Liquid supplements offer an easy and effortless alternative to pills and capsules, being easily absorbed through the digestive tract without needing to undergo complete breakdown in your system like pills do.
Swallowing tablets and capsules may be difficult for individuals with sensitive gag reflexes or other health conditions, making compliance rates lower than expected. Liquid vitamins provide more palatable alternatives with greater compliance rates.
High Dosing
Liquid supplements may provide essential nutrition when people don’t eat properly. Liquid vitamins and mineral (MVM) products come in many different formulations to meet this need, including “multis” (full spectrum MVM products) as well as targeted MVMs with multiple vitamins or minerals that go beyond daily Value (DV), Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA), Adequate Intake (AI), or Tolerable Upper Intake Levels (ULs). Some even contain botanical or other ingredients to provide added vitamins.
Observational studies demonstrate the relationship between MVM use and improved health outcomes. For instance, in the Physicians Health Study I, researchers followed 18,530 male physicians for 12 years on average and found that MVM users had lower rates of cardiovascular disease events compared with nonusers. Other studies have yielded similar findings but most of them used relatively small samples or used differing definitions of MVs and MVMs for measurement.
Trouble Swallowing Pills
People may experience difficulty swallowing pills for various reasons. Sometimes this may be related to the pill’s shape, size or texture; other times it could be related to health conditions or medication side effects – for instance olanzapine (Zyprexa), commonly prescribed to treat mental health conditions, can cause dry mouth which makes swallowing harder.
There are various strategies available to individuals looking for ways to help them swallow pills more easily, one being coating each pill with lubricating gel which limits discomfort caused by sliding pills down their throat into their stomachs.
An additional way to make taking medications easier is using a straw. Specialized straws designed to hold pills make the task even simpler – simply place your pill inside, close it with lips around its opening and swallow as usual. For added ease take a big sip of water prior to placing in mouth.
Easier to Modify Dose
Liquid supplements may make it easier for people to adhere to their supplement plans, as it’s simpler to remember one dose than multiple pill dosages. Furthermore, liquid vitamins often come flavored with natural sweeteners like stevia or monk fruit for enhanced taste – which makes these drinks an appealing option for children or anyone having difficulty with swallowing pills due to medical conditions that make swallowing pills challenging.
Liquid supplements typically come in the form of liposomal, water or alcohol-based herbal tinctures and oils. Liposomal delivery provides nutrients with an advantage by bypassing primary stages of metabolism for increased biocompatibility and absorption, while alcohol-based preparations offer safe yet efficient extraction of essential oils and phytonutrients from herbs or plant material.
Although much remains to be discovered about vitamins and supplements, it has become evident that liquid supplements offer unique advantages over pills, capsules or tablets. Read on to discover their numerous advantages as well as which individuals tend to benefit most from these preparations.
Better Absorption
Liquid vitamins tend to be easier for our bodies to absorb because they do not adhere to the same stringent structural requirements of pills, and do not need to be physically broken down by stomach acids before entering our bloodstreams.
Water-soluble vitamins such as Vitamin C or B12 should be quickly absorbed for maximum effectiveness, particularly important for people suffering from digestive issues or difficulty taking pills such as young children or seniors who find swallowing pills challenging. This holds especially true when considering water-soluble vitamins like Vitamin C or B12.
If you want timed-release melatonin or creatine supplements, tablets will likely be best. This is because those supplements contain stabilizers to keep stomach acids from breaking them down too early; liquid supplements tend to lack these components and thus could release their ingredients more rapidly than pills may do, possibly shortening shelf lives for liquid supplements.
