In the News
Organic & Natural Health Association’s 10th Annual Conference Explores Sustainability From an International Perspective
OmegaQuant Partners with FARI to Launch 1st Annual Fatty Acid Symposium — February 2025
IFM’s New Website Is Now Live!
Mold Illness Study Participants Required
Scientist Describes Evidence Supporting Link Between Acetaminophen and Autism as Overwhelming, But Silenced
Breakthrough Study Confirms LANDKINDâ Pure Salidroside Efficacy in Sports Performance
Regenerating the Brain After a Stroke
Organic & Natural Health Association’s 10th Annual Conference Explores Sustainability From an International Perspective
The Organic & Natural Health Association (Organic & Natural Health) will host its 10th annual conference at B Ocean Resort in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., on Jan. 21-23, 2025, with support from sponsors Mercola, AIDP, Florida Supplement, Informa Markets, Pitch Publicity, and Apex Compliance.
The conference, themed “Collaborate, Innovate, and Regenerate,” will feature industry leaders and expert panelists who will explore global sustainability and innovation, addressing critical topics like supply chain challenges, political influences, and emerging threats to the planet’s health and humanity’s future.
“This year’s conference is an opportunity to explore how we can collaborate with global entities to strengthen the future of our industry,” said Karen Howard, CEO and executive director of Organic & Natural Health. “We are convening the industry’s most visionary leaders to tackle pressing global challenges that are poised to reshape the natural products landscape in the near future.”
The first day of the conference will encourage attendees to explore ways in which sustainability can lead to profitability. The first keynote speaker Marci Zaroff, founder and CEO of ECOfashion Corp., and founder of BeyondBrands, will share how embracing organic and regenerative practices not only drives positive environmental change, but also delivers tangible business success, proving that sustainability is a profitable and impactful strategy. The second keynote speaker, Greg Horn, managing director and partner at William Hood & Co., and most recent NBJ Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, will highlight the transformative potential of the next generation of organics and outline a global roadmap to sustainability.
Day one will also feature three different panels. The first, led by Alan Lewis (Natural Grocers), will look at sustainability initiatives from a global perspective, featuring Robert Verkerk (Alliance for Natural Health), Jennifer Taylor (IFOAM North America), and Alexis Baden-Mayer (Organic Consumers Association), The second panel, led by Horn, will discuss business-to-business relationships in the supply chain with panelists Dr. Michael Murray (iHerb), Mehgan Styke (Kerry International and The B2B Builder), Shaheen Majeed (Sami-Sabinsa Group), Mark Thurston (AIDP), and Matts Johansen (Aker BioMarine). The last panel discussion will address new synthetic biology developments with Lewis, Baden-Mayer, John Fagan (HRI Labs), and Kim E. Richman (Richman Law Firm).
The second day of the conference will look at global policy, focusing on developments in women’s health initiatives and protecting the integrity of the dietary supplement industry internationally. Keynote speaker Tom Aarts, founder and managing director of Nutrition Business Advisors, and founder and co-chair of NBJ Summit, will open with a discussion about the general state of the industry.
Three panels will follow, the first discussing the nation’s incoming Trump administration and its viewpoints on international policy. The panel, led by Howard, will feature Verkerk, Debra Short (SENPA), Jonathon Emord (Emord & Associates), Todd Harrison (Venable Law Firm), and Charlie Brown (Mercury Free Dentistry). Following this, a women’s roundtable will discuss developments in women’s health around the world related to dietary supplements moderated by Heather Granato (Nutrachievement, Inc.) and featuring Kantha Shelke (Corvus Blue), Peline Thorogood (Radicle Science), Amanda Jepson (Biova), Anand Swaroop (Cephem, Inc), and Salma Fathalla (Bonafide Health). The final panel of the conference, led by Amy Summers (Pitch Publicity and INICIVOX), will explore strategies to protect product integrity and ensure the continued trust and credibility of the dietary supplement industry featuring Deleo de Leonardis (Purity IQ), David Trosin (NSF), Ray Martinez (Florida Supplement), Erin Taraborrelli (SGS Nutrasource), Asa Waldstein (Apex Compliance), and Sandra Lee (NJ Labs).
