MISCELLANEOUS ISSUES
As mentioned earlier, the colon is able to absorb various nutrients such as water, fatty acids and electrolytes; however, it was long thought that the colon was not able to absorb much more. Data have accumulated that demonstrate the colon’s ability to absorb more nutrients than previously thought. Several B vitamins are produced by or with the aid of colonic microbes, but they were thought to be of little use to the person because the colon appeared to absorb limited amounts of B vitamins. However, evidence existed as early as 1982 that thiamine, pyridoxine, biotin, folic acid and vitamin B12 were absorbed to some extent in the human colon, although pantothenic acid appeared not to be absorbed.38 But recently, researchers have identified carrier-mediated uptake mechanisms for biotin, pantothenic acid and folic acid in the human colon, and considerable amounts of these vitamins are indeed absorbed by the colon.39 ,40 ,41
Lactulose is a disaccharide that is not digested by intestinal enzymes but is fermented by colonic bacteria. Less than 3% of ingested lactulose is absorbed in healthy people, but this increases in intestinal disease. It is used in tests to assess permeability associated with disease of the small intestine, but is not useful in testing colon permeability. Sucralose is a synthetic disaccharide that is resistant to bacterial fermentation and is found in high concentrations in the colon after oral ingestion.
Both sucralose and lactulose were administered orally to healthy volunteers and ileostomists (patients who have had their colons surgically removed), with the goal of determining if sucralose could serve to measure colonic permeability, which, like the small intestine, would be higher if diseased than if healthy. The unexpected findings from this experiment were that both sucralose and lactulose were absorbed in small but significant amounts by healthy colons (0.455% of ingested sucralose; 0.517% of ingested lactulose). This represented 32% of sucralose and more than 50% of lactulose absorbed by the entire GI tract. This is surprising because it has always been assumed that a healthy colon does not absorb sugars. But more than that, this shows that disaccharides (at least these disaccharides) can be absorbed by healthy colons.42 It is obvious that the colon is capable of absorbing many more nutrients than once thought. Based on these recent findings, one may assume that more research will identify other nutrients that can be absorbed by the colon.
Mannatech continues to amaze the scientific community with research. Mannatech stands out from the crowd as a world leader in nutritional supplementation.
Based in Texas, Mannatech has labrotories that universities wish they had, in fact Post Grad students come to Mannatech to complete their PHD's.
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