Tablet Disintegration and Bio-availability of Nutrients. The Facts!
5th May 2006
By Warren Matthews
Over the years we have had to answer numerous queries about the
disintegration of tablets and thus the bio-availability of the
ingredients that they contain. We have found recently that the number
of questions relating to this subject has increased. It would appear
that this is due to claims made about the disintegration of tablets by
various companies and individuals on the internet.
So…what are they saying? (Now I know that it is possible that you may have heard this before, so please bear with me!)
1. Tablets will pass through your body intact. ‘Evidence’
supporting this can be found in the cities sewage systems. Therefore
the tablets are of no value.
2. Liquid vitamins are much more bio-available than those in tablet form.
3. Capsules are more bio-available than tablets.
4. It makes no difference if ingredients are released in the stomach
compared to the upper intestine, because all food is released in the
stomach.
That is what ‘they’ are saying…but who are ‘they’? In a
nutshell…marketers of liquid vitamins, supplements in capsule form and
a mixture of well meaning (sometimes) but uninformed individuals, even
including physicians marketing supplement capsules.
Is there any truth to the above four statements? The short answer is both yes and no…
Let me explain each point:
1. Substandard tablets could pass though the body intact. These are
generally very cheap tablets with high percentages of inexpensive
excipients and they are only produced by dishonest or incompetent
manufacturers. In that respect there are parallels with supplements in
capsule and liquid form where manufacturers substitute the active
ingredients with cheap ineffective alternatives. Quality tablets 100%
disintegrate within the guidelines that I will explain shortly.
2. Liquid vitamins are no more bio-available than a quality tablet
that meets the disintegration guidelines. In fact, liquid supplements
have serious limitations due to the fact that many ingredients cannot
effectively be dissolved or suspended in water without losing
efficacy. Also, they generally have artificial flavouring added to
help mask the taste.
3. Once again capsules are no more bio-available than a correctly
made tablet as the contents are released at the same time as a normal
(non enteric coated) tablet.
4. For many ingredients in a supplement it does indeed make a big
difference as to where they are released in the body. Let me give you
a fairly detailed example using L-Glutathione which is extremely
important for the health of your cells. This substance will be
severely damaged if released in the stomach. This is well documented!
It must be released in the upper intestine in order to be effective.
The amount of L-Glutathione we consume in food is very low and has
little or no impact on the levels within our blood. This is because
the L-Glutathione which is present in food is damaged by stomach acid.
Because of this the body relies on the liver to synthesize
L-Glutathione.
Whereas relying on the liver to produce this nutrient and others is
fine when you are young and healthy, but it is a different story as you
get older. Your organs are not as efficient and as a result the
production of many essential nutrients is reduced, so it is easy to
slowly develop deficiencies in many essential ingredients.
You will not even be aware of these developing deficiencies unless
you have extensive blood testing. I am sure that you appreciate how
critical it is that you don’t develop nutrient deficiencies, as they
are the primary cause of most diseases.
If you want to do everything to help yourself avoid diseases then
you must ‘top up’ with these key nutrients, and this is simply not
possible using a conventional tablet or capsule. The nutrients need to
safely pass though the stomach, and the only practical way to do this
is with an enteric coated tablet which we use for Total Balance and our
Neuro-Natural range.
An alternative would be by intravenous drip, or suppositories, neither of which is practical for most people.
In summary on this point, those people who suggest that there is no
point in enteric coating tablets unfortunately do not either understand
bio-chemistry or are unaware of the importance of certain ingredients.
Over the next few years as the nutritional supplement evolves and the
‘irresponsible’ manufacturers are ‘weeded’ out you will see more and
more sophisticated products being released in an attempt to mimic Total
Balance.
For your interest here are some of the other ingredients that we use
in Total Balance and which are adversely affected by stomach acid.
L-Glutathione
L-Carnosine
Aloe Vera Polysaccharides
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
Resveratrol
ALL enzymes
Ribonucleic Acid (RNA)
How do you know if a tablet will disintegrate as it is supposed to?
It’s relatively easy to determine this for a conventional non
enteric coated tablet. All you need to do is to make up a warm weak
solution of water and vinegar and put the tablets in it and juggle it
around and see how long it takes to start coming apart.
BUT…this method DOES NOT work for enteric coated tablets. In fact
you could put these tablets through the washing machine and they would
still be intact. As an example, we recently had a customer email us
most concerned because he had left a couple of Total Balance tablets in
his trouser pockets and they had been put through the laundry.
But, when he found them they will still as good as they were before
his trousers went through the wash. Naturally he thought that if they
were still intact after a good washing how would they disintegrate in
his body? Simple answer is pH.
I’ll explain. As you know your stomach is acidic. If it wasn’t you
would not be able to digest your food. After your food is digested it
passes to your upper intestine which is slightly alkaline. If your
intestines were not slightly alkaline you would soon die.
After you digest your food the nutrients pass through to your small
intestine and the bulk of the nutrients that your body needs pass
through the wall of the intestine into your blood stream to be
distributed to your cells. This is why the small intestine is so
important for releasing sensitive ingredients. Not only is it where
the nutrients pass into the blood stream but it is also a much kinder
environment for the nutrients.
So, how do you know if an enteric coated tablet is disintegrating as it should?
Unfortunately this takes more than the simple vinegar test at home.
We have to use a special machine that juggles the tablets around
firstly in an environment that simulates the stomach for two hours and
then convert the liquid environment to simulate the upper intestine.
There is a very specific protocol for this test and the toughest one
is one that is issued by the British Pharmacopeia. It is actually
tougher than the US Pharmacopeia. It is the British Pharmacopeia
protocol that we use for every batch of our enteric coated tablets.
You can have a look at that protocol by clicking here. You can also
see the actual test results of a recent batch of Total Balance which we
had tested at a New Zealand Government certified laboratory. For these
results please click here.
Why can this be achieved with enteric coating? In simple terms the
tablet is coated with an inert polymer coating which is acid resistant
but upon exposure to the environment in the upper intestine it breaks
away releasing the active ingredients which are absorbed though the
intestinal wall whilst the polymer coating continues it journey and is
excreted from the body.
Bottom line…don’t believe those companies or people who say that
tablets are not as bio-available. If they are designed and
manufactured correctly it is possible to deliver results which are
impossible to do with either liquids or capsules. If this was not the
case we would simply use capsules. It would be simpler and cheaper for
us.
In good health,
Warren Matthews