Understanding Liposomal Supplements
If you’ve recently realized that not all CBD is created equal, wait ‘til you hear about liposomal supplements.
At The Hemp Haus we sell liposomal supplements—Puffin Hemp Liposomal CBD, and we’ve also partnered with Puffin Health to offer Liposomal Vitamin C, Liposomal Multivitamin, and Liposomal Z Sleep. But not just because it’s currently a popular subject, like CBD. Some things, in theory, are game-changers. In the business of holistic supplements, it’s the execution that counts.
We were selling liposomal CBD before anyone knew what it was. And the award-winning chemist behind our brand—Dr. Emek Blair—was perfecting liposomal technology more than a decade before that—before people in the CBD industry were throwing around terms like “liposome” and “nano”.
Around 2009, the term “nano” was a no-no in the supplement industry. There just was not enough known about it. Now, more than ten years later, liposomal and so-called “nano” formulations in the supplement industry are popping up everywhere—especially for CBD.
So, beware, “Liposomal” and “Nano” are the latest CBD marketing buzzwords. But like all CBD, a liposomal product must have the science, the experience and expertise, and high-quality ingredients behind it. In this article, we’ll explain in simple terms what liposomal means and how you can spot the real deal among the shelves of snake oils.
What does liposomal mean?
Liposomal describes a delivery system that uses liposomes to more efficiently deliver a supplement, like CBD, vitamin C, or melatonin, into the bloodstream. When done right, a liposomal formulation can create a much higher bioavailability of the supplement it’s delivering. Bioavailability is how we measure the portion of the supplement that enters circulation in your body where it can have its effects.
Sometimes bioavailability is affected by digestion and responses from organs like your liver. Liposomes can get around a lot of that. Again, only when they are expertly formulated.
To get a clearer picture, let’s discuss quickly what a liposome is.
What is a liposome?
As you know, the inside of your body is very wet and hostile at times—for a supplement at least. Liposomes are fat bubbles that can navigate your body’s harsh environment—especially your stomach and digestive tract. These fat bubbles, or vesicles, consist of a double membrane of phospholipids—just a fancy word for fat. This is double membrane is important for two reasons:
- It offers protection from the gut for the nutrient it carries, either in its watery center or in the cell membrane, depending on the nature of the nutrient.
- The double membrane is similar to most biomembranes in our bodies’ cells. Because they share the same building blocks, the membranes of liposomes can fuse with membranes of structures in the body, like cells found in the intestinal wall, to allow quicker, safer access to the bloodstream.
Why Use Liposomal Encapsulation?
Supplements like CBD and vitamin C have poor bioavailability when taken in traditional oral forms. This means that only a percentage of the nutrient that is taken orally is absorbed and the rest is vaporized in your stomach or ushered out by the liver.
This doesn’t mean that a high-quality CBD or vitamin C doesn’t work if you take it regularly over time. What it means is that if you need to take high doses to get the intended effect or if you need immediate powerful effects, a regular oral supplement isn’t going to cut it.
Examples of Liposomal Formulations
At The Hemp Haus, we only sell brands that we trust from companies run by experts in the hemp and supplement manufacturing industry and that are actively operated by scientists that are experts in their field. Our Puffin Hemp and Puffin Health line of liposomal products are created with CELLg8 liposomal technology developed by chemist Dr. Blair, who has been studying and customizing liposomes for two decades.
Over the years, we’ve gotten to know Dr. Blair, and he has educated us well about liposomes and his process. He practices the highest standards in manufacturing, and is the first facility to be cGMP (certified for good manufacturing processes) for hemp.
The idea has always been to establish the quality assurance practices that have not yet been implemented in the hemp industry, in order to guarantee the highest quality product and establish trust with customers.
We, the owners of The Hemp Haus, used Puffin Hemp Liposomal CBD before we sold it. And we still do. We wouldn’t recommend one that we wouldn’t trust our health to.
Puffin Hemp 350 Liposomal CBD
Puffin Hemp 1000 Liposomal CBD
Liposomal CBD vs Nano CBD
While in a larger sense, liposomes are referred to as nanotechnology, we use the term liposomal because it is specific, and makes the process clear and transparent. Nanoparticles and liposomes can differ in structure and stability. In a narrower sense, liposomes are not nanoparticles. When we speak of liposomal, we mean a double layer of lipids (ours come from non-GMO sunflowers) that has a watery center.
We know that liposomes, like those used in our Puffin Hemp Liposomal CBD, become nutrition for your body once they deliver your supplement to the bloodstream. “Nano” is a broader term that can muddy the understanding of what a high-quality liposomal CBD is, and consumers should take caution and get to know a product that claims to be a “nano” supplement.
Studies Using CELLg8® Liposomal Technology
Both Puffin Hemp and Puffin Health products use Dr. Emek Blair’s CELLg8 technology. These products continue to be used in ongoing human studies that test them for things like safety of liposomal CBD forms and the bioavailability of liposomal CBD vs. a regular oral CBD formulation.
The safety study not only proved that Puffin Hemp was safe, but it also normalized the blood glucose levels of 100% of the participants. This was an unexpected effect, as none of the participants realized going in that their blood sugar was high to begin with. These results show promise for using liposomal CBD like Puffin Hemp to treat diabetes.
The bioavailability—or absorption—study, showed that across the board, Puffin Hemp Liposomal CBD has significantly higher rates of absorption than a regular oral CBD formulation.
References
https://www.nanopartikel.info/en/faq/2613-what-is-the-difference-between-nanoparticles-and-liposomes#:~:text=Nanoparticles%20are%20made%20of%20solid,membranes%20(bilayers%20%2D%20see%20Fig.