XTEND-YOUR-LIFE Newsletter
Issue - 14th April 2004
The biggest boost for overall health and wellbeing... ever! PART 2
This weeks issue is a follow on from the 17th March newsletter. In that issue I addressed some basic information about the importance of a sensible supplementation program, and also looked at bio-availability of supplements, or in other words 'delivery systems'. In case you missed that newsletter and are interested in learning more about the absorption of nutrients then you may like to refer back to it. You can find it in the newsletter archives page on the website.
As I explained last month there is more to just the delivery system when it comes to producing a quality supplement. The three additional key issues are:
How important is the formulation?
A lot more than most people realize! This is because it is not just a matter of selecting a range of ingredients that have been established to do certain things within your body, but having the knowledge of what happens when you combine them. This means that you need to know the various metabolic paths that these ingredients take and how that path can be affected when combined with other ingredients.
Not only that, but you need to know what happens when the combination of ingredients react with natural chemicals within your body. This can lead to the creation of new substances. Some of these new substances are desirable such as the CoQ10 that the ingredients in our Total Balance produce! On the other hand, some reactions are not desirable and can cancel each other out.
A common example of a negative interaction is the combining of the popular herbs Maca and Muria Puma. A quick search on the internet will bring up dozens of supplements with these two ingredients. However, what the manufacturers and suppliers of these products don't seem to know, or choose to ignore is that because the alkaloid content of these two herbs are not compatible they cancel each other out when combined!
But, consumers continue to buy these products and manufacturers continue to produce them simply because they have read that these herbs are good, so they assume that using both of them make the product twice as good. A reasonable assumption... but, totally wrong!
In contrast, studies have established that the correct combination of active ingredients can increase the efficacy of the individual components by as much as fifteen times.
So, I can't overemphasize the importance of a multi-nutrient supplement formula being designed by specialist bio-chemists who understand the metabolic pathways of active ingredients and the interaction of them with each other and chemicals within the body. These skilled people are very 'thin on the ground'.
Before we release a new product Prof. Dr. A. Munem who heads our R & D, (and is one of the world's top bio-scientists), spends months examining the interactions of the active ingredients at molecular level to ensure that the correct metabolic pathways are achieved.
The selection of Ingredients...
Sounds simple... doesn't it? Select the ingredient that you want, buy it, and incorporate it in the formula and manufacture it! Oh... I wish it was that easy.
The problem is that apart from the simple vitamins and minerals the variation in the specifications of raw ingredients can be overwhelming. There are of course variances in the spec's of the vitamins and minerals but that is nothing compared to the specialized ingredients and herbals.
(Note: Even with simple minerals the selection of the correct form is crucial. For example, zinc citrate which is good for overall health in both males and females does little for the male prostate because it follows the wrong metabolic pathway... and yet many prostate formulas use this wrong form of zinc! Zinc is crucial for prostate health and the correct form must be used. This is why we use two forms of Zinc in Total Balance Men's Plus.)
To give you an idea of how wide some of the variances in ingredients can be, here are some examples:
Biotin - available from 3% potency to 99% potency! Same for B12, and Beta Carotene which is available in either the synthetic or natural form! The price variation can be as much as FIFTY times.
Policosanol. Most manufacturers use the raw ingredient that contains 20% active ingredient. We use the more potent version at 60% active. This ingredient can be sourced from sugar cane (which we use), rice bran or bee's wax. They all have slightly different properties with varying levels of efficacy and of course cost.
These same variations apply to many other ingredients such as Reservatrol, L-Carnosine and many others that we use. Even ingredients that sound the same have different properties. For example, L-Carnitine follows a different metabolic pathway to that of Acetyl L-Carnitine which is a popular 'anti-aging' supplement (which we use in TB), but it has only a fraction of the potency of L-Carnosine.
Herbal extracts give an even bigger range of choices because of the different extraction methods and percentage of actives. Sometimes the non 'active' component of the herbal extract is more important than the 'active' because it is needed to act as a 'carrier' for other substances within the formula.
