Can We Use Vitamin C for Allergies?

Can You Use Vitamin C for Allergies? Vitamin C is essential for immune health. And your immune system plays a huge role in how your body reacts to the world.

Immune cells can help you fight off harmful germs. But those immune cells may inadvertently fight your healthy cells if you have an allergy.

So, is there any benefit to taking vitamin C for allergies? This is what science says.

Read: 10 Benefits of Vitamin C for Bright Skin

One small study with 71 participants showed positive results, but it's not clear whether supplementation with vitamin C can help reduce allergy symptoms. Vitamin C does have many other well-documented health benefits, so it's worth a try!

Can You Use Vitamin C for Allergies?

Vitamin C is a water-soluble nutrient. Unlike fat-soluble vitamins, which tend to stay in your cells longer, you need to make sure you're getting enough vitamin C each day.

Although vitamin C is found in many foods such as fruits and vegetables. In fact, vitamin C deficiency is the fourth most common nutritional deficiency in the United States. .

Having low levels of vitamin C can negatively impact your body in a number of ways, such as weakening your immune system.

But just because getting enough vitamin C is necessary for your overall health, it doesn't mean that allergy sufferers need to supplement with extra vitamin C.

In fact, there is not much evidence that vitamin C supplements are beneficial for allergies who have adequate vitamin C intake.

Vitamin C and allergies: Can it help?

Overall, the research behind using vitamin C supplements for allergies is very limited. Plus, most of the available research focuses on intravenous (IV) vitamin C, not oral supplementation.

That's an important caveat because IV vitamin C is completely different from oral vitamin C supplements. These IV treatments usually contain much higher doses, and are usually given in a clinical setting.

Vitamin C can affect histamine levels

A small 2013 study with 89 people found that when peeping with and without allergies was given a high dose of 7.5 grams of vitamin C injection, it led to a significant decrease in histamine. Histamine is a compound that plays a key role in the body's inflammatory response.

Histamine is released from cells in your immune system and causes allergy symptoms such as itching and nasal congestion. So, theoretically, reducing the amount of histamine in your system could help reduce allergy symptoms.

Vitamin C can help asthma sufferers

A small 2013 review of research that included 3 studies (a total of 79 participants) found that vitamin C supplements in doses between 1 and 5 g may be effective for reducing asthma attacks and bronchial sensitivity in asthmatics.

Plus, a small 2005 study suggested that vitamin C supplements could help people with asthma reduce their doses of corticosteroid medications. But there is no current study to support these findings.

A 2014 review of research suggests that vitamin C supplementation may help to reduce exercise-induced airway constriction, which is common in people with asthma.

Conclusion

While these findings are interesting, there is not much evidence to support the use of vitamin C supplements in treating all types of allergic conditions.

That doesn't mean vitamin C isn't important for your immunity or your overall health. Certainly. It's just not clear whether vitamin C supplements specifically benefit everyone with allergies.