The Truth About Nutrient Absorption
Giving Your Body What it Needs: The Truth About the Absorption of Nutrients.
by M. Russell Thomas, PhD
I have been a clinical psychologist for over 27 years now. Can’t believe it. The time has flown and just about the time I’ve seen it all, something close to absurd happens and I’m amazed all over again!
About 5 years ago I became a big fan and avid student of nutrition. I was introduced to several different sets of parents whose children, who were diagnosed with attention deficit disorders, were doing quite well, medication-free, managing their attention deficits with liquid nutritional supplements. In addition, I met several people who were managing either bipolar or major depressive disorders also using nutritional supplements. The idea of mental health being linked with nutrition was never mentioned in my many years of training. No where. No time. But the results of these children and adults spoke volumes to me and prompted me to investigate even further into what was at the time, a mysterious link between mental health and nutrition.
Five years later I have learned a few things about mental health and nutrition. Here’s the first thing: neurotransmitters in the human body and brain are all built from nutrients. The link is simple. No nutrient, no neurotransmitter. No neurotransmitter, no mental health! Neurotransmitters are the messengers in the brain that trigger all kinds of activities not the least of which are mood, attention, concentration, memory and a host of other mental functions. It didn’t take long for me to see that the same chemicals in the brain that I had seen medicines target and manipulate for years were all built on nutrients! I thought to myself, “What if?” What if you could increase various neurotransmitter functions and achieve equal or similar results as a medicine that carried with it those uncomfortable and wicked side effects? While the theory doesn’t seem to hold across the board in wholesale fashion, there are many who have experienced decreased depression and increased attention and concentration functions by increasing certain nutrients. I have talked to many such people and have personally coached dozens of parents of ADHD children in using nutritional supplements in lieu of medicine.
The second thing is the most important truth that I have learned about nutrition: bioavailability is everything! What does that mean? Simply put, if your body does not access the nutrients then you just created a more expensive trip to the bathroom by purchasing your supplement! This is everything. We’ve always heard that “we are what we eat”. This isn’t exactly the way it is, though. We are what we absorb! Failure to absorb nutrients only makes us a conduit for nutrients…in one end and out the other!
Pharmaceutical companies have known this problem for years and have spent billions of dollars trying to get their medicines in a form that the body can access. Vitamins and nutrients have the same problem, particularly with fat-soluable vitamins such as Vitamins A, D and E. It is well accepted in the pharmaceutical industry that liquid is generally superior to pill. The nutrition world is no different, although few companies have bothered to put their compounds in a liquid form. But the fact remains that liquids absorb over twice the rate as pill forms.
One formulation has taken the liquid processing one step further. It is a process called micellization. In this process, fat-soluable nutrients are broken down into tiny particles that are about one twentieth their original sizes. Micellization mimics the body’s natural processes of breaking down vital fat-soluable nutrients and making them available to the body. With a micellized compound or nutrient, this process is already done for the body and allows quick, easy absorption.
Studies have consistently demonstrated a remarkably higher bioavailability or absorption rate with micellized nutrients. One study, using Vitamin E, compared the absorption rates of a standard pill form of Vitamin E, with standard liquid forms and finally a micellized formulation of Vitamin E. The results were significant if not astounding. The micellized Vitamin E absorbed at rates almost 5 times that of the pill form[1],[2] and 2 and half times that of the standard liquid.
I have fielded many calls by parents who are attuned to the benefits of nutritional supplements and are trying to help their ADHD children by using them. They complain of marginal results. I ask them what form of supplements they are using and invariably it is a pill form. I have come to the point that I am not surprised. I also have come to the point that I no longer try to coach those parents if they are not using the micellized liquid formulation. I have found results to be inconsistent at best, non-existent at worse. The bottom line is this: if you pay for a cheap supplement then expect a cheap result. That is why I only recommend the advanced liquid formulation for nutritional supplements…It’s a much more powerful delivery mechanism to get vital nutrients to your body and brain, as well as, a much less expensive trip to the bathroom!
For more information on advanced liquid formulation nutritional supplements visit us at www.mindofhope.com.
[1]Sokol, R.J., Heubi, J.E., and Butler-Simon, N. (1987). Treatment of vitamin E deficiency during chronic childhood cholestasis with oral d-alpha-tocopheryl polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS). Intestinal absorption, efficacy and safety. Gastroenterology, 93, 975-985.
[2]Traber, M.G., Thellman, C.A., Rindler, M.J., and Kayden, H.J. (1988). Uptake of intact TPGS, a water-soluble form of vitamin E by human cells in vitro. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 48, 605-611.
Filed under: Articles
