Everyday I get something in the mail with some new wonder cure somebody is trying to sell. You know what I'm talking about, they promise everything, but just don't deliver.I would like to suggest some guidelines I have found useful and give pretty good results. You may have to do a little digging to find all the answers, but you will find it worth the effort.I look for a company that does their own compounding. That means they buy the ingredients and mix them themselves. They should have qualified biochemists and researchers on the staff. I like to see a medical advisory board which makes recommendations as new nutritional information becomes available.They should be manufactured to pharmaceutical GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) and pharmaceutical USP. Both of these labels can be either food grade or pharmaceutical grade. The pharmaceutical grade is best.The formulation is very important. Is it a balanced formula that is in line with the latest nutritional information. Remember the RDA was established nearly sixty years ago and is considered out of date by many very knowledgeable researchers. It has only been in the last ten years that doctors have began to recommend supplements. Even today the majority only give token lip service to nutrition.Researchers from the Yale New Haven Hospital evaluated many common brands of multivitamins bought off the shelf's of a wide variety of stores. Many were made of the wrong ratios of nutrients to each other, or contained too little of the more expensive nutrients, or missing some nutrients altogether. Of the 257 vitamins tested only 49 were judged to be adequate.(J Amer Dietet Assoc 1987:87:341).Do they contain effective potency. For example the vitamin may contain 60 mg of vitamin C when current research shows the need for over a 1000 mg for effective disease prevention. By law, the supplement only have to true to the label chemically. In reality there are many forms of nutrients that are not bioavailable. Don't be misled by the word natural. Vitamin C is manufactured from corn, but by the time it is vitamin C there is no corn left in it. Vitamin E would be an exception as the synthetic vitamin E is a dl-tecopherol where the natural is a d-tecopherol. The synthetic is toxic.While cost is not always a standard to go by it does give some idea as to the quality. The old saying "You get what you pay for." for is true. Most good vitamins will cost between $35- $55 per month supply. There is a book called "The comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements" by Lyle Mac Willaims that ranks over 500 supplements. He explains the criteria he used to rank the supplements. While there are some bitter opponents to the book, mostly companies that didnt fare well, the top companies are all very good. I personally have been using his first choice, USANA Essentials for the last three years and have been very happy with them and highly recomend them to others. E-mail me at pproctor@wlmin.com for more information.
