The Truth about Nutritional Supplements

Not all supplements are created equally. Different types of supplements have different levels of bioavailability. The bioavailability of a supplement refers to the amount of nutrition in the supplement that is available to the body for absorption. Absorption is the body's ability to receive nutrients and bring them into the blood stream. It makes sense then that you would want to be taking a supplement that had a high percentage of nutrients readily available for the body to absorb, otherwise you are just wasting your money and kidding yourself.

Let's take a closer look at the bioavailability of supplements on a spectrum, from least bioavailable to most bioavailable. On the low end of the spectrum you would have an inexpensive, store bought, hard-packed pill. Something brightly colored that you can't break with your fingers. Such supplements have many fillers and binders, including ingredients that can be found in wood putty and tar. You can't take these on an empty stomach, or else you'll get an upset stomach. These are difficult to digest and breakdown, and often times your body doesn't at all. And these have been known to have been passed whole! For that reason you can understand why they have a bioavailability of 0-25%. So, just as a reminder, when you look at the daily values of nutrients on the label of these products, your body is not getting those percentages of nutrition, but rather up to 25% tops.

Moving up the bioavailability spectrum we come to the capsule delivery system. They have no fillers or binders, and you usually have to take larger quantities of these because they are not very concentrated. The bioavailability is a little better, but still only 40-60%.

Getting higher up the bioavailability spectrum brings us to liquid supplements. These are better then the previous two in bioavailability and range between 80-90%, but many liquid herbs and oils do not taste very good.

Finally we arrive to isotonic-capable supplements. Isotonic supplements are the most bioavailable delivery of supplements and are up to 95% absorbable.

Let's break down the word isotonic. "Iso" means "the same", and "tonic" means "pressure", so isotonic refers to a solution being the same pressure as the fluids of the body. For example, an IV is isotonic. It is the proper ratio of nutrients to water so that it can be seamlessly integrated into the blood stream. An isotonic capable supplement works similarly. It is the proper measurement of nutrients to water to create an isotonic capable solution. When it is taken on an empty stomach, it is recognized as the same pressure as the stomach. The pyloric valve is signaled to open, and the full concentration of nutrients is delivered to the small intestine (our absorption site) where it is up to 95% absorbable within 5-15 minutes of consumption.

It is important to note that not all liquids are isotonic capable, again it is a specific ratio of medicine or nutrients to water which makes it isotonic. Everything that you ingest and put into your stomach has to be digested down to an isotonic state before it is released to the small intestine. When you eat some food and take a standard pill or capsule vitamin, it all remains in your stomach digesting for anywhere from 40 minutes to 4 hours. At that point a certain amount of dilution of nutrients has taken place. Some low quality pills do not even break down due to harsh fillers and binders, but still pass to the small intestine where none of the content of the supplement can be absorbed. This is why the bioavailability of pills and capsules are so significantly lower than isotonic capable supplements.

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