When I first started buying Peptide Bioregulators from Pivotal Bioscience in Australia I asked them the same question.
They sent me two articles which address the question of whether orally administered peptides are absorbed and become bioavailable.
One article was authored by Khavinson, and the other was completely independent and not related to Khavinson in any way.
In summary:
- Proteins and Polypeptides are broken down during the digestive process to smaller/shorter peptides
- Peptides up to 4 amino acids in length are readily absorbed
I'm quite sure they must be absorbed and work because I have had two slipped discs in my back for many years, and since
starting Peptide Bioregulators I can feel the improvement without any doubt.
Previously, if I didn't do stomach crunches every day to maintain core strength and stability, after about 10 days of not doing
them the two slipped discs would cause havoc in terms of pain every day. Just sitting on a chair at work for the day seemed
to inflame the area and I would be in constant pain.
If I hadn't been doing stomach crunches and did something mildly strenuous like working in the garden on a Sunday (mowing
lawn, bending over, lifting refuse, etc.), then for most of the following week I would be in agony.
Even if I had been keeping up with the stomach crunch routine, a days gardening would cause moderate pain and discomfort
for 2-3 days following.
Now however, I haven't done any stomach crunches in months and everything is fine.
I can still feel I have slipped discs, but they just don't seem to flare up.
I can irritate my back/slipped discs by lifting or sitting awkwardly, which will generate some mild pain, but if I get a good nights
sleep afterwards having done so, then everything seems to have recovered and settled down when I wake up.
I know it's not just me. I have a friend who has a badly shaped lower spine and one leg longer than the other, and she has
constant lower back pain. She's been taking large doses of pain killers every day for years.
She tried them and her day to day pain is now about 10% of what it was. She also says she can irritate it by wearing high heels
or jogging, but that he back seems to recover and settle down after a rest.
I can't report on any of the other Peptide Bioregulators for other organs/body areas. Even though I'm taking them, there is nothing
which is as faulty like my back, which I would notice has corrected itself.
There doesn't seem to be a way of attaching the articles here, so I've pasted below some text from the article I received which is
not related to Khavinson:
Biochemistry of digestion, absorption and detoxification - Prof. Dr. Hedef D. El-Yassin (2011)
3) Absorption of Amino Acids and Peptides
Dietary proteins are, with very few exceptions, not absorbed. Rather, they must be
digested into amino acids or di- and tripeptides first, through the action of gastric and
pancreatic proteases. The brush border of the small intestine is equipped with a
family of peptidases. Like lactase and maltase, these peptidases are integral
membrane proteins rather than soluble enzymes. They function to further the
hydrolysis of lumenal peptides, converting them to free amino acids and very small
peptides. These endproducts of digestion, formed on the surface of the enterocyte,
are ready for absorption.
b) Absorption of Peptides
There is virtually no absorption of peptides longer than four amino acids. However, there is
abundant absorption of di- and tripeptides in the small intestine. These small peptides are
absorbed into the small intestinal epithelial cell by cotransport with H+ ions via a transporter
called PepT1.