Enzymes, are also another tricky area. If you compare the enzymes in our Total Balance Women's Plus and the Men's Plus you will notice they are different. This is because of the slightly different metabolic pathways between Men and Women that need to be addressed with different enzymes.
As you can see, the selection of ingredients is not as simple as it may seem at first sight. Our purchasing officer has to search the world for the correct specifications. Then they have to be approved by Prof. Dr. A Munem before purchasing. Then when approved we have to establish that the manufacturer of the raw ingredient is GMP certified. Even then it doesn't end there because when the ingredients arrive in New Zealand we have to send samples to an independent laboratory to identify and confirm the certificate of analysis before we use them.
Why do so many supplements not contain what they claim?
You have probably read news reports from time to time which say that when such and such a supplement was tested that it only contained a fraction of the ingredients that it claimed on the label, or, occasionally that it contained more. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that because there are no regulatory requirements in the USA where the majority of the world's supplements are manufactured there is a definite tendency for manufacturers to 'short change' when it comes to including all the ingredients claimed, particularly the expensive ones. This problem is exacerbated due to the intense competition amongst contract manufacturers who produce most of the supplements.
Often the distributor or marketer is blissfully unaware that they are shortchanging their customers... but not always so.
I recollect a few years ago visiting a manufacturer in Florida who was telling me that they missed out on a large contract with a major distributor. This was because they could not match the price of their competitor. The reason? They had to use three capsules instead of two which their competitor was using. This is because the formula would not physically fit into two. But, the customer did want to know the facts so they stayed with the original cheaper manufacturer.
The second reason is the blending process:
Think about this for a moment! A tablet in a formula may contain as little as 8 mcgs (micrograms) of a specific substance, say a trace element or B12. Now, that is not much. To get an idea of just how much, weigh out a gram of some substance (I would say sugar... but I am sure that if you have been reading these newsletters for some time that you wouldn't have any of this in the house... would you?), then divide that by one thousand times and you will have 1 milligram.
THEN, divide that into another 125 parts and you will then have 8 micrograms. This of course is impossible without laboratory equipment, but I present it this way so you have a better appreciation of just how small the potion of some ingredients in a tablet really are.
So, you will no doubt be asking is, "Is it possible to get the exact amount + or - a reasonable percentage into each tablet?" The answer is yes, but it is not possible using 'normal' blending procedures followed by the overwhelming majority of the supplement industry. You must use pharmaceutical methods of blending, protocols and validation.
This requires special blending equipment such as twin shell blenders or 3D blenders. It also requires multiple blending procedures!
Instead of tipping all the ingredients into one big blender which is the norm and which causes stratification of the ingredients, it is crucial, in order to get a uniform mix to segregate the ingredients into specific categories and mix them separately using gravity type blenders which avoids stratification. Then the low dose ingredients have to be remixed into a portion of the 'bulk' mix and in turn that mix, mixed into the total mix and so on.
Before we finalize a new product we develop a specific blending protocol for that particular product. This involves taking test samples at various stages in the blending and analyzing the mix to ensure that all the active ingredients are present in each tablet in the required amounts. This is the same blending procedures that a pharmaceutical drug is required to follow.
Summary...
I hope that I have not bored you with all this detail but I think that it is important for you to understand these issues as it impacts on your health and of course your pocket if you are not getting what you think you are.
A final point to remember is that just because a product is manufactured in an FDA approved facility or, a pharmaceutical facility it does not mean that any of the above issues or procedures are being followed. All it means is that the facility meets hygiene requirements. There is no obligation on the manufacturer (at this stage) to follow the procedures that I have just explained.
Because we are a specialty manufacturer with a small product range and, because our business is based on establishing life long customers we go far beyond the current legal requirements to ensure that all the above procedures are followed and we can rest easy knowing that our customers cannot get better efficacy or value for money anywhere.
Until next time,
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