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Trying to absorb meds throught the skin (transdermal) - any experts?

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
If I'm remembering correctly, there was someone on this list who was really good at formulating non-oral versions of meds. Would like to take them if anyone knows who i'm talking about. I think they had a website as well on some of this. Since i can't try any more oral meds which get me into trouble, i'm trying to absorb things through the skin. I know some stuff for that but what gets me and I'm bad at is how does one figure out how much active ingredient to add? how does one even figure out dose since oral dosing likely not same than transdermal? and then once one takes a stab at a dose, how much does one add to get the dose right. and what kinds of tools are good for handling small amounts of powders and getting the amount right? i'm hopeless at hands on chemistry (biochem is great but not chem); am more of an idea person. If i can master this though, new worlds up to me on if nothing else, symptom management.
 

sunshine44

Que sera sera
Messages
1,137
Hi, thats me. I am actually getting ready to write a blog on it (and my method). Mine is entirely experimental but seems to be working. There are MANY ways to go about this. I have found through research that approximately 70% is being absorbed into blood stream...varies on what it is, density, evaporation etc. This is compared to about 85% internal absorption, although highly unlikely the shape my gut is in has been absorbing that level. There are patch companies that make certain vitamins, meds etc through transdermal methods. Due to my mast cell being so severe i had to go about things very differently and add only certain vitamins, one drop at a time.

Using your intuition will go a long way. There is not much guidance in this area yet. I can only tell you how i went about it. I seemed to be showing serious signs of berberi, scurvy and severe vit. d deficiency in 2018/2019 confirmed by my lyme practioner. Yet i was having serious reactions to anything internal and often times through IV. So, i began this journey out of necessity to save my life. I have found inner thighs works well as the vitamins or meds have no place to go really before they are eventually absorbed. I also use abdomen, buttox, inner arms, over thyroid (only certain ones like zinc), feet and the less hair= more absorption. Honestly if i had someone to regularly put this on my spine, thats an ideal place as well. Depending on how severe your situation is and what frequency you need applications, you can wipe areas about 2 hours later with warm washcloths to keep skin clean. I am having issues with B1 causing mast cell reactions and skin sores...other than that its gone very well. I still need to get this resolved though. Always something!

You can use a pill crusher or just back of spoon and a plate etc. They sell glass dropper bottles on amazon and you can add a few drops of water to the pill and let it dissolve then add to skin, etc. You can go as slow or fast as you want to be observant of reactions etc. Most vitamins are available in liquid form...singles and many others.

Hope this answered your questions. If you have any more feel free to message me. Do not forget you can absorb MUCH through your feet too. In 2017 when i was stronger i was doing rosehip foot soaks with ancient minerals magnesium flakes and i was absolutely upping my c and mag levels. I unfortunately don't have access to frequent foot soaks anymore. If its an option for you, look into it. Its one of the best ways to get magnesium in body with very little intestinal effects.
 

Wayne

Senior Member
Messages
4,306
Location
Ashland, Oregon
i was doing rosehip foot soaks with ancient minerals magnesium flakes and i was absolutely upping my c and mag levels. I unfortunately don't have access to frequent foot soaks anymore. If its an option for you, look into it. Its one of the best ways to get magnesium in body with very little intestinal effects.

Thank you @sunshine44 for your extraordinary post--very helpful! :thumbsup:

Regarding magnesium levels, I've heard that magnesium oil (magnesium chloride) applied to the skin is one of the best and fastest ways to restore depleted magnesium levels. I don't know how that would compare to taking foot baths, but my guess is they would both work extremely well. An added benefit of putting magnesium on the stomach area is that it can be absorbed into the stomach, and apparently fairly easily converted into hydrochloric acid (HCL). A real boon for those who have a hard time with digestion as a result of not enough HCL.

Another way to introduce a wide variety of nutrition and herbal therapies into the body is to do colonic retentions. Also, a wide variety of suppositories can be used to raise various amino acid levels, and I'm guessing in addition to many other things. (I'm currently looking into ozone suppositories). I think this is a very important topic for many on this forum, as so many of us deal with digestive issues of all kinds, which of course is directly related to our immune system functionality (I likely have gastroparesis). Thanks again for all your helpful tips and information!
 

