ONE OF THE GROWING AREAS OF CONSUMER INTEREST
Is the fillers and additives used in foods, cosmetics, personal care and household cleaning products, and even our vitamins. That is because not everything added to our foods or other products is good for us. Nobody thinks for example that aspartame, the non-calorie sweetener, is desirable from a health standpoint and one published report links its addition to foods with increasing rates of childhood cancer. When it comes to consumer safety, the vitamins and minerals, particularly those from reputable health food stores and natural product supermarkets, are probably the safest products today. The reason for this should be obvious to anybody who knows this eclectic gathering of mission-driven people called the natural products industry.
Natural products industry members by and large are driven by the desire to perform good deeds, to stay healthy, be good citizens, and to protect the Earth and our environment. Many of them seek to improve their products as much as possible, often deciding in favor of quality even when there are other less expensive routes. It’s just the nature of this industry. It’s one filled with good people. That’s why, for example, we have people like Clint DeWitt and companies like Coral LLC, the supplier of what we consider to be the best (by far) ecological pure coral in America.
DeWitt (who counts country singing legend Merle Haggard as a regular user of coral) recently announced Coral LLC has gone filler and excipient-free in its EcoPureTM vegetarian coral mineral capsules. This is big news. But coming from the natural products industry, it is what is driving the market. Quality driven companies always make leaps of faith and take science to the next level. The company announced this month it has removed all fillers, flowing agents, excipients, and other hidden additives, instead of replacing them with an additional 20 percent of pure coral calcium minerals. As consumers seek greater levels of purity and quality in their consumer products, the nutritional product industry’s leading companies are responding by eliminating their use of additives and fillers in the manufacturing process and by carefully sourcing raw materials to be these also do not contain additives, flowing agents or other undesirable fillers.
“These actions on the part of Coral LLC demonstrate our complete and unwavering commitment to providing the highest quality coral minerals today,” says DeWitt. Whole food nutrition advocates, of course, prefer coral minerals, since they contain all major and trace minerals known or thought to be needed for human health. Unlike calcium isolates, it is thought that whole food minerals work better because they are delivered within a mineral matrix that contains all essential co-factors for absorption and use in the body.
Coral LLC has specialized in eco-pure above sea coral minerals that do not harm the environment and that are harvested from pristine sources on the island of Okinawa. The company was apparently also first to bring coral minerals to the United States. They list some major mainstream customers but when you know DeWitt and understand its salt of the earth folks like Haggard who are taking up the coral crusade, it makes you realize at its heart Coral LLC is dedicated to the people. One of their major missions has been to educate women on the benefits of coral minerals for bone health. All calcium supplements are good but coral is different because it contains all of the known minerals necessary to human health and natural health experts have concluded that many people are deficient not only in major minerals like calcium but also trace minerals. Plus, they say, coral calcium is truly unique in its availability to the human body.
CORAL MINERALS DEFINITELY BODY READY, SAY FRENCH RESEARCHERS
We also now know that coral minerals, particularly coral calcium, are not your everyday calcium carbonate. Coral is a body ready mineral source; predigested by the coral polyp and replete with every trace mineral necessary to health—and, now apparently, regular use appears to help to counter bone loss, as shown in two independent studies.
The first study took place in France at the Centre de traitement de la douleur, hopital Lariboisiere, and the Laboratoire de Recherches Orthopediques Universite Diderot in Paris. There, researchers wanted to see if granular coral could preventively stabilize spinal vertebrae already experiencing bone loss or at risk for fracture. They also examined if coral could augment new mineralization of already fractured bone. Not only were coral granules well distributed into bone when assayed radiographically but also bone remodeling increased in cavities filled with coral in comparison with cavities not receiving coral granules, said the research team. “These results demonstrate the osteoconductivity of coral in granular form for vertebral filling…. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the efficacy of coral in osteopenic animals and in relieving pain.”
Essentially, the study is telling us what bone osteopathic surgeons have long known—coral is uniquely absorbed by the body, perhaps because in a primeval sense it was the human body’s first source of minerals, and the mineral profiles of coral, ocean saltwater, and human tissues, blood, and bones are remarkably similar. At the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of British Columbia, researchers studied Praval bhasma (Coral calx), a natural source of rich calcium widely used in the traditional system of Indian medicine as a supplement in the treatment of a variety of bone metabolic disorders associated with calcium deficiency. Their study was designed to investigate the inhibitory effects of coral on the progress of bone loss induced by estrogen loss and calcium deficiency. “Decreased femoral weight and density … were significantly reversed in Praval bhasma treated animals,” they said. The study concluded that coral minerals are “effective in the prevention of calcium and estrogen deficient bone loss and justify the continuing use of this ayurvedic preparation in traditional system of Indian medicine for management of bone metabolic disorders such as osteoporosis.”
FILLER-FREE ZONE: WHAT’S IN YOUR CALCIUM SUPPLEMENT?
No consumer magazine has done more than ours to educate shoppers about what actually goes into nutritional supplements. Some things like full spectrum organic herbs you definitely want. But other things, you might just as well do without—and that’s why consumers come to health food stores. They are seeking the highest quality and leadership. But you must make choices based on all sorts of personal factors, we understand. We just want to give you good information. Coral LLC’s eco safe, above sea coral minerals are without doubt the essence of purity, potency— and what this collection of mission driven people called the natural products industry is all about.
This recent commitment to even greater purity should raise the bar for all nutrition companies.
REFERENCES
Cunin, G., et al. “Experimental vertebroplasty using osteoconductive granular material.” Spine, May 2000;25(9):1070-6.
Reddy, P.N., et al. “Effect of Praval bhasma (Coral calx), a natural source of rich calcium on bone mineralization in rats.” Pharmacol Res. 2003 Dec;48(6):593-9 the doctors’ prescription for healthy living 7
RESOURCES
Finding an Eco-Safe Product
Prefer eco-safe, above-sea coral. Coral Complex from Coral LLC is the first powdered coral capsule product in the United States. This formula, which contains coral minerals with vitamin D3 and betaine, has become the most popular and successful coral capsule formula in the nation and would make a wonderful healthy choice, we think, for post-HRT women.
Availability — Both Coral Complex and Eco Pure Coral are available at health food stores nationwide. To find a store in your area, call us toll free at (800) 882-9577. Herbal Pharmacist David Foreman can be heard nationwide.
From the doctors’ prescription for healthy living
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