How to Choose Quality Nutritional Supplements
Are You Taking the Right Supplements?
You can walk into a drugstore, supermarket, health food store or even go online  and buy supplements and vitamins, often at heavily discounted prices. But you need to ask yourself: Are you really saving money? Are these cheap supplements good for your health? With so many choices available for nutritional supplements, how do you make a smart choice? Especially when the supplement industry is not regulated in the same way pharmaceuticals are regulated for safety and quality assurance. Because it can be difficult to know for sure which products are made with the highest-quality ingredients — and with the most advanced manufacturing processes — we’ve compiled some “must-know” information for you.
Key Factors in Choosing Good Supplements
Nutritional supplements vary greatly in terms of quality and effectiveness. Here’s what you need to know: Poor quality produces poor results. That’s why a bargain is not a bargain when it comes to supplements. Five major factors to be concerned with when trying to find a quality supplement are the following:
 1. Does the supplement actually contain the ingredients and amounts listed on the label?
Let’s review ginseng supplements as an example. Ginseng may be helpful with a variety of conditions. But Consumer Lab, an independent supplement testing organization, found that 45% of ginseng supplements selected for testing contained less ginseng than expected from label claims — or were contaminated with lead and/or pesticides.
Medix Select takes responsibility for labeling their products very seriously. In fact, every batch of product developed goes through a “Certificate of Analysis” testing process conducted by our quality assurance department. These tests are
conducted on each raw material as well as on the formula as a whole, ensuring the integrity of our products and labeling practices.
2. Does the delivery method (capsule, tablet, liquid, etc) provide good absorption?
For a supplement to work effectively, it must break down and dissolve during digestion to allow it to be absorbed into the bloodstream. Typically, a supplement should fully dissolve within 30–45 minutes to be fully effective. Exceptions to this are supplements that are “enteric-coated,” as they are purposely designed to be timereleased, and are developed to dissolve later on in the digestive process.
Supplements that don’t dissolve properly cannot be absorbed and may simply pass through the body unused. This means both the supplement and your hard-earned money may be literally going down the toilet! Supplements that do not dissolve adequately are usually the result of poor manufacturing processes and low quality-control standards.
Medix Select carefully determines the best method to deliver their premium supplements. In many cases, they choose to go with vegetarian capsules which are more expensive to produce, but dissolve quickly in the body and are free from animal by-products. Capsules, in general, are a good choice because they are easy to swallow and they eliminate the need to add binding agents, such as gum or other “inactive” substances.
3. Does the product contain quality ingredients free from potentially harmful contaminants, additives, fillers or chemicals?
Low quality ingredients and manufacturing processes can result in products that are ineffective, or worse, harmful to one’s health. In March 2011, the FDA issued a recall on 22 brands of whey protein powder due to potential contamination with salmonella.
A respiratory supplement was investigated after a patient checked into the hospital with lead poisoning. After analysis of a sample of the supplement the patient was taking, it was determined that the product contained 1,100 parts per million of lead. This level is more than 10,000 times higher than the FDA’s maximum
recommended level.
Another Consumer Lab independent test revealed quality problems with 7 out of 24 fish oil products selected to be tested. There are many more examples, but as you can see, choosing quality supplements is extremely important to your health.
Medix Select sees this as an important issue as well. All of our high-quality ingredients are tested as they are received for the right amount of active ingredients, as well screened for any potential contaminants. Once a formulation is complete, batch tests are also conducted to ensure quality and consistency.
4. Who formulated the product?
All products developed by Medix Select are created by medical doctors and certified chemists, are based on scientific formulations, and contain only the highest quality ingredients.
Our customers trust us as their nutritional supplement provider because we work hard to ensure the safety and effectiveness of our products by putting them through a comprehensive series of tests, including microbiological testing and stability testing.
5. Are the products manufactured by a facility in compliance with the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guidelines?
GMP tells you the facility adheres to the same high standards of processing and manufacturing followed by pharmaceutical companies. Compliance with GMP manufacturing standards tells you that the product contains what the label states, the ingredients are pure, and the formulas are standardized and safe.
Medix Select products are produced in a 120,000-squarefoot, state-of-the-art, pharmaceutical-grade manufacturing facility, where we produce high-quality uniform products. All of our products are run through rigid testing for safety and efficiency. Our facility and equipment are FDA approved and cGMP certified, and we have some of the most technologically advanced equipment available for nutritional supplement manufacturing.
What is the Medix Select Difference?
Medix Select™ is made with the highest-quality ingredients, formulated and prepared in U.S. laboratories to the highest specifications, and only available direct from the manufacturer.
Some of the certifications that make us different from other supplement companies are:
- GMP Certification: The Natural Products Association GMP Certification Program is designed to verify compliance of member suppliers of dietary supplements with a standardized set of current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs) developed by the Natural Products Association based on Section 21 CFR 111 of the FDA’s Code of Regulations. Certified companies are required to use the proper facilities, equipment, and processes that
have been reviewed and approved by the FDA.
Our cGMP certification verifies our ability to create products that meet the strict guidelines for consistent identity, quality, strength, and purity of vitamin and dietary supplements.
- FDA Registered: The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation’s food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. Our manufacturing facilities are FDA registered and meet cGMP manufacturing requirements for the following:Maintenance and cleaning of facilities
- Manufacturing processes
- Testing and quality control for all ingredients
- and final products
- Record-keeping
- Management of customer complaints
- Internal Quality Assurance: In addition to following our rigid manufacturing processes, our quality assurance system ensures optimal characteristics of all of our product characteristics, including:
- Identity
- Conformity
- Purity
- Strength
- Composition
We also conduct thorough and scientific tests on all our raw materials, as well as our final products. These tests are performed by Ph.D. scientists in our state-of-the-art, pharmaceutical-grade laboratories, and allow us to identify and correct any problems or variances in the products as they occur. Medix Select products can always be trusted for quality, purity and effectiveness.
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