Actives are delicate.
Digestion is not.
Your body destroys the actives you swallow and can render doses completely ineffective before they ever reach circulation.
bi·o·a·vail·a·bil·i·ty: the proportion of a substance which enters circulation when introduced into the body and is able to have an active effect.
Ingested Dose
The pill or gummy dissolves in your stomach. This is your starting point—100% of the active compound, intact and ready to enter your system.
Stomach
Hydrochloric acid at pH 1–3 immediately attacks molecular bonds. Pepsin and other digestive enzymes begin breaking down compounds. ~20% destroyed.
Intestinal Lumen
Pancreatic enzymes slice through molecular structures while trillions of gut bacteria metabolize whatever they can. Food particles create barriers to absorption. Another ~20% gone.
Intestinal Wall
Cellular efflux pumps actively push compounds back into the gut. These molecular "bouncers" evolved to protect you from toxins—but they can't distinguish medicine from poison. ~25% rejected.
Liver First-Pass
Your liver's CYP450 enzymes oxidize molecules, then conjugation enzymes tag them for elimination. Up to 70% of some drugs are destroyed here in a single pass. ~15% eliminated.
Systemic Circulation
What survives reaches your bloodstream—but plasma proteins immediately bind to most of it, rendering molecules inactive. Only ~5–10% remains free and bioactive. The rest is locked away, circulating uselessly until eliminated.
Congratulations:
There is a superhighway in your mouth!
Dissolution
The base of natural pullulan, made from fungi, is designed to dissolve rapidly, releasing the active compound evenly across the tongue's surface. *
Diffusion
Just 200–800 micrometers thick, the mucosa forms a living barrier where molecules slip between cells, following natural gradients toward the blood capillaries below. *
Absorption
Around 150 to 300 capillaries fill each mm² of the oral mucosa, nearly four million in total. Their walls are a single cell thick, allowing molecules to cross into blood within seconds of contact. *
Distribution
From the mouth, molecules flow through the jugular veins into the superior vena cava and directly to the heart. With a single heartbeat, they spread through circulation. *
Systemic Circulation
From the heart, molecules circulate through arterial networks across the body, delivering each compound to its site of action—fast, efficient, and precise. *
A complete cardiac cycle lasts under one second, and within one to two cycles, blood (and absorbed molecules) reach systemic circulation.