How to Pick High Quality Vitamins and Supplements
1. Is the manufacturer reputable?
Health care providers who use vitamins and supplements as a part of their
practice can be a good source of information about this. Our experience
with most of the chain stores that carry supplements is that their staff
are good at selling things, but often not good resources for information
about quality products. The products in the Eye Store Catalog meet our
standards. Use these or something better.
2. Do not buy products that contain stearates, stearins, sterols,
palmitates or similar vegetable based fatty acids.
These are found listed in the "Other Ingredients", though they are sometimes
listed in the main list of ingredients. These fatty acids are safe, but
undesirable additives, added to keep the powders from clumping in automated
pill?making equipment. They are often present in large amounts, and have
been shown to seriously decrease absorption, by as much as 80% or more
of the water soluble components of the product. Better manufacturers know
this, and do not include these additives in their products. (See Samyn,
JC and Jung, WY, In Vitro Dissolution from Several Experimental Capsule
Formulations, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Vol.59, No.2, February
1970)
3. Absorption is critical.
Absorption is everything. Liquid products are best absorbed. Capsules
are next best, if they are manufactured without added stearates or other
fatty acids (see above). Pressed tablets are the worst absorbed, and are
not recommended. Substandard ingredients and poor manufacturing methods
can result in products that never make it out of your intestinal tract.
An unhealthy digestive system can also seriously impair absorption. Do
not buy products that contain artificial colors, artificial flavors, or
artificial anything. These additives have no place in a quality vitamin
or supplement containing water soluble ingredients.
4. Is the product balanced?
For example, zinc containing multivitamins should also have copper and
manganese; Calcium supplements should also have magnesium, etc.
5. Are high quality ingredients used?
For example, is Vitamin E in the form of d?alpha tocopherol? Taurine
should only be present in the form of L?Taurine. Glucosamine should only
be in the form of Glucosamine Sulfate. Glutathione must be in the form
of reduced glutathione to be absorbed, etc. The use of inexpensive, inferior
ingredients tells you that this is a manufacturer to avoid.
6. If a product makes wild claims, are they substantiated?
If they give you 20 testimonials about a product and tell you that
there are 100,000 bottles being sold a month, ask how the other 99,980
people are doing! We avoid products sold in multi-level marketing.
Quality Matters
We feel that most one-a-day multivitamin and mineral products such as Centrum Silver are inadequate for people with serious eye disease. They do not contain adequate amounts of the antioxidants and raw materials needed to repair the eye, and they all use additives such as stearates which decrease absorption.
We feel the same about many of the products marketed to people with eye disease, such as Ocuvite. Dr. Miller and Dr. Halloran have both worked with people who have been taking supplements and vitamins for years who do better once they begin taking the better quality, better absorbed supplements described in this catalog.
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