Where do you all source your supplements? Any good reporting websites?

[Wyverngale]

I've been treating my symptoms for about a month now and have been having trouble finding reliable sources for all of my supplements. If you're unaware, some brands don't do a great job about ensuring each pill has the same amount of of stuff and there have even been reports of some supplements just straight up not having what they should.

I've been able to find some reports on accuracy but for most things I've just had to scour these forums to try and find general consensus. I'm wondering if there's some website somewhere that I don't know about where reports have been collected on various brands and their supplements.

 

[Hip]

If you're unaware, some brands don't do a great job about ensuring each pill has the same amount of of stuff and there have even been reports of some supplements just straight up not having what they should.

I have never found any independent analysis of the major supplement brands and their tablet contents.

I tend to buy major brands such as Swanson, Solgar, Jarrow, Now Foods, Doctor's Best, Source Naturals, etc.

 

[Learner1]

Those are decent supermarket brands. Did my past history with toxicity, I have higher standards, and typically use brands with exceptionally high standards like Thorne Research, Seeking Health, Designs for Health and Tesseract as well as "name brand" ingredients like Suntheanine, Setria Glutathione, etc.

You are wise to be asking questions. It is a minefield out there, and even decent brands tend to have issues. Some ingredients are more problem prone, like magnesium for instance where most of the market of it is contaminated by naturally occurring arsenic.

 

[Hipsman]

I have never found any independent analysis of the major supplement brands and their tablet contents.

what about https://labdoor.com ?

 

[godlovesatrier]

Lamberts seems like another good one. All the decent ones seem to cost roughly the same amount. Life Extension do seem to hold up to scrutiny too.

 

[Hip]

what about https://labdoor.com ?

Looks interesting, I have not seen that website before.

At the moment they don't seem to provide an overall rating for a brand, though. They just rate individual supplements, like for example zinc, etc, by analysing zinc tablets from various brands.

Their rating system is quite complex. For me, I am mainly just interested in whether the tablet contains the amount of supplement shown on the label. I do not have MCAS, so am not concerned with what additional ingredients the tablet might contain.

 

[Learner1]

Looks interesting, I have not seen that website before.

At the moment they don't seem to provide an overall rating for a brand, though. They just rate individual supplements, like zinc, vitamin D, etc, by analysing tablets from various brands.

Their rating system is quite complex. For me, I am mainly just interested in whether the tablet contains the amount of supplement shown on the label. I do not have MCAS, so am not concerned with what additional ingredients the tablet might contain.

Well their reviews of magnesium showed that most common brands of magnesium on the US market contain arsenic, something that's good to know. These are brands who otherwise have decent products. It is impossible to depend on an overall rating for a brand. Ingredients are sourced all over the globe with varying ingredients. Unless a manufacturer tests every batch of every ingredient coming into their plant, which I know Thorne does for example, regularly rejecting shipments from their trusted suppliers, you can't trust any of them.

 

[Hip]

their reviews of magnesium showed that most common brands of magnesium on the US market contain arsenic, something that's good to know.

That is indeed interesting.


Seems that a lot of magnesium brands got a low F rating because of arsenic content. I wonder what Labdoor.com consider a "concerning level of arsenic" in these magnesium brands.

The FDA reckons we consume around 1.3 to 12.5 μg of inorganic arsenic per day in our diet. Ref: here.

If the amounts in these magnesium supplements were lower than that, it would not be much of an issue.

 

[Pyrrhus]

what about https://labdoor.com ?

The great thing about labdoor is that they ask the public which supplements they should review next.
So we get to vote on which supplements we would like them to review.
Or at least they used to do that, I don't know if they still do...

And if you have a 2g sample of a particular supplement, in powder form, they can test it for trace metals and residual solvents for a couple hundred dollars. (Probably only available to people in the U.S.)
Of course, this is not a substitute for a LC/MS purity analysis.

 

[Hipsman]

The great thing about labdoor is that they ask the public which supplements they should review next.
So we get to vote on which supplements we would like them to review.
Or at least they used to do that, I don't know if they still do...

