Bioflavonoids are also known as Vitamin P.
The following information has been gathered and compiled through personal experience, while traveling, teaching T’ai Chi, Qi Gong, Chinese Herbal medicine, martial arts and other health related subjects. The article also contains feedback from students and anecdotal information from readers of my columns. The following are my opinions and deductions from those sources.
Bioflavonoids are the door openers for vitamin C. Without bioflavonoids, little or no vitamin C will be assimilated.
In a natural state, or derived from a natural source, bioflavonoids accompany vitamin C. Most vitamin C, ascorbic acid, is produced in a laboratory, which is less expensive than getting it from a natural source, and devoid of bioflavonoids unless they are added separately. Check the label to be sure you’re getting vitamin C with biolflavonoids, otherwise, you may not be getting vitamin C at all where it counts, at the cellular level. Most labels will indicate the percentage of bioflavonoids each capsule, or milligram, of vitamin C contains. Most nutritionists recommend a ten to one ratio: 100 mg of bioflavonoids to each 1000 mg of vitamin C.
Bioflavonoids consist of three separate ingredients: hesperidin, rutin and pecinates. When you check the labels they may be listed separately. The total of the three should equal the ten to one ratio. Bioflavonoids have to be taken with vitamin C to be effective.
If you bruise easily, you find the bruises all over your body, you don’t know how you got them, and it takes a long time to get over them, you may be deficient in bioflavonoids.
Bioflavonoids help strengthen the capillaries, small blood vessels, in the body. If you bruise easily, it’s an indicator that the surface capillaries are fragile. If the capillaries on the surface are fragile it’s likely that the capillaries in the rest of the body are too. If you bruise easily, don’t take it lightly. Bruising can be a messenger. A ruptured capillary in the brain is called a stroke. If you also suffer from hypertension (high blood pressure), you’re at an even higher risk of suffering a stroke if you bruise easily. Bioflavonoids, as well as vitamin C, are destroyed by aspirin.
Besides bruising, other indicators of low bioflavonoids are nosebleeds, blood shot eyes and bleeding gums. Gingivitis, bleeding gums, causes seventy percent of all tooth loss in adults. Many of the symptoms of bioflavonoid deficiency are the same as those connected to vitamin K deficiencies. If you’re on blood thinners you need to check with your health care provider before taking vitamin K or increasing foods high in vitamin K.
Bioflavonoids also help strengthen ligaments, promote skin repair and skin cell replacement, aid in the control of allergies and assist in detoxifying the intestinal tract, helping to eliminate gas, bloating and general digestive problems connected with the intestines.
The white inner membranes and inner skin of citrus fruits, lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit and others, contains the bioflavonoids. When you eat the fruit segments, you need to eat the white inner parts to get the bioflavonoids.
