Dr. Krawitz's conversation with supplement patent holder

In the supplement industry, there's the good, bad and the very ugly. And those of us who provide quality ingredients in labeled amounts fall on only one side of the room. After my 11 years in the industry, I've learned that it's an unfortunate truth that some companies list their ingredients on a fancy printed label, but put in only a fraction of the ingredients listed on that label. And neither the FDA, FTC or Attorney Generals have the time or inclination to chase the offenders. This afternoon, I traded emails with my good friend, a PhD scientist who owns several nutritional supplement patents. The latest advertised product we talked about claims, "Helps maintain eyesight & protects against macular degeneration" and incredibly, lists a whopping 10mg of zeaxanthin in the daily ingredients. The scientist did some checking, however, and reported, "We had two great labs try to identify and it is a very bad story and still only tentatively identified. It is supposed to have 10mg of Lutein but has some badly degraded or a modified compound at 2.5 mg and something like zeaxanthin at 250ug/two capsules. Another really scary story!" VisiVite independently checks every lot number for purity and potency. As for some other companies that only put in a tiny fraction of claimed ingredients in their capsules and tablets, well, I'm not sure how they put their heads on their pillows at night. -- Paul Krawitz, M.D. President and C.E.O., VisiVite.Com