Registration for the Organic & Natural Health conference is open to members. Guests and media may attend by invitation only. Reserve a room at the B Ocean Resort before Dec. 18 to take advantage of the special block room rates. The Organic & Natural Health conference fosters global collaboration and meaningful dialogue, addressing critical challenges facing the natural products industry and the communities it supports worldwide. Get involved at: https://organicandnatural.org.
OmegaQuant Partners with FARI to Launch 1st Annual Fatty Acid Symposium — February 2025
OmegaQuant, the leader in fatty acid testing, has partnered with the Fatty Acid Research Institute (FARI) to launch the 1st Annual Fatty Acid Symposium, which takes place virtually, February 10-14, 2025.
This event will bring together some of most respected researchers to discuss various aspects of the fatty acid field and highlight some of the most recent findings, with the ultimate goal of educating healthcare providers (HCPs) about the benefits of fatty acids and fatty acid testing.
FARI features some of the leading researchers in the fatty acid field who are uniquely positioned to provide symposium attendees with the information they need to help guide their patients’ omega-3 use. To that end, the symposium will cover several topics that have clinical relevance in the areas of heart, brain, prenatal, fitness, mental, and overall health.
OmegaQuant was founded by one of the most well-known researchers in fatty acid field — Dr. Bill Harris. In 2020, Dr. Harris established FARI as a consortium of fatty acid researchers that together have published more than 40 peer-reviewed papers since its founding — many in top-tier medical and scientific journals.
Part of FARI’s mission is to educate HCPs, so that they are armed with the most recent, relevant, accurate information about fatty acids. It is FARI’s hope that these practitioners will be able to use this information to help their patients make the most informed decisions when it comes to their use.
The symposium’s presenter lineup includes: Dr. Bill Harris (20 Years of the Omega-3 Index & the Omega-3 Index & Longevity), Dr. Kristina Harris Jackson (Optimizing DHA Levels Before, During & After Pregnancy), Dr. Martha Belury (Demystifying Omega-6), Dr. Jeff Heileson (Omega-3s for Fitness), Dr. Joe Hibbeln (Omega-3 Levels & Psychiatric Disease), Dr. Aleix Sala-Vila (Omega-3 Blood Levels & Dementia), Dr. Frank Qian (Omega-3 & A-Fib), Dr. James O’Keefe (Omega-3 Blood Levels & CVD Risk), and Kelly Patterson (Using the Omega-3 Index to Calculate Omega-3 Dose).
Commenting on why this symposium is so important for healthcare providers, Dr. Harris said: “There is a lot of confusion and uncertainty these days around fatty acids and we feel it is our responsibility to make sure that healthcare providers are armed with the most current and accurate information. Healthcare providers are the true gatekeepers of health information for patients, so making sure they have a full understanding of the power and potential of omega-3s is crucial.”
“Currently, there is no event like this, which covers the specific topic of fatty acids and fatty acid testing for a healthcare provider audience. This will be a real deep dive for practitioners who talk to their patients about these important nutrients. And for those who don’t currently talk to them about omega-3s, we’re hoping this information gives them the confidence to do so. For these reasons, we expect a great turnout,” Dr. Harris added.
Event Details:
· When: February 10-14, 2025; 2 sessions each day — 12-1pm est & 1:30-2:30 est
· Where: Virtual symposium held via Zoom
· Who should attend? Healthcare providers & health-minded consumers
· What: 10 fatty acid topics | 5 days
Event Registration Link: 1st Annual Fatty Acid Symposium
IFM’s New Website Is Now Live!
