Every day, our body breaks down the food we eat into its molecular components. This allows us to utilize the fats, carbohydrates and proteins. But all the secondary plant substances, minerals, vitamins and micronutrients also find their way into our body via the intestines. How exactly this works is complicated in detail. There are various absorption pathways so that all molecules reach their place of action.
So that you know better in the future, why, for example, the bioavailability of magnesium varies between 4 and 80%, why we to certain secondary plant substances oil should be added, what bioavailability actually is and which absorption pathways actually exist in our body, this article will give you information about it.
Absorption pathways – everything starts in the stomach
To help you better understand the different absorption pathways, let's look at an example. Let's say you eat an apple. In your mouth, it is already chopped up and mixed with the first digestive enzymes. Generally speaking, digestive enzymes are helpers that can break down food into smaller pieces. Amylase can, for example, cut long-chain carbohydrate chains into shorter pieces.
But back to our apple. It is now chopped up and placed in an acid bath – the stomach. In this harsh environment, the acid is intended to destroy as many germs as possible and to soften the food further. But this is not the only task of the stomach. It also produces the Intrinsic Factor (IF)This protein is essential for us absorb vitamin B12Without the intrinsic factor this would hardly be possible.
200m2 intestine for absorption
After our apple has already been digested by the stomach acid, it now goes into the duodenum, where additional bile and pancreatic juice meet the chyme. In the pancreatic secretion peptidases which ensure that the proteins in our food are broken down into individual amino acids.
Now that almost everything has been chopped up, the crucial question still remains. How can we absorb the remaining molecules?
The answer to this question is hidden in our small intestine. This is a fascinating development of evolution. In an adult human, it is about 5m long and its surface is more than 200m2, which is slightly less than an entire tennis court.
On this huge area a lot of vans are distributed, which help us to absorb all the important components from food. For example, our intestinal cells have a special transporter to absorb iron ions. We need these for the red pigment in our blood, haemoglobin. But we can also absorb iron (in the form of haemoglobin) via the heme transporter, which is contained in meat.
First pass effect – the liver has the say here
We have overcome the first hurdle. Our molecules have made the step from food, through the intestines, into our bodies. Portal vein – a vessel that collects all the blood from the digestive tract – They now reach the liver. It serves as the first detoxification site in the body.
All nutrients that are absorbed through the intestines must first pass through the liver, where they are processed by the liver cells. The molecules are processed through various biochemical processes - and this has consequences for the further course of events. In medicine, this phenomenon is called first pass effect.
Perhaps an example will help you to better understand the meaning of the first pass effect. In medicine, different forms of opioidsThis class of drugs binds to the opioid receptors and thus provides strong pain relief. However, there is an opioid derivative that is not used for pain, but for diarrhea. loperamideThis binds to the enterocytes (intestinal cells) in the intestine and thus ensures a slower intestinal passage. However, like all other drugs, it also enters the bloodstream, where it can lead to excessive 99% eliminated in the liver and thus has little effect on the rest of the body.
Parenteral, sublingual, buccal and Co. – who’s who?
Our liver is therefore a kind of protective shield. Before a molecule reaches the brain or heart, it must pass the “entry check” in the liverThis makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, but is sometimes a hindrance in medicine. This first pass effect can be partially avoided, by increasing the concentration of the starting material so that the liver is unable to “detoxify” all the moleculesHowever, this is often associated with some side effects.
In this case, it is a little more elegant to change the application method. Instead of via the mouth, we have other parenteral (besides the intestine) absorption routes If you need something quickly, the buccal (via the cheek mucosa), or sublingual (under the tongue) application of medication. These are mainly painkillers that are dissolved in the mouth or under the tongue. These molecules reach the body via the blood vessels directly to the heart. The liver is bypassed in this way. To help you understand the process better, we have provided you with a graphic.
This works in a similar way with suppositoriesThe blood from the rectum no longer reaches the liver, but goes directly to the heart via the inferior vena cava. This is a popular method, especially in children, to bypass the liver with active substances.
You're probably familiar with the last method from the hospital. We can also administer medication directly into the vein. This way we also bypass the liver and the first-pass effect.
