The Link Between Vitamin C, Acne, and Your Immune System

Last Updated on August 5th, 2020

If there is any vitamin we have all heard about, it is vitamin C. Most people take vitamin C to boost immunity. For acne, however, vitamin C when it is used to keep immune responses in check.

Natural sources of Vitamin C are much more effective in fighting acne.

Is Vitamin C Really What We Think It Is?

Vitamin C is the nutrient most people get from orange juice or by taking 1000-mg capsules. 🍊 It turns out that neither orange juice nor 1000-mg capsules of synthetic ascorbic acid is the best way to get vitamin C for fighting acne.

When the famous Hungarian-American scientist Albert Szent-Györgyi was researching treatments for scurvy nearly 90 years ago, he noticed that vitamin C wasn’t enough to treat the red and sore gums, red and sore skin, loose teeth, and connective tissue degeneration caused by this vitamin C deficiency disease. Vitamin C needed some kind of co-factor to regenerate it and to keep it active. Dr. Szent-Györgyi found that if people got their vitamin C from goulash made with paprika (he was Hungarian, after all), then they got better. If they didn’t get this factor he called “vitamin P,” the vitamin C didn’t work.

The term “vitamin P” was used in the medical literature not printed in English until just a few years ago. In the English-speaking world, what Dr. Szent-Györgyi called vitamin P we call citrus bioflavonoids.

What this means is that natural sources of vitamin C are far more effective than synthetic sources of vitamin C.

There is even a standardized product known as Acerola with Vitamin C USP that uses the Caribbean fruit acerola as the source of an intensely concentrated natural vitamin C that has the cofactors that stabilize the collagen in blood vessels. But what does that have to do with acne?

Vitamin C Helps Take The Red Out Of Acne

Probably the most dramatic effect of taking a vitamin C supplement if you have acne is clearing up the redness in your skin. Redness is partially the result of inflammation. The immune system releases inflammatory chemicals known as leukotrienes to destroy acne bacteria, but the bacteria have a “decoy” system that redirect those chemicals toward the skin itself. Vitamin C in large doses doesn’t stimulate the immune system. It “tones it down.” That’s a good thing, however, when the immune system is misfiring and destroying healthy skin rather than the acne bacteria in pores.

The other way vitamin C can help take the red out of acne is by strengthening the linings of capillaries. These are microscopic blood vessels that provide oxygen and nutrients to the basal layer of the skin, about the thickness of 25 cells deep. The basal layer generates new skin cells that keep pushing outward to the stratum corneum, where they die and rupture to form a solid protective layer of protein and ceramides over the skin. 🩸 The redness we see in pimples is mostly generated at this lower layer, but it is minimized when vitamin C with its cofactors helps stop leaks of bright red blood.

Do You Get Enough Vitamin C?

It used to be standard procedure for nutrition experts to recommend very large doses of vitamin C. Daily doses of 1000, 5000, and even 25,000 mg of vitamin C were supposed to be thing to activate the immune system. Some people (who made their living by selling vitamin C) even tried to persuade their customers that the diarrhea and dehydration that come with taking huge doses of vitamin C was a good thing, a signal that the vitamin C was working. But the old advertising pitch for vitamin C was based on at best a faulty understanding of how the nutrient actually works in the human body.

Getting enough vitamin C to avoid scurvy really only requires an orange or an apple once or twice a week. (In the UK, however, many people don’t get that much.)

Getting enough vitamin C for optimum health of your skin really isn’t especially hard, either. You can be just fine on as little as 100 mg per day if you are sure to get it from natural sources.

Some of these food choices provide more vitamin C than that in a single serving. All serving sizes in this list are 3-1/2 oz, which is roughly 100 grams.

• One serving of Tang or other orange-flavored powdered drink provides 2400 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of fresh acerola (West Indian cherry) provides 1677 mg of vitamin C. There is even more in acerola “leather.”
• One serving of rose hips provides 426 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw green chili peppers provides 242 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of McDonald’s apple dippers with caramel sauce provides 210 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of sweet peppers provides 183 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of dried litchi fruit provides 183 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of fresh currants provides 181 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of sauteed red peppers provides 160 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of McDonald’s fruit and walnut salad provides 143 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw kale provides 120 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of grapefruit juice provides 120 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of cooked leeks provides 118 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of sliced frozen peaches 🍑 provides 94 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of of almost any wild greens (pokeweed, fireweed, taro and taro leaves, dandelion greens) provides around 90 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw broccoli (any part of the plant) provides 89 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw Brussels sprouts provides 88 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of most vitamin-fortified breakfast cereals provides 70 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw papayas or fresh pomelo provides 62 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of peeled raw navel oranges or raw strawberries provides 59 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw purple cabbage provides 56 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw lemon pulp (without peel) provides 52 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of boiled kale provides 52 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of orange juice provides 50 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of canned green peppers provides 46 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of raw cauliflower provides 46 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of boiled Brussels sprouts provides 43 mg xx.
• One serving of SPAM (the canned pork product) provides 43 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of watercress provides 43 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of bottled cranberry juice cocktail provides 42 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of frozen strawberries provides 41 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of cooked chopped broccoli or collard greens (previously frozen) provides 40 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of sun-dried tomatoes 🍅🍅 provides 39 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of most organ meats provides 38 to 40 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of “light” luncheon meat provides 38 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of pink or white grapefruit juice provides 38 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of boiled red cabbage provides 38 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of orange juice fortified with calcium and vitamin D provides 32 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of boiled cauliflower (previously frozen) provides 31 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of Swiss chard (silverbeet) provides 30 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of potato pancakes provides 27 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of wild raspberries provides 27 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of canned sweet potatoes provides 26 mg of vitamin C.
• One serving of fried or baked Irish potatoes provides 17 mg of vitamin C.

Just one to four (five if you only eat potatoes) servings of the foods on this list provides all the vitamin C you need for the health of your skin.

There are other conditions that require more vitamin C, but 100 mg per day is enough for acne.

Of course, some people just aren’t going to get their vitamin C from fruits and vegetables. If that’s you, then there are two ways you need to get your vitamin C.

Take vitamin C with bioflavonoids or Acerola with Vitamin C USP. One capsule or tablet per day is enough.

Use skin care products that provide the form of vitamin C known as palmitoyl ascorbate. But be sure to buy it in tube form and to close the tube tightly to prevent the oxidation of the palmitoyl ascorbate by exposure to the air.