 Vitamin C is perhaps the most well-known vitamin by the general public because everybody knows you've got to take vitamin C for a cold. But its role in human health goes way beyond the immune system. It plays a critical role as an enzyme cofactor but at the top of the list is it's a very potent antioxidant and in this way it's kind of very philanthropic. It happily donates electrons to tissues and biochemicals that are in need protecting them from oxidation. Now believe it or not vitamin C is not actually a vitamin for most animals because they can make their own. A goat for example can make as much as 13,000 milligrams a day to cover their own antioxidant needs. But humans, some primates, guinea pigs and fruit bats lost that ability to make vitamin C. The theory is that somewhere in our ancient evolutionary past we got so much vitamin C in our diet that we didn't need to make it and that got bred out. But some scientists kind of postulate that this is why humans are more prone to things like viral disease, heart disease, cancer and even less resistant to stress. Now vitamin C is quite unique in that it's the only vitamin that doesn't really require activation. It's just ready to go to work as is ascorbic acid. Now the deficiency disease associated with vitamin C is known as scurvy. It's a very widely known disease because it took such an enormous toll on sailors. And before a cure was discovered C voyage was the only way to travel before air travel was invented and these long voyages would invariably not have much fresh fruit and vegetables on them because they wouldn't keep. So this disease took an enormous hit on Britain particularly who had an empire to defend and they had to defend it by sea. I mean it would take it would take out half of a typical crew on a long voyage and it wasn't until 1757 a royal doctor in the Scottish navy named James Lynn discovered that citrus fruit could prevent scurvy and he figured out that by administering just a quarter lime every day to a sailor was enough to prevent scurvy and once that was discovered they can easily carry limes on board long haul journeys on boats and it saved millions of sailors. If you enjoyed this video please give it a like and subscribe below so you don't miss any future content. To learn more about CNM or its courses head to www.naturopathy-uk.com