Liposomal - the king of bioavailability

Jan 16, 2024

By Jure Likeb

WHY ADDING FOOD SUPPLEMENTS INTO OUR DAILY ROUTINE?

It would be great if we could absorb all the nutrients that we get with food. It’s unfortunately a sad truth that the quality of food has gotten worse through the years, so more and more people are adding supplements to their daily meals.

When we are adding supplements to the food, it would be very advisable that their bioavailability is high and the use of them is efficient.

The most optimal way to reach highest bioavailability would be for nutrient to reach small intestine. To reach small intestine, which is at the end of gastrointestinal (GI) tract, the food or nutrient goes through many organs, mix with digestive juices and that’s how the nutrients are broken down in the digestive system. If nutrient has a liposomal outlayer, it can travel through the body’s GI tract, reach small intestine in its full form, and is there absorbed into the blood stream.

ARE LIPOSOMES SOMETHING NEW?

Liposomal technique was discovered already in 1960 (published in 1964) by an English man Alec Douglas Bangham and was being studied and refined over the following decades, mostly in medical fields.

WHAT IS THE LIPOSOMAL MEANING AND PURPOSE?

The main purpose of this technology is to deliver a healing substance into the body with the greatest possible efficiency.

Liposomes are tiny bubbles of fat, those bubbles consist of phospholipidic bilayer and an active ingredient (nutrient, mineral, etc.) which is protected in the center of the bubble/liposome. Each phospholipid layer has a fat-soluble head and water-soluble tail, they are formed in two layers around the center of the bubble to protect its content. The phospholipidic composition is the same as human cellular membrane which also is the reason it’s well-absorbed and passes directly to blood stream. It’s a naturally obtained process of forming cells to a protective layer that helps with delivering active ingredient to the blood stream and because of it - higher bioavailability. Active ingredient can be a medication, vitamin, plant extract, mineral, etc.

FACTS ABOUT LIPOSOMAL MEDICATIONS

A very interesting and telling fact is that liposomal forms are present in breast milk to deliver nutrients and minerals to a newborn. In this way, nature itself has managed to achieve an excellent way of absorbing the important nutrients for the newborn, which are necessary for its growth and development.

Additionally, liposomes showed excellent tumor penetration and enhanced anti-tumor activity, therefore it’s commonly known also in clinical fields.

COMPARISON BETWEEN CONVENTIONAL AND LIPOSOMAL SUPPLEMENTS

If the liposomal product is adequate and fulfills all the listed criteria above, the active ingredient has approximately 10-14 times higher bioavailability than conventional, non-liposomal powder form of supplement.

HOW TO CHOOSE THE EFFECTIVE LIPOSOMAL PRODUCT?

There are many different liposome and liposomal products on the market, and we need to be careful when choosing the one this article is describing. The word liposome is derived from two Greek words “lipos” meaning fat and “soma” meaning the body. Many products are selling as liposomal, meaning that the definition of this term is only “containing fat”, which isn’t the same as a true liposome product that has a fatty protective layer around the active ingredient. It can be sold normally, but people aren’t educated enough about that, so there are many over-priced products with no such high bioavailability.

First criterion to have in mind while checking the potential liposome product should be the price. The production of real liposomal product is longer, the costs are higher and if the goal is to have only the best quality, all batches should be tested in a lab, which again affects the final price. First conclusion is if the price is like regular active ingredient’s price, the product is probably not what it's sold as.

Second criteria is to check whether the formula is GMO free and if the structure is clean - produced without additives such as sweeteners, sugar, flavorings or colorings because these may destabilize the liposomes.

The simple comparison between the liposomal products:

SUBJECT	ABSORBABILITY	SHELF LIFE	TASTE	STABILITY	STORAGE	PRODUCTION
Regular supplements	limited	long	Flavour-less	usually high	refrigeration not needed	various
Liquid liposomal	high	short	Bad taste, need flavouring	poor	refrigeration needed	heat, pressure, chemicals
Regular liposomal powder	high	long	Flavour-less	high	refrigeration not needed	heat, pressure, chemical
Our liposomal powder	high	long	Flavour-less	high	refrigeration not needed	no heat, no pressure, no chemicals

CONCLUSION

Liposomal technique of delivering nutrient to the body is safe, efficient, and fast which are all benefits that are highly valued in medicine. It’s highly recommendable to be aware of its advantages and to know that there are different products in the market that need some extra checking, so we assure that the product we will take, will really work as promised.

LITERATURE:

Keywords: liposomal vitamin, liposomal, liposome, high efficiency, high bioavailability, bioavailability, best absorption, phospholipidic bilayer, liposomal forms