First of all it turns your urine yellow. It makes your urine more acid, which decreases urinary pH and possibility of urinary tract infections.

Beyond that 1 gm of Vitamin C per day is excessive as an antioxidant; 500 mg would be sufficient, according to the latest research on cancer and antioxidants.

Are you on a drug called Coumadin or taking a herbal supplement like ginkgo? These are blood thinners and can increase the ease of bruising or severity of the bruise even from a slight injury. If you are on coumadin, then your doctor should be checking your clotting time (prothrombin) periodically to make sure it is not too long. If you are on ginkgo, perhaps you should review with your doctor the need for ginkgo. Persons on Coumadin should not take ginkgo as their bleeding time would be too long.

Bruises appear darker and more readily on people with fair skin. People with darker skin have more melonin pigment in their skin, so bruises don't appear as easily. Taking a multivitamin with 100% of the Recommended Dietary Allowances is fine and one pill probably contains 100% of the RDA for vitamin C. Read the bottle label to be sure.

Vitamin C makes small blood vessels less fragile and helps reduce bruising. A vitamin C supplement is not necessary in addition to your multivitamin, however, if you follow the recommendations of the Food Guide Pyramid for 5 fruits and vegetables each day, you can get more vitamin C. Eat foods that are rich sources of vitamin C like orange juice, citrus fruits, kiwi, green peppers and broccoli, which may reduce the severity of your bruising.

Vitamin K helps improve clotting time and good foods sources of vitamin K are green vegetables, soybeans, dried beans or peas. Do you get enough of these foods each day?

Vitamin C is the most easily destroyed vitamin there is. It is destroyed by oxygen, heat (above 70 degrees) and it leaks out into the cooking water because it is a water soluble vitamin.

To preserve vitamin C in food, store citrus fruits, tomatoes, juices, broccoli, green peppers, cantaloupe and strawberries in the refrigerator uncut until you need them. Prepare dishes with these foods right before serving. Also, cut these foods in larger pieces to prevent the air from destroying vitamin C. Cook these foods in as little water and as short a time as possible. Steaming and stir-frying are two methods that help conserve vitamin C content.

As long as the skin is uncut, the vitamin C is protected from air. If you store a cut fruit or vegetable or an open pitcher of juice, cover it tightly with plastic and put it in the refrigerator.

Vitamin C dissolves in cooking water so serve the food with the cooking water if possible. You can save the water from vegetables like potatoes and broccoli for making soup. Or mash potatoes with some of the potato water.

Also, cast iron pans destroy vitamin C. Don't use them in cooking vitamin C rich vegetables like tomatoes for spaghetti sauce.

Add vitamin C rich foods to casseroles. As they cook, less vitamin C will be lost.

Vitamin C can be completely lost if foods are frozen for longer than two months. Keep your freezer at 0 to -10 degrees to minimize this vitamin C loss in juices and vegetables.

Orange juice is frequently bought as a frozen concentrate. Frozen, reconstituted orange juice has 78% and canned orange juice has 69% of the vitamin C found in fresh squeezed orange juice. Vitamin C is destroyed during the condensing process, but canning is even harder on vitamin C. It appears that fresh squeezed orange juice is better than either frozen concentrate or canned, but remember that the highest Recommended Dietary Allowances for vitamin C is 60 milligrams and all three forms, fresh, frozen and canned provide more than the RDA of vitamin C in 2/3 cup of orange juice.