Top 5 Benefits of consuming Liposomal Iron

Top 5 Benefits of consuming Liposomal Iron

Iron is the most abundant element found on earth yet the most common nutritional disorder is Iron deficiency. Due to increased nutritional demands, women are more prone to deficiency. Iron supplementation is usually prescribed to anemic patients, especially pregnant women. Because an iron deficiency in pregnancy is harmful to both the fetus and mother.?

Oral administration of?iron?supplements is the conventional therapeutic measure to replenish the iron stores in the body. But there is a limitation to the conventional treatment- less availability and absorption, Gastrointestinal side effects like vomiting, nausea, diarrhea, metallic taste, and injury to GI Tract mucosal lining resulting in constipation. Above mentioned factors tend to decrease the efficacy, thereby hampering treatment compliance.?

To overcome these limitations, various alternatives were introduced. IV Iron therapy proved to produce more rapid hemoglobin but had more side effects. Another approach is micro ionization and microencapsulation of iron is an advanced approach to overcome limitations of tolerance and absorption. Liposomal iron is proved to have higher bioavailability with decreased GI side effects even if taken for a longer duration.

Now the question arises, what is a liposome, and how do these two processes make Liposomal iron, the treatment of choice? Well as the name suggests, liposomes are nothing but lipids that are insoluble in water. Microencapsulation is the lipid layer covering the iron and micronization reduces the size of the particle. Let us know what are the benefits of using Liposomal Iron.

1. Improve Absorption: The lipid layer surrounding the drug enhances its stability which also helps in a gradual release of content which further enhances absorption.
2. Decreased GI Side effects: Being encapsulated in the lipid layer, iron present in the inner core is protected from enzymatic degradation and oxidation.
3. Improved Tolerance: With greater absorption and protection from an acidic environment, GI side effects have tremendously reduced. The drug is well tolerated by the patients now.
4. Better bioavailability: The size of iron is reduced due to micro ionization which increases solubility thereby increasing the bioavailability of iron.?
5. Increase delivery to cells: Due to the protection of the drug from any acidic environment or washing away by water, the delivery of iron content has been increased. Being insoluble makes them a potential guard of cells that could be transported and absorbed without any damage from water.?
6. Treatment Compliance: All the above points collectively contribute to increasing the efficacy of the drug thus making treatment more compliant.

In a pregnant woman who is at risk of iron deficiency anemia, liposomal iron is prescribed as it reduces the risk of anemia, increases the production of ferritin and hemoglobin and a healthy baby is born without any effect on gestational age or weight.

In anemia of chronic disease, where long-term use of iron causes GI Symptoms like constipation, liposomal iron is usually preferred. It not only increases hemoglobin production but also reduces GI symptoms.

The key factor to treat anemia is adherence to therapy and it can be achieved by greater tolerance and fewer side effects. Conventional therapy hampers compliance whereas liposomal iron is proved to be an efficient drug with greater bioavailability and tolerance. For long Liposomal Iron has been used as a carrier drug.