People turn to supplementation for one reason, and one reason only. They want to improve their health, energy levels, and to lengthen their lifespan.

In a perfect world, every supplement company would produce high quality products, but we know that’s not the case. Over the decades there have been endless FDA recalls of products, because they were contaminated with heavy metals, bacteria, or drugs normally prescribed for hunger suppression or sexual enhancement. This issue of HealthQuest will detail numerous safety and purity issues discovered in both health-food and drugstore supplements.

Our health is our most important asset, and Companies that cut corners by using low-quality or tainted ingredients, just to hold down their costs OR to increase their profits, do a great injustice to the Industry they represent, while also endangering the health of their consumers.

FDA Supplement Recalls

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) (Newsweek on 11-15-18) released testing results that a dietary supplement, marketed as Ginkgo biloba, was missing the main ingredient! [1]

Their report stated:

“The Ginkgo biloba single-ingredient product that GAO tested was determined by laboratory scientists to contain no Ginkgo biloba, and to be adulterated with one or more unknown substitute ingredients.”

The weakness of their report was that the GAO only tested 3 products. Even so, they discovered that 2 out of the 3 of those tested contained zero Ginkgo.

Several Novembers’ ago, the FDA brought civil charges against more than 100 companies that produce or market dietary supplements. Arrests were made because many of these products contained pharmaceutical drugs and/or synthetic stimulants. Many products also failed to contain the active ingredients listed on their labels.

In years past, the FDA has been accused of being too lax in their efforts to police the supplement industry. It’s easy to sit back and judge them, and I’ve done that myself.

To add to the FDA’s notoriety, the Journal of the American Medical Association recently reported that during a 3-year period (2009-12), when the FDA recalled 274 dietary supplements, the authors noted that two-thirds of those recalled supplements were still available for purchase as much as 18 months after their recall. [2],

Getting mad yet?   I sure was, until I started doing some research. The FDA has an unimaginable task, which includes inspecting ALL of our food (both local and imported), along with every vaccine and drug manufacturer, blood bank, food processing facility, dairy farm, and any other facility that conducts human OR animal studies and trials. All that with an ever-shrinking budget and workforce. [3]

So, for this issue of HealthQuest, rather than submerging ourselves in a seemingly endless, depressing review of weak or tainted supplements, I propose that we uplift ourselves by learning more about the Shaklee business model and their philosophy of life.

Why Is Shaklee So Different?

It all started with Dr. Shaklee’s birth. He was born with tuberculosis, but his parents refused to accept the prediction that he would not survive. The family decided to uproot themselves from the toxic coal mine town of Carlisle, and moved the family to the farmlands of northern Iowa. That permitted their growing boy to roam free in Nature, breathing the fresh air. He was also nourished with naturally grown produce. Needless to say, the natural approach worked. That is what led Dr. Shaklee to create the first vitamin supplement in 1915, so that he could share the healing power of Nature with all of his patients.

I was introduced to Shaklee in mid-1996, and the next year they released MoodLift Complex to provide “support for a positive mental outlook”.

The primary ingredient is St. John’s wort, which had already been shown in clinical trials to be an effective treatment for mild to moderate depression. [4], [5]

Following well-publicized reports from the scientific literature that a 900 mg. dose of St. John’s wort appeared to be as effective as (the current) prescription drug for managing depression, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times decided to test all the St. John’s products they could find at health food and drug stores. [6], [7]

Back in 1998, newspapers still funded “investigative reporting”, and this particular article hit the front page. The independent lab reported that three out of the 10 brands they tested only contained about half the St. John’s that promised on the label. [8] The worst offender, which only contained 20 percent St. John’s, was produced by Sundown Herbals, a division of Rexall Drugs. This came as quite a shock because, at that time, Rexall was the nation's largest volume distributor of dietary supplements. [9]

Clinical trials had already demonstrated that a 900 mg dose was required to provide a “clinical benefit”. [10], BUT half of that dose, or only 20% could NOT possibly provide relief. It’s no wonder that many had to turn to medical (drug) management for relief. That is why Prozac became the 6th most prescribed drug in America.

