Excipients and Fillers
 

I saw a functional health doctor yesterday and we had a talk about fillers in supplements. She told me something I never realized and was wondering if you've ever thought about this?

In supplements under "Other Ingredients" it never tells you the amounts of these other ingredients. According to the doctor you could buy a vitamin with only 1 filler listed and actually have more filler used in this product then in another that listed 3-4 fillers. I know it's quality not quantity but still interesting.

According to this doctor the company she "promotes" (no names) uses a method to cut down on the amount of filler needed especially with anti-adherents/lubricant issues. The way this is accomplished is keeping the humidity very low in the processing area through large dehumidifiers, etc. keeping the active ingredients from clumping.

Regardless, for those of you who do not know much about fillers that are routinely added to our health products I am including a link with some basic information. With Big Pharma buying some of our supplement companies ("Big Herba") I think it's good to be more aware.

http://www.ndhealthfacts.org/wiki/Ex...ts_and_Fillers

It is very interesting. I have found certain supplements seem to make a difference when I taken them, while others seem like a total placebo. So far, I have found life extension to be one of the brands I trust the most in terms of quality and potency.

Dr. Blaylock recently had an entire newsletter about supplements and he said they all will last longer if kept in the refrigerator.

This is interesting. I keep mine in a relatively cool place, but I certainly don't store them in the fridge. But perhaps I should. Does anyone else want to weigh in on this?

What about the humidity in the frig?
 

Because I live in the tropics there are few relatively cool places, and even less dry places to store my supplements. Some supplements direct you to store in a "cool dry place" so sometimes I do use the fridge. However this is not necessarily a dry place. If I understand correctly, left unopened for a long period of time the frig humidity will be low, but open it on a hot summer day and the humidity will shoot right up. I'd love to hear you scientists weigh in.

It's very hard to cut down on the amount of excipients and fillters, even for top notch supplement companies. Not having these things will slow down the manufacturing process and can even bring it to a stand still by gumming up the machines. Many manufacturers won't accept products without fillers.

I have found one multivitamin that has ZERO fillters and it's offered at a low price. I don't take a multi, but this is the one I buy for my husband.

http://purevitaminclub.com/products.html

You can also buy it on amazon, however the price is slightly more there.

The guy who made this product almost died from cancer in 2007. When he looked at the back of his multivitamin he was taking he didn't like what he saw - things that he felt would contribute to his cancer. So he made his own. He did have a hard time finding a place to get it manufactured.

A search for you
 

I won't try to address the humidity issue but rather the difference between food grade and phamaceutical grade supplements. We have a "Medical" store in our town where I bought a bottle of something, I forget. The price was so high that I must have shown reaction or actually fainted on the floor. The salesperson reassured me that the difference in price was because their products were pharma grade. To flip the coin over, my Chiro dispenses Swanson supplements and he stays on the computer constantly and always appeared to be on top of anything nutritional. The whole mess gives me a headache. There definitely needs to be a consumer reports for supplements that is independently funded. As for the humidity, perhaps Tupperware (burp and seal) tub for the supplements kept in the fridge? Best in the new year, Ken in Texas.

This is a very big issue... I'm not feeling well (some GI stuff the past two days), but I will get back here to post soon. Maybe later today.

I can weight in on supplement storage since this used to be my old line of work.

Any changes in temp and humidity will start the degradation process on your supplement products. This is called deliquescense. B vitamins are particularly sensitive with Vitamin C being the most sensitive of all. Oxygen and light exposure will degrade these vitamins as well.

Don't store your supplements in the refrigerate unless the bottle tells you to do that, however you can put them in the fridge for long term storage if you are not going to use them. Make sure everything is sealed up and in a brown bottle so you avoid light and oxygen damage.

The supplements that you are actively using, store in a cool and dry place (unless otherwise specified). Make sure the container is tightly sealed and that they are in a container that keeps them shielded from light.

Also, bathrooms and kitchens make for poor places to store your supplements and pharmaceuticals since they vary the most in humidity and temperature.

I keep them all in the fridge and they seem to work fine for me. There are too many incosistencies in temperature in my house.