The Compliance Problem Nobody Talks About
The supplement industry has a dirty secret: an estimated 50% of people who buy supplements stop taking them within three months. Not because the supplements stop working — because people stop taking them.
The reasons are consistently the same: the pills are large and hard to swallow, the routine feels clinical and burdensome, the taste is unpleasant, or the person simply forgets.
Steve Hyde, Co-Founder and CEO of Diso, built an entire company around solving this problem. Not by making a better pill, but by asking a more fundamental question: why are we using pills at all?
In this conversation with Nour Abochama, Steve explains the science of supplement delivery, why different formats produce meaningfully different results, and why he believes the dissolvable format isn’t just more convenient — it’s more effective.
The Biology of Why Delivery Format Matters
To understand why format matters, it helps to understand what happens to a supplement after you swallow it.
The pill pathway:
- The pill reaches the stomach, where it begins to break down (if it breaks down — some don’t)
- The dissolved contents are absorbed in the small intestine
- Absorbed nutrients enter the portal vein and travel to the liver
- The liver metabolizes a portion of the absorbed compounds before they reach systemic circulation — this is called first-pass metabolism
First-pass metabolism can dramatically reduce the amount of an active ingredient that reaches the bloodstream. For some compounds, 70–80% of what you swallowed never gets to where it needs to go.
The sublingual/buccal pathway:
When something dissolves under the tongue or in the mouth, it can be absorbed directly through the mucous membranes into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive system and liver entirely. This is the principle behind sublingual medications — nitroglycerin for angina, certain hormones, certain sedatives — and it’s the same principle that makes well-designed dissolving supplements more bioavailable for certain compounds.
“We’re not doing something novel,” Steve explains. “The pharmaceutical world has known this for decades. We’re applying it to daily wellness supplements.”
What Diso Actually Makes
Diso makes dissolvable supplement strips — thin, flexible strips that dissolve on the tongue in seconds. Each strip contains a dose of active ingredients formulated for sublingual or buccal absorption.
Their product line includes formulas for:
- Energy and focus — B vitamins, caffeine, L-theanine
- Sleep — melatonin, magnesium, botanicals
- Vitamin D and B12 — both commonly deficient, both known to benefit from sublingual delivery
- Iron — which has significant GI side effects in pill form and may absorb better sublingually
The format addresses multiple problems simultaneously:
Swallowing difficulty. An estimated 40% of adults have difficulty swallowing pills. For the elderly, this percentage is significantly higher. Dissolvable formats eliminate the barrier entirely.
Speed of absorption. For compounds like B12, sublingual absorption is faster and more complete than oral. The energy hit from a B12 strip is more immediate than from a capsule.
Portability and discretion. A strip fits in a wallet. No water required. No pill case to carry. The friction of taking a supplement at noon drops to nearly zero.
Palatability. Strips are formulated to taste good. This sounds trivial and isn’t — taste is one of the primary reasons people abandon supplement routines.
The Manufacturing and Quality Considerations
From a laboratory perspective, Nour adds important context on what quality looks like for novel supplement formats:
Strip manufacturing has different challenges than capsule manufacturing. The active ingredients must be stable in a thin polymer film, compatible with the flavoring agents, and present at consistent concentrations despite the extreme thinness of the format.
Testing considerations for strip supplements:
Content uniformity — each strip must contain the labeled dose. For thin films, achieving uniform distribution of active ingredients during manufacturing is technically more challenging than filling capsules. This is why content uniformity testing (verifying that each unit in a batch contains the stated amount) is particularly important.
Stability in film matrix — some ingredients degrade faster in film form than in capsule form due to moisture exposure during manufacturing. Accelerated stability testing under various temperature and humidity conditions is essential.
Dissolution testing — the strip should dissolve within a specified time under standardized conditions. If it doesn’t dissolve properly in vitro, it won’t absorb properly in vivo.
Microbiology — strips are water-containing products during manufacture and must be tested for microbial contamination.
