I agree that this is dangerous and silly. In fact, I just read an article about how raised cholesterol in children is not very representative. However, all of this reminds me of Total Balance for Children - although it is of a different nature.

Hmmmm...I think that you are comparing apples with oranges here, :)

Warren,

Nothing the big corporations do shocks me any more. People need to be aware of what these large corporations are doing, and the influence they have in our culture, our regulators and our legislators.

I had an experience in my doctors office a couple of years ago that truly enlightened me. I had a routine physical including a cholesterol check and the doctor came back and informed me that I just crossed the threshold into the range that the AMA recommends statins. I looked at my numbers and they where nearly the same as my previous physical, Actually they haven’t changed significantly in the last ten years. I asked the doctor why I was ok last year and this year I’m in the range where drug intervention would be required. He told me that the AMA recently lowered the threshold for what is considered a normal cholesterol level. At that moment I came to realize that the “tail is wagging the dog”. The drug companies are out of control, they are on a mission to get as much of the population on prescription medication as they can get. And now it looks like our children are on their radar screens. How Sad...

Hi Peter,

The reason for the change is because the Cholesterol Council of America changed their recommendations. Interestingly 9 ofthe 12 members have financial ties with the statin drug manufacturers.

It puts Doctors in a very difficult position because it means they have to either go with the recommendations or run the risk of a potential malpractice suit.

The system is totally corrupt.

Hi Warren,

I don't know how to contact you directly, so I'll use this blog. I know you've done comparisons between Total Balance and other products and I hope you will consider doing one for Fish Oil too.

It's a choice between Xtend-Life and the Life Extension Foundation. LEF is a respected nonprofit organization that has been around for the last thirty years. I'm confident that either product will be more than adequate, but I'd like to make as much of an informed decision as I can. Anyway, the link to the LEF product is here: http://www.lef.org/newshop/items/item00982.html More details are here: http://www.lef.org/Vitamins-Supplements/Top10/Omega-3-Fish-Oil.htm

If you wish to contact me privately, use this: turbid@(NOSPAM)myway.com

BTW: What's up with all the covert marketing websites for Xtend-Life? For example: http://www.nutritional-supplement-truths.com/Total-Balance.html and http://www.best-fish-oil-dietary-supplements.com/

Moreover, the titles are kind of long: http://www.nutritional-supplement-guides.com/what-we-use.html or http://www.safemenopausesolutions.com/vitamins-for-men.html Tell this Dan affiliate to ease up on that.

It's crazy how long these titles are: http://www.nutritional-supplements-health-guide.com/nutritional-health-

supplements.html I just can't get over that!

There needs to be some more creativity. I mean come on: http://www.omega3-health-guide.com/

OMG, just how many fake, independent looking websites did Xtend-Life create? Setting up million fake outside sources does not confer more credibility. Studies do. I just came across another one: http://www.omega-3-fish-oil-guide.com/ I'm not going to even bother to keep posting these because I would be up all night.

Like most manufacturers we have affliates...in fact we have thousands of them. They have their own websites and we have no input into what they do. They are not covert and we do NOT set up 'fake' websites.

We only have two websites. Our main one and another one www.omega3dha.com which is clearly ours. The subdomains preceding xtend-life are to help with tracking of affiliates and none of them are promoted by us.

We do not have the time and resources to monitor all the activties of our affiliate. All of them have to link to our website as we do not allow any of them to sell the product direct themselves. This way ensures that customers always visit the main website so they can recheck anything that they may have seen on any affiliate websites.

There is no difficulty in contacting me directly. Simply use the contact Warren link on this blog. That goes to one of our staff and if someone requests their email be forwarded to me personally for review it then is.

Please don't jump to conclusions like you tend to do.

With regard to LEF they are a good organization and before we developed our own products I used to be a customer of theirs.

As a matter of fact their Life Extension Mix was a bench mark which our formulators used in developing Total Balance. Their brief was to develop something even better.

Over the years this has been acheived.

We will be doing a direct comparision shortly but on the new generation of Total Balance which will be released next month. There is a lot of work in doing these comparisions accurately so there is no point in doing it when the current version will soon be replaced.

Give me a reminder around the end of August. Thanks

Hi Warren,

Yes, I realize you have affiliates (which you can't control) and I went too far in calling them fake websites designed to confer outside credibility. It just annoyed me that they had such a predictable design and often pretended to be completely impartial. However, I don't think I often jumped to conclusions. I've been skeptical but that's all.

