The biggest question that health experts are trying to answer is: Are liquid vitamins more superior than traditional tablet/caplet forms?
The Word "Isotonic" Defined
Isotonic vitamin supplement products are usually formulated with the proper balance of fructose, d-glucose, citric acid, potassium bicarbonate and other key ingredients to assure that they are isotonic when properly prepared.
The word “isotonic” broken down to its roots, iso means the “the same” and tonic means “pressure or tone”.
When used to describe solutions that are meant for consumption, isotonic means having the same fluid pressure as body fluids. Tears, blood plasma, lymph and other body fluids are all isotonic.
It Takes Time to Digest Food
Upon interviewing Jim Wilmer, Ph.D and chief science officer for the Nutrametrix Educational Institute in Greensboro, North Carolina, Wilmer told Suite 101 that when humans ingest food, gastric (or stomach) juice is secreted onto the food. Muscular contractions of the stomach mix the contents until a reasonably uniform solution is achieved.
“The solutions of the food (or chyme) that enter the small intestine for absorption are made isotonic by the action of the stomach in a time-consuming process,” Wilmer said. “The fluid pressure of food or isotonic solutions across semi-permeable membranes, such as the walls of the small intestine, is generally referred to as having a particular osmolality or tonicity.
Vitamin Supplements Dissolve Slowly in Stomach
Wilmer added that when solutions on opposite sides of a membrane have the same osmolality, they are considered iso-osmotic or iso-tonic. Therefore, in psychological terms, when a solution’s osmolality is the same or nearly the same, as that of normal blood serum, it is referred to as isotonic.
“The longer a supplement stays in the stomach, the longer the time before absorption can begin,” Wilmer added. “When the process has been completed (usually up to 40 minutes after ingestion) the diluted acid-attacked nutrients can enter the small intestine for absorption.”
Isotonic Process Compared to Taking an IV
Wilmer added that nutrients that are already isotonic do not need to be broken down into an isotonic state, therefore gastric emptying occurs more rapidly. He likened the process to a person in the hospital taking liquid substances directly into the vein (intravenous therapy or IV therapy).
“Biological sensors in the gastrointestinal tract detect that the ingested solution is isotonic and at a correct acid level or pH,” Wilmer said. “Once this happens, it causes the pyloric valve at the lower end of the stomach to remain open, allowing the concentrated solution to be squirted into the small intestine by stomach contractions.”
Pycnogenol Considered a Good Antioxidant
Once of several products that work within the framework of the isotonic delivery system include a product endorsed by well-known rhythm and blues recording artist, Ashanti, called “Ashanti’s OPC-3 Beauty Blend, with Pycnogenol”.
In an article written by Jacqueline Young and published in an August 2004 issue of Health Magazine called “Supplement Focus: Pycnogenol”, Young wrote that “Pycnogenol’s toxin-grabbing antioxidants, when delivered through an isotonic system, can benefit skin health, keeping you fresh-faced and staving off the signs of aging by helping to maintain collagen levels."
