If you have ever heard of the horrific story about an estimated two million sailors dying between 1500 and 1800 because their lack of vitamin C resulted in scurvy, a deadly and painful bleeding disorder, you would remember the classic symptoms of vitamin C deficiency. These include weakness, tiredness, gum bleeding and easy bruising at first, as scurvy worsens there could be loss of teeth, poor wound healing and finally death from infection or bleeding.

​

    Vitamin C is necessary for collagen synthesis in the body. Collagen is a primary structural protein in the human body and makes up blood vessels, skin, muscle, bone, cartilage, and other connective tissues. Vitamin C helps two primary amino acids in the collagen, proline and lysine, by adding hydroxyl side groups to the amino acids. These hydroxyl side groups would form a cross-link between the fibers to form a strong collagen structure. Without proper linking of the fibers without the help of vitamin C, the collagen produced would be weak and defective. Such defective connective tissue would lead to fragile capillaries, leading to classic symptoms of vitamin C deficiency, such as bleeding gums and easily being bruised.

​

    Collagen is an important part of bones. Bone formation can also be affected by vitamin C deficiency. Teeth loosen and bones break more easily. Defective collagen synthesis can also impair wound healing, and untreated scurvy can lead to death (1).

​

    Collagen is also the underlying spongy protein structure of the skin, which accounts for ~75% of the dermis dry weight (2). When we get older, we gradually lose the ability of regenerating collagen and elastin, the two proteins that are responsible for the plump and stretchy healthy look of youthful skin. The skin starts to thin out, and moisture gets lost easily. That is why dry skin and wrinkles are signs of aging skin.

​

    Skin is the largest organ in the body, comprising about 10-15% of body weight. It helps protect the body from environmental dangers, such as Ultraviolet rays, pollution and infections, and it constantly renews itself – the outermost layer, epidermis, remakes itself every month. All of that requires a constant flow of energy and nutrients (3).

​

    In order to keep skin healthy, sufficient collagen production is needed, and thus vitamin C is needed. Vitamin C is a potent antioxidant that can neutralize and remove oxidants, such as those found in environmental pollutants and after exposure to Ultraviolet radiation. It also increases proliferation and migration of fibroblasts, the cells responsible for collagen production, and aids wound healing. People with diets that lack vitamin C not only are at risk of scurvy, but can also have unhealthy skin which may be exceedingly dry, brown-tinged, and have excessive bruising and slow-healing wounds (2, 3).

 

    The best diet advice for ensuring healthy skin aligns with general guidelines: eat a varied diet full of fruits, vegetables and other unprocessed food. This would provide a good supply of vitamin C (3). However, for someone who is smoking or drinking excessive alcohol, vitamin C could be depleted, thus additional vitamin C would be needed.

 

    Along with sufficient vitamin C, you would need to eat good amounts of amino acids that are needed for synthesizing collagen. The composition of amino acids in the animal skins, such as fish skin, has been found to have a close resemblance to the collagen amino acid composition in human skin (4). Therefore, eating fish is a great way to improve your skin.

​

    For keeping youthful skin, next time you may consider to add a good squeeze of lemon juice onto your salmon fish with skin. When you sit by the pool to sunbathe, instead of alcohol you may opt for a glass of lemonade. Good luck!

​

Reference:

1.Bown, Stephen R. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail. 2003. New York: Viking. 

2.Pullar JM, Carr AC, Vissers MCM. The Roles of Vitamin C in Skin Health. Nutrients. 2017, 9(8).

3.DeWeerdt S. The edible skincare diet. Nature. 2018, 563(7732):S94-S95.

4.Szpak, Paul. Fish bone chemistry and ultrastructure: implications for taphonomy and stable isotope analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science. 2011, 38 (12): 3358–3372.