LeQuadrillage Family Health & Wellness Center
Your internet omnibus for health & wellness information
SUPPLEMENT SOURCES
As a service to our visitors who might be impatient with all our irrelevant commentary, we're providing links to the manufacturers we know to live up to all claims made and unconditionally provide product exactly as represented. The roster of manufacturers who meet these conditions is severely limited and below you will find three of the very best.
FOR THE WORLD'S BEST SUPPLEMENTS AT ANY PRICE (THEY'RE NOT CHEAP), GO HERE.
FOR VERY HIGH QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS AT THE BEST PRICES AVAILABLE ANYWHERE,GO HERE.
FOR THE FINEST, AILMENT SPECIFIC NATURAL, HOMEOPATHIC AND HOLISTIC REMEDIES, GO HERE.
THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
IF THE VITAMINS YOU'RE TAKING AREN'T ABSORBED YOU'RE THROWING YOUR MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN!
The most important thing to look for when shopping for vitamins is not price, which absolutely must take a secondary position to (1) bioavailability, (2) accuracy in the amounts of ingredients stated on the label, and (3) age and quality of the ingredients.
The most crucial aspect to consider when evaluating any supplement is its bioavailability (which is synonymous to absorption). If you buy any supplements strictly on price, you're getting short changed. Guaranteed!
Most supplements are manufactured to a price standard rather than a best science standard, and bioavailability is left in the hit or miss section of this perspective. And the result is that the active ingredients, released into the stomach, are attacked by stomach acids and mostly destroyed.
Another factor is the use of excessive amounts of binding agents in cheap, low quality mass produced tablets. Here the tablets only partially disintegrate and pass through the digestive system without being absorbed, a universally common problem.
Ingredients like L-Glutathione, enzymes, SAMe, and herbal extracts are particularly vulnerable to stomach acids. They really need a better delivery system than what is commonly afforded.
After a tablet has been swallowed it is transported by peristaltic contractions of the esophogus (on the illustration that's the long "tube" you see running down from the mouth) into the stomach. The stomach (at the end of the esophogus) acts as a food reservoir during the early stages of digestion. The stomach churns its contents with digestive seretions such as the enzyme pepsin, and hydrochloric acid. (By the way, if you have heartburn, it's not because you have too much stomach acid; it's because you have too little. But that's the subject of another discussion.) In general, food stays in the stomach for 45 minutes to 2 hours. Plenty of time for the acid to destroy sensitive nutrients, which it does, even in food other than the tablets we're concerned with here. Not all nutrients are destroyed though; if they were, we'd all starve to death. The thing is though, when we pay a lot of money for a tablet, we neither want any of the active ingedients destroyed, nor do we want the tablets to pass through withour being absorbed.
Eventually the stomach contents are transported into the upper small intestine (right below the transverse colon - we should all be able to recognize it from the "sausage links" across the entire abdomen . This is called the duodenum. It's about 20 to 23 feet long and actually consists of three distinct segments (you can't really see them on the image here). Each of these segments is about 10 inches long, the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum.
Now if we're talking just about a vitamin tablet here, then the tablet releases its ingredients into the more alkaline environment after about 20 minutes to an hour. From there the iingredients pass through the intestinal wall into the bloodstream. Unless they're still locked up in the hard binders of a cheap tablet.
HERE'S WHAT HAPPENS TO A NORMAL
GOOD QUALITY TABLET
The active ingredients are released into the stomach.
The stomach acids attack the ingredients and break them into smaller particles.
Depending on the ingredient, most of it is destroyed by the acid (not all ingredients are affected; some are impervious to stomach acids.
The remaining ingredients pass through to the small intestine.
WHAT ABOUT PRESCRIPTION DRUGS/
Pharmaceutical drugs always work because the FDA requires proof that they do! Not so with vitamin supplements. Pharmaceuticals cannot be manufactured to a price standard. Most vitamin supplements are. Pharmaceutical drugs are manufactured to a standard of best science, This is often a very expensive process. The drugs you buy will be absorbed just about 100%, while in contrast, some experts believe that only about 10% to 15% of vitamins taken are absorbed. Routine in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals is the addition of an enteric coating on the ingredients whenever needed. This is rarely done with vitamins and supplements.
ENTERIC COATINGS
An enteric coating on a tablet provides a protective layer on the ingredients which permits them to pass through the stomach into the duodenum intact. Once in the duodenum (the small intestine), the coating reacts to the alkaline environment and strips away, releasing the active ingredients. There is only one manufacturer of vitamin supplements with the knowledge, the equipment, and the will to do this! You can visit them by clicking here.
Most supplement companies are merely marketers, not science based companies, so they have neither the will, nor the facilities, nor the technical know how to put enteric coatings on their products. The technology itself is very expensive and the resulting products require continuous testing to assure proper impermeability and correctly timed breakdown of the coatings.
JUST WHAT IS AFFECTED?