They still do that, but you might have to register account (free) - https://labdoor.com/rankings/upcoming

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

I tend to buy major brands such as Swanson, Solgar, Jarrow, Now Foods, Doctor's Best, Source Naturals, etc.

I'd add a lot of Country Life's products, Twinlabs, and, as @godlovesatrier notd, Life Entension ...

what about https://labdoor.com ?

I find that ConsumerLabs is a better source, as they also release long lists of massively crammed data on nymerous different sources of vitamins, herbs, mierals, etc ....

They also have a HUGE library of info on just about anything you can think of, supp-wise.

Unfortunately, they charge about $38.00 a year for membership, which gives you full-spectrum access to every testing they've ever done, as well as their encyclopaedic library of info .... ....

Life Extension do seem to hold up to scrutiny too.

I agree. Expensive, but if you get on their mailing list, you get advance notice of all sales which cuts the cost by some to a whole lot ....

At the moment they don't seem to provide an overall rating for a brand, though. They just rate individual supplements, like for example zinc, etc, by analysing zinc tablets from various brands.

Which is why I prefer ConsumerLabs .... they get up close and personal in terms of brand names, which of their formulations with a specific ingredient you're interested in is worth the money, which failed testing entirely and why, etc etc etc ....

 

[godlovesatrier]

Is consumerlabs.com worth giving a go @YippeeKi YOW !! ? I need a way to validate what's in all these different egcg products, the quality is wildly variable and all over the place.

Asking because I need to pay to get into consumerlabs website.

Thanks,

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Is consumerlabs.com worth giving a go @YippeeKi YOW !! ?

I'd give a fairly solid 'Yes' .... they'll pick a particular supplement and do an exhaustive report on it, including what their criteria are to approve a specific manufacturer, then they'll pick the best 10 or 20 of the lot and produce a series of columns that includes everything from cost per recommended dose, anything they found that they questioned, but not enough to exclude it in their 'Recommended' group, whether that particular product contains the amount stated, and several other factors, including general contraindications and referrals to studies on that particular product/supp/herb/whatever, and if there's one that's really bad, they'll go into deeper detail after contacting the manufacturer for comment. They'll also include a few of the spectacular fails in that category.

They also have an enormous encyclopedia of supps, vitamins, herbals, various forms of protein powders as well as those Amazing Greens-type things, you name it, products of every sort, color, and stripe, including thumbnail sketches that you can check out on a supplement you might be interested in, but dont want to read their truly all-inclusive full reviews and reports on until you know a little more. They also cover the more arcane supps that we might be interested in.

I think that they're about $40 a year. Embarrassingly, I'm on auto-renew and haven't checked this year's renewal for price increases.

The only shortcoming is that they dont always include the particular brand that you might be interested in in their huge review, but other than that, I think they're good.

Asking because I need to pay to get into consumerlabs website.

I'd offer to look up whatever you're interested in, but the canny bustards have locked their reports so you can't copy and paste. That's my only other complaint ....

And of course, if you dont feel they're worth it, you can cancel at any time for a pro-rata refund.

 

[godlovesatrier]

Ah there's a way round that @YippeeKi YOW !! download this https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html

After it's installed hit printscreen button (top right on your keyboard or under f10 key on laptop) and then drag a box around what you want to screenshot. Then click the copy symbol and then paste it anywhere you like.

And thanks very much for the info. They sound really good! I sent you a PM

Very handy tool this one.

 

[YippeeKi YOW !!]

Ah there's a way round that @YippeeKi YOW !! download this https://app.prntscr.com/en/index.html

For some arcane cyber reason, ever since my last MS update, I can't execute a screenshot. It just comes out as about 5000 pages of code .... will try your link when I come out of the current trough I'm in, maybe that'll short circuit whatever got flucked up, and thanks for posting that option ...

Was my outline of consumerlabs.com helpful? Lemme know what you decide, and what you think after you've browsed their incredibly comprehensive site for awhile, assuming you decide to give it a try ....

 

[godlovesatrier]

Missed your point about the refund actually, so therefore I might well give it a whirl In a week when I am back at my computer that is.

Thank you!