“We work with brands on these novel formats,” Nour notes. “The testing methodology is different from capsules, and not every lab has established methods for strip products. It’s worth asking specifically whether the lab has experience with your delivery format.”
Beyond Strips: The Landscape of Alternative Formats
The innovation in supplement delivery extends well beyond strips:
Liposomal formulations. Active ingredients are encapsulated in liposomes — tiny fat-soluble spheres that protect ingredients through the digestive system and may improve cellular uptake. Vitamin C and glutathione are common liposomal supplements.
Nanoemulsions. Water-insoluble compounds (fat-soluble vitamins, CBD, curcumin) are broken into nanoscale droplets, dramatically increasing surface area and absorption. The research is promising but the field is still maturing.
Effervescent tablets. Dissolve in water, pre-dissolving the active ingredients before they reach the stomach. May improve absorption for certain minerals and vitamins. Have been standard in European sports nutrition for decades.
Chewable formats. Gummies have become the dominant format for certain demographics (children’s vitamins, vitamin D, melatonin). They solve compliance but introduce formulation challenges — sugar content, stability of active ingredients in gelatin or pectin matrices, and accurate dosing (gummy formulas require careful attention to content uniformity).
Transdermal patches. Delivering supplements through skin. Currently niche and highly format-dependent — only certain molecules with appropriate molecular weights can penetrate skin in therapeutically meaningful quantities.
The Honest Conversation About Efficacy
Steve is direct about something most supplement founders won’t say publicly: not all delivery format innovations are evidence-based.
“There’s a lot of ‘enhanced bioavailability’ marketing in this industry that’s based on the mechanism being theoretically sound, not on clinical studies showing the improvement in actual humans,” he acknowledges. “We try to only make claims we can back up with data.”
The honest hierarchy of evidence for delivery format claims:
- Randomized controlled trials comparing blood levels after sublingual vs. oral delivery (gold standard, rare)
- Pharmacokinetic studies showing improved Cmax (peak blood concentration) or AUC (total drug exposure)
- Studies on analogous pharmaceutical compounds using the same delivery route
- Mechanistic evidence (we know first-pass metabolism reduces X; sublingual bypasses first-pass metabolism; therefore sublingual should improve X delivery)
Most supplement delivery innovations sit at level 3 or 4. Level 1 evidence exists for sublingual B12 vs. oral B12, sublingual melatonin vs. oral, and a few other compounds. For many innovations, the evidence base is still emerging.
What This Means for Consumers
A practical framework for evaluating delivery format claims:
Ask what evidence supports the bioavailability claim. If the brand can cite a pharmacokinetic study, that’s meaningful. If they cite “the mechanism” without clinical data, that’s theoretical.
Consider the specific compound. Sublingual delivery matters more for compounds with high first-pass metabolism (B12, certain hormones) than for water-soluble vitamins that absorb readily orally (vitamin C, most B vitamins in adequate doses).
Prioritize compliance over format. The best supplement is the one you actually take consistently. If gummies make you consistent and capsules don’t, gummies win — even if capsules are marginally better absorbed.
Verify the dose. A highly bioavailable format at a low dose is not necessarily better than a standard format at a therapeutic dose. Form and dose interact.
Key Takeaways
- First-pass metabolism reduces the amount of many compounds that reach systemic circulation after oral ingestion; sublingual delivery bypasses this
- Dissolving supplement formats (strips, sublingual tablets) may improve bioavailability for specific compounds including B12, melatonin, and fat-soluble vitamins
- Compliance — actually taking the supplement consistently — is often more impactful than marginal bioavailability differences between formats
- Novel formats (strips, films) require specific quality testing for content uniformity, dissolution, and stability in the film matrix
- Evaluate bioavailability claims by asking for pharmacokinetic data, not just mechanistic explanations
This article is based on Episode 36 of Nourify & Beautify with Steve Hyde of Diso. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen on Podbean.
