In 2007, U.C. Berkeley epidemiologist, Gladys Block, Ph.D., published her findings about the longterm effects of supplementation in Nutrition Journal. Initially, she studied the health of two categories of people: 1) folks who took no supplements for 20 years and, 2) folks who took a Centrum Silver supplement for 20 years. She then decided to expand her study by asking Shaklee to participate, knowing that we had a community of people who were committed to multiple supplement use for 20+ years. She wanted to see if the Shaklee subjects had toxicity in various blood levels. She asked Shaklee to fund their portion of the study, under the condition that she would publish the findings, regardless of whether it was in Shaklee's favor. With the extensive research behind Shaklee's supplements, they agreed. The results were published in a peer-reviewed journal mentioned above.
The first two groups showed to be on 19+ medications a day, after the age of 65. The second group (one a day) had a higher risk for heart disease than the first and third. And the Shaklee group were on LESS than ONE medication/day, after the age of 65. I was astounded at the results. At the time, I was only using Shaklee's nontoxic cleaners and after the study's results came in, I decided to make an investment into my longterm health. I used to think that all vitamins were equal. I hadn't ever thought much about them. I was taking the cheapest Walmart vitamins for my prenatals at the time while pregnant with our 5th. Little did I know then.
I have since learned that in the U.S., the nutraceutical industry does not have a regulatory agency overseeing any requirements in areas such as standardization, purity, safety, potency, efficacy, bioavailability, etc. Thus, what you find at the stores is up to the company's values or lack of values. I could make a supplement and put a fancy label on it to market it well and voila...a supplement on the store shelf. There have been independent studies of supplements taken from market shelves and what was in the bottles did not match hat was on the label. This is quite alarming to me since people rely on some of these supplements for health. I also learned that prenatals are all synthetically derived--yuck.
One test to evaluate your multivitamin is to see the amount of biotin (an expensive B vitamin) contained in that supplement. The average consumer does not know that this is expensive to produce in a multi. Many companies therefore skimp on this component and the consumer knows no difference. Shaklee's biotin levels are 100% of the RDA values because it is not cost driven, but nutritionally driven. Here's an interesting story as to the "Shaklee Difference." One year, there was widespread flooding in Asia where all of the world's supply of panax ginseng was spoiled. Shippers sprayed carcinogenic preservation chemicals on their ginseng supply to slow down spoilage on ships. Shaklee received this raw ingredient for one of their top best selling products. Immediately Shaklee detected the carcinogenic fungicide and rejected the batch. A pure raw ingredient was not to be found because of the widespread flooding so Shaklee took their product with panax ginseng off the market for a year and a half with significant financial loss. Safety is of utmost concern for Shaklee. No other company took off their panax ginseng products off the market but continued to sell their panax ginseng product--either they did not test their raw materials or they were aware of the contaminated raw material but continued to sell it so as not to have financial loss. Since I cannot personally test what I take, I decided to switch companies and go with one with the core value of safety, purity, quality and efficacy.
Back to the U.C. Berkeley study, of the healthiest in the Shaklee group, Shaklee decided to find out what they were taking. Shaklee then took the top 8 products of what they were consuming and made a one month's supply of daily strip packets, each with 5 pills and a small probiotic pearl that has a patented delivery system. All of Shaklee's products, including Vitalizer, has a money back guarantee. If you don't feel better after 30 days, you can return it for a full refund! I've been taking it since 2007 and am thankful to have a solid nutritional foundation to what I eat--which can vary from day to day...
True Health Diagnostics Labs ran my bloodwork back in 2004, 7 years after I started Vitalizer. During my phone consultation with a registered dietician, highly trained in blood component analysis, she told me that my blood work was in the top 1% of all that she's seen, maybe the best she's ever seen. And I wasn't doing anything special because our baby was in crisis with his birth defects. And like it often is in homes, I didn't take care of myself much because I was always trying to keep all the balls up in the air during crisis living. So I can only credit God and my Shaklee Vitalizer for the good results!
Vitalizer comes in 3 different products: Women (with Iron), Men (without Iron) and Gold (for 65+ y.o.).
As an Independent Shaklee Distributor, let me know if you want to try Vitalizer. This is one of the best things that I've ever done for my health. :0)
Currently, Shaklee is running a promotional to get free lifetime membership ($19.95 fee waived) with certain packages. Call me and I can show you your options. You can join online through my friend, Jane Bridges' website. But contact me for the deals!