Long story that I will not go in to but my grandson asked me why he had to take a “bottom bullet” in his bottom rather than swallowing it....We call them bottom bullets because we have always told the kids and grandkids that the bullet goes up and kills the bad bugs that is causng their stomach to hurt....

So I ask the SIGForum brain trust - Is a suppository effective if taken by mouth?

No plans on trying this but when my 6 year old grandson asks a question that I have no clue to the answer rather than going to google I decided to come here.....Thanks. Mark

I think not

https://www.quora.com/Why-dont...wallow-suppositories

There are a couple reasons a drug might be delivered as a suppository rather than in an oral formulation. The most interesting reason has to do with human anatomy:

As you probably learned early in life, arteries bring blood away from the heart to the tissues that need it, and veins bring blood back to the heart after it has been depleted of oxygen and nutrients by the tissue. However, in the GI tract, there is a special circulatory system, called the “hepatic portal system,” that works a little bit differently. After going to your gut, the blood doesn’t return immediately to your heart - it first makes a stop at your liver.

This is a very good thing for every day life. One of the liver’s jobs is to detoxify various compounds that we regularly eat that would otherwise be poisonous for us. When these compounds are absorbed into our blood, instead of getting circulated to our body the compounds are first brought to the liver where they are detoxified, making them safe to circulate and easier to excrete in the urine. This process is called “first pass metabolism.”

While first pass metabolism is great for getting rid of toxic things we eat, it has the unfortunate effect of also “detoxifying” many of the drugs that we take orally. This means that very little of the drug is actually able to get into your circulation, making the effective dose much smaller than the actual dose. This can be a real problem for achieving the amount required, or maintaining a certain amount in the blood over a period of time.

There are a couple of ways around this. First, we can just inject the drug straight into the bloodstream, or under the skin. This is commonly done in the hospital, but most people aren’t comfortable injecting themselves on a regular basis. Another approach is to try to deliver drugs to tissues that are not a part of the portal system.

As it happens, the veins in the rectum are different than the veins elsewhere in the GI tract. They go straight to the heart, without making a stop in the liver first. This is why some drugs are formulated as suppositories. In order to get the same effect orally, you would have to swallow much, much more of the drug, which is not only unpleasant but could be taxing on your liver as well.

-Daniel Starer Stor, MD/PhD Cellular Metabolism

Thanks Bama - your post provided not only the answer but an explanation as to things about the human body I did not know....Guess I need to get out more....

quote:

Originally posted by sigarmsp226:
Thanks Bama - your post provided not only the answer but an explanation as to things about the human body I did not know....Guess I need to get out more....

It was a good question - I didn't know the answer either! I love it when kids question stuff - mine have stumped me many times over the years!

One of my guys thought they were called depositories.

Politicians can take them orally.

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
One of my guys thought they were called depositories.

Not to be confused with the infamous School Book Suppository in Dallas.

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
One of my guys thought they were called depositories.

Not to be confused with the infamous School Book Suppository in Dallas.

I see what you did there

quote:

Originally posted by kz1000:
Politicians can take them orally.

SERIOUSLY? I guess you missed the memo....

Our document scanning software at the office has a "Document Repository" where documents are held if they don't successfully upload. I, of course, refer to it as the Document Suppository. A female co-worker has thus far resisted my terminology, but I can tell she's about to give in and adopt it.

quote:

Originally posted by rusbro:
Our document scanning software at the office has a "Document Repository" where documents are held if they don't successfully upload. I, of course, refer to it as the Document Suppository. A female co-worker has thus far resisted my terminology, but I can tell she's about to give in and adopt it.

Maybe she thinks you're being an ass?