Vitamin C plays a vast and significant role in our health. However, since human bodies cannot manufacture this vitamin as most animals can, we must add it to our diet. Until the mid-1990s, the only raw material available for the production of Vitamin C supplements was USP-grade ascorbic acid synthesized from inexpensive sources of glucose; such as corn oil or sago palm, with free-form vitamin molecules and no food attachments.
In 1994, Lifestar introduced the world’s first live plant cell-grown vitamin C complex; that includes 16 active organic, non-denatured bioflavonoids, natural polyphenols, and two ascorbates as part of a life form. Life forms are not made of ingredients or by following a formula. This plant cell-grown complex not only maximizes absorption into the blood but also identifies the effective utilization of nutrients at the appropriate receptor sites on the surface of the target cells in the body. This simply means that your body gets more of what you take and uses it.
Vitamin C can provide many benefits to the body. It enhances immunity, protects against the harmful effects of pollution, maintains collagen in the formation of connective tissue in skin, ligaments and bones, and affects arterial walls, capillaries, and the healing of wounds. It is a powerful antioxidant, active in the formation of red blood cells and the production of interferon and anti-stress hormones; it affects the body’s ability to withstand stress and resist infections and supports its natural defenses. It also reduces the effects of some allergy-producing substances, plays a significant role in adrenal gland function and healthy gums, and is involved in the body’s absorption, assimilation, and metabolism of other vitamins and nutrients. Stress, alcohol, smoking, analgesics, oral contraceptives, anti-depressants, and steroids may all deplete the body’s levels of Vitamin C in a short time.
Lifestar’s Vitamin C Complex is an especially valuable resource for those who are living stressful lives or who are utilizing substances that deplete the body. It is particularly beneficial for additional protection during those months of the year when you are around people with colds and the flu. Vitamin C is necessary for maximum health, and Vitamin C Complex is a powerful ally in the body for anyone not consuming sufficient quantities of Vitamin C rich fruits and vegetables on a regular basis.
STUDIES
At Lifestar, we believe that nature’s inherent wisdom, such as how it creates nutrients in the food chain, cannot be surpassed by man’s best efforts to engineer something superior. Until recently, human beings have been evolving on food and not man-made chemicals. In spite of the best efforts of the health food community, most supplements on the market (including Vitamin C as ascorbic acid, the largest selling vitamin in the world), are isolated free-form chemicals and unlike anything found in the food chain; as such, they are not as effectively utilized by the body as something produced by nature.
In such a natural form, they reveal their effectiveness. For example, in 1997, a study done by one of the world’s leading authorities on antioxidant phenols revealed some of the distinct advantages of the live plant cell-grown nutrient material used in Lifestar Vitamin C.
The study was based on phenol analysis. Phenols, which are more commonly called “polyphenols”, are a group of chemical substances found in all plants, citrus fruits, and trees. Found in polyphenols are a class of biologically active compounds called flavonoids which, in turn, have small compounds called “oligomeric proanthocyanidins”, usually referred to as OPCs. They have been shown to be some of the strongest antioxidants found to date and possess powerful anti-cancer properties.
This study compared four products for total phenol content and, with the exception of ascorbic acid, were measured after hydrolysis with methanolic hydrochloric acid. The products tested were a pine bark extract, the “X” company (name deleted on demand from the company) Vitamin C, ascorbic acid, and the plant cell-grown nutrient material used in Lifestar Vitamin C Complex. (The “X” company form of Vitamin C is/was used in three brand name products and one well known multi-level company.)
The IC50 test is a concentration of antioxidant phenols in the products or a concentration of ascorbic acid to inhibit the oxidation of low density lipoproteins with cupric ion for 6 hours. 1/IC50 was calculated to allow for comparisons among the products; the higher the 1/IC50, the more powerful the antioxidant. It was found that Lifestar Vitamin C nutrient material contained 11.1 times stronger antioxidants than ascorbic acid alone, 7.6 times stronger than the “X” company’s Vitamin C, and 4.3 times stronger than an expensive, well known pine tree bark extract from France.
Ascorbic acid, the prevalent form of Vitamin C typically sold in stores worldwide today, is known to be excreted from the body, once it reaches the bloodstream, on average within about five hours. It does not matter how much is taken whether swallowed or taken intravenously. In fact, “timed release” products only slow down the product’s entry into the bloodstream.
It is difficult to compare ascorbic acid to Lifestar Vitamin C Complex since they are very different in composition (somewhat like comparing something that is alive to something that is not). However, for purposes of recommending dosages, we offer that 500 milligrams as an antioxidant alone, is equivalent to 5500 milligrams of ascorbic acid, with one important caveat: ascorbic acid alone is not retained in the body very long. Lifestar Vitamin C-Complex, on the other hand, can still be found in the bloodstream seven (7) days after taking it one time.
