Sustained-release technology is in the news lately as more companies develop ways for supplements to be released over time rather than all at once. We’ve been explaining the benefits of controlled-release supplements for decades, but to fully understand, it helps to know how the body breaks down food and uses its nutrients throughout the day.

This article discusses how sustained-release technology mimics your body’s digestion and how it helps you get the most value from your supplements.

Your Body Needs 6-8 Hours to Process Nutrients

Sustained-release technology isn’t new to us, which you likely know if you’ve been a customer awhile. We perfected this delivery system over 40 years ago and offer our water-soluble nutrients and plant compounds in sustained or extended-release tablets. We’ll talk about our proprietary tablet core in a moment since it’s the key to our sustained-release technology, but first let’s look at the digestion process.

Saliva starts to break down food as we chew. Different organs in our bodies produce enzymes and digestive juices to break down food as it passes down the esophagus, through the stomach and into the small intestine. This interesting article from the US Department of Health and Human Services explains how organs, nerves, and hormones aid in digestion.

After you eat, your body digests food while it goes through the small intestine. This is where the magic happens! Your small intestine absorbs water and nutrients, passing them into the bloodstream which carries them to other parts of the body. Your liver processes, stores, and delivers the rest of the nutrients to your body as needed. This process take six to eight hours. 

Controlled-Release Reduces Waste & Side Effects

Mimicking this intricate process isn’t easy, but it’s vital to allow your body ample time to absorb all the nutrients in your supplements.

We chart how our sustained-release technology releases vitamin C over five to seven hours in a previous piece, “7 Things You Need to Know about Sustained-Release Tablets.” Without the slow release, your body takes some of the vitamin C and eliminates the rest through urine. You know when this happens because within an hour of taking a supplement, your urine is bright yellow or orange. Nutrients and money are literally flushed down the drain. Possibly you get a stomachache or nausea to boot, as your digestive system tries to process a dump of nutrients.

Companies are searching for solutions to this waste. That’s why you may be hearing about this technology more. Products may be labeled time-release, prolonged-release, slow-release, delayed-release, extended-release, controlled-release, or sustained-release. All these terms describe formulas that release nutrients in supplements over time, but only one formula works like ours.

Our Wax Tablet Core is Key to Slow Release

Our two extended-release supplements, Endur-Acin® and Endur-Thine®, and our many sustained-release supplements, rely on our proprietary tablet core (matrix) to simulate your body’s digestion.

Some brands use a beadlet capsule that will burst in the stomach after the outer shell dissolves. This delays the nutrient dump, but doesn’t offer a consistent, even release of nutrients over hours. Our innovative tablet has nutrients embedded evenly into the wax tablet core. The wax is made from plant sources, so our supplements are vegetarian and vegan.

Our tablets don’t need a coating, which means you don’t get hidden sugar, starch, artificial colors or other unwanted ingredients. Plus, we use an innovative cold extrusion process instead of heat to shape the tablet, eliminating the need to add moisture or solvents for heat processing.

Proudly Providing Sustained-Release Technology for over 40 Years

With Endurance Products Co. sustained-release technology, you get clean supplements, free of common allergens with minimized digestive upset or side effects. The controlled delivery helps your body maintain an optimal level of nutrients in the blood and tissues because it has time to process and store them.

Replicating the body’s digestion process and offering a smarter way to absorb nutrients was a primary goal of our founder, Terry Hammerschmidt. Today, we’re proud to continue offering supplements featuring the one-of-a-kind sustained-release delivery he designed over 40 years ago!