We are so excited to announce that the new IFM.org is here! The redesigned website makes it easier for practitioners to discover the functional medicine education options and for patients, policy makers and anyone who wants to know more to access information and resources about functional medicine. The new website features several upgrades, including:
- Dedicated health education articles and resources for patients and clinicians
- Enhanced Find a Practitioner database listings, with new search categories and filtering
- Enhanced partnership spotlights showcasing the broad reach of functional medicine
- Enhanced security and personal data management
- Improved site speed, efficiency, search capability, and accessibility
- Improved mobile browsing experience
- Improved IFM Account interface and simplified check-out process
Access to the website and your education and course asset is available now! Click here if you have an IFM account, you will be prompted to reset your password and add an extra security step. Enjoy!
Mold Illness Study Participants Required
We are delighted to announce the launch of a new randomized controlled study on Mold illness. We are reaching out to health practitioners like yourself to recruit participants. We will be studying the effect of the Gupta Program on mold illness and for a subset of patients who have both mold illness and Lyme.
The study is a randomized control trial that is six months long (three months of intervention and three months of follow-up) and has a wait-list control.
We will be recruiting participants with a positive mycotoxin test from the past year or those actively being treated for mold if the test is more than a year old.
If you have patients who are motivated to try brain retraining and have not done so yet, then please send them the link below to the flyer and the page to sign up. They will receive a free Gupta Program worth $499, with one year access. It is important that they understand the minimum time commitment of at least 30 mins a day, as well as attendance of weekly webinars, if they wish to take part in the study.
I look forward to connecting with you again in early 2025 with some new announcements,
INFORMATION TO SEND TO MOLD PATIENTS INTERESTED IN TAKING PART IN THE STUDY
We are recruiting now with a start date of late January for new participants who have not encountered the Gupta Program before. We will be sending out the informed consent and eligibility forms within the next two weeks, and anticipate randomizing patients by the 3rd week of January dependent on how quickly we enroll. Please send patients who might be interested this flyer:
Scientist Describes Evidence Supporting Link Between Acetaminophen and Autism as Overwhelming, But Silenced
A provocative interview with scientist William Parker was published recently in the journal “Integrative Medicine”, detailing Parker’s experience working on the connection between acetaminophen and autism, including hurdles encountered in publicizing his team’s findings.
In the interview conducted by contributing editor Sheldon Baker, Baker asks Parker about several publications in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, largely focusing on a recently published study from Parker’s team analyzing a methodology used in numerous scientific papers that find correlations between acetaminophen use and autism.
At one point during the interview, Baker asks Parker if there was anything that surprised him after their study was published. Parker responded by saying; “You won’t find the proof that bad assumptions used in the Drexel study resulted in incorrect and misleading results.”
Parker is referencing the events following the publication and press release of his most recent study, published in the journal Life in July of 2024, disproving the conclusions of a widely publicized study from Drexel University published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, in April 2024.
The Drexel paper claimed no real association between acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism, but Parker and colleagues at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and at Northern Kentucky University disagreed, demonstrating errors in the underlying assumptions used in the method described by the Drexel scientists.
They published the corrected methods in Life, showing that the correlation between acetaminophen use and autism found by many other scientists is indeed real. Parker’s team followed up their publication with a press release to raise awareness of the corrections. However, when they went back to measure its effectiveness a few days later, the press release was all but gone from search engines.
According to Parker’s team, when they published the initial release, they noticed that it appeared in more than 140 places and was in second place on a popular search engine when common search terms such as “babies” and “autism” were used.
Then, two days later, the article did not show up at all with any common search terms. Even when the full title of the press release was put in quote marks, the search engine showed only one direct link to the article. This led Parker to believe that his team’s work has been shadow banned.
“When I was initially contacted for the interview by the journal editor to discuss our latest paper, nothing out of the ordinary had occurred in the process of publishing it. But by the time the interview rolled around, our press release describing that paper had been shadow banned,” Parker said.
Shadow banning, a term coming out of social media platforms as a form of censorship, references the blockade or restriction of the blocking or restricting of content by a media company without notifying the content owner.
