Do you know what bioavailability is?

    Posted by Stefano Sottile posted on May 05, 2025
    Sai cos’è la biodisponibilità?

    Reading time: 2 minutes

    The term bioavailability is generally associated with a drug, a nutrient or a supplement, and represents the rate at which a substance is absorbed by an organism and becomes available at the site of action.

    This is a parameter that highlights a very important aspect when evaluating the effectiveness of a supplement.

    Bioavailability is sometimes brought up for indicate the degree of absorption by the body of what we ingest .

    Because the truth is that we are not what we eat but rather we are what we assimilate!

    Not all methods of administration lead to the same degree of bioavailability of a principle.

    When we take a supplement enterally, regardless of its form, it will undergo the same path as food. It will be ingested, processed by the digestive system and through the intestinal wall it will enter the bloodstream to finally reach that part of the body for which it is intended. There it will be able to begin and carry out the beneficial effects associated with it. The faster it does so, the better it will be for us.

    However, there are factors that can intervene by substantially changing the effect produced by taking a supplement by modifying its bioavailability.

    These factors can be related to the supplement or to our body.

    Regarding the supplement Bioavailability changes depending on:

    • Of the way it is taken
    • The time needed for its digestion
    • From the formulation and the quality of the ingredients
    • From the interaction with other nutrients that could limit or enhance its absorption

    About our body these factors come into play:

    • The age
    • The sex
    • The state of health
    • The intestinal microbiota
    • The state of the digestive system
    • Any intolerances
    • How to take it (empty or full stomach)

    The time of hiring

    Bioavailability is the ability of the supplement to be utilized.

    The more efficiently and quickly the principles taken, be they vitamins, minerals, enzymes or ferments, reach the part of the body they are supposed to help, the more effective the supplement will be.

    Taking a supplement in an inappropriate format with limited bioavailability is a waste of money and an equally useless strain on our body . Opting for a type of supplement that increases the bioavailability of a principle without involving the digestive system and reaching the bloodstream quickly allows for better results.

    Current methods for estimating bioavailability have a number of limitations including difficulty in interpreting the data, given the influence of factors such as gut health, nutritional status and the genotype of the subject being tested.

    For these reasons, it is therefore very difficult to guarantee a common bioavailability to multiple subjects in the presence of heterogeneous individual characteristics.

    Taking principles sublingually instead allows for a more truthful estimate of the degree of bioavailability of the substances taken.

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