Why Vitamin and Mineral Absorption Is Important

Your body absorbs nutrients and energy through macronutrients and micronutrients. Macronutrients include fats, protein and carbohydrates while micronutrients include vitamins and minerals. People can get dietary micronutrients through foods and supplements, but efficient absorption in the intestine is critical to getting proper nutrition.

Why Some Vitamins and Minerals Don't Get Absorbed

Absorbing vitamins and minerals from food and dietary supplements depends on enzyme production, personal habits, medications, dietary supplement formulations and both digestive and overall health.

Reasons why nutrients might not get absorbed properly include:

• Surgery or digestive tract disorders
• Stress
• Drug interactions
• Excessive use of alcohol
• Diseases of the kidney, liver, pancreas and gallbladder
• Medications like antacids, laxatives, diuretics and antibiotics
• Coated supplement pills that don't dissolve completely
• Not enough water in the digestive tract to dissolve water-soluble vitamins
• Difficulty absorbing fat-soluble vitamins

Vitamins are either water-soluble or fat-soluble, which affects absorption rates. Some supplement manufacturers bind vitamins to lipids or amino acids, which helps to make pass intestinal walls faster and more easily.

Dangers of Getting Too Few Nutrients

Not getting enough vitamins can generate serious health and wellness consequences, so millions of people take supplements to ensure that they're getting enough nutrients. However, supplements in pill form have coatings that stabilize digestion, but people have different metabolic rates, weights and physical conditions. These variations result in the vast majority of people not absorbing the full complement of nutrients they believe they have taken in the small intestine.

Dangers of nutrition deficiencies include:

• Irregular heartbeats and palpitations
• Tiredness or excessive weakness
• Poor mental, physical and social development in children
• Numbness or tingling in hands and feet
• Loss of appetite
• Weakened immune system
• Nausea, gas, bloating, constipation and vomiting

Two methods of absorption work in the intestine: passive and active. Both water-soluble and fat-soluble nutrients pass through the intestinal walls due to the scientific principle that solutions of high concentrations tend to equalize by moving to areas of lower concentrations. This is called passive absorption.

Active absorption is when substances bind to other molecules that pass more readily through intestinal walls. Drug manufacturers can increase absorption rates by binding nutrients to fats so that they pass more easily through the intestine to the blood.

How Biompharma Scientific Solves Absorption Problems

Biopharma Scientific manufactures supplements using natural ingredients, dietary fiber, SuperSorb technology and finely grained powders to speed digestion and absorption. The company's products contain no heavy metals that could build up to toxic levels in the system, and the fat-soluble vitamins are bound to highly digestible fats or lipids to ensure that each user absorbs the correct dose, which is always safe and beneficial.

Dangers of Going Overboard

Poor absorption rates of vitamins and minerals from the diet or supplements could cause symptoms that convince people to take supplements or increase their dosage. Water-soluble vitamins, except vitamin B12, are generally safe in excess because the body gets rid of the excess through the urine, but fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K build up in fatty tissues and could cause life-threatening side effects at certain levels.

• Symptoms of vitamin and mineral overdoses include:
• Diarrhea
• Hair loss
• Peeling skin
• Joint or muscle pain
• Loss of appetite
• Constipation
• Blood in the urine
• Excess bleeding or bruising
• Stomach pain and/or vomiting
• Severe headaches

Vitamin pills are not dependable as you may wither end up with the vitamins not absorbing into your system or absorbing too quickly. You should never take more than the recommended dosage of a supplement, and keep in mind that many cereals and processed foods have added nutrients. Supplements with basic nutrients and easily absorbed formulations provide the best protection against malnutrition and any toxic build-up of certain vitamins. Biopharma Scientific supplements use advanced techniques to increase absorption, and this can be especially important for people who are older, have weakened immune systems, are pregnant or nursing or have unusual rates of metabolism. With Biopharma Scientific’s great nutritional powders you can trust that the amount on the label is the amount your body will get to use.





Read more about our absorption technology HERE