• This form is able to enhance the absorption and utilization of vitamin C.*
• Added calcium carbonate to create non-acidic (buffered), “GI friendly” delivery system.
• Synergistic benefits of citrus bioflavonoid complex.
• Available in 500 mg tablets and vegetarian capsules as well as 1000 mg tablets.

LifeSource Vitamin C Crystals are a scientifically advanced form of vitamin C!

Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin that has many important functions in the body including antioxidant activity, support of normal, healthy collagen, synthesis of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, carnitine production and the support of normal, healthy immune function.  Our Vitamin C Crystals are a scientifically advanced form of vitamin C which binds ascorbic acid to lipid metabolites such as fatty acids, esters and fatty alcohols to enhance digestion, absorption, cellular uptake and retention as well as utilization of essential vitamin C in the body.  This increased cellular uptake and retention of vitamin C results in enhanced vitamin C functions.

Improved absorption and retention

Vitamin C – the Master Nutrient!

Many people call vitamin C "the master nutrient" because its actions are so extensive and so diverse. Vitamin C is involved in so many biochemical pathways that a deficiency can produce a multitude of disorders.  A recent study published in Seminars in Preventive and Alternative Medicine that looked at over 100 studies over 10 years revealed a growing list of benefits of vitamin C.

"Vitamin C has received a great deal of attention, and with good reason. Higher blood levels of vitamin C may be the ideal nutrition marker for overall health," says study researcher Mark Moyad, MD, MPH, of the University of Michigan. "The more we study vitamin C, the better our understanding of how diverse it is in protecting our health, from cardiovascular, cancer, stroke, eye health [and] immunity to living longer."

"But," Moyad notes, "the ideal dosage may be higher than the recommended dietary allowance."

Vitamin C helps thyroid hormone production and the metabolism of folic acid, tyrosine, and tryptophan, and it stimulates adrenal function and the release of norepinephrine and epinephrine, which are stress hormones.  However, prolonged stress depletes Vitamin C in the adrenals and decreases blood levels.
 Ascorbic acid is important in cellular immune functions, where it may be helpful against bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases. At higher amounts, Vitamin C may decrease the production of histamine, thereby reducing allergy potential.

Still more benefits of vitamin C - The list of the benefits of vitamin C is a long one. 

Vitamin C helps the absorption of iron (particularly the vegetable, or non-heme form), so it is helpful for iron- deficiency anemia.  Other conditions that benefit from ascorbic acid, metabolism include diabetes (for insulin production), certain cases of male infertility, as well as arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, cataracts, glaucoma, and musculoskeletal degeneration (mostly by Vitamin C keeping calcium soluble and preventing it from going too high.

Physicians and scientists have long wondered how scurvy - a simple vitamin deficiency - can cause so much to go wrong in the body. The gruesome symptoms include loosened joints, bleeding gums, psychotic disorders, black and blue spots and broken capillaries, just to name a few which occur before death. Now we are beginning to understand: it is not only what reactions vitamin C is directly involved in, but also what it is indirectly involved in that's important to staying healthy.

Recently, we have begun to understand two additional functions of vitamin C. These functions are reviewed by Dr. Harish Padh he University of Chicago .

The first new realization involves vitamin C's role as an antioxidant in terms of protecting body components by scavenging free radicals. Now we're finding out that vitamin C is an antioxidant in the sense that it keeps the mineral portion of certain enzymes in their proper reduced electronic state.

Minerals such as iron and copper are key components of hundreds of enzymes. Enzymes control body chemistry, and nearly every type of reaction in the body requires a specific enzyme. Enzymes that depend on iron and copper won't work if these minerals are oxidized to a higher electronic state. What vitamin C does is to restore this required electronic state and thus rejuvenate oxidized enzymes.

Dr. Padh concludes, "The available data suggest that perhaps the most significant role of ascorbate is as a reductant that, along with other reducing agents, minimizes damage by oxidative processes. This role includes keeping the iron and copper ions of some enzymes in their required reduced form and in neutralizing harmful oxidants and free radicals."
With this new comprehension, we will be able to understand much more about how vitamin C affects such diverse body functions.

Cell Usage

When you add to this new comprehension that cells can hold and use more vitamin C than previously thought, all of a sudden we can begin to explain how megavitamin levels of vitamin C work.

The concentration of ascorbic acid in cells could be as high as several millimolar, considerably higher than previous estimates. This applies to human peripheral mononuclear leukocytes, B lymphocytes and T lymphocytes (T-cells).

The report also states, "The new data comes after learning that neutrophils appear to have both low- and high-affinity membrane transporters for ascorbic acid... Having two transport systems of different affinities and capacities gives cells the flexibility to respond and adjust to quite different extracellular concentrations of the vitamin."

The problem was that the old way of measuring vitamin C content and uptake of cells was wrong. The analytical methods were lacking speed and precision, and were less sensitive. Now we know that cells of the immune system can hold considerably more than once believed. In addition, we now learn that cells have two mechanisms of vitamin C uptake. There must be a reason! This will open the minds of more medical researchers.

Immune Function

As long ago as 1971, the importance of vitamin C to the immune system was known. Drs. Lawrence DeChatelet, Charles McCall and Robert Cooper reported vitamin C stimulated increased activity of white blood fells. Without copious amounts of vitamin C, engulfment of bacteria by white cells can take place, but they can't break down the bacteria as effectively.

Vitamin C Uptake

Vitamin C metabolite L-threonic acid or its calcium salt, calcium threonate  increases vitamin C uptake of cells. Dr. Anthony Veriangierl of the University of Mississippi has studied this phenomenon in several ways. His recent study comparing calcium threonate with ascorbic acid confirms earlier studies showing that the metabolite makes vitamin C more potent, i.e., more ascorbate activity is provided within the cells. Essentially, with calcium, vitamin C has been shown to be absorbed more quickly, reach higher levels and is excreted more slowly. Now the studies confirm that the vitamin C uptake of the cells is greater with the metabolite L-threonic acid present.

Dr. Veriangieri has shown that adding L-threonic acid to ascorbic acid or calcium ascorbate results in the same improved vitamin C activity as provided with calcium threonate. Additionally, he has shown that in a special breed of laboratory rat called the Osteogenic Disorder Shionogi (ODS) rat, calcium threonate is four to five times more effective than ascorbic acid in preventing scurvy. This is the accepted method for measuring vitamin C activity.

The ODS rats do not manufacture vitamin C in their bodies. Thus, they have the same genetic handicap that humans do. For this reason ODS rats may replace guinea pigs for studying vitamin C.


*These statements have not been evaluated by The Food and Drug Administration.  This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.