“It’s vital for parents to know this information, so when I saw our press release disappear from the search engine results, my first thought, and still my thought today, is: Somebody’s really going to get in trouble for this after it all comes out,” said Parker.
The massive media attention and subsequent public awareness of the Drexel paper is still a major concern for Parker’s team. They believe that, while the Life paper is available in the scientific literature, the suppression of the press release and therefore limited reach to correct public opinion has the potential for great harm.
“Regardless of how much suppression of information exists, nothing can cause autism in 1 out of every 36 children without leaving a pile of evidence behind. The evidence is in plain sight and is, as we discuss in the interview, overwhelming. We found it, and other people are eventually going to find it.” said Parker.
To read Parker’s Team’s original response to the Drexel paper, go here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39202661/
To read the full interview in Integrative Medicine go here: https://imjournal.com/oa/index.html?fid=Parker1
To read about the connection between acetaminophen and autism, visit preventautism.org.
Breakthrough Study Confirms LANDKINDâ Pure Salidroside Efficacy in Sports Performance
LANDKINDâ Pure Salidroside is the first salidroside from fermentation shown to enhance performance, protect muscles, and support mood.
Gnosis by Lesaffre is excited to share a new study published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, which is the first to demonstrate that supplementing with salidroside, an active compound in the adaptogen Rhodiola rosea, exerts positive impacts on exercise performance. The study used Gnosis’s LANDKIND? Pure Salidroside.
What is LANDKIND? Pure Salidroside?
Salidroside is the most studied compound in Rhodiola rosea. Still, it is only found in limited quantities naturally occurring in the plant, requiring large amounts of plant material to obtain sufficient salidroside. Further, as its popularity as an adaptogen soars, R. rosea is becoming severely depleted. These factors resulted in CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) listing R. rosea as an endangered species.
Gnosis and teams from the Lesaffre Institute of Science and Technology innovated a proprietary fermentation process that isolates pure salidroside, ensuring long-term, stable supply without depleting R. rosea resources. The company launched LANDKIND® Pure Salidroside in 2024 while awaiting the publication of the first human clinical study on the ingredient.
Evidence for LANDKIND? in Sports Nutrition
The goal of the first-of-its-kind exploratory investigation, "Salidroside and exercise performance in healthy active young adults – an exploratory, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study," was to determine the acute and short-term effects of supplementation with pure, salidroside from fermentation on exercise performance, muscle damage, and mood state in healthy, active young adults (the audience who is likely to consume sports nutrition for enhanced achievement.)
In the 16-day study, 50 healthy men and women supplemented with 30 mg two times daily of LANDKIND? Pure Salidroside or placebo engaged in two multi-day testing sessions separated by 14 days. Participants performed a graded exercise test on a treadmill to determine their peak oxygen consumption (VO2 peak). Participants also engaged in a high-intensity intermittent exercise (HIIE) protocol depending on their VO2 peak. Maximal strength and muscular endurance were also assessed. Mood state evaluations were also conducted using the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Blood samples were analyzed for erythropoietin, myoglobin, and creatine kinase-MM.
According to Florian Mourey, co-author of the study and Gnosis Substantiation Plan Manager, R&D, “Several dimensions of sports performance were positively influenced by dietary supplementation with salidroside, from cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance to recovery.” He notes an acute effect of salidroside supplementation was observed during the first multi-day testing session. Oxygen uptake was enhanced in the group supplemented with salidroside during high-intensity intermittent exercise. “In addition, the results of this clinical study suggest a positive effect of salidroside in reducing muscle damage following resistance exercise and inhibiting a decline in high-intensity exercise performance.”
Further, while mood disturbances were observed in the placebo group, the group supplemented with salidroside showed a more stable mood state. In particular, higher levels of fatigue inertia were reported in the placebo group during the study.
Salidroside was safe and well-tolerated, making it a promising supplement for athletes.
