Sublingual, meaning literally ‘under the tongue’ refers to a method of administering substances via the mouth in such a way that the substances are rapidly absorbed via the blood vessels under the tongue rather than via the digestive track.
Many people ask us why we provide the majority of our formulations in liquid form as a tea or a liquid sublingual. The answer is simple – this is the most efficient (and fastest) method of having the supplement absorbed by the body and with a higher potency. To help your understanding please see below.
- There are many methods of absorption of supplements into the system.
Absorption is the process of delivering a supplement into the blood stream. Absorption can be accomplished by administering the supplement orally, rectally, intra-muscularly, sublingually , inhalation, or topically . If a supplement is administered intravenously (placed directly into the blood stream), the need for absorption is bypassed entirely.
- Sublingual refers to the administration by which supplements diffuse into the blood through tissues under the tongue. Thus, when a supplement is placed under the tongue, it diffuses through the mucous membranes under your tongue.
- For supplement absorption to occur, a supplement must cross biologic barriers. Because there are many capillaries under the tongue, the supplement has a direct route into the blood stream.
- With the direct entry into the blood stream, the supplement works faster and potentially better. When you swallow a pill, the supplement must go through your entire intestinal tract: it travels into the stomach with acid and bile, to the intestines and then off to the liver for filtering. Therefore, the supplement goes to where it is needed. This is a long way. When the supplement is placed under the tongue, it bypasses the entire inner route and delivers the supplement right to the blood stream.
- “Potentially better” refers to potency and quantity needed. Potency is better because there is no filtering of the supplement by the body. Because of the increased potency, you need less supplement to do the job that it is intended to do.
A more complete understanding can be found by reference to the book titled “Dosage Form Design Considerations” Chapter on “Manipulation of Physiological Processes for Pharmaceutical Product Development”.
Every formulation we prepare is fully researched and tested for the optimal results. If you’ve got questions, contact us here