Anyway, I'm not actually interested in a comparison between the LEF Mix and Total Balance. I'm only trying to decide on a good fish oil supplement at the moment. I don't trust the quality of many supplement companies and it takes a lot of work for me to be assured enough to add one. So far, the list is LEF, AOR (Ortho-Core if you want to add it to the comparrison), and USANA. I will probably add Xtend-Life in the near future. These aren't necessarily the only companies with quality supplements; just the ones I'm reasonably sure about.

So far, I'm leaning towards LEF's Fish Oil partly due to its additional synergistic nutrients but mostly because they have a certified 5 star rating on the IFOS list (http://www.nutrasource.ca/ifos_new/index.asp?section=ifosconsumer
&ifossection=5%20Star%20Rating%20Reports) which is stricter than the WHO and CRN standards. Although I can't find them on the EDF list (http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=16536) or ConsumerLabs. Anyway, I have some impartial outside guarantee of their quality in addition to their reputation. Moreover On the other hand, Xtend-Life's Fish Oil is in ester form. There doesn't seem to be a clear answer.

I should edit before posting. :)

I wouldn't put to much faith in the IFOS list. Like Consumerlab they are very much a 'for profit' organization. We considered listing our Omega 3 with them a few years ago when they got started but decided against it when they refused to answer one simple and very important question.

This related to their testing methodology for Dioxins. You can see the gist of that question at

http://www.xtend-life.com/product/Omega_3_~_DHA_Esters/Specifications+and+COA.aspx

Their standards are not that much tougher than the CRN as you will see from the chart on that page. They are certainly nowhere near as tough as our own self imposed specifications.

With regard to ester and triglyceride forms of fish oil there is a lot of misinformation around about this.

When a fish oil is concentrated it has to be changed to an ester form which is what the body does. Therefore it is more bio-available than a triglyceride form as there is one less process the body has to go through in order to utilize the oil.

However, some manufacturers convert the esters back to triglycerides because they perceive that is what the market wants. That would be OK if it was returned back to the natural triglyceride form...but, it is not. The process does not allow that. The position of some of the carbon bonds are changed on the backbone...hence it is an unnatural form.

In my opinion you should only take the triglyceride form if the oil has not been concentrated. If it has been concentrated, take the ester form. Bear in mind that if it is not concentrated very likely it has not been molecuarly distilled so you run the risk of contaminants.

If it has been distilled you have to make sure that it was not done using the cheapest process which involved hexane instead of ethanol.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, it seems like Xtend-Life has its own advantages. Just a note "They are certainly nowhere near as tough as our own self imposed specifications." Yes, but how can I objectively verify your standards if not by outside means? Unlike for Total Balance which I understand may be too complicated for most of these testing bodies, it CAN be tested and this would sway me much more. Although I understand that perhaps IFOS and almost all standards organizations have some self-interest Any comments on the synergistic nutrients listed? As for the molecular distillation, they claim to use an improved process but I don't know the technical details and whether it's hexane (not hexanol?) or ethanol: "While most fish oil is distilled to decrease contaminants such as mercury and PCBs, the Super Refined® fish oil used in Super Omega-3 is produced with a patented method that purifies the oil with an intense two-step distillation process to reduce pollutants to virtually undetectable levels."

And just as a note, I'm getting really fed up with all the "Super" in their marketing. Does Superman take this stuff? :P

Speaking of statings, my dad is on Zocor at the lowest dose. If he were to take Total Balance, would there be any negative interactions? Moreover, if he were to try your cholesterol formula, what is the procedure to take? I don't want him to be exposed to undue risk if not on Zocor. Should he have a blood test first?

I really don't put a lot of credence in the claim for a unique patented molecular distillation process that they refer to for their Super Omega 3.

They use the sesame oil as a preservative instead of the natural Vitamin E that we use. I can't quite follow the logic of adding the olive oil. I think that it is a marketing gimmic more than anything. Most of us get plenty of Omega 6 during our diet and if we are eating a reasonable diet we should be getting our share of olive oil.

At the end of the day whole cold pressed olive oil is just that, natural olive oil and of course it naturally contains polyphenols.

But, having said that I would think that it is a quality product and I would not have a problem taking it myself if we did not have an oil.

With regard to authenticating our COA's we are working towards setting up a system where we will post the results of testing on the website from an independent government GMP approved laboratory. It is on the priority list but will still be a few months away.

There is no problem with your Dad taking Zocor with Total Balance.

If he decides to try our Cholest-Natural he should defintely get a blood test first. Then he should use the Cholest-Natural for a month with the Zocor and then tell his Doctor that he wants to cut the dose back by 1/3rd for a month, then another 1/3rd for the next month at the end of which he should have another blood test.

Bear in mind that his cholesterol levels will spike after he goes off the statin. You should also have him check his triglycerides, homocysteine and C-Reactive Protein. Then the big picture can be looked at and monitored.