Neil Schwarz, PhD, Associate Professor at the University of South Alabama and first author of the study, noted, “After extensive peer review, we received extremely positive reviewer comments. One stated that the study provides ‘extremely novel insights’ into several potential health and performance benefits of the synthesized salidroside.”
New Era for Sports Nutrition
Gnosis and its exclusive US distributor for LANDKIND? Pure Salidroside, Gencor, are thrilled this landmark study has been published, confirming the anticipated shift this could mark for the sports nutrition category.
"What we have with LANDKIND Pure Salidroside is truly unique in the industry," states Nicole Lemus, Gnosis Director Americas. "Our precision, proprietary fermentation process creates a sustainable, ethically sourced bioactive of Rhodiola with consistent purity and stability. Most importantly, it offers brand owners unmatched convenience and versatility for cutting-edge product development: with a lower dose requirement versus Rhodiola extracts, LANDKIND Pure Salidroside offers a proven base for innovative natural energy products with room for other targeted bioactives. It can also be a powerful but small-dose natural energy component that can be easily added to existing products. In either case, its pure format avoids the bulk and taste challenges of large Rhodiola doses.”
LANDKIND? Pure Salidroside is self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) and third-party certified for Kosher, Halal, Vegan, Gluten-free, and non-GMO.
Reference:
Schwarz NA, Stratton MT, Colquhoun RJ, Manganti AM, Sherbourne M, Mourey F, White CC, Day H, Dusseault MC, Hudson GM, Vickery CR, Schachner HC, Kasprzyk PG, Weng J-K. (2024) Salidroside and exercise performance in healthy active young adults – an exploratory, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 21:1, 2433744, DOI: 10.1080/15502783.2024.2433744
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About Gnosis by Lesaffre
Gnosis by Lesaffre harnesses the power of microorganisms and biotransformation processes like fermentation to cultivate nutritional actives, probiotics, and nutritional and functional yeasts that benefit human health and well-being. The team draws on its focused research and application capabilities to collaborate with nutraceutical and pharmaceutical brands to develop game-changing products for their customers.
Gnosis by Lesaffre – Exploring Life to Improve Living. http://www.GnosisByLesaffre.com
About Lesaffre
A key global player in fermentation for more than a century, Lesaffre, with a 3 billion euro turnover, and established on all continents, counts 11,000 employees and more than 90 nationalities. On the strength of this experience and diversity, we work with customers, partners, and researchers to find ever more relevant answers to the needs of food, health, naturalness, and respect for our environment. Thus, every day, we explore and reveal the infinite potential of microorganisms.
To nourish 9 billion people, in a healthy way, in 2050 by making the most of our planet’s resources is a major and unprecedented issue. We believe that fermentation is one of the most promising answers to this challenge.
Lesaffre – Working together to better nourish and protect the planet. http://www.Lesaffre.com
Regenerating the Brain After a Stroke
Four-and-a-half hours; the equivalent of a drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, assuming traffic isn’t log jammed on Interstate 15. This is the critical window of time for stroke victims to be eligible for treatment at the hospital after a stroke begins to affect the brain.
Within this tight window, a patient must have an official stroke diagnosis at the hospital and be ready to receive the only FDA-approved treatment of its kind to re-establish flow to blood vessels affected by stroke.
"When a stroke occurs, it's essential to reach the hospital as quickly as possible, as the closer the treatment is to the time of the event, the better the chances of a positive outcome,” said Lina Nih, assistant professor in UNLV’s Department of Brain Health, housed within the School of Integrated Health Sciences. “The timing is crucial, as it helps determine whether the person is a candidate for treatment.”
According to Nih, who recently joined UNLV’s School of Integrated Health Sciences from UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, 96% of patients arrive at the hospital too late to receive the treatment.
Nih has spent more than a decade developing treatments that could potentially be injected directly into the stroke lesion to regenerate the dead brain tissue lost after a stroke. Her promising findings using rodent models have been shown to regenerate nearly 70% of the vascular and neuronal tissue lost from the initial stroke.
