Liposomal Vitamin C

A liposome is a very small sphere composed of an outer wall of fat (membrane) and an internal payload of any number of water-soluble substances. It is of particular interest that the liposome membrane is made of the same fat found in cell membranes throughout the body: phospholipids.

Because of this, liposomes have been studied as artificial models of cells. However, liposomes are much smaller than any of the cells in your body, allowing them to pass into the cells without difficulty.

What really makes the liposome so special is that it can deliver its contents (nutrients) directly to your body's cells without the energy consumption. An additional advantage, liposomes protect their contents from digestion or oxidation before final delivery to your cells.

When a nutrient can be delivered to the cells of your body, it is not degraded before delivery and no energy is consumed in the process. The benefits of that nutrient can be optimized in a way that even intravenous administration often does not match. Liposomal vitamin C is excellent for that reason.

Liposomal vitamin C is not an ordinary supplement. It delivers more vitamin C where it is needed most due to its unique structure. Lypo-spherical technology is indisputably superior for nutrient delivery. Why is liposomal vitamin C better? See the reasons below.

Common vitamin C has a disadvantage that makes vitamin C supplementation different from other nutrients.

Much of the vitamin C taken orally, either from food or supplements, is not absorbed by the intestine. Smaller amounts are better absorbed, for example, if you took 100 mg, you would absorb about 98 mg. There is a greater amount of "fractional absorption" with smaller doses.

The amount of fractional absorption decreases even with higher doses. Only about 1000-1250 mg of vitamin C would be absorbed with a single dose of 2000 mg. It is true that more total vitamin C is absorbed, but it is less efficient. To put this in perspective, a single dose of 12,000 mg would only result in about 16%, or 1920 mg, of absorption.

Vitamin C must be transported through the intestinal wall by transporters. There are a limited number of conveyors available and this action requires energy. In addition, there is limited time before vitamin C moves more intensively through the digestive tract. Once vitamin C has moved, it loses the chance of being absorbed. There are limitations to the absorption of traditional vitamin C.

In addition, regular vitamin C is quickly absorbed, distributed through the circulation, and eventually filtered and excreted by the kidneys.

Once taken, blood levels peak about 2 to 4 hours later and then return to pre-supplementation levels (baseline) about 6 to 8 hours after that. If you want to get more of your usual vitamin C, you should take several doses throughout the day.

Needless to say, this can make oral vitamin C dosing somewhat annoying.

Once in the bloodstream, a portion of vitamin C will diffuse or be actively transported from the blood to the various cells of your body, such as muscles, heart, kidneys, liver, digestive tract, brain, eyes, etc.

It offers antioxidant protection, but the amount of vitamin C that enters the cells is much less than the amount in the bloodstream (outside the cells). Much of the vitamin C that is not absorbed by the cells will be excreted in the urine. That's why liposomes are better and lipospheric vitamin C offers greater benefits.

Being wrapped in essential phospholipids, vitamin C is absorbed like dietary fats. It is absorbed by the lymphatic system with an estimated efficiency of 98%. Once there, it passes from the lymphatic system into the bloodstream. Liposomes bring more vitamin C to the circulation compared to traditional vitamin C supplements.

Circulating liposomes rich in vitamin C deliver more vitamin C to your tissues and organs. Liposomes bind to cell membranes where they release vitamin C into their cells, effectively raising intracellular levels.

A recent clinical trial by pharmacologist and world-renowned vitamin C expert Steve Hickey, Ph.D., showed that liposomal vitamin C was capable of producing serum levels of vitamin C nearly twice as much as were thought theoretically possible with any oral form of the vitamin.

Not only does this staggering level of bioavailability dramatically increase the amount of vitamin C in the blood, but recent thermographic microscopy provides visible evidence that it also helps its entry into individual cells.

Even IV vitamin C has its limits in terms of raising intracellular levels of vitamin C because most of the vitamin C is still in the blood. Some of it will reach the cells, but not much. Studies estimate that only about 20% of vitamin C comes in from intravenous administration despite very high concentrations in the serum. Liposomal vitamin C is different.

Anecdotally, vitamin C researcher Thomas Levy has discovered through years of clinical experience that a much smaller oral dose of lipospheric vitamin C (5 to 10 grams) often results in a clinical response similar to a much larger dose of vitamin C administered intravenously (25 to 100 grams).

It's not just about vitamin C. When you take liposomal products, you get all the nutritional benefits from the material that liposomes are made of. Liposomes are made of phospholipids with a high concentration of phosphatidylcholine, which is a building block of all your cell structures, including cell membranes.

It is the unique phospholipid-based structure of liposomes that allows them to "slide" across the cell membrane (without needing energy to do so), into the cells, where vitamin C is most needed.

Phosphatidylcholine is a specific type of essential fats (phospholipids) that your body can't produce on its own, so you should get it from food. As a structural feature of the cell membrane, phospholipids are necessary for continuous repair and maintenance.

Liposomes are a supplemental source of phosphatidylcholine which, in turn, provides your body with much-needed choline. Most people don't get enough choline and its importance to human health has been largely forgotten.

Liposome encapsulation overcomes all restrictions of bioavailability and cellular absorption. Liposomes do not rely on a specialized carrier transport system. Instead, due to their size and composition, they can be passively absorbed through the intestinal wall and through cell membranes.

As a result, nutrients encapsulated in liposomes (such as lipospheric vitamin C and liposomal glutathione, lipospheric carnitine, and lipospheric alpha lipoic acid) provide greatly improved bioavailability (delivery to the bloodstream) and much better delivery to individual cells.

This better absorption has the advantage that vitamin C first enters the lymphatic system, delivering much of its vitamin C to the immune system's white blood cells (such as macrophages and phagocytes that like to concentrate vitamin C within their structures to fight infection and cancer).

Liposomes filled with vitamin C then enter the bloodstream, but unlike regular ascorbic acid that is filtered by the kidneys, when liposomal vitamin C is removed from the blood, it is absorbed by various cells, tissues, and organs throughout the body. It enters the cells and is not lost in the urine.

PRO TIP: One form of vitamin C does not replace the other, nor should it replace it. Regular vitamin C increases blood levels very well, while the lymphosphere is better at increasing vitamin C within cells. It is better to have both ways to ensure maximum benefits!