15 Signs You’re Vitamin C Deficient

5. Dry, damaged skin

Damaged skin can have a wide range of root causes, but if you know that lemons, grapefruit, and oranges are not your best friends, maybe that’s the problem. Since healthy skin packs quite large amounts of vitamin C, a lack of it may be the culprit of your dry and damaged skin.

This essential vitamin maintains our skin healthy by guarding it against oxidative damage that comes from sun exposure and certain pollutants such as cigarette smoke. Moreover, it gives collagen production a boost in order to keep the appearance of your skin young and healthy.

Also of interest: 6 Causes of Dry Skin (and What to Do About It)

Healthcare professionals, especially dermatologists, always associate high levels of vitamin C with improved skin health. In fact, several studies demonstrated that inadequate amounts of vitamin C could maximize the chance of developing wrinkled skin by 10 percent.

Still, damaged skin can occur due to many factors, and this symptom alone is unlikely to determine a vitamin C deficiency.

6. Easy bruising

When blood vessels are broken, bruises, a.k.a. contusions, appear. Here, we do not refer to those bruises that appear after bumping into furniture; spontaneous bruises are actually the problem.

A seemingly-innocent bruise for apparently no reason could mean that you’re vitamin C deficient. Poor collagen production is again the answer. Another piece of information to bear in mind is that deficiency-related bruises tend to appear as tiny purple dots.

So, if you think that you’re bruising easily, contact your doctor, because blood thinners, liver disease, and alcohol abuse happen to have the same symptom.