Hi Colleen, I agree 100% with Nat that the bruising is a result of C deficiency. Anemia doesn't cause bruising. Slow healing is a sign of scurvy and your C levels must have been very low. The improvement you have had in healing is due to the C in the Centrum tabs you are taking. But I disagree that your body can only use 250 mg at a time. It is true that with larger amounts your body excretes the C at a faster rate and after 12 hour the extra C you took is gone from your body, but think of it like a colander which has tiny holes at the bottom and the holes get larger as you go up the sides. If you keep pouring water into the colander you can fill it up and the faster you put in the water the higher you can make it go. Now with vitamin C if the colander is empty or nearly empty you start getting symptoms of scurvy. Now you are pouring a little C into your colander and you have overcome the scurvy symptoms. What happens when you fill the colander higher? Well, if your body has more vitamin C it will find other uses for it. For instance, it will use it to neutralize toxins and fight illnesses and block stress. The higher you go up the colander, the more of these things your body can use the vitamin C for. If you pour in so much so fast that it runs off the top, which means you have taken more than your body can use, you get diarrhea because your body stops absorbing it from the intestines and the osmotic pressure of the extra C pulls water into the intestines and colon leading to loose stools or diarrhea. So because of this when I start to feel a cold coming on and my throat is starting to get sore and my ears are itching and I am starting to cough I will take enough C to get just a little diarrhea, which for me is about 15-18 grams when I am fighting a cold, and after a few hours the cold symptoms either go away or are greatly lessened. I try to keep the level up for a few days because if I let it fall down the colander the symptoms come back. When I am not fighting a cold or something I take about 5 grams 3 times a day. Most people can take 5 grams 3 times a day, but if you get diarrhea at that level you should lower the amount. I have found that if I take more than 5 grams at a time it is best to take it on an empty stomach or a stomach that isn't too full or I get bloated. On an empty stomach you don't get the bloating, but you need to wait for a half hour or so to give the stomach time to empty before you eat. We use mostly powdered ascorbic acid in juice with a little stevia for sweetener, but of course you can take capsules, too, any kind that doesn't have a lot of additives is fine. If you want bioflavnoids, eating fresh fruits and vegetables is a better source so don't pay more for bioflavnoids or rose hips because the ones that have them are just ascorbic acid or sodium ascorbate with a tiny bit of rose hips or bioflavnoids added but they charge more for it. If you want to learn more about vitamin C try looking up vitamin C bowel tolerance on the internet.

According to my doctor Centrum has a lot of alkaline ingredients that makes the vitamins harder to absorb, plus I guess that it only has pretty minimal amounts of each vitamin in it, 100% of the RDA or something like that. If you take extra C in ascorbic acid form with it that will probably keep it from being too alkaline. You might want to take B-50 tabs one or two a day depending on how it makes you feel and some zinc 30 mg a day in addition to the Centrum. (your urine will be bright yellow) I think the RDA is set too low for the Bs and a lot of people feel better if they take more. You will be getting extra of some of them, but it isn't too expensive and you will know that you have enough. Again, any brand that doesn't put in a bunch of additives is fine. Zinc and the Bs are both easily excreted so you won't have a problem with overload like you can get with vitamin A. Zinc does a lot for you, for one thing it helps prevent stretch marks. I wish I had known that before I had my children! We also take 400 IU of Vitamin E a day, you need to get natural vitamin E, the man made doesn't do as well, so it is more expensive.

You might want to take something for your omega fatty acids. Coromega and twinlabs emulsified fish oil taste pretty good. Carlson's cod liver oil is a good brand but tastes, well, like cod liver oil. With capsules you can't tell if they are rancid. You can take Total EFA or Essential Balance which are vegetarian sources and I think they taste terrible, but I can stand them if I mix them with kefir. These have to be refrigerated.

Hope this helps!