What exactly is bioavailability, you may ask?

According to the 2007 American Heritage Medical Dictionary, bioavailability is defined as, "The physiological availability of a given amount of a drug, as distinct from its chemical potency."

And, this is a perfectly quantitative area to compare most commercial pharmaceutical drugs with nanoparticles or liposomal encapsulated supplements (LET). We are living in a time when conservation of all resources is becoming as vital as staying healthy. We need an efficient and cost-effective means of treating diseases and administering the nutrients that prevent those diseases.

In this context, commercial pharmaceuticals, or at least, standard drugs or food supplements are becoming more and more obsolete. Many of them cost a fortune, cause a myriad of side effects, harm the environment through the water system and have low bioavailability. Why is the bioavailability of standard pharmaceuticals so low? The capsules and tablets are coated in artificial flavors, sugars and colors. Not only do these binders reduce the uptake of active ingredients, but they leave the nutrients susceptible to degradation by stomach enzymes, saliva, bile, digestive juices and food items that have yet to break down in the intestines. On the other hand, nano encapsulation of healthy nutrients and/or disease treatments guarantee maximum efficiency and payload delivery.

As Robert D. Milne, M.D. states in his book, PC Liposomal Encapsulation Technology, "LET utilizes phospholipid liposomes to form a barrier around their contents that is resistant to digestive juices, alkaline solutions and salts found in the human body as well as free-radicals. Because of this, they do a superior job in protecting the contents from oxidation and degradation from external substances and conditions.

Most importantly, this protective barrier stays intact until the contents have been delivered to the gland, organ or system where the contents will be used" (Milne 15-16).

Bioavailability may just be ornate jargon, but it's a key term in the future of medicine. Rejecting the obvious benefits of nano encapsulated supplements and nanoparticles is not unlike the mistake of rejecting advances against fossils fuels in the auto industry. It's actually quite an appropriate analogy. And, we're sure seeing the economic ripple effect of that mistake these days.

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