With cough and cold season coming, you may be popping those vitamin C pills like candy. But have you tried liposomal vitamin C? Users have noticed a number of benefits of liposomal vitamin C over traditional oral vitamin C tablets. These include better immunity and being able to fight off colds and viruses with a single dose. What is liposomal vitamin C and what are its benefits? Read on to find out!
What is liposomal vitamin C?
Liposomal vitamin C is vitamin C which has been enclosed in a tiny, phospholipid sphere, aka liposome (1). Vitamin C is a very important vitamin. It helps your wounds heal, keeps your gums healthy, activates B vitamins, and even converts tryptophan to serotonin, “the happiness hormone”. Vitamin C also acts as an antioxidant, boosts your immunity and helps you fight off infections like the common cold (2).
Absorption of vitamin C
As you can see vitamin C is a very important vitamin, and since we can’t make it, we need to ingest it. However, we do not absorb vitamin C that well, particularly at higher doses. At doses greater than 1 g our bodies absorb less than half of it (3). So, if you are taking a 2 g oral dose of vitamin C, your body is absorbing less than 1g of it …making your supplement a colossal waste of money.
High doses of vitamin C have been used to treat and prevent stroke, heart disease, glaucoma, macular degeneration, colds, cataracts, even cancer. For instance, a study conducted on women with terminal uterine cancer found that those who took 5-30g of vitamin C a day survived 6 times longer than those who took less than 4 g of vitamin C a day (4). Now, I like those odds…pass me the vitamin C!
But, since our bodies don’t absorb high doses of vitamin C very well, we need to take high doses of vitamin C intravenously. However, this has side effects including discomfort (anyone here like being poked with a needle?), infection and inflamed veins.
Benefits of liposomal vitamin C
- Better absorption
This is where liposomal vitamin C comes to play. Your body absorbs liposomal vitamin C better. In fact, a study found that absorption rate of a 4 g dose of liposomal vitamin C was almost double that of traditional oral vitamin C tablets (1). As a result, you don’t need to take as many doses of liposomal vitamin C to get the same effect as traditional oral vitamin C tablets.
- Source of phosphatidylcholine
With liposomal vitamin C, the vitamin C is enclosed in a sphere made of phosphatidylcholine, which is a major component of your cell membranes. Phosphatidylcholine may delay the progression of dementia, and protect you from heart disease (1).
- Better stability
Liposomal vitamin C is more stable than traditional oral vitamin C tablets. As a result, your liposomal vitamin C will last longer before it becomes useless (1).
- Minimizes stomach irritation
Vitamin C is very acidic so taking your traditional oral vitamin C tablets on an empty stomach can irritate your stomach (5). Since the vitamin C in liposomal vitamin C is enclosed in a phospholipid sphere, your stomach may be irritated less.
Now, that you know the benefits of liposomal vitamin C, why don’t you go ahead and give it a try!
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