Vitamin C is considered to be one of the most essential vitamins for the human body. We usually get vitamin C from the plenty of foods that we consume daily. Nevertheless, when you don’t get enough nutrient-dense foods, then you might end up having a vitamin C deficiency. When this happens, your body will begin to experience some of the symptoms of vitamin C deficiency more often, at which point it might be time to check your vitamin C levels. Checking your body’s levels of vitamin C is an easy way to check whether your body is getting enough.
Introduction to vitamin C test
Apart from nutrition, there are some other causes of vitamin C deficiency, such as excessive alcohol intake, smoking, not consuming enough food or observing restrictive diets, disorders in the GI tract, overconsumption of iron, and food allergies.
Vitamin C deficiency can come with symptoms like fatigue, unexplained weight gain, and joint pain. You might also have problems with your skin or hair, such as coarse skin, bent or coiled hair, bleeding gums, red hair follicles, and dry skin that is easily bruised.
If you have been experiencing any of these symptoms, then it might be time to take a vitamin C test. There are two ways you can go about doing this: consulting your healthcare provider or by taking an at-home test.
If you go to your doctor and they suspect that you aren’t getting enough vitamin C, they may observe you for any signs of fatigue or chronic pain while conducting an examination. They might also get you to take a blood test to get to the bottom of it.
The second option is to take an at-home test yourself. You can buy one easily from a pharmacy, retailer or an e-commerce website. There are many brands available on the market, so picking the right one for you is key. If you keep getting results saying that you are low in vitamin C even after taking steps to improve your vitamin C intake, then you should consult your healthcare provider.
Types of vitamin C test strips
There are two types of at-home tests when it comes to finding out your vitamin C levels:
At-home blood test
This test requires you to prick your finger and collect a small sample of blood to mail to a lab. You typically get your results by email in a 1-2 week period. Collecting a blood sample might be hard, especially if you are afraid of needles. The waiting period for getting your results is also a drawback of at-home blood tests.
At-home urine test
Compared to at-home blood tests, at-home urine tests are much more convenient! There are different brands of at-home urine tests on the market that measure your body’s vitamin C levels. Each comes with a different set of instructions, but these tests typically involve urinating directly on a strip or collecting your urine sample in a cup and then dipping the strip into the sample.
After your strip comes into contact with urine, you interpret your results by comparing the color change in the strip with a reference color chart that comes with your test of choice. While these tests are convenient, they can be tedious if you can’t determine an exact color match, as well as be prone to errors in reading your results.
But not to worry, this is where Vivoo comes in! Vivoo is a smart at-home urine test that works with an App. You just urinate on the strip and scan to the app, and machine learning and image processing technology interprets your results for you, leaving you with no room for error.
Not only does Vivoo give real-time data on your body’s vitamin C - it also gives you data on your body based on 8 other wellness parameters like magnesium, calcium, water, ketones, urine pH, oxidative stress, sodium, and protein. The best part is that it gives you actionable nutritional & lifestyle advice to improve your overall wellness. Other traditional urine or blood tests only provide you with results but no ideas on actions to improve yourself. The Vivoo App also allows you to buy personalized supplements according to your Vivoo results, so if you are continuously scoring low on vitamin C, you can get a custom supplement to help you out!
Have you ever taken a vitamin C deficiency test? Or do you use Vivoo to check your vitamin C levels? Comment below!
