Frequently Asked Questions About Comfort-C™
- What are the advantages of Comfort-C?
- How does Comfort-C work?
- How does Comfort-C work in the stomach to provide relief and what are the mechanisms of reaction?
- How is Vitamin C stored in the cells?
- How does Comfort-C help replace essential minerals?
- How much more effective is Comfort-C and why?
- How neutral is neutral?
- Why do you recommend vitamin C supplementation?
- How does vitamin C work to fight infection?
Q: What are the advantages of Comfort-C?
A: Comfort-C has numerous advantages as a source of vitamin C, calcium ascorbate has few. Many of the advantages are technical, but not subtle, and your customers may want to know that:
- Comfort-C is gentle to the stomach and helps replace any calcium that vitamin C might remove from the system.
- Vitamin C is an important nutrient for helping to neutralize free radicals and promote maximum intracellular communication.
- Comfort-C is a better form of vitamin C than ascorbic acid, and much better than the calcium ascorbate form.
- Comfort-C’s buffered, non-acidic gentleness is natural and not gas-releasing.
- Vitamin C is very acidic with a pH of 4.2. People with acid problems cannot tolerate this level of pH. 44% of the US population has either acid reflux or occasional heartburn.
- Until now, the only solution for these people is to either not take vitamin C or to buy the leading brand of "acid neutralized" vitamin C, which uses calcium ascorbates to "neutralize" or raise the pH in its vitamin C.
- Comfort-C immediately neutralizes the stomach acid to a pH of 7.0 in one minute and a pH of 7.5 after 8 minutes.
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Q: How does Comfort-C work?
A: Comfort-C is hydrolyzed in the stomach into calcium ions and ascorbate ions (vitamin C). Some of the ascorbate ions combine with the hydrogen ion of hydrochloric acid in stomach acid to form ascorbic acid. Ascorbic acid is another form of vitamin C. When ascorbic acid is formed from Comfort-C, there is no increase in the total acid concentration due to the buffering capacity of the magnesium and potassium hydroxide ions.
Some of the ascorbate chelates again with the calcium ions and is readily assimilated. Once in the bloodstream, some of this chelated calcium ascorbate dissociates or returns, to free calcium ions and vitamin C (ascorbate ion). Comfort-C increases the body’s absorption of calcium and vitamin C.
Some people receive an added benefit because the temporary chelation of calcium supplied by Comfort-C temporarily protects vitamin C or the ascorbate ion from oxidation to dehydroascorbic acid and subsequent rapid oxidative degradation in the duodenum. Some individuals absorb only a few milligrams of vitamin C (ascorbate) out of each gram of ascorbic acid ingested. Thus they will benefit from vitamin C chelated as calcium, magnesium or potassium ascorbate.
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Q: How does Comfort-C work in the stomach to provide relief and what are the mechanisms of reaction?
A: Comfort-C influences gastrointestinal (GI) smooth muscle, mucosa and blood vessels by buffering acidic secretions that irritate the GI tract. Comfort-C contains H+ (positive hydrogen) ions in combination with calcium, magnesium and potassium. This combination allows the calcium, magnesium and potassium to be more effective in neutralizing acid that causes irritation, thus restoring oxygen to the blood and soothing irritated tissues.
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Q: How is Vitamin C stored in the cells?
A: Vitamin C is never stored in cells in the form of ascorbic acid. The cells normally contain vitamin C in the form of potassium ascorbate, sodium ascorbate, calcium ascorbate and magnesium ascorbate in the following ratios: 105:5:3:2. Comfort-C’s formula provides a source of potassium and magnesium to help the cell store ascorbic acid.
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Q: How does Comfort-C help replace essential minerals?
A: When the body excretes excess vitamin C, other minerals are excreted along with it. The essential minerals sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, copper and zinc, as well as the undesirable pollutants lead, mercury, cadmium, and strontium are excreted along with vitamin C. The diuretic action of vitamin C increases the excretion of sodium and potassium, while the chelating action of vitamin C increases the excretion of the other minerals mentioned.
Mega doses of vitamin C could cause a deficiency of any or all of these essential nutrients, but calcium and magnesium are the main concern due to the fact that they are often in short supply in the body. Calcium excretion is increased more than magnesium because vitamin C chelates more calcium directly out of the bloodstream. The pH (acid level) of blood favors the chelation of calcium by vitamin C over that of magnesium. Unlike calcium ascorbate, Comfort-C is a source of both magnesium and potassium thus replacing these essential minerals following vitamin C excretion.
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Q: How much more effective is Comfort-C and why?
A: Our testing shows that Comfort-C is faster acting in buffering hydrochloric acid from time zero to one minute after consumption when compared to calcium ascorbate. Comfort-C is more effective because it has a stronger pKa (strength of the base) to initiate the buffering effect on the H+ ions allowing the buffering to react more quickly and over a longer time period. Comfort-C neutralizes the Vitamin C acid reaction allowing it to be consumed by people who are sensitive to acidic foods and most vitamin C products.
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Q: How neutral is neutral?
A: Reduced-acidity vitamin C in the form of buffered vitamin C or calcium ascorbate consists of a mixture of ascorbic acid and calcium ascorbate. The pH of this mixture dissolved in water is slightly acidic at 4.2. The pKa of this mixture is low and therefore a weak source of hydroxide ions. Comfort-C is alkaline with a pH of 10.8 in water. The pKa of Comfort-C is quite high, contributing a strong source of hydroxide ions.
How calcium ascorbate and Comfort-C may function in stomach is given in the chart (next page). This further demonstrates the difference between these two products. As can be seen, when calcium ascorbate is introduced to a stomach-like environment with an initial pH of 2.2, the pH increases to a maximum of 4.05 after 8 minutes. This is due to the fact that the pKa of the calcium ascorbate is not strong enough to further neutralize the stomach acid. Due to its higher pKa, Comfort-C immediately neutralizes the stomach acid to a pH of 7.0 in one minute and a pH of 7.5 after 8 minutes.
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Q: Why do you recommend vitamin C supplementation?
A: Unlike humans, most plants and animals are capable of producing their own supplies of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). This ability gives such animals a heightened resistance to infection compared to human beings. When a virus invades the body of a vitamin C-producing mammal, the animal’s body responds by increasing vitamin C production. Vitamin C experts such as Irwin Stone and Linus Pauling have hypothesized that humans suffer from a genetic defect that prevents us from producing vitamin C in our livers the way that many animals do. It is not unusual for a fair sized animal to produce 10 or more grams of vitamin C in their liver per day. Yet, the
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daily recommended value for vitamin C intake established by the FDA is 60 mg. It is commonly believed that this amount is adequate for good health. It is known that with no vitamin C, a human will die. Looking at the vitamin C production levels in animals and adjusting for the needs of a human suggests that our daily vitamin C needs are 2-15 or more grams (2,000 to 15,000 mg), depending on the amount of stress a person is experiencing. Higher levels of stress create an even greater need for vitamin C. It is nearly impossible to get this amount of vitamin C from a healthy diet without supplementation.
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Q: How does vitamin C work to fight infection?
A: Vitamin C has powerful, wide-spectrum, natural anti-viral and anti-bacterial properties. It attacks and renders inactive viruses and bacteria that it comes in contact with. Unlike antibiotics, it has little or no negative effect on the body. Vitamin C also detoxifies many of the toxins produced by bacteria. Vitamin C allows white blood cells to attack bacteria. When no vitamin C is present in the blood, white blood cells will not perform their immune function.
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Disclaimer: These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
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