Once you swallow your Beta Glucan capsules, the product enters the stomach. Shortly after, it is taken up into a special region known as the Peyer’s Patches. In the Peyer’s Patches, there are M cells, which transport the Beta Glucan to immune cells. These immune cells chew up the Beta Glucan and distribute it all over the body. The Beta Glucan fragments bind to Neutrophils, Macrophages, and Natural Killer cells. The binding of Beta Glucan to these cells is only possible with something known as the CR-3 Receptor. The CR-3 Receptor acts like a key unlocking a door. This binding of Beta Glucan with immune cells is what puts them on “high alert” priming them for action. In about 3 days after taking your Beta Glucan your immune system will be “fully activated.”
-Better Way Health
I would suggest chasing the Beta Glucan with a 4oz glass of water. Once the Beta Glucan goes down the esophagus, it passes into the stomach. Keep in mind that Beta Glucan is a complex carbohydrate, nature’s armor and that the stomach acid is not going to affect it at all. It will then pass from the stomach into the small intestine. The Beta Glucan microparticles are going to be seen and consumed by M-cells, or microfold cells, inside your Peyer’s Patches in your small intestine.
Think of the Peyer’s Patches as little Venus flytraps that physically reach up and grab these particles. They do not soak through the intestines. There is an actual grabbing of the particles which then pulls them through the lining of the intestine. Once inside these pockets, the particles are now inside the intestinal wall in what is called the GALT (Gut-Associated Lymphoid Tissue).
There are millions of immune cells sitting and sampling everything that comes through the gut and they are going to be attracted to the Beta Glucan; which holds the fingerprint of the yeast, yet it does not cause any of the reactions that yeast may cause. Once the particles are gobbled up and internalized, they will begin to travel throughout the body. They go to the lymph system through the lymph nodes and then into the liver; and soon into the kidneys, lungs, and bone marrow.
-AJ Lanigan
It goes through the stomach basically unchanged because we cannot process this type of saccharide. Only horses and animals basically eating grass can do it. We cannot. So it goes through the stomach and inside the intestine there are small patches of cells called Peyer’s Patches and they have a lot of different cells inside which have the receptor for the glucan.
So when the glucan slowly passes through, they actively see the molecules of glucan, bind it, catch them, and suck them in. By doing it, now they have the glucan inside. They start slowly to chew it up into smaller parts, it leaves the Peyer’s Patches into the other organs of the body releasing the fragments and in this way, the glucan is slowly spreading around our body. And it takes a couple of days. That is why I said it takes three days to see any results because it goes from one organ to another, cells are, exchanging glucan molecules.
-Dr. Vaclav Vetvicka