Liposomal Delivery Boosts Bioavailability up to 1500%

This high tech delivery system – Liposomal Delivery (LD) – for nutritional supplements uses proven nanochemistry to increase their effectiveness 10 to 15 times.

The History of Liposomes

Liposomes were discovered by Alec D. Bangham in 1961 (Journal of Molecular Biology 8:660-8 (1964), and Liposomal Delivery (LD) started developing in the 1970s.

For its first 25 years or so, LD was used almost exclusively by medical researchers to deliver drugs, dyes or other therapeutic agents to specific tissues. From then until now, only a few companies have used LD in non-medical applications, like we see in Liposomal Turmeric.

Because of its superior ability to transport substances through the skin, some companies use LD for topical moisturizers, cell therapy and anti-aging cosmetic products. A smaller number of companies now use LD for oral delivery of supplements. With the impressive benefits of LD, you can expect more companies to start using it soon.

Liposomal Delivery Is Powerful

LD encapsulation protects supplements from most of the degrading and inhibitory factors of the digestive system, with unparalleled payload protection.

Some liposomes release their contents at a certain temperature, others at a specific pH, while others do so in the presence of other substances. They function like microscopic smart delivery vehicles that can travel through the body and release their payload at the desired location.

LD is so powerful that it delivers more substances to targeted tissues and organs than any other method. It is so efficient that dose levels can be 10 to 15 times smaller. Reductions of this magnitude have tremendous therapeutic and economic implications.

Factors that Affect Bioavailability

The bioavailability of supplements can be drastically reduced before they are absorbed by many factors:

• Moisture, oxygen and other factors in the environment
• Enzymes and digestive juices in the mouth and stomach
• Bile salts in the intestines
• Friendly and unfriendly organisms in the intestines
• Food and drug interactions in the digestive system
• Additives, coatings, binders, fillers, sugars, colors and flavors added to enhance packaging or facilitate swallowing
• Incomplete assimilation due to partial or non-breakdown of tablet or capsule into small enough particles for uptake in the intestines.

Liposomal Delivery Uses Essential Phospholipids

Liposomal Turmeric uses Essential Phospholipid liposomes to form a barrier around their contents that is resistant to digestive juices, alkaline solutions, salts and free radicals. Phospholipids do a superior job of protecting the encapsulated contents from oxidation and degradation. Most importantly, this protective barrier stays intact until the contents have been delivered to the system, organ, gland or cell where the contents will be used.

Essential phospholipids that are used to make liposomes have their own health benefits.

Phospholipids are essential for the formation all cell membranes – the skin for every cell – to keep the insides in and the outsides out. Phospholipid membranes protect cells from attack from toxins, pathogens and free radicals that can inhibit or stop the necessary functions of every cell.

When you ingest phospholipids, your body uses them to replace damaged material, making every cell membrane healthier – more able to protect and nourish the cells they encase.

The importance of phospholipids is so great that encapsulation to deliver a nutrient may provide even more health benefits than the substances inside.

Finally, in contrast to some tablets, pills and capsules that can be eliminated in the stool partially digested or totally intact, the sub-microscopic size and structure of lipsomes recognized by the body as a friendly substance, allowing them to be moved through digestive, lymphatic and circulatory systems with ease.

The Phospholipid Miracle That Makes LD Possible

Each phospholipid molecule has three major parts, one head and two tails. The head is made from three molecular components: choline, phosphate, and glycerol. The head is hydrophilic (attracted to water), the tail is a long fatty acid chain that is hydrophobic (repelled by water).

When phospholipids are added to water-based solution, the hydrophilic heads of the lipids form a line side by side with their tails behind much like swimmers at a starting gate. Because the tails are hydrophobic, another phospholipid layer will line itself up tail-to-tail in response to the environment. This natural alignment creates two rows of tightly packed phospholipid molecules, called a phospholipid bilayer. It is these phospholipid bilayers that form the membranes around and within every cell in our bodies. One thousand of these bilayers are the thickness of paper.

Phospholipid bilayers form the cell membrane by arranging themselves with the heads of the phospholipids making up the external and internal surfaces of the cell. This holds the contents of the cell in and protects them from harmful substances on the outside.

A combination of different proteins interspersed within the phospholipid bilayers in every cell provides channels for nutrients and cellular waste products to pass through.

There are several types of phospholipids. Some can be synthesized in your liver, but some have to be ingested. Phosphatidylcholine that we use to make the liposomes is such required essential polyunsaturated fatty acid. Linoleic acid and gamma-linolenic acid are essential because they cannot be synthesized in the human body; they must be supplied by the food we eat. Phosphatidyl Cholines (PCs) are a subset of essential phospholipids.

The physical properties of fats, oils, and fatty acids can change substantially as the chains become more unsaturated (drop hydrogen from the chain). Lard, butter and bacon are examples of saturated fats, solid at room temperature and more viscous. Polyunsaturated fats are more runny and thin, and polyunsaturated PC quickly replaces the more saturated and/or damaged phospholipids in plasma membranes, essentially clearing low-density lipids and cholesterol, making blood and lymph healthier. Plasma membranes return to a more efficient, more fluid state, and hardened saturated fats and cholesterol that have become lodged there are removed and metabolized. Cells throughout the body become more able to resist the damaging effects of free radical attack.

The Structure of Liposomes

PC liposomes are the spheres that encapsulate the supplement (payload) to be delivered.

The size of a liposome is determined by the process used to make them. Diameters can range from 0.1 to hundreds of micrometers. The BI-layer liposomes provide the best combination of protection and efficiency. Smaller liposomes are better at protecting and delivering the payload than larger ones.

Phosphatidylcholine can be extracted from lecithin, or synthesized in a laboratory. For food supplements, PC from sunflower lecithin seems to be the best liposomal lipid.

Having a liposomal size under 200 nanometers will provide increased stability and protection.

Health and Anti-Aging Benefits of Essential Phospholipids

• Reduction in total serum lipids (fat in the blood)
• Reduction in LDL (bad) cholesterol
• Increase in HDL (good) cholesterol
• Lowers serum triglycerides and overall cholesterol
• Reduction in triglycerides
• Reduction in cholesterol deposits in vascular walls
• Reduction in blood platelet aggregation (detrimental tendency of blood cells to stick together)
• Effective antioxidant in lipids
• Increase in red blood cell fluidity
• Reduced viscosity
• Improved coronary circulation
• Increased exercise tolerance
• Improved peripheral circulation (hand and feet)
• Liver protection and rejuvenation
• Improved immunity
• Improved memory
• Prevention of excess collagen formation and cross-linking (wrinkles and scarring).