Unfortunately, our body cannot produce vitamin C.
In fact, unlike most animals, our bodies cannot produce vitamin C on their own . Unfortunately, we have lost this property over the course of evolution and, unlike most mammals, our body can no longer produce the important vitamin itself. Only certain bats and guinea pigs, for example, are in the same precarious situation, and they also depend on vitamin C intake.
However, the majority of animals are able to produce vitamin C themselves. Our pets, cats and dogs produce up to 12 grams a day. We humans have to take the vitamin from the outside. A vitamin C deficiency only gradually becomes noticeable in our body and therefore we usually do not notice it immediately. The symptoms of a vitamin C deficiency are:
- Inflamed or bleeding gums
- Collagen formation is reduced
- immunodeficiency
- Delayed wound healing
- drop in performance
- joint pain
- susceptibility to infection
- Pale slightly gray skin
- cardiac insufficiency
- depressions
- joint inflammation
But even if none of the above manifestations show up, you can still suffer from a deficiency without realizing it. A typical sign of a deficiency is when you feel better after taking a large dose of vitamin C. At the latest then you should supply yourself with this vitamin over a longer period of time. Too much vitamin C is almost impossible, as our body simply excretes the unused amount through the urine.
What can vitamin C do?
In addition to the properties already mentioned, vitamin C is also used today for various serious diseases. In high doses, vitamin C creates hydrogen peroxide for a short time, and this chemical composition then combines with blood to create oxygen. Oxygen, on the other hand, is the enemy of many cancer cells and therefore this property is also used in alternative cancer therapy.
Vitamin C can also play a very important role in severe infections and therefore severe infections are fought together with high doses of vitamin C. Liposomal vitamin C is then used to avoid flushing out high-dose vitamin C from the body. What once only direct infusion of vitamin C could achieve, liposomal vitamin C can now easily and conveniently achieve. A needle is no longer necessary and the oral liposomal form can be taken by anyone at home. Another advantage of the liposomal form is the constant blood saturation. You can now regulate the vitamin C level in the blood yourself as needed. This is a clear and important advantage over the infusion, because vitamin C only remains detectable in the blood for about 3 hours after ingestion. Afterwards it has broken down and the blood saturation is lost.
Vitamin C and ascorbic acid
Vitamin C is also known as ascorbic acid. Today vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is isolated. Our cells cannot distinguish natural ascorbic acid from the synthetic form and studies have shown that the effect of both substances in our organism is exactly the same. However, natural vitamin C also contains minerals and flavonoids that are valuable to us as such.
Ascorbic acid and vitamin C are therefore the same and are also named E 300 in the E classification for foods. If you find E 300 on a table of contents for your food, it is vitamin C that has been added.
Bioavailability of vitamin C
Bioavailability is understood as the percentage utilization, i.e. how much of a substance (in our case vitamin C) can be absorbed by our body.
Vitamin C has a very low bioavailability, which means that it is difficult for our body to absorb it. For example, if you take 1000 mg in a capsule or tablet, our body can only fully utilize 18% of it. So only 180 mg arrive in our cells. This low availability poses a problem, because our intestines have an absorption tolerance (intestinal tolerance) and if this is exceeded, this is expressed in diarrhea when ingested. This does not last long, but our ingested vitamin is excreted as a result. The liposomal vitamin C, however, can elegantly circumvent this problem, because the ascorbic acid is packed into tiny lipids, which pass through our stomach acid undamaged and are then absorbed by the intestinal wall. So you can also take high doses well tolerated.