No, don’t expect much if you are using a cheap $3.00-5.00 per month product that is mass marketed. You cannot manufacture a multivitamin and mineral formula (MVM) that delivers all you regularly need in the right doses, forms and release patterns that can deliver the ingredients on time to the right places for $1-1.50 (that’s what the manufacturing cost would be if you were paying $3-5/mo for daily intake). Many times, a less expensive and/or big name MVM formula will contain the right ingredients but these ingredients may be in the wrong forms or dosages when matched to supporting clinical trials. This is why it’s too expensive to do it right if you are trying to compete on price rather than quality and facts. Therefore, it’s common business practice to ask a manufacturer/formulator to design a supplement to compete with another popular supplement. The manufacturer then often can’t give you a product where the dosages and/or forms of ALL the active ingredients match those used in studies without going way out of a competitive price range. And most people don’t know the difference. They just see the basic ingredients they are looking for and price tag. The average consumer knows very little about dosages, forms, and delivery system necessary to accomplish the health goal of a MVM, antioxidant or other vitamin and mineral formulas.
Solution: Have the supplement company/manufacturer supply the following info:
• Best current clinical research supporting the use of the active ingredients
• Active ingredients shown to be in the proper doses and forms that demonstrated the positive outcomes described in the clinical data
• Proof the ingredients and amounts match the levels shown on the label
o If the company does not use 3rd party testing, ask for their Certificate of Analysis (COA) for the lot number of the product in question. Either way they should be able to supply the records. The COA validates the ingredients in the finished product.
Once the organization passes the above scrutiny, you have found a company you can trust for your health needs.