While receiving or missing medical care within this ephemeral therapeutic window can make or break a stroke patient’s ability to regain mobility, Nih is hopeful that her novel treatments can make it so time doesn’t necessarily have to be of the essence.
How the Brain Reacts After a Stroke
“It’s important to remember that blood vessels bring oxygen and glucose to all organs in the body. If that blood flow is interrupted, then the flow of glucose and oxygen is also interrupted,” Nih said. “The vast majority of organs have a storage system of oxygen and glucose that can last a few minutes, hours, or sometimes days. The brain, however, is a different story.”
According to Nih, brain cells begin to suffer within a minute after the initial interruption of blood flow. And after about 90 seconds, the affected cells begin to die, after which they implode and release their internal content in the brain tissue. This can be extremely toxic to the neighboring cells and can perpetuate cell death in the healthy adjacent tissue.
Despite this potentially cataclysmic sequence of events, Nih is confident that the brain is capable of regenerating cells previously lost during stroke.
“The answer is complex, but the simple answer is that the brain has a dormant capacity for regenerating its lost and damaged cells," she said.
According to Nih, this capacity comes from when our brain and spinal cords were developed as an embryo. “There are ways now with innovative technologies to awaken these repair mechanisms to regenerate the tissue that was lost after injury," she said.
The Secret to Regenerating Blood Vessels
The conversation on how brains can regenerate lost and/or damaged cells dates back decades, but Nih’s approach lies within the blood vessels, as opposed to the neurons -- which is the favored approach currently for a majority of the medical and scientific community.
“I am convinced that it is the brain’s own blood vessels that awaken and control these repair mechanisms that then regenerate the lost cells,” she added.
And her work over the past decade has been focused on proving these theories right.
“Blood vessels change size and shape over time,” she said. “It’s fascinating to watch blood vessels around the lesion site grow and remodel weeks after a stroke. I’ve spent the last decade observing vessels following a brain injury day after day, week after week, to watch this dance from afar and understand what they’re trying to say.”
Developing Life-Saving Stroke Treatments
To complement her unique approach to studying brain vessels after a stroke, Nih has also been diligently working on a possible treatment. Injected directly into the brain following a stroke, the treatment would, ideally, awaken brain vessels and kick-start the mechanisms needed to regenerate the lost tissue.
“We are capable of creating artificial brain tissue that is fully liquid at room temperature, which can then be loaded into a syringe and injected directly into the area of lesion in the brain. Once in the brain, it can solidify into a jello-like material,” she said.
After the gel is injected, it communicates with the brain’s vessels to grow specific sections of the brain and activate their mechanisms of repair to regrow the previously dead tissue.
Nih likened this experiment to a grand orchestra, each instrument representing a part of the brain’s intricate systems. Together, they strive to master the art of improvisation, harmonizing unpredictable interactions to uncover a melody—the elusive key to regeneration—that has yet to be composed.
For those who prefer nature over music, the process is akin to the growth of new trees in the forest.
“You will never see a branch growing outside of a tree. If you want a new branch, you look for a tree that is already there. It’s the same with vessels. You can only grow them out of pre-existing vessels. They grow and divide,” she said. “When you look at them over time, you can see them change shape, density, etc. They start growing around the lesion site, and then eventually inside the lesion site. Once inside, they start reconnecting brain circuits. This can then recreate the functions that were lost. Without blood vessels, the neurons would never grow.”
Nih’s next steps are to continue developing more efficient translational treatments for stroke, with the ultimate goal of establishing a biotech startup and initiating clinic trials within the next few years. If those results are encouraging, she hopes that the four-and-a-half-hour window might not be the fait accompli for the outcome of stroke patients.
“Patients who recover well have way more blood vessels around their brain lesions than those who don’t. What or who made these vessels grow?” she asked. “That’s what I hope to find out.”