"Tons of undigested vitamins"

"David Wright" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Today, I decided to repeat an experiment I did some years ago, testing
to see whether vitamins really dissolve. Many of you will have seen
the claims from vitamin purveyors that sewer workers in some city
(lately, it's usually been Tacoma, Washington) must frequently clean
out tons of undigested vitamin pills that are clogging the filters at
the treatment plant.

This morning, I took five different supplements (a magnesium caplet, a
selenium tablet, a vitamin C tablet, a B-complex caplet, a vitamin E
gel) and dropped them into a glass of water. I didn't stir the water,
and none of the tablets were touching each other. I then let the
glass sit undisturbed for 80 minutes and checked the results.

All of these were generic products of the CVS pharmacy chain (a large
US chain). Nothing expensive.

The magnesium caplet was the most spectacular -- it started to come
apart within a few seconds and looked like a slow-motion explosion.
The others were not so dramatic, but after 80 minutes, the selenium
and the B complex had both disintegrated, and the vitamin E gel had
burst. The vitamin C tablet was looking a bit fuzzy, but had not yet
come apart. Four hours later, however, it too had disintegrated.

Note that in your stomach, the environment is far more active and
hostile (acid, churning) than in a still glass of water.

I think we may safely assume that the "clogged filter" stories of the
vitamin purveyors are hogwash.

But you might want to try this yourself, just for fun. Also, it might
make a good science fair experiment for your kids -- they could try a
whole bunch of different brands and maybe different types of products
(e.g. ibuprofen.)

I suspect the technology of such products has improved greatly since it was
quite common to find intact tablets in the intestines on plain abdominal fil
ms, and even in the colon on endoscopy. Potassium chloride tablets were a
notorious offender.

Peter Moran

A few years back, in a Consumers Report article on vitamins &
supplements, they suggested dropping such pills into a glass of vinegar
to test how quickly/if they dissolve. I've done it with our favorite
cheap brand of aspirin & it disintegrated quite quickly.

A lady on another (non-health, but we got on the subject of vitamins)
forum said that when she empties her colostomy bag, she's never seen an
intact vitamin pill yet & mentioned that she can only afford the
cheapest vitamins.

This is always a good test of whether a pill will dissolve. It doesn't,
however, test the bioavailability, quality, or potency of the vitamin.
That's a good reason why it is best to buy from a company with a good track
record and that uses Good Manufacturing Practices as established by the
National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) or another private standards
organization. There are too many fly-by-night operations out there putting
out utter [censored] and slapping a cheap price on it.

Al.

"David Wright" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Today, I decided to repeat an experiment I did some years ago, testing
to see whether vitamins really dissolve. Many of you will have seen
the claims from vitamin purveyors that sewer workers in some city
(lately, it's usually been Tacoma, Washington) must frequently clean
out tons of undigested vitamin pills that are clogging the filters at
the treatment plant.

This morning, I took five different supplements (a magnesium caplet, a
selenium tablet, a vitamin C tablet, a B-complex caplet, a vitamin E
gel) and dropped them into a glass of water. I didn't stir the water,
and none of the tablets were touching each other. I then let the
glass sit undisturbed for 80 minutes and checked the results.

All of these were generic products of the CVS pharmacy chain (a large
US chain). Nothing expensive.

The magnesium caplet was the most spectacular -- it started to come
apart within a few seconds and looked like a slow-motion explosion.
The others were not so dramatic, but after 80 minutes, the selenium
and the B complex had both disintegrated, and the vitamin E gel had
burst. The vitamin C tablet was looking a bit fuzzy, but had not yet
come apart. Four hours later, however, it too had disintegrated.

Note that in your stomach, the environment is far more active and
hostile (acid, churning) than in a still glass of water.

I think we may safely assume that the "clogged filter" stories of the
vitamin purveyors are hogwash.

But you might want to try this yourself, just for fun. Also, it might
make a good science fair experiment for your kids -- they could try a
whole bunch of different brands and maybe different types of products
(e.g. ibuprofen.)

-- David Wright :: alphabeta at prodigy.net
These are my opinions only, but they're almost always correct.
"If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants
were standing on my shoulders." (Hal Abelson, MIT)