History of Maximum Vitality
Twenty years ago, Howard Simon began Rejuvenation Science by selling carefully formulated and quality nutritional supplements online. In the years since, business has flourished. This is in large part due to the sheer number of calls Simon regularly received from physicians across the globe that were interested in the company’s products. As a direct result, he spent a great deal of time developing a special brand for physicians that Simon has been marketing at key medical conferences for the last fifteen years.
However, due to the current situation in the world today, he felt compelled to expand the company in a new direction. The company has created the Maximum Vitality brand that they are now bringing directly to consumers utilizing the same research and technology used for formulating products for the physician marketplace.
The Path to Formulating Supplements for Consumers
As they formulate supplements for consumers, one of the most important aspects of that formulation comes from physician feedback. In fifteen years of working with physicians, the company has incorporated physician’s knowledge to make product improvements.
Simon says the goal has never been to convince a doctor that they have the best product, but rather to understand physicians’ needs based on their interaction with patients and the information they have learned from various medical conference sessions.
This detailed input from physicians has led Maximum Vitality to be highly rated in The Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements by Lyle MacWilliams. This book is an evaluation of 1,600 multivitamins in North, South, and Central America. In the most recent edition, Professor Bruce Ames’ work on Triage Theory was highlighted. The theory discusses how the body utilizes micronutrients when there is a shortage of them in the body, either from a poor diet or poor absorption. Simon believes that because Professor Ames is a mentor and Maximum Vitality uses the Professor research and expertise, they have been at the forefront of some of the major science that has been produced in this area.
How to Determine the Quality of a Supplement
Today supplements are widely available, but consumers often feel unsure if they are getting a quality product because they do not know what constitutes quality. In terms of supplements, many companies use quality as a relative term. In other words, because quality can be measured in many different ways, a provider will use the measurement that is best for their product, and that is how they define quality. In Simon’s opinion, some pharmaceutical companies sell supplements and claim their products are quality because they are almost entirely synthetic and controllable and offer one hundred percent of the recommended daily allowance of basic vitamins.
However, according to Simon there are potentially much higher standards one could strive for in terms of defining quality. Rather than focusing on just one element of excellence, it may be more beneficial to focus on the entire formulation and how it is specifically developed. For his company, Maximum Vitality, quality is approached with the following considerations:
- Science
- Integrity of the science
- Formulation quality
- Component quality
- Manufacturing quality
Making the Supplement Journey Personal
In the beginning Simon had a naturopathic doctor who believed he had a way to deal with gastrointestinal diseases by using a variety of nutritional supplements to restore the microbiome in the GI tract and thus restore an individual’s protection against contaminants from their environment.
After suffering from ulcerative colitis for twenty-five years, Simon had a colonoscopy that revealed lesions and masses thought to put people at a high risk of having cancer. Because the option of protecting the body against the lesions and masses was no longer viable due to their presence, he had his colon removed.
Simon believes using new supplement formulations contributed to him going into the colon removal surgery asymptomatic and healing quickly despite the seriousness of the surgery. After the procedure, he continued his work and research to discover evidence that a microbiome exists in every part of the body, instead of just in the gastrointestinal tract as previously thought.
His personal belief today is that as long as we as a society are exposed to a modern environment, we are being exposed to contaminants no matter where we live, although contaminants can be different based on place of residence. Simon thinks it is important to continue to support the microbiome even if an individual has been able to fix a problem that once presented itself in the body. He continues to take support for his microbiome today.
What is the Microbiome and Why is it Important?
The Importance of the Microbiome
The microbiome is incredibly complex, and most people think of it as existing in the gastrointestinal tract which runs from your mouth to your anus. The microbiome protects the body from some contaminants, assists in digestion and fermentation of food, and aids the body in excreting contaminants and byproducts of metabolism.
Generally, a combination of somewhere around 100 million different strains of probiotics in various combinations exist throughout the microbiome. The stomach is very acidic, allowing certain bacteria to grow there. However, the intestines are less acidic and allow different bacteria to grow there.
How the Environment Impacts the Microbiome
According to Simon, each type of bacteria in the microbiome can appear to the human to be specialized in the tasks and actions that they perform. For example, some bacteria will dissolve plastic while others will dissolve or isolate other microcontaminants such as mold, mildew, harmful bacteria, and viruses.
No matter how an individual absorbs these microcontaminants, they tend to end up in the gastrointestinal tract. However, what is not quite as obvious is how what we breathe ends up in the gastrointestinal tract. Simon says the way this occurs is that the mucous on the lungs flushes the microcontaminants to the stomach where the acids and GI tract will destroy them and other harmful bacteria to keep the body healthy.
It is staggering how the variety of bacteria in the body provides an immense amount of protection, even to new chemicals being introduced into our environment all the time. It seems as though the microbiome is our best adaptation tool to deal with contaminants that didn’t even exist when the microbiome was initiated in our bodies.
Based on this knowledge, Maximum Vitality uses great diversity in the elements of supplements to provide more complete coverage.
Autoimmune Issues and Contaminants
Simon was diagnosed years ago with ulcerative colitis, an inflammation in the intestines. Although doctors and some literature will indicate they don’t know how this happens, Simon says his own research shows it happens because the microbiome is damaged potentially by contaminants which are targeted to damage bacteria such as antibiotics, hydrocarbons, cleaning agents, etc.
When the microbiome is damaged it can no longer protect the surface of the tissue in the gut, and when that surface is exposed to harmful bacteria or mold or hydrochloric acid, which is safely produced by the body if you are healthy, the surface of the tissue becomes damaged and then can leak contaminants into the bloodstream and spread throughout the body.
Someone will show signs of a disease when whatever part of their body is most susceptible misbehaves because it is acquiring these contaminants which are getting exposed to an individual’s system instead of simply being passed through the system. The body is trying to use whatever means it can to deal with contaminants which have found their way in.
Simon believes inflammation is the body’s response to the microcontaminants in the body, although physicians will diagnose this as an autoimmune disease which means the body is attacking itself. Instead, he thinks that on a cellular level the body is not attacking itself but is attacking those microcontaminants which have found their way into the body and into a particular organ where an individual could be susceptible.
Where to Start with Supplements
In the beginning supplements were focused primarily as a way to minimize pain, disease, and other difficulties patients were experiencing, but in the last decade it has shifted to maximizing a patient’s overall health.
To that end, Simon believes one of Maximum Vitality’s best products on the market is their most popular multivitamin, Maximum Vitality. It is top rated in the consumer guide Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements. He says the multivitamin has earned top ratings from the guide (which uses eighteen different criteria to evaluate more than 1600 multivitamins) for the last fifteen years.
A multivitamin is often where Simon encourages those who are new to supplements to start. He believes that since a person may not know what micronutrient their body could be deficient in, if they do not have an immensely varied diet, it is best to start with the foundation offered by a sophisticated multivitamin and omega 3 oils.
“We want to pay it forward with our years of research and knowledge,” said Simon, “and then get it out into the world so that everyone
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