Hip
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Sublingual massage is a technique I figured out which appears to get supplements like vitamin B12 rapidly absorbed — in a matter of seconds — through the sublingual mucous membranes under your tongue.
Normally when you take a supplement sublingually, you place the tablet under your tongue, and let it slowly dissolve over 5 minutes or so. However, this approach takes time, and is not efficient: much of the supplement is wasted because your saliva tends to wash it down your throat.
Normally when you take a supplement sublingually, you place the tablet under your tongue, and let it slowly dissolve over 5 minutes or so. However, this approach takes time, and is not efficient: much of the supplement is wasted because your saliva tends to wash it down your throat.
What I do instead is first crush the supplement tablet into a fine powder, place this fine powder under my tongue, and then use my index finger to gently massage this powder into the mucous membranes under the tongue. I use my finger to spread the supplement powder right across the entire surface area on the underside of the tongue, and the entire surface area on the floor of the mouth. It is important to massage the powder right into the two pockets at the rear end of the under-tongue area, on the left and right.
This technique is what I call sublingual massage.
If you don't have much saliva in your mouth — if you have Sjogren's for example — you may need to add just 3 or 4 drops of water under your tongue to help dissolve the dry supplement powder into solution before you begin your finger massage.
The sublingual massage itself takes only 20 seconds to do, and the impression I get is that this massage technique gets a higher percentage of the supplement absorbed into your body, compared to just letting it dissolve as a tablet under the tongue.
I think the sublingual massage gives higher absorption because: (1) it uses the full surface area of your sublingual mucous membranes, (2) it is done quickly, so less of the supplement is washed away by your saliva, and (3) because the mechanical action of the massage itself may aid the penetration of the supplement through the mucous membranes.
When you take your finger out after the sublingual massage, the finger will usually be covered with some of the wetted supplement powder, but don't waste this: massage this last bit of the supplement into your upper gum area and inner cheeks, which are also absorbent mucous membranes.
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