After having tried a number of different popular multi-vitamin products over the decades, I have settled on ANDREW LESSMAN products and am happy with his ESSENTIAL 1 multi-vitamin. I find it easy to swallow.
There is sooooo much to be said about the vitamin & supplement industry. I have gotten a lot of information from a friend who is a registered nutritionist and my gastroenterologist who is Chinese, trained in Western medicine but very knowledgeable about traditional Chinese medicine.
Basically, THE VITAMIN & SUPPLEMENT INDUSTRY IS A MATTER OF BUYER BEWARE!!!!! This industry IS NOT REGULATED OR SUPERVISED IN ANY MEANINGFUL WAY. The manufacturers can say and do pretty much anything and are rarely held to any standards. MANY OF THE PRODUCTS, EVEN THE POPULAR ONES, ARE MADE IN CHINA and you don't know what you are putting in your body.
I have been watching ANDREW LESSMAN for years now on HSN and he seems genuinely conscientious about his products. He has his own manufacturing facility in Henderson, Nevada (Las Vegas) and has been producing vitamins/minerals/supplements for decades. He keeps up with the latest cutting edge information from a large number of professional scientific and medical journals, so keeps his formulations up to date with the most current information. He sources the best ingredients and follows strict protocols for production. For example, his fish oil supplements are tested to ensure that you are not getting dangerous levels of mercury.
ANDREW LESSMAN WILL BE ON HSN THIS COMING WEEKEND JULY 8-9. I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO WATCH HIS PRESENTATIONS. THERE IS ALSO VERY DETAILED INFORMATION ON HIS PRODUCTS ON THE HSN WEBSITE, INCLUDING PRODUCT LABELS & VIDEOS. HE ALSO HAS HIS OWN WEBSITE FOR HIS COMPANY PROCAPS LABORATORIES, HE WRITES A BLOG, AND HAS RESPONSIVE CUSTOMER SERVICE FOR DETAILED QUESTIONS.
ABOUT DOCTORS: THEY RECEIVE LITTLE TO NO NUTRITIONAL TRAINING IN MEDICAL SCHOOL AND ARE BASICALLY TRAINED TO PUSH BIG PHARMA MEDICATIONS. So you can't count on them to have up to date info on nutritional products. For example, if your doctor prescribes a statin drug for you, does he/she also tell you that you need to take Coenzyme Q10???? Most don't.
I don't take everything that Andrew Lessman produces. Thankfully my gastroenterologist has a detailed knowledge of herbal products, so he can advise me which ones I should and should not take based on my personal set of health issues (including liver issues). My rheumatologist also advised me not to eat sprouts, not to take echinacea, not to take butcher's broom, etc., things that are supposed to be good for you according to health food people, but are not good for people with certain conditions.
NOT EVERYONE IS THE SAME, NOT EVERY BODY FUNCTIONS THE SAME, SO ANY MEDICATIONS, VITAMINS OR SUPPLEMENTS WILL NOT BE GOOD FOR EVERYONE. So you need to gather information. Waching Andrew Lessman programs will teach you a lot. READ LABELS, ASK QUESTIONS, DON'T JUST "SWALLOW" WHAT THE SELLERS TELL YOU.
Hospital personnel call those HARD SOLID VITAMIN PILLS "BEDPAN BULLETS" BECAUSE THEY ARE INDIGESTIBLE ... that includes the most popular brands with big advertising budgets. Those BEDPAN BULLETS are made of artificial colors, fillers & gunk to make them stick together, stuff you don't want to put in your body. In the past I heard of a North American pharmacy selling products in the U.S. that contained powdered yellow road stripe paint! You don't know what you are getting!!!!!!
ANDREW LESSMAN uses no artificial colors, fillers, etc in his products. He will demonstrate that he uses a digestible gelatin capsule with fine powdered ingredients, only the pure nutritional ingredients listed on the label, according to the latest scientific information, as noted above.
I am in no way affiliated with Lessman or his products, other than being a satisfied customer. I am not a scientist, but have some familiarity with science, and have done a lot of lay research on human physiology & biochemistry and feel like Lessman is as trustworthy as anyone in the vitamin/supplement industry. But you must always be vigilent when it comes to your health and an unregulated industry in which unscrupulous or uninformed individuals can play havoc with your health.
I hope this helps! Sadly the foods that we eat are usually not fresh & have been overprocessed by the big agribusiness industry and so are sorely lacking in the nutrition our ancestors had when things were more "farm to table" as in generations gone by.
To your good health! May you have lots of years in your life & lots of life in your years!
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