How important is vitamin D drops to be under the tongue?
Bought some vitamin D drops (liposomal) that say to take under the tongue. Now it’s surprisingly hard to actually do that. So how much am I missing out if it’s in the general mouth or on top of the tongue?
Please keep in mind that according to the Mayo Clinic a normal adult needs no more than 600 UI per day.
It’s not a water-soluble vitamin so you can take too much and cause harm.
Disclosure: I just looked this up yesterday after buying a Buy 1/Get 1 of 220 doses of 2000 UI vitamin D! I thought it was water-soluble, and I could just take it and excrete what my body didn’t need. I bought enough to kill myself, many times over…
No attempt was made to distinguish between vitamin D2 and D3 because there was not always a distinction in the literature. However, vitamin D2 is less effective at raising serum 25(OH)D concentrations than is vitamin D3 (13).
And that the group sizes (“n” values) top out in just one at 1653. The rest are usually under 20.
Which doesn’t matter in the slightest as my post was to simply make the OP aware that too much can be harmful.
Your post simply raises the bar on how much is too much, but doesn’t change the underlying point I was trying to make.
To use the pharmacology vernacular, the route of administration for a medication (or supplement in this case) is a balance of pragmatic and biological considerations. Sublingual administration – aka under the tongue – gives access to a lot of capillaries, meaning the medication is quickly absorbed into the blood, without having to go through the liver and first-pass metabolism, which is what would happen with oral administration (aka swallowing a pill). As a practical matter, sublingual tends to be easier if someone cannot swallow, and because it’s very effective, the dosage can be reduced, which potentially could cost less, maybe.
I’m not a pharmacist, but you may find this video by ChubbyEmu adjacently interesting. It is about the difference in topical (aka on skin) absorption rates around the body, where the same dosage can be safe on one’s arm but hazardous on more delicate skin regions.
Let me summarize some correct facts prior to answering your question:
Vitamin D is indeed lipid-soluble vitamin, therefore it is only comes in capsules with oil or in liposomal form.
Absorption under the tongue (sublingual absorption) is amazing for water-soluble medications, however works for lipids in lipisomal forms too.
Any fat soluble vitamin can cause overdose in large quantities (unlike water-soluble), however therapeutic window for vitamins usually is pretty large. Therapeutic window is the dose range that can be safely taken without significant risk of overdose. Specifically for vitamin D, your recommended daily dose varies between 1000U and 5000U (depends on the season, place of living and your ethnicity). For severe deficiency we can prescribe 50000U weekly for a couple months. To overdose you need to take much more - more than 10000U daily for a few weeks.
Now to direct answer to your question - you are not missing a lot:
Yes with no optimal sublingual administration, absorption could differ. Bu it is not a chemotherapy, it is vitamin D - difference in health benefits if absorption dosages slightly inconsistent is minimal.
Whatever was not absorbed sublingually will be absorbed later in your GI tract.
Basically, don’t overthink it. And try not to ask health advice from internet strangers, better talk with your primary doctor if you have any concerns.
Some people have tongue tie and might have a much harder time lifting their tongue, sometimes being completely impossible. It’s usually corrected in babies these days right around birth, but isn’t always and could definitely explain the confusion.
The absorbtion of vitamin D is greater through the capillaries under the tongue and bypass the digestive system, which is less efficient especially for those with malabsorption issues.
How does that work with vitamin D requiring fatty acids to be absorbed well?
well absorbed in the small intestine. Absorption occurs by simple passive diffusion and by a mechanism that involves intestinal membrane carrier proteins [4]. The concurrent presence of fat in the gut enhances vitamin D absorption, but some vitamin D is absorbed even without dietary fat. Neither aging nor obesity alters vitamin D absorption from the gut.
I just never heard before, that you can uptake fat in your mouth. some water/salt solutions yes, but fat is new to me.
Also I don’t see why it would be better than uptake through the small intestine, as you claim?
The sublingual (under the tongue) route of absorption is often considered preferable for certain substances because it allows for direct entry into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system. This can result in faster onset of action and higher bioavailability compared to absorption in the small intestine, where some substances may undergo partial degradation or be affected by first-pass metabolism in the liver before reaching systemic circulation.
Add comment