Extended-Slow-Release
Choosing Extended-Slow-Release
comes with a number of benefits.
Is it right for your product?͏
Extended-Slow-Release Tablets
Table of Contents
The Magic of Extended-Slow-Release Nutritional Supplements
Extended-slow-release nutritional supplements are rocking the health and wellness world. This delivery system gradually releases nutrients, just like our bodies do naturally. The result? Maximum absorption and minimal waste.
How do Extended-Slow-Release (ESR) supplements work?
Unlike regular supplements that dump all their actives at once into the stomach, extended-slow-release formulas take their time to break down in your body. This slow process ensures a steady flow of essential vitamins, minerals and botanicals into your bloodstream over hours or even a whole day.
By mimicking our body’s natural nutrient absorption, these supplements make sure you get the most out of each dose without overwhelming your system. It’s like a nutrient party that lasts all day long. Instead of releasing all of the actives in the stomach, as happens with the typical HPMC capsules, ESR releases the actives over a longer period of time.
What is in the Extended-Slow-Release Tablet?
The core of an Extended-Slow-Release tablet consists of the following:
- MCC (Microcrystalline Cellulose)
- HPMC (Hydroxypropyl Methylcellulose)
- Silicon Dioxide
- Stearic Acid
- No magnesium stearate
- No solvents
- Transparent: No secret processing agents!
The Role of HPMC in Slow Release Tablets
HPMC is central to the slow release property of our tablets. Thanks to HPMC, only about three percent of the core of the tablet dissolves when exposed to stomach acid. This is because the HPMC creates a gel layer that isn’t permeable by stomach acid. This gel layer requires alkaline liquid found within your colon to slowly dissolve any further. The erosion rate depends on various factors such as pH level and temperature but also relies heavily on what “actives” or additional ingredients are included in each individual tablet formula.
Erosion Tests: Ensuring Quality and Efficacy
In order to ensure we deliver only top-quality dietary supplements with accurate dissolution rates, we conduct erosion tests using our disintegration lab tester. We have for example found that if 33% of a KSM-66 tablet consists of our specialized HPMC —it will take approximately seven hours for a complete breakdown within the digestive system. We test each formula separately because the actives play a role in the eventual erosion of the tablet.
Benefits from Extended-Slow-Release in 8 Different Ways
Extended-slow-release supplements have some serious perks when it comes to marketing your super charged supplement formula:
- Cleaner, More Transparent, Less Processed: Consumers want purity, transparency and minimal processing. No-one knows how the HPMC capsules are made! We hear that solvents are used. They are made from wood or bamboo pulp.
- Better Absorption:Slow and steady wins the race. Your body has more time to absorb the nutrients. No dumping of actives into kidneys.
- Protect Actives from Stomach Acid:Only about 3% of the tablet is dissolved in the stomach with 97% of it slowly eroding in your intestine. Some of the supplements that benefit from minimal contact with stomach acid are probiotics, vitamin B1, B2, C, and CoQ10 in addition to a variety of expensive amino acids.
- More Natural: Slow release of nutrients mimics how the body absorbs nutrients from food.
- Reduce Side Effects and Improve Safety: Slower absorption means that the body doesn’t have to react to a large dose of actives all at the same time. Since these supplements play nice with your digestion, they help reduce pesky side effects like upset stomach or bathroom troubles.
- Sustained Energy: No more energy roller coasters. These supplements keep you going strong all day, no crashes allowed.
- Improved Compliance and Fewer Doses: Say goodbye to pill-popping marathons. With extended release, you can take fewer doses and still reap the benefits.
- Better Value: The consumer gets more out of each dosage
So, if you’re on a mission for top-notch well-being through balanced nutrition, Extended-Slow-Release nutritional supplements are your secret weapon.
Fast-Release Vs Extended-Slow-Release Formulas
The tablets are turning, it used to be that capsules where all the rage and tablets were believed to not dissolve in the intestine. This was the marketing pitch of the capsule manufacturers. However now it has come to light that HPMC capsules are a hyper processed product that release the nutrient to the body way too fast for our physiology to take advantage of all that good nutrient that we paid for.
Transparent HPMC Capsules With Not so Transparent Manufacturing Secrets: Solvents Anyone?
Although clear and transparent, it turns out that the capsule itself may harbor hidden secrets (in the clear capsule itself). Like you can imagine it’s much harder to create a plant based capsule than a gelatin capsule.
In fact, solvents have been known to be used as processing aids in manufacturing HPMC capsules, solvents such as toluene, acetone, and methanol have been found in some of the patent applications for capsules (however the type of solvents varies with each manufacturer and let’s hope some of them just use plain alcohol).
Solvents or no solvents, we know that the customer wants transparency and that they would like to know what solvents were used in the formation of the HPMC capsules, regardless if FDA, who is arguably one of the most loathed government agencies, allows industry to get away with.
Supplements packaged in HPMC capsules deliver a lot of good and expensive nutrients, but all at once, which often is not desirable.
The Achilles Heel of the Industry
While veggie caps may seem like the virtuous choice, they come with a hefty price tag. Turns out, the complex process of making them from tree or bamboo based cellulose drives up the cost of your supplements.
The HPMC capsule may not be as transparent, honest or as healthy as it looks like. If you are a supplement startup ready to get into the market, then take advantage of this achilles heel of the industry.
Checklist for an Emerging Brand
Before you embark on creating an Extended-Slow-Release supplement, ask yourself the following. Do the ingredients and function of your supplement benefit from slow release? Digestive enzymes, energy supplements, pain relieving supplements may not.
In that case consider either the good old fashioned gelatin capsule or if you want to appeal to vegetarians then consider tapioca capsules
In some case you may prefer fast release tablets that either dissolve in the mouth, such as mints or lozenges, or regular tablets that people swallow.
PureNSM has experience in all those types of tablets and capsules.
