The Essential Vitamin for Wound Healing: Vitamin C Explained
Which vitamin is absolutely essential for wound healing?
The Quick Answer
**Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is absolutely essential** for wound healing—it enables collagen formation, the structural protein that closes wounds. Without adequate vitamin C, wounds cannot properly epithelialize or gain tensile strength. Deficiency causes scurvy with spontaneous wound dehiscence. Adults need 75–90mg daily; healing wounds may require 250–500mg twice daily under medical supervision.
Why We Ask This
Patients assume all vitamins contribute equally to healing, not realizing vitamin C has a non-negotiable biochemical role—without it, the enzymatic reactions creating collagen literally cannot occur, causing wounds to remain open regardless of other interventions.
The Practical Science
Vitamin C serves as a cofactor for prolyl and lysyl hydroxylase enzymes that stabilize collagen triple helices. Without hydroxylation, collagen strands lack tensile strength and degrade rapidly. Research shows vitamin C-deficient wounds have 70% less collagen deposition versus supplemented counterparts.
In Clinical Practice
A malnourished elderly patient with non-healing leg ulcers receives vitamin C 500mg twice daily alongside standard care—within 10 days, wound edges show active epithelial migration versus previous stagnation, demonstrating how correcting this single deficiency unlocks the entire healing cascade.
References & Context
Nutrition For Wound Healing - NHS Lanarkshire"Vitamin C is needed for the formation of new tissue, which allows the wound to heal over. Foods high in vitamin C: Citrus fruits such as oranges, grapefruit, blackcurrant drinks, fruit and vegetable juices, tomatoes, green leafy vegetables and potatoes."