We make a liposomal vitamin C and people ask us what the research shows. This page is our honest, referenced answer, including the parts that don't flatter a product. Every number below comes from a peer-reviewed paper or a government body, and the full citations are listed at the end.
This page is general information about published research. It is not medical advice and it is not a claim that our Liposomal Vitamin C, or any vitamin C product, treats, cures or prevents any disease, including cancer. The cancer studies described below used very high doses given intravenously in hospital settings as part of clinical trials. An oral product like ours cannot reach those blood concentrations, and no vitamin C product is approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration or the US FDA as a cancer treatment.
Always consult a qualified health care professional before starting, stopping or changing any supplement, especially if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, have kidney disease, haemochromatosis or G6PD deficiency, take prescription medicines, or are being treated for cancer or any other serious condition. If you have symptoms, see your doctor.
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) is an essential nutrient: humans cannot make it, so it has to come from food or supplements. Its established roles are as a cofactor in making collagen for skin, blood vessels, cartilage and wound healing; as a water-soluble antioxidant; in the synthesis of carnitine and some neurotransmitters; and in improving the absorption of iron from plant foods [1]. Severe deficiency causes scurvy. The Australian and New Zealand Recommended Dietary Intake is 45 mg a day for adults, rising to 60 mg in pregnancy and 85 mg when breastfeeding, and the NHMRC notes that intakes up to about 1,000 mg a day are considered prudent [2].
Vitamin C concentrates in white blood cells and supports several of their functions, including movement toward infection sites, engulfing microbes and generating the reactive oxygen species that kill them. A 2017 review in Nutrients concluded that deficiency impairs immunity, that infection lowers vitamin C levels, and that prevention of infection needs at least adequate intake, in the order of 100 to 200 mg a day [3].
The best human evidence is on the common cold. The Cochrane review by Hemilä and Chalker pooled 29 placebo-controlled trial comparisons with 11,306 participants [4]. Its findings were specific and modest:
Regular supplementation shortened colds by 8% (95% CI 3 to 12%) in adults and 14% (7 to 21%) in children, with 1 to 2 g a day in children giving 18%.
Pooled risk ratio for catching a cold was 0.97 (0.94 to 1.00) in the general community, so routine supplementation does not stop you getting colds.
In marathon runners, skiers and soldiers in subarctic conditions, incidence was roughly halved (RR 0.48, 0.35 to 0.64, 598 participants).
A 2023 meta-analysis of trials at 1 g a day or more found vitamin C reduced cold severity by 15% (9 to 21%), with the benefit concentrated on severe rather than mild symptoms.[5]
The Cochrane authors' own conclusion was that routine supplementation is not justified for the general population to prevent colds, but that it may be worthwhile for people exposed to brief, severe physical stress, and that starting vitamin C after a cold begins showed no consistent benefit [4].
Liposomal vitamin C is ascorbic acid carried in tiny lecithin spheres, the idea being that it passes through the gut more completely than plain ascorbic acid. The most rigorous test so far is a 2024 randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial in 27 adults published in the European Journal of Nutrition [6]. Comparing 500 mg of liposomal vitamin C with 500 mg of standard vitamin C, the liposomal form produced a 27% higher peak plasma concentration and 21% greater total plasma exposure over 24 hours, and a 20% higher peak and 8% greater exposure inside white blood cells (all p < 0.001). Both forms raised levels well above placebo.
Two honest caveats. The study was funded by the maker of the liposomal product tested, which is common in supplement research but worth knowing. And a 27% higher peak is a useful improvement in absorption, not a transformation: it does not turn an oral supplement into anything resembling an intravenous dose, as the next section explains.
This is the area people ask about most, so it deserves the most care. The research is real, it is published in serious journals, and it is also early, small and specific to intravenous dosing. Here is the evidence as it stands.
Oral and intravenous vitamin C are pharmacologically different. In 2004 a National Institutes of Health team measured what happens to blood levels by each route. After a 1.25 g dose, peak plasma concentration was about 135 µmol/L by mouth versus 885 µmol/L intravenously, and the gap widens with dose. Their modelling put the ceiling for the highest tolerable oral regimen at about 220 µmol/L, while a 50 g intravenous dose was predicted to reach around 13,400 µmol/L, roughly 60 times higher [7]. The gut simply stops absorbing beyond a point, and the kidneys clear the rest. Every cancer result below depends on reaching those millimolar intravenous levels.
Laboratory work shows a plausible mechanism. At millimolar concentrations vitamin C behaves as a pro-oxidant rather than an antioxidant, generating hydrogen peroxide that some cancer cells, with their disrupted iron metabolism, handle poorly. Studies in Science Translational Medicine (ovarian cancer cells and mouse models, combined with carboplatin and paclitaxel) [8] and Cancer Cell (lung cancer and glioblastoma cells, with early-phase human trials showing the approach was safe and tolerable) [9] describe this mechanism. These are mechanism and feasibility studies, not proof of benefit.
One randomised trial has reported a survival benefit. In 2024, researchers at the University of Iowa published a randomised phase 2 trial in Redox Biology in which 34 patients with stage IV pancreatic cancer received standard chemotherapy (gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel) either alone or with 75 g of intravenous vitamin C three times a week [10]. Median overall survival was 16 months with vitamin C versus 8.3 months without (hazard ratio 0.46, 90% CI 0.23 to 0.92, p = 0.030), and progression-free survival was 6.2 versus 3.9 months. Quality of life and side effects were not worse. That is a striking result, and it is also a single small trial that stopped early, which tends to overstate effect sizes; the same group has since published a phase 1b study of a four-drug combination [11]. A larger phase 3 trial is what would be needed to change standard treatment, and none has reported.
What the authorities say. The US National Cancer Institute's summary, updated May 2024, states that the FDA has not approved intravenous vitamin C as a cancer treatment, that human studies are limited with mixed results, that intravenous dosing reaches blood levels oral dosing cannot, and that high-dose vitamin C can cause serious harm in people with kidney disease, G6PD deficiency or haemochromatosis and may interfere with some anticancer drugs [12]. In Australia, no vitamin C product is approved for the treatment or prevention of cancer.
Our Liposomal Vitamin C is a food-grade oral supplement providing 238 mg of vitamin C per 5 mL teaspoon. Taken as directed it will comfortably meet and exceed the recommended daily intake, and the liposomal form has good evidence of absorbing somewhat better than plain ascorbic acid. That is the extent of what we claim. It is not a cancer treatment, it cannot reach the blood levels used in the intravenous trials, and it should never replace medical care. If you are interested in high-dose intravenous vitamin C, that is a conversation for your oncologist, ideally within a registered clinical trial.
The information on this page is provided for general educational purposes only and reflects published research as at October 2026. It has not been evaluated by the Therapeutic Goods Administration. Statements about vitamin C are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease and are not claims about any product sold on this site. Individual needs vary. Always consult a qualified health care professional before taking any supplement or making decisions about your health, and never delay or discontinue medical treatment on the basis of anything you read here.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist first. If you have a question about our product itself, we're happy to help.