The authors closing paragraphs really spells out our deepest fears, and emphasizes why I am so happy that I finally discovered Shaklee:

The findings raise concerns over the booming herbal market. Sales of St. John's Wort and other botanical remedies, including Ginseng, Ginkgo biloba, Echinacea and Saw palmetto may reach $4.3 billion this year (1998). Sally Guthrie, a University of Michigan pharmacy professor, said one concern is that, unlike pharmaceutical drugs, herbal supplements do not undergo government scrutiny before marketing. The Food and Drug Administration can [only] seize dietary supplements [once they] turn out to be harmful, fraudulent or improperly promoted. “So people taking St. John's Wort can't be assured, from batch to batch, or manufacturer to manufacturer, that they're getting the same quality or amount”.

That is why I love Shaklee. they do their homework. New product development may take 2 to 5 years before it becomes available to the Shaklee Field. This is unheard of anywhere else in the supplement industry.

Shaklee starts product development by finding pure raw materials for the next new product, or they will develop a non-toxic way to purify the ingredients that are available. That's exactly what they had to do with the next product we shall discuss.

There is a HUGE Difference Between Manufacturers

A recent California lawsuit against fish oil manufacturers and distributors is another disturbing reminder that the supplement industry remains the 'Wild West'.

A California Environmental group [11] brought suit against 10 of the biggest names in the industry, including CVS Pharmacy; GNC (General Nutrition Corp) and Solgar (the leading “organic” health food store brand) because their Fish Oil contained unacceptably high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (or PCBs).

This man-made industrial chemical is one of the most dangerous of the environmental pollutants, and is firmly tied to causing cancer and a spectrum of birth defects. [12], [13], [14]

This has the potential to become a major health crisis, comparable to the Thalidomide Scandal of the 1960s, [15] because many pregnant women have used omega-3 supplements to provide extra DHA for their growing child’s brain. [16]

Many other individuals, who suffer from inflammatory or autoimmune diseases, also must rely on fish oil, so that they can AVOID the gastro-intestinal complications associated with taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) for pain relief. [17]

Fortunately for us, Shaklee scientists developed the proprietary, state-of-the-art triple molecular distillation process to create the unique OmegaGuard so they could concentrate all 7 of the essential omega-3 fatty acids (including EPA & DHA) in clinically significant dosages, while also removing lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, dioxins, PCBs, and other contaminants that pollute our ocans.

We still need an answer:
Why are all those those other fish oil products polluted? AND...
why are they all still for sale?

It's because those supplement “manufacturers” simply take the word of their suppliers that their raw materials have been tested for purity. It’s now painfully clear that even the largest manufacturers don’t bother (nor will they invest in) on-site quality control testing,
even though it is required by the FDA.

Shaklee has had no choice but to develop a rigorous process for vetting all their raw material suppliers. Organic farmers are obligated by law to grow their produce following very rigorous procedures, but they are NOT required to test their crops for contaminants, bacteria, pesticides, or heavy metals. Although growers may do everything right while raising their produce, they have no control over the condition of the local water supply, the previous condition of the soil, or the air-borne pollutants that may affect their crops, like from over-sprays from adjacent conventional farms.

When Shaklee contracts with an organic farmer, they send their own scientists to test the soil, as well as the leaves, stems, and root structures of the plants they grow, to determine whether they have been exposed to any type of environmental contaminants. Shaklee also regularly tests for more than 386 different substances in that might contaminate any and every raw material.

How Shaklee Creates A Product

Product development starts at Shaklee by looking for a natural solution to a specific health challenge. Shaklee scientists are charged with making product ingredient decisions using safety as the #1 concern.   Let’s look at their process.

When Shaklee’s research and development team (R&D) were considering a natural solution for high cholesterol levels, they started by doing a scientific review of the medical literature on the subject.