In general, vitamins and minerals are not afftected by stomach acids. Pancreatic enzymes, some vegetable enzymes, and expensive, beneficial ingredients like L-Glutathione, alpha lipoic acid, SAMe and herbals, are. Supplements that do not contain ingredients susceptible to stomach acids, do not need any protective coating. But if you're buying L-Glutathione, for example, you would definitely want this product to come with an enteric coating. L-Glutathione is extremely important for the health of your cells and wil be severly damaged by release into the stomach. Other ingredients that are severely impacted by stomach acids include, but are not limited to: L-Carnosine, Aloe Vera Polysaccharides, Adenosine Triphosphate, (ATP), Resveratrol, ALL enzymes, Ribonucleic Acid RNA).
BIOAVAILABILITY
Many factors contribut tothe bioavailability of a supplement ingredient. Lets look at some of them.
Disintegration time; dissolution percentage; types of excipients used; nutrient forms; presence of co-factors or inhibitors in the formula; interactions with drugs; time of the day taken; supplement delivery system; level of absorption; and of course, your own body's nutritional needs.
DISINTEGRATION: The tablet needs to break apart and fragment into small pieces. If that fails to happen, it will pass through your digestive system intact and end up in the local sewage system in the same condtion it was in when yiu swallowed uit. And even if it does disintegrate, the ingredients won't do you much good if they don't dissolve! That's called dissolution.
Once a supplement reaches the intestinal tract, it has a limitied time in which to dissolve into solution and in this way, pass into the bloodstream. Forty-five minutes in the intestinal tract is about the outside limit for supplement formulations to remain in the intestinal tract without disintegrating and going on to dissolve.
So basically we need a tablet to disintegrate in the stomach, avoid destruction of sensitive ingredients by stomach acids, and then have the active ingredients transported into the small intestine where they are then dissolved into solution.Since not all ingredients in a supplement formulation are sensitive to stomach acids, there is no need to apply an entaric coating to every supplement, but where it is necessary, failure to do so will produce a useless product; at least where the included sensitive ingredients are concerned.
COMMON INGREDIENTS SUBJECT TO DESTRUCTION
Listed here are a few of the more important ingredients which are highly sensitive and vulnerable to stomach acids
Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP)
Aloe Vera Polysaccharides
Alpha Lipoic Acid
Amylase (An Enzyme: ALL enzymes are easily destroyed.)
Betaine Hydrochloride
Bromelaine (Another enzyme)
DMAE
Enzidase (enzyme)
Isolase (enzyme)
L-Carnosine
L-Glutathione
Lipase (enzyme)
N-Acetyl L-Cysteine
Phosphatidyl Choline
Resveratrol
There are many other factors to consider when selecting a supplement, and we will be examining them here at LeQuadrillage as time goes on. Meanwhile we'd like to introduce you to one outstanding supplement that nearly everyone should be taking as a matter of routine. It will avoid a lot of health issues as well as alleviate or cure many that already exist. This is a supplement that does in fact incorporate an enteric coating as part of its formulation.
Manufatured by a little known New Zealand company with an impeccable reputation for consistently producing product that exceeds United States Pharmacopeia (USP) and British Pharmacopeia (BP) standards, this particular supplement is used routinely by the entire LeQuadrillage staff and their families. The supplement is called Total Balance and you can learn more about it by clicking here. This is one product that, when taken regularly is certain to avoid countless health issues that could arise and meanwhile, keep you feeling totally at the top of your game. Really. And while you're there, be sure to check out their ailment specific supplements too.
HERBAL SUPPLEMENTS
Over the years, a large number of studies concerning the effectiveness of herbal supplements in the treatment of various ailments have been conducted. These studies have nearly always yielded very positive results, and today, research into them is intensifying. While we recommend consulting a knowledgeable doctor before embarking on any natural supplementation regimen, most herbs are pretty harmless if obtained from an ethical and reliable supplier. Herbal supplements should always contain complete instructions regarding their use on the labels, and these instructions should be faithfully followed.,
If you do decide to take herbs to treat a particular ailment, pay careful attention to what your body tells you as you proceed. Watch for any signs that the treatment may not be working and quit if your body seems to be rejecting this option. Then it's probably time to find a good alternative physician. In that case, go to out Links page and find the direct link to The American College for the Advancement of Medicine.Their world wide roster of participating practitioners is available to you there without charge.
THE TWELVE MOST RECOMMENDED NATURAL REMEDIES
To learn about their use, click on the text in the yellow box below to be taken to our most trusted and knowledgeable supplier of these products. Information about them is freely given here without cost or obligation.
LeQuadrillage recommends no one that fails to back up product performance with an indisputable money back guarantee. Please take note however, that natural products, unlike drugs, take time to produce results. Give our recommended products the time they need; take them in accordance with the instructions on the labels, and these natural products will unfailingly produce the positive results represented.
