Si Si Vitamin C!

Oh, those magazines for women at the grocery store checkout! I love the very careful layout formula: front and center, in large font with bold text, is a sensational weight loss story.  Then in the top left or bottom right corner is a decadent dessert image. Usually there’s another dessert (or two) featured in another corner, then sub-headline articles on anti-aging, stress relief and a fun decorating project.

While they may not be the finest choice in literature, they are heads and shoulders over the tabloids with people and celebrities that have no bearing on real life.  Or worse.

Once in a blue moon, one of these women’s magazines hops into my cart and comes home with me!

The title that sucked me in a couple of weeks ago? “The Vitamin That Turns Flab Into Firm!” You’ve got to hand it to those copywriters. They are Talented with a capital T. What a headline! I’m sure they sell a lot of magazines with those grabbers.

When I got home and read the article in detail, guess what the vitamin is?!  Good old Vitamin C.  Vitamin C as in help for colds (immunity).  I felt a little bit like Ralphie in the movie “The Christmas Story” with his long-awaited secret decoder pin from the Little Orphan Annie radio show.  If you’ll remember, when he had the message deciphered, it was an ad that read “Drink Your Ovaltine!”  He was so disillusioned and disappointed!  That’s how I felt with this article, but I skimmed further.

It quoted a lot of what we baby-boomers already know:

1) We humans – especially women — as part of the aging process, lose lean muscle at an alarming rate after age 40.  By age 60, many women have lost up to 20% of their muscle mass.  (Yes, we know.  We have mirrors and we don’t need printed facts to prove it.)

2) Since those now-gone muscles triple metabolism and burn a great many calories, the loss of this muscle mass is a simple-to-understand explanation for why we easily gain weight as we age. That weight is revealed as (sadly) flab.

Next the article quoted a UK study that showed that women who were consuming a higher-percentage of Vitamin C acquired a higher lean muscle mass, thus they were burning more calories and losing weight.

“Vitamin C is used for making carnitine,” says Dr. Ailsa Welch, who provided a review of this study for the article.  “It’s a crucial substance that provides energy for muscles and collagen, a structural component of muscle.”

OK. Sounds legit enough.  Next up in the article, however, is the explanation of how Vitamin C in its tablet form is just not well absorbed into the body and cells that need it.  The people in the study that were losing weight and increasing lean muscle were using a different form of Vitamin C, called “Liposomal Vitamin C.” Those fortunate gals had a whole lot more Vitamin C entering the cells of the body and doing its magical work.

Well, now it was time to put Ralphie aside. I was intrigued!

I read with great interest about how Vitamin C, in its regular tablet form that we’re all most familiar with and consume, breaks down within the digestive process.  By the time it’s ready to be absorbed into the cells of the body, there’s not nearly as much available as you think you’re getting when reading the bottle and following the recommended dosage.

Could this be true? Putting aside the idea that Vitamin C could have any bearing on weight loss (which seems far-fetched to me), I went on a quest for increasing the benefits of the more valid purposes for taking Vitamin C.  Increasing immunity is number for all of us these days. I did indeed find some additional fascinating information!

First the Vitamin C 101:

1.  We humans cannot make or store Vitamin C on our own.  We have to get it from an outside source.

2.  Vitamin C is important for a huge range of health benefits relating to the immune system, growth and development, bone health and more. While immunity is most important as COVID 19 still rages, it’s essential for many other reasons, including skin and joint health.  Without Vitamin C, we cannot make collagen, which is why so many skin products include Vitamin C.  Collagen is essential for joint health as well.  It’s important for connective tissue repair and wound healing.

3.  The traditional tablet form of the Vitamin C supplement is water soluble, meaning it dissolves in water and the leftovers are dispelled through urination.  The challenge, as stated in the article, is that traveling through the digestive system (which has a lot of water flushing through it) breaks down the viable Vitamin C content.  So … yup.  It’s true.  Much of what we take by mouth in tablet form literally ends up in the toilet and is flushed away.  It’s literally money down the drain.  Yikes.

4.  Yes, it’s very important to consume foods that are high in Vitamin C. This includes sweet red and green  peppers, tomatoes and tomato juice, oranges, strawberries, papaya, broccoli, pineapple, brussels sprouts, kiwi, mango, cantaloupe, cauliflower and lemon.

5.  The human body does not store Vitamin C.  I repeat:  The body does NOT store Vitamin C! People need to get it from both their diet and supplements to have enough for the benefits it yields. Since it dissolves so easily in water, (and the human body is up to 75% water) any excess leaves the body through urine.

When doctors feel there is an increased need for Vitamin C, it can be administered by IV.  Hmmm.  That doesn’t sound very practical and we all need all its benefits to the greatest degree possible!

Back to the women’s magazine article.  They next touted a readily available form of Vitamin C I had not heard of before: “Liposomal” Vitamin C.  This breakthrough form of Vitamin C has a little “coat” or “bubble” that protects the tablet through the digestive process, thus delivering the full dose we need for immunity and better health to be absorbed into our needy cells.

