 1907. It was known that sailors and other people who did not have access to fresh fruits and plants to eat developed a fatal disease called scurvy. In the late 1700s, sailors were issued lemons or limes to prevent the disease. Since limes were cheap in the British Empire, British sailors came to be known as limeys.
Another interesting fact is that many animals produce their own vitamin C. Cats, goats, and rabbits produce great quantities of the vitamin, never needing to eat it. Humans, apes, birds, and many other species are not so lucky and must find vitamin C from food sources.
 Posted 5399 day ago
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