From time to time we have both customers and readers ask why we enteric coat our Total Balance and some of our other products.

The following question from Keith is quite typical. He says:

“On the subject of enteric coated, I am puzzled why that is necessary. All of the natural food we eat, which presumably has essential nutrients, pass through the stomach before reaching the upper intestines. If stomach acids destroy the nutrients contained in Total Balance (and other enteric coated products), why don't they also destroy the nutrients in natural food?”

This is a pretty logical question, so I will attempt to answer it the best way I can.

Some ingredients in food are also affected by stomach acid.

Firstly it is well proven that some of the nutrients that we use in Total Balance (not all) are particularly susceptible to stomach acid and they are either damaged or rendered useless by stomach acid or the structure of them is altered by the exposure to hydrochloric acid. This can have an impact on their efficacy and may well be one of the reasons why many people have nutrient deficiencies particularly as they age. These same nutrients are adversely affected whether they are within a supplement or in food.

This is not so much of a concern when we are young and all our systems are functioning well and if we are on a ‘perfect’ diet and getting lots of good nutrients. Nature makes allowances for the losses of some of these nutrients. But, as we get older and our diet is less than ideal, these nutrient deficiencies become a potential time bomb.

Examples of a couple of important ingredients that we use in Total Balance that come from our diet are Resveratrol and L-Carnosine. Resveratrol is unstable and you would have to drink a LOT of red wine every day (many, many bottles) to get the same benefit of the resveratrol in one daily serving of Total Balance. Carnosine which is present in meat changes to a less effective salt form when exposed to hydrochloric acid in the stomach.

Then there are the enzymes in Total Balance. Most enzymes are very unstable and are destroyed when exposed to hydrochloric acid. However, they are essential as some of them are used in the upper intestine to break down the molecular size of some nutrients to enable them to pass through the intestinal wall and then into the blood stream. This has a significant impact on bio-availability.

The most compelling reason!

But, the most compelling reason for using enteric coating is to protect those nutrients that are crucial for life and wellness but are almost impossible to get from diet alone.

I am talking about nutrients that are needed in every cell of our body but which are largely absent from our diets! Instead we are dependent upon our bodies to manufacture them. That would be OK except levels of most of these important nutrients steadily fall as we age leading to all sorts of degenerative disease and damage to our DNA.

A well known example of such as nutrient is CoQ10. This is a very important nutrient and as such we have for the last 10 years included precursors in Total Balance to help stimulate our body to make more of this. (We still include them) In the last generation we have included some of the genuine CoQ10 in the formula as well to help those people whose body’s ‘manufacturing ability’ may be impaired. It is well known that only a very small percentage of CoQ10 is actually bio-available (about 5%) and some of the degradation of this is due to exposure to stomach acid.

Another example, which may well be even more important than CoQ10 but is not as well known is a nutrient called SAMe!

SAMe is a natural substance that is in every cell of your body but is not available from food. Supplies of SAMe in your body are dependent upon your body’s ability to manufacture it. Without it you would soon wither away and die.

As we get older our body’s ability to manufacture this vital nutrient diminishes and this reduced ability is believed to be one of the factors contributing to aging. There has been an enormous amount of research carried out on the benefits of supplementation with SAMe and there is no disputing that it is one of the most beneficial nutrients currently known to science. It could be argued that it is much more important than CoQ10 and it is highly desirable that we give our bodies a helping hand by direct supplementation with it.

From what I have learnt if there if I had the choice of only taking one nutrient of the two…CoQ10 or SAMe the SAMe would win hands down. The more I learn about this fascinating nutrient, the more amazed I am about the benefits that it provides our body.

Some of the key benefits of SAMe:

* It is probably the most effective methyl donor known. This means it provides major benefits for all of us who wish to reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease. It achieves this in part by being the most effective means of reducing homocysteine in the blood…much more so than high dose B vitamins which become less effective methylators as you age.

* Joint and pain relief. It is much more effective than the well known glucosamine, chondroitin combo and there is the scientific evidence available to support this.

* One of its roles as a methylator is to help activate serotonin to improve mood and well being. Some studies have shown it to be as effective as an anti-depressant…but, you do not have to be depressed to get the benefits of SAMe

BUT…SAMe is notoriously unstable!!

This is why if you are looking for SAMe as a single supplement you will only find them in tablet form and they are always enteric coated. It is the only way you can effectively get SAMe safely past your stomach into the upper intestine where it is needed so it can pass through the intestinal walls into the blood stream and then on to your cells.

In Summary…

Just the fact that we are able to use SAMe effectively in Total Balance is in itself sufficient reason to warrant the use of the enteric coating technology. But, that is only part of it.

I hope this helps explain better the relationship between some nutrients in foods and other nutrients in a supplement which uses enteric coating.

In good health,

Warren Matthews

PS. A hint…If after reading this and you are not using Total Balance and you decide to purchase some SAME please be aware that the majority of supplements are not using the type of SAMe recognized by the scientific community. SAMe comes in two molecular forms. One is the SS isomer (known as the active isomer) and the other is the RS isomer (known as the inactive isomer). All SAMe contains percentages of both.

An effective SAMe product should have a minimum of 70% SS(active) isomer content. This is the minimum specification that we work to. Our last batch tested at 81% of the SS isomer content.