Why Is Quality Control So Important?:
Because poor manufacturing can destroy great science, one must thoroughly check the quality of supplements before beginning use. Let’s use an example. to ensure that the formulas developed in high quality company laboratories are produced consistently, the same process is followed each time manufacturing begins. When raw ingredients first arrive they are immediately quarantined until they are tested for purity, potency, and quality. If an ingredient fails to meet set standards, it is rejected and returned to the supplier.

The products we choose for ASP are chosen specifically to ensure the highest quality and potency available.  These nutritional supplements are rated number one on the market by The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements, by Lyle McWilliams, http://www.comparativeguide.com/guides/adultguide.html .  As with any Pharmaceutical grade supplement, as the tablets are being manufactured, they are tested for hardness, thickness, disintegration, fragility, and weight uniformity. An inappropriate thickness can indicate an imbalance in ingredients, just as a slight variance in compression can result in tablets being too hard to disintegrate in the stomach, or too soft, causing them to break apart in the bottle.

Before packaging, the final product is tested once more for potency and purity. After the products are packaged, the foil seals, labels, and cotton are double-and triple-checked by both machines and people. Each step in the quality assurance process is accompanied by a written procedure.

Current Regulations
The Federal Drug Administration has not finalized Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for dietary supplements, as they are required to do under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act. Rather, Congress has initially stated that dietary supplement GMP should be modeled after foods. Because of this statement, many supplement manufacturers have chosen to follow GMP for foods. Others, however, voluntarily follow GMP for pharmaceuticals as the basis for quality assurance programs in product manufacturing, meaning these companies treat nutritional supplements with the same care that goes into manufacturing pharmaceutical products. Every dietary supplement produced by a pharmaceutical grade company carries a potency guarantee, which ensures that what is stated on the label is actually contained in the product.

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From raw material selection, through manufacturing, to shipping of the finished product, pharmaceutical grade supplements have strict quality-control standards. We have made quality a top priority when choosing our protocols so that you are assured of getting potent and effective nutritional supplements to ensure your experience is the best it can be!

What Can I Look For In My Supplements?
While some supplements used in clinical nutrition require research to determine quality, you can use this simple test to gauge the quality of your nutritional supplement. By using two micronutrients, Vitamins A and E, you can assess quality of the product.

	Vitamin-E	Vitamin-A
Low Quality	DL-Alpha Tocopheryl	Retinyl (or Retinol) Palmitate (only source)
Good Quality	D-Alpha Tocopherol and mixed Tocopherols	Mixed Beta-carotene and palmitate
Superior Quality	Mixed tocopherols and mixed tocotrienols	Mixed carotenoids (beta, alpha, delta, gamma)

In the table above, the synthetic form of vitamin-E is in the “low quality” category because it clinically proven to absorb less effectively, thus, the effectiveness is diminished and your money wasted. Regarding Vitamin-A, here is a direct quote from Dr. Andrew Weil’s vitamin advisor, “Avoid taking supplemental vitamin A as retinol or retinoic acid, and instead use plant-derived vitamin A precursors such as beta-carotene (in addition to other mixed carotenoids). “ ~ http://www.drweil.com .

We hope that this information was helpful to you. If we can be of further assistance to you in your journey of health and wellness, let us know, we would love to hear from you!