I went to the dictionary for a simple definition:  A liposome is a closed, spherical lipid bilayer, which forms an internal cavity capable of carrying aqueous solutions.  OK.  Got it.

Next I went to Youtube and learned how to pronounce it: LIPE-oh-SO-maul.

Then I went to Amazon to learn more, just by reading the reviews.  There’s always a good education to be found within those reviews.

NOTE: I am always impressed with people’s time to post reviews on products there. As an Amazon vendor with a health product myself, I know the backend of selling there.  It’s not easy to even offer a health product as the requirements to do so are very stringent. Additionally, in the past several years, Amazon has become extremely demanding about NOT accepting and/or posting paid reviews.  If it is determined that vendors are offering payment of any kind to their customers in exchange for a favorable review, those vendors are quickly kicked off Amazon. Reviews for Amazon products are absolutely voluntary on the part of the consumer/customer, so I do trust them.

Thus, I was delighted to find a doctor’s review and more reasoning for why Liposomal Vitamin C matters so much:

This review states:

I recommend vitamin C for all of my patients. In general, I recommend Liposomal Vitamin C. 

So — what’s the deal with Vitamin C? Here’s the thing, we are one of the only mammals that don’t produce its own Vitamin C. Vitamin C is important for the skin, hair, nails, but most importantly, it plays a vital role in the function of our immune system.

The issue with vitamin C taken by mouth is that Vitamin C is one of the most delicate vital chemicals (vitamins) that we consume. Air, sun, water, and other chemicals in our digestive tracts ruin the chemical bonds. The RDA (recommended daily allowance) is the amount necessary to prevent scurvy. However, the amount you need to keep your immune system is actually quite a bit higher. A lot higher.

You would have to take so much vitamin C (like 10’s of thousands of milligrams) to get the amount you actually need for a healthy immune system. The problem with that is that that amount would give you a very bad case of diarrhea and it would be very expensive.

Enter “liposomal Vitamin C.” The delicate bonds are protected because the ascorbate (Vitamin C) is protected in a fatty “liposome” sphere. This offers chemical and physical protection of the elements and allows for it to become absorbed into your body. Thus, a single daily dose of 1200 mg has the effect of tens of thousands of mg.

In short: Liposomal Vitamin C absorption is increased up to 135% percent

Wow!

I went on to read many of the reviews after the doctor’s review, and found testimonial after testimonial on how “Liposomal Vitamin C” has put people on a greatly improved track for avoiding illness.

What an easy way to boost immunity! Just use the form of Vitamin C that has the best chance of most of its benefits actually being delivered into the body’s cells …. instead of the toilet!

Well, back to the magazine’s article and weight loss. Will Liposomal Vitamin C really work for losing weight?  They quoted several studies stating that adults over 60 who were taking Liposomal Vitamin C burned 100 more calories per day without making any more dietary or exercise changes.  I don’t know about you, but 100 calories is not much.  You’ve got to be doing quite a bit more than that, it seems to me, to lose any significant amount of weight.  BUT, it also increases the levels of the fat-burning compound “carnitine” by 30%.  So that’s encouraging.

More realistically, the benefits of increased absorption of Vitamin C are for strengthening immunity and supporting the body’s ability to fight viruses and bacteria.  It also helps lower high blood pressure and cholesterol, regulate moods and prevent chronic illnesses. It strengthens the gums and bones.

Losing weight, if it happens, is an added bonus!

Liposomal Vitamin C is not expensive. Important fact check: An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  We can apply this liberally and literally when it applies to our health. It is NOT a luxury to have the most effective supplements as part of our regular health regime.  Spending a little on good health prevention and necessary supplements saves thousands of dollars in time at the doctors and prescriptions for conditions that can be prevented.

I encourage you to do your own Googling and research on Liposomal Vitamin C. There are many available at Amazon.  After spending a lot of time, we purchased Nutriflair Liposomal Vitamin C – Enhanced Absorption.

AMAZON LINK: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DH1ZJZ9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The doctor that reviewed it also said the following about this particular brand:

“As a doctor, I will say that through the years for myself, I have been happy with another brand but regret the price. I found NutriFlair and found that it has 20% more vitamin C per serving (same number of servings) and is actually 38% cheaper. That ends up being a value of about 48% higher.

As another note on the importance of absorption: Our herbal detox enhances the absorption of all supplements with a clean colon lining. This microscopic thin lining acts as a filter which allows nutrients from food, medicine and supplements to enter the body.  Like any filter, when it’s dirty, it blocks things from passing through. You can learn more about it HERE.

In conclusion, here are my thoughts:  Whether Liposomal Vitamin turns fat into flab or not (I mean really???With a dutiful wink to these women’s magazines), I think this information about Liposomal Vitamin C is invaluable. I am grateful for the people and scientists who are able to educate and make these products available to regular folks like you and me.

Why our doctors don’t bring us up to speed on essential information like this is a story for another day. In the meantime, we can (and should) be our own detectives for improving our own health and wellness.

Here’s to a healthier and happier day with good old Vitamin C, dressed up for success in a much-improved form.  Si-Si Vitamin C!