Liposomal vs.Hydrophil
We have now made it into the bloodstream, but there are still more hurdles ahead. In principle, we can distinguish between molecules that fat-soluble (lipophilic), such as the vitamins A, D, E, K and water-soluble ones like vitamin C. Water-soluble substances can be transported easily in the blood, but have a harder time getting into the cells. With fat-soluble substances, it is the other way round. In the blood, they often require special transport proteins, which means they can get through more easily. the phospholipid layer the cells.
When we talk about blood lipid levels, these fat particles do not float freely in the blood, but are attached to Transport proteins such as apolipoprotein B bound. This means that these blood fats can be made water-soluble. If you want to learn more about this and also which blood lipid levels are important for your longevity, then please read our article about it.
Bioavailability using the example of magnesium
Not everything we eat reaches our blood in the same way. In a very simplified way, you can imagine the bioavailability introduce. The concentration of the substance in the blood plasma is measured (after it has passed through the liver) and compares it with the initial concentrationThis can result in significant differences.
A good example is magnesium. This is naturally found in various connection forms, such as magnesium oxide, magnesium citrate or magnesium bisglycinate The bioavailability of magnesium differs enormously between these compounds.
The well-known magnesium oxide has a bioavailability of just 4% This means that although this form is quite good for constipation, other forms are much more effective for supplementing magnesium. magnesium citrate and Magnesium Bisglycinate For example, both are used by our body to 80% In addition, magnesium bisglycinate can enter the brain via the blood-brain barrier.
Secondary plant substances – the difficulty with bioavailability
secondary plant substances have a number of health benefits. We have already given you an overview in a separate article.
The problem with secondary plant substances is, on the one hand, their Concentration. In studies, large quantities of the pure substance are used. For example,the amount of quercetin To consume it, we would need up to 100 apples – daily. resveratrol Depending on the study, 12l red wine and at sulforaphane it would be up to 40kg of broccoli – all per day.
Some of the secondary plant substances, such as Resveratrol or quercetin are fat-soluble. This makes it harder for us to absorb them for the reasons mentioned above and the bioavailability is low. To get around this, we can pack the molecules in a phospholipid layer and thus Increase bioavailability many times over.
The blood sugar-lowering berberine This formulation can increase bioavailability by increase 10 times and at Quercetin by 20 times! This is made possible on the one hand by the combination of a lipid layer and on the other hand by the addition of adjuvants, molecules that can help with absorption. In the case of quercetin, this is vitamin C and berberine a mineral complex.
Bioavailable berberine with chromium and zinc in the mineral complex Berbersome
Absorption of secondary plant substances - the devil is in the details
Not only quercetin and berberine need a little help to increase bioavailability, but also the sulforaphaneIn the green vegetable, this anti-inflammatory molecule is still in its precursor stage, glucoraphanin This is found in our intestine with the help of the enzyme myrosinase into sulforaphane converted. The efficiency However, it is not very large – it is about 10% and usually even less, since the individual substances are washed out by cooking for too long.
For this reason, Sulforapro both glucoraphanin and myrosinaseAnd there is another trick to ensure that the active ingredient gets to exactly where it is needed: in the intestine. The magic word here is: Gastro-resistant capsules.
Sulforaphane from molecular precursors combined with the finest broccoli extract - a natural source of sulforaphane
The right size is important
The molecules we consume every day all come in very different sizes. Some of them are too large to be absorbed directly – e.g. collagen and hyaluronic acid, both important molecules for skin healthThese substances form long molecular chains that are not reabsorbable by our body. If we want to consume collagen or hyaluronic acid through food, we have to package the molecules in smaller quantities, in so-called peptide shells. These already contain crushed pieces of the original substance. This is where things get a little complicated.
At collagen The studies showed that it is beneficial if the fragments in the peptide shells are as small as possible. At hyaluronic acid it is exactly the oppositeLarger fragments, so-called high-molecular hyaluronic acid, were able to show better results in human studies.
Conclusion Absorption pathways
The path from food to our cells is not always as easy as one might imagine. Fat-soluble and water-soluble molecules are absorbed to varying degrees. The liver metabolizes many molecules before they even enter the bloodstream, and the bioavailability of the substances depends on their composition.
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