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
@sunshine44 i like the oral vs skin percent absorption - so btythat calculation, one would need a slightly higher dose of transfermal than oral. I guess im stuck in thinking about progersterone which i once used transdermay. There, the transdermal dose is only about 1/10th the oral dose! But i guess oral progesterone absorption rate is so low, atypically So i guess the general amswer jd look yo
How much in percent gets absorbed orally for each med then estimate for skin its in the 70 percent range if done properly. Or to be on safe side can even assume 100 percent

For my second question i shoukd have asked it better. Ive been playing in particular with a fat based rather than a water based delivery system like yku were discussing. I also so not have premeasured doses of powder. . So was figuring let's say i make up
A 4 ounce jar, how much active ingredient do i add. Often with transfermals, one reads things like 3 percent concentration of X , where X is the active ingredient.but am not sure if i shoukd be thinking about that. But i think im realizing what to do- sort of. One wants the most a tive ingrediebt product in as small a delivery vehicle as possible (well i can think of exceptions but thats easy to fix after the fa t) . So i guess

step 1- figure out what transdermal
dose i want( based on the lookup answer of oral absorption percent of active ingredient like i describe above)

Step 2 figure out how to measure that amount from a big vat of powder (im working from “vats” of powder nnt premeasured pilks)

Step 3 figure out the smallest amount of the absorbable cream im using that can disolve that amount without grit

Step 4 multiply to get the number of doses/weight of powder for say 4 ounces of base

Ok so for step 2 i guess i need one of those scales for weighing teeny tiny bits- suggestions?

Alot of the other stuff i know about and i use patch transdermal and submuclusal aabsorption and footbaths but wq ting to step up my game

Very glad youve done stuff that works for you. I too have MCAS Thanks for responding
 

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
@Wayne ive fried suppositieries and declared that expt a disaster...i was using gummy bear molds i got from amazon...

Agree alot of folks woukd benevit. Maybe we can all do guest posts on subshines blog to share whats worked for us all.
 

vision blue

Senior Member
Messages
1,877
@sunshine44 hi. Do you try to match or take into consideration the ph of the skin and the ingredients? for example, don't know if it would work anyay, but i'd like to try to absorb some vitamin C through the skin into the blood stream (using my new fat-based skin penetrating pharma grade cream) but how do i think about ph? skin is acidic but C more so. Do you correct? what do you do? thanks.
 

sunshine44

Que sera sera
Messages
1,137
@sunshine44 hi. Do you try to match or take into consideration the ph of the skin and the ingredients? for example, don't know if it would work anyay, but i'd like to try to absorb some vitamin C through the skin into the blood stream (using my new fat-based skin penetrating pharma grade cream) but how do i think about ph? skin is acidic but C more so. Do you correct? what do you do? thanks.

that a great question. I do not and am not familiar in that area. I'm excited for your experimentation :)
 

Shanti1

Administrator
Messages
3,173
@vision blue @sunshine44
This is also a topic that interests me and one I have experimented with a bit. While I haven't done this with a lot of substances when I have wanted to change something into a transdermal delivery, I have used DMSO, sometimes cut with water or oil (depending on its solubility). DMSO is an excellent solvent and will pull other compounds through the skin into the body. Since most compounds readily dissolve in DMSO, you can typically pack a lot into a small amount. It also has the advantage of working on both hydrophilic and lipophilic compounds. The downside to DMSO is that some people can be sensitive to it.

When figuring the dose I check to see if there are any studies on transdermal delivery of the compound, its solubility in various substances, how much usually gets absorbed, and how much gets taken out by 1st pass. Also, super important to make sure what you are trying to take transdermally isn't sulfated or made into an active metabolite by the liver (learned that one from experience).

While researching the above gives me some idea of transdermal dosing, ultimately there are often a lot of unknowns, so I will use the substance in an amount of solvent that is equivalent to a fraction of the oral dose and work up until an effect is felt. I've used this more for my husband than myself because he has IBS.

https://www.gaylordchemical.com/blog/procipient-as-a-skin-penetration-enhancer/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22030943/