When it comes to supplements and vitamins, the temptation to go for something cheaper online may be too great to resist. But are you really getting any value for those rock-bottom priced items? A solid no! Here are the top 3 reasons why those low-cost supplements are not be worth a cent:
Bioavailability Problems
In-order to have a long list of ingredients (after all, you think more is better, right?) a lot of “cheap” manufacturers use the least-expensive synthetic forms, which take up less room per capsule. Unfortunately, these synthetic forms are also nearly impossible for your body to recognize, absorb and utilize.
To hold all the ingredients together into one small capsule, “cheap” manufactures use inexpensive synthetic fillers and binders. Cheap binders and fillers may help to hold the pill together, but they also significantly interfere with the body’s ability to dissolve, digest and utilize the nutrition contained therein.
Cheap vitamins almost always use “pharmaceutical glaze” too, which is a type of shellac that covers the entire pill in a hard, shiny coating. All of these issues combine to create a pill that is extremely difficult to absorb, often it won’t even be digested at all — which makes the nutritional content useless and a 100% complete waste of money and time!
Inferior Nutrient Forms
This may be hard to believe, but not all ingredients are the same!. A classic example is B12. The highly active and functional form of B12 is Methylcobalamin, which is more far effective but also more expensive.
Cyanocobalamin is a cheaper form, and is also “B12” but it must be converted by the body into methylcobalamin in order to be used. Look closely at your ingredients: If it’s got cyanocobalamin, it’s the less-effective form… and you may not be getting the nutritional benefits you expect.
Other inferior forms to look out for are zinc oxide, magnesium oxide, and vitamin D2 (each of which are precursor forms that are inexpensive and must be converted into an active from nay your body to be effective).
Synthetic vitamin E is another big one to watch out for. Synthetic E, seen as “dl-alpha-tocopheryl” is easy to recognize — just think of it like this… DL = “does less” than natural vitamin E.
Natural vitamin E is more expensive, but it’s twice as absorbable (so you need less) and is retained in the tissues far longer than synthetic.
Weird ingredients!
Look closely at any cheap vitamin bottle and you will often find “fake ingredients.” FD&C Yellow No. 6, Aluminum Lake, Hydrogenated Palm Oil (trans-fats in a “health” product, really?), modified food starch, silicon dioxide (a.k.a. SAND), talc (yes, like in the powder), titanium dioxide and worse. What the heck are these fake ingredients doing in a supplement?
They are preservatives! It also seems these cheap companies use them also to make their pills as small, bright and white as possible. If your multivitamin has a list of “other ingredients” that’s a mile long, it may raise a red flag about the quality and efficacy of your product. After all, you take a supplement to get nutrition, not weird synthetic garbage… right?
Eterna Naturals – A Product Line Made by the Doctors of Cornerstone Health Center
3 things we will not stand for – poor bioavailability, inferior forms of nutrients and “weird” or toxic ingredients. That’s why Dr. Sarah Ernst and I (Dr. Aaron Ernst) started Eterna – to serves the functional community as a leader in cutting-edge functional medicine supplementation and support with a unique approach to capturing and integrating nutritional science and clinical experience into successful functional-healing based products and strategies for patients.
Eterna’s formulas support specific biochemical pathways and physiological processes, such as the neuroendocrine-immune axis, the brain-gut axis, and hepatic detoxification, as well as brain chemistry and functional blood chemistry.
To ensure you can rely on all of our nutritional formulas we follow significant quality assurance standards much greater than the industry requires and ensure all of our procedures are in compliance with “Current Good Manufacturing Practices” (cGMP)
That being said, please note we are replacing and re-formulating 95% of the supplements offered through our clinic – so that they now will fall under the strict specifications of the Eterna standards. What does this mean? – Nothing much to you other than better, more bioavailable functional supplements and supports, and a few name changes.
For example:
Daily Defense is now Cell Response CTV is now C Foundation
Calm is now Calm E Neurosyn is now Brain Well
MaxGreens is now Daily Greens Magnesium Glycinate is now Magnesium Balance
MIN is now Mineral Complete L-Carnatine is now Max Transport
Digestzyme is now Digest All KTO Electrolytes is now Electro Balance
Neuromag is now Brain Mag Joint Health is now Joint Support
16B is now B Max Prostate is now Prostate Wellness
There are also a host of NEW supports coming down the line as formulations and design are completed. This includes a Liquid B12 “Instant Energy” support, ImmunoGlobulin Shield, Lithium Lift, Seasonal Allergy Support, Yeast GI (anti-fungal) and Methyl First (methylation support).
If you have any questions during this transition – we are always here to help and you can visit https://askdrernst.com/eternanaturals/ for more information on each individual product.