Sublingual means, by definition, below or beneath the tongue. Seem like a weird place for vitamins? There are some advantages to taking sublingual vitamins, such as, quick absorption, affordability and effectiveness. Think of those big vitamins pills that you take. How do those pills actually work? Just swallowing one of those hefty pills is a chore and the process of breaking down the vitamin and absorbing the nutrients can take hours.
The most common type of sublingual vitamins is vitamin B12, which relies on so many factors to be effective. For example, vitamin B12 relies heavily on the stomach’s acidity and proteins for it to be absorbed.
Advantages:
- The primary advantage to taking sublingual vitamins is that they are quick to absorb. Sublingual vitamins can be absorbed in minutes and are generally absorbed much faster than when the same vitamin is taken orally.
- Sublingual vitamins can be much easier way to take pills.
How: Sublingual supplements are either in tablet or liquid drop form and are absorbed by mucosal membranes that line your mouth. Substances absorbed under the tongue enter the bloodstream without having to go through the gastrointestinal tract.
Affordability: You may have thought that because sublingual vitamins are new and innovative that they are more expensive. However, sublingual vitamins are no more expensive than your average oral B-12 supplement and are much cheaper than B-12 injections and intravenous B-12.
According to Liquid Health this is the Delivery System/Rate of Absorption:
- Pill or tablet- 10%
- Capsule-20%
- Gel cap-30%
- Transdermal Patch-45%
- Sublingual Liquid-50%
- Intramuscular Injection-90%
- Intraoral or Sublingual Spray-95%
- Intravenous Injection-100%
Sources:
http://sublingualvitaminb12.com/the-top-6-benefits-of-sublingual-b12.html