What is bioavailability?
Bioavailability is a term used by several branches of scientific study to describe the way chemicals are absorbed by humans and other animals. Bioavailability was once strictly ascribed to pharmacology, but now has broad applications in environmental sciences as well. Examining a substance’s bioavailability in pharmacological studies helps to determine dosages of particular medications. A bioavailability measurement of a medication, when it reaches circulation in the body, describes aspects like absorbency and half-life. It can evaluate medication delivery as well. Intravenous administrations of medications are considered to have 100% bioavailability because they do not pass through the stomach. They are immediately in the circulatory system. However, other medications administered at the same time may reduce the effects of an intravenous administration and affect its bioavailability. Pharmacology also distinguishes between absolute bioavailability and relative bioavailability. Absolut
“Bioavailability” is the ease with which any nutrient can make its way from the food you eat into your body. The bioavailability “journey” that every nutrient takes is the same. In the first part of the journey, the food must be digested (broken apart) so that the nutrient can be freed from the food that contained it. Once the nutrient has been freed from the food that contained it, the second part of the journey involves absorption of the nutrient from the digestive tract into rest of the body. When a nutrient is highly “bioavailable,” it can be digested and absorbed a high percentage of the time and in a dependable way. When a nutrient is poorly bioavailable, its digestion, its absorption, or both can be much more difficult and much less predictable. Typically, we don’t have to worry about the bioavailability of nutrients from our food if we eat in a healthy way and have healthy body function. The Healthiest Way of Eating that is described in my book, The Healthiest Way of Eating and
The rate and extent of its appearance in the blood are important determinants of bioavailability. The terms bioavailability, biological activity, bioactivity and biopotency are often used interchangeably in nutrition literature, and there is a need for clarification. Bioavailability refers to the actual concentration of a nutrient in the blood upon ingestion, whereas the other terms deal with quantifiable/measurable biologic or fuctional effects of that nutrient. Coenzyme Q10 is insoluble in water, but is soluble in lipids to a limited extent. This property of CoQ10 accounts for its rather poor bioavailability. It follows, therefore that if CoQ10 could be made hydrosoluble, its bioavailability should increase. This goal was achieved via the patented Biosolv process in which the CoQ10 particle size was reduced to submicron levels, and the resulting formulation (Q-Gel) tested in human subjects. The results of five such separate relative bioavailability studies have confirmed the absolute
