There are 3 main reasons why LumiNutra is administered intravenously.
First, because LumiNutra contains robust amounts of vitamins and minerals, it would be nearly impossible to achieve the blood levels of these nutrients from the formula by oral consumption. For most vitamins and minerals taken orally there is an inverse relationship between the amount taken and the percentage absorbed. In other words, the more you take, the less is absorbed.
Take Vitamin C for example; research shows that a serving of 30-180 mg is absorbed at about 80%. Increase that serving to just 1,000 mg and the absorption drops to 50%. And the more you take, the lower the absorptive rate drops. This not only makes it very difficult to achieve therapeutic blood levels, but also has the added potential of creating less than pleasant bowel issues.
So, the only way to achieve the blood levels necessary for the biological effects seen in the research is through intravenous infusion.
Second, not only is absorption an issue, but digestive degradation also plays a role. The process of digestion is a harsh process which exposes all nutrients to strong stomach acids and digestive enzymes. This process tends to degrade some of the more sensitive vitamins within the gastrointestinal tract before they can be absorbed.
Even after absorption, vitamins and minerals face another challenge, that of “first-pass metabolism”. First-pass metabolism is defined as “The intestinal and hepatic degradation or alteration of a drug or substance taken by mouth, after absorption, removing some of the active substance from the blood before it enters the general circulation.” As you can see from that definition, further chemical alterations and degradation occur even after intestinal absorption. This further limits the level of active vitamins and minerals that make it into general circulation.
Intravenous delivery avoids this first-pass metabolic degradation by delivering nutrients directly to cells throughout the body before they pass through the liver.
Finally, there is a gentle formation of effervescence in the IV bag when the LumiNutra ingredients are added. We believe this effervescing effect plays a role in the physiological efficacy of the formula.