How to Choose a Nutritional Supplement using these guidelines www.comparativeguide.com Your basic concern should include three things: 1.      the company's ability to provide the expert scientific knowledge, 2.      the required quality of the manufacturing process, and 3.      the ingredients of the highest quality that allows the cells require to grow and to remain healthy and vibrant. It is guaranteed that unless you are an expert, you will be very confused and frustrated. Pick up a bottle of what might be classified as a nutritional supplement. (We are not speaking about individual vitamins or minerals, although the same process could be applied to them.) What Wording Are You Looking For? The label should say something like: "LABORATORY TESTED, QUALITY GUARANTEED, MEETS USP SPECIFICATIONS FOR POTENCY, UNIFORMITY, DISINTEGRATION WHERE APPLICABLE." These are your safeguards. This is the industry standard to follow. (Right away, you will have some difficulty finding supplements to choose from.) You also want to find an expiration date on the bottle and the company’s full address. So what does "LABORATORY TESTED" mean? It means testing all raw materials and the finished product for potency, contamination, dosage, stability, and dissolution. (To do that all raw materials are quarantined until samples have been taken and tested for Salmonella, E. coli, total plate count, moulds, yeast, fungi and Staphylococcus Aureus (Staph A).) Only after passing all these tests are these raw materials approved. What does QUALITY GUARANTEED mean? That should be obvious. You want a guarantee that you are buying a quality item. You need assurance that what you think you are buying and is labelled as such is in fact what is in the bottle. High-quality manufacturers will put the actual amounts of the nutrients found in their products on the label and give full disclosure of all the ingredients. Vitamin manufacturing may not be regulated, but responsible manufacturers choose to meet the FDA standards. They also choose to follow "Good Manufacturing Practices" (GMP) established for drug manufacturers, in order to provide the highest quality of products in the industry. ) They will produce pharmaceutical-grade products designed to much higher standards than what the law requires. What does MEETS USP SPECIFICATIONS FOR POTENCY, UNIFORMITY, DISINTEGRATION WHERE APPLICABLE mean? USP stands for United States Pharmacopeia and this is another set of standards dealing with such things as Bioavailability. This is the degree and rate at which a substance (a drug or any other product) is absorbed into a living system (you) or is made available to the body. Through scientific research, it had been determined what your body needs and how all this fits together. It is not a guessing game. And it is a scientific fact that some ingredients won't work well with others in one form, but will be fine in another. The disintegration times of tablets are also tested to ensure that they will break down while in the gastrointestinal tract enabling your body to absorb them. Poor manufacturing can destroy great science, and you really want these supplements to be scientifically "designed". The Quality Assurance teams keep detailed records of all activities including all testing and evaluation of raw materials, shipping, and storage procedures. Is There An Expiration Date On The Container? The potency has to remain past the expiration date. Does The Label Say "Natural"? (Did you know that it is legal to say 100% natural, even though they just have 4% of the natural product in the container? Are mushrooms natural? Beware of the term.) Are the supplements complete and balanced? "A supplement must supply in the correct balance and at potential shown to promote lifelong health. Avoid nutritional fads - insist on balance, completeness, and quality. Your health depends on it." Lyle MacWilliam. They should provide all of the essential nutrients to the cell at optimal levels, not RDA levels. Incidentally you will not find a manufacturer going to all the trouble of meeting strict regulations and standards voluntarily, and not apply these parameters or guidelines to all their other products. That would be foolish and a waste of money. After you have chosen the foundational products, stay with the same company for all your other needs. You have already done your research. Why Shouldn't You Buy On Price? A good question but recognize that price doesn't dictate quality and safety. Be aware that the cost of the scientific manufacturing does increase a cost of the product. And as the famous ad says "aren't you worth it"? So don't give your body's nutritional needs to the lowest-priced bottle or the latest gadget. Does The Company Do Its Own "In-House" Manufacturing? It may be fine for your mushrooms to come from a generic manufacturing location, but it's important that your supplements can be checked and validated at every point. Trust the process. Your health is at stake.  Another aspect to consider when you are researching a particular company is where it markets its products. A company that markets internationally usually has to follow higher standards than those who market only in the United States. Canada, Australia, and Western European countries have the highest standards for the manufacturing of nutritional supplements. Canada and Australia presently have some of the most restrictive requirements for nutritional supplements. Does The Company Encourage Independent Testing? The more objective and professional processes the company participates in, the better the end product. Does the company provide technical support? Is there a 1800 number on the container? If you had a reaction to the product, you may need to contact them about the ingredients. So the number is very important. They will not be able to give you any medical advice, but they can give you all the answers to these questions. Most importantly, you want a company that follows pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). This means that they purchase pharmaceutical-grade raw materials and then follow pharmaceutical-grade Good Manufacturing Practices in producing their supplements. These companies produce what is called pharmaceutical-grade supplements, meaning similar guidelines are followed for manufacturing their products as companies making over-the-counter or prescription medications. Lifestyle & Nutrition: Key Factors In Health How do you know what to take unless you are an expert? Chances are you won't know how to combine all the required items, including all the co-factors. The more antioxidants you take and the more variation your supplement provides the better. Also be sure that you are getting all the recommended levels of the minerals and the B-cofactors. Trust someone who knows...it will most likely be the manufacturer who has already done the initial research and has participated in the scientific process for the basic supplement. Get advice from someone who knows the company and its products if you are going to add any other products. These products will work synergistically. Your goal is to choose an appropriate, value packed product. But in light of all the products you are faced with and that you are NOT going to choose, knowing a little of the science behind the manufacturing process will help you stand firm in your decision. You will learn a little about free radicals, these highly reactive forms of oxygen that damage cells throughout the body, anti-oxidants and the oxidative process, http://www.bionutrition.org/oxidative-stress.asp ,the wearing out or rusting out, of your body. Then YOUR decisions will be based on facts and wisdom. It is important to remember that you are totally responsible for what goes on in your body. So you have to know what you need and what it will do to or for you. It doesn't matter if it's a vegetable or a supplement. The responsibility is yours alone. You may ask for advice, but the end decision is yours. What you put in should help your entire body stay healthy: be it food at the dinner table or a supplement to complement the food just eaten. Be aware that just like there are drug-interactions, there are also nutrient interactions that can create poor absorption and poor interactions. In choosing a nutritional supplement, please consider that you don't know what your body actually needs or how you could find the required ingredients. Also, you wouldn't know how to formulate the necessary product. They should provide all of the essential nutrients to the cell at optimal levels, not RDA levels. There are Government guidelines that assure consumers that their medications and supplement tablets are of the highest quality and will dissolve properly and be readily absorbed into the body. Pharmaceutical-grade GMP’s would be rendered worthless if the company does not also follow USP standards for the dissolution of their tablets. If the tablet does not dissolve properly, it does not matter what they put in them. Incidentally you will not find a manufacturer going to all the trouble of meeting strict regulations and standards voluntarily, and not apply these parameters or guidelines to all their other products. That would be foolish and a waste of money. After you have chosen the foundational products, stay with the same company for all your other needs. You have already done your research. We must do all we can to rebuild our antioxidant systems with a healthy diet, but too you need to learn how complete and balanced nutritional supplementation with high quality supplements is our best hope in winning this war within and protecting our health. If you are already taking supplements, compare them, using these guidelines. You need to spend a little time investigating the nutritional company you choose. And if you are already taking supplements, but not getting the desired results, maybe you should consider switching. According to the AMA, health is yours for the taking...of nutritional supplements.