Natural Holistic Health Blog

Question: from Pappa

I can’t understand the concern about supplements passing through the stomach and being exposed to stomach acid.

All food we eat normally passes the stomach and gets exposed to the stomach acid. Anything that can’t stand our stomach’s acid, but has to me covered in a way to pass the stomach unhindered, can’t be a “natural” product. We should eat as close to “nature” as possible.

Answer: from Warren Matthews of Xtend-Life

This is a good question.

I certainly appreciate what you are saying as it makes sense. But it is not as simple as it may seem. I’ll try to explain.

As we get older we need a helping hand with some nutrients. This is because as we age our bodies become less efficient compared to how they were when we were younger. This means both in the ability to extract the nutrients from food and the ability to manufacture certain nutrients.

As an example, let’s consider glutathione which is essential for the health of our cells. This substance is primarily manufactured within the body, but as we get older we begin to lose the ability to make adequate amounts. Any deficiency contributes to accelerated aging.

So, the logical answer is to supplement with this important nutrient. The problem is though that this nutrient is damaged by stomach acid and can only be absorbed through the intestinal walls. In order to overcome this obstacle oral glutathione supplementation must abide to two important parameters. The first is to use a small molecular sized glutathione which is known as ‘reduced’ glutathione and the second is to protect it from stomach acid which can only be achieved by incorporating it in an enteric coated tablet.

Glutathione is only one of the nutrients that need to be protected in this way.

Consider enzymes for a moment. These are critical for effective bio-availability. They attach to some nutrients which are too large to be absorbed effectively through the intestinal walls. They then help break down the size of these nutrients to enable them to pass through the intestinal walls.

When we are young these enzymes are generally present in sufficient quantities to enable this to happen…but, as we age there is not enough of them and as a result many of the nutrients from food are not absorbed effectively which in turn contributes to the aging process.

However, enzymes are notoriously unstable and very sensitive to stomach acid. You will notice that in all our enteric coated tablets that we use a variety of enzymes. This is the reason why we use enzymes and it is a major factor which makes our enteric coated tablets so effective.

But, if the tablets were not enteric coated then it would be pointless in including these enzymes.

So, we are still doing what is ‘natural’ but just giving nature a bit of a ‘helping hand’.

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Originally posted 2008-04-02 09:32:38.

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