A 1994 study reported that policosanol, a waxy substance from sugar cane, appeared to be effective at lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol levels. The statistics from an 8-week trial looked very promising. [18]

Shaklee decided to repeat their study, but chose to run it for a 12-week trial. Shaklee observed the same results: LDL levels continued to drop, but only for the first 8 weeks. During the 9th week LDL levels began rising again, and by week 12, cholesterol levels were back to their original high levels.

Evidently, policosanol appears to cause a short-term cholesterol reduction, but was unable to sustain that benefit over an extended period of time. And yet, when you look in health food stores, policosanol is STILL being touted for reducing cholesterol levels, based on that flawed 8-week study.

Fortunately for us, Shaklee continued their scientific review until they discovered a combination of natural plant sterols and stanols that can effectively block cholesterol absorption in our intestine. [19]

Thus was born Shaklee’s Cholesterol Reduction Complex.
The research supporting plant sterols and stanols is now so substantial that the FDA had added cholesterol reduction to its very short list of “health claims” that can be made by a supplement or food. [20]

How Shaklee Guarantees Purity

Another example of Shaklee integrity is how they produce their prostate friendly Saw Palmetto Complex. As we age, men develop an enlargement of the prostate gland, known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). The prostate gland surrounds the urethra, or the tube that carries urine from our bladder. As the prostate enlarges, it begins to squeeze, and then partially block the flow, of urine. Regular use of Saw Palmetto has been shown to reverse prostate hypertrophy with continued use. [21], [22]   What a blessing for men over the age of 40!

Unfortunately, to extract Serenoa repens from the waxy saw palmetto plant, manufacturers use dangerous and toxic solvents like hexane, toluene, or benzene. [23]

Shaklee chose a safer approach. They use a technique called supercritical fluid extraction. [24] When carbon dioxide (CO²) is compressed to the supercritical state it becomes a liguid, and is an ideal solvent for extracting lipophilic (fatty) compounds.

Further, supercritical CO² is 100% non-toxic, it's non-flammable, isn't especially expensive, and is easy to remove at the end of the process, so it's very eco-friendly! [25]

Hexane is also used by most soy manufacturers, and recent lab analysis has shown that some health food store brands contain as many as 13 different hydrocarbon residues in their soy products. [26]

Hexane is registered as a neurotoxin by the FDA [27] so I am very grateful that Dr. Shaklee developed the 100% safe and non-toxic water-wash method to capture all the health benefits of soy, with none of the adverse risks associated with exposure to hexane.

Shaklee Excellence

Shaklee nutrients have always been sourced from organically grown fruits, vegetables, flowers and grains. Many plants produce protective phenolic compounds called phytoalexins as a defensive reaction to assault by mold, mildew, bugs, and an assortment of viruses and micro-organisms. These unique compounds rarely appear at any appreciable concentration in conventionally grown, or “bug-sprayed” produce; they are only found at clinically-relevant levels in organic produce. [28]

Shaklee’s organic Alfalfa Complex contains a phytoalexin called medicarpin that has been shown to be so beneficial that that Merck Pharmaceutical patented a synthetic version of it as a therapeutic agent to treat allergic conditions, asthma, cardiovascular disorders, and inflammation. [29] This helps to explain why Alfalfa Complex has always been so popular with the Shaklee Family for addressing respiratory and allergic disorders. [30]

Shaklee has always been a leader in improving nutrient absorption
through natural means.

A perfect example is Shaklee’s B-Complex Although all eight B vitamins are important for our daily energy production, they are also required for cell replication, and the production of proteins and neurotransmitters.

However, folic acid is especially difficult to absorb.

• Because deficiency of folic acid is associated with neural tube defects during pregnancy [31], Shaklee developed a unique and patented way to double the absorption of this key nutrient. [32]

• Their same zeal led Shaklee scientists to develop the patented gel diffusion time-release delivery system for the B&C Complex capsule that comes with every serving of Vitalizer and Shaklee Life Strip.