Surprising Supplement Secrets From An Industry Insider (& The Shocking Truth About Your Multivitamins).

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surprising supplement secrets
Body, Diet & Nutrition, Health & Wellness, Podcast, Podcast-new, Supplements

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Click here for the full written transcript of this podcast episode.

I'm a supplement geek.

I have been for a long time – ever since I was a fledgling bodybuilder guzzling creatine and a bright-eyed college student immersed in pharmacology and advanced human nutrition classes.

But today's podcast guest – Dr. Hector Lopez – is a true wealth of knowledge. My own education in the realm of supplements pales in comparison to his.

Dr. Lopez, MD, CSCS, FAAPMR, FISSN is recognized for applying his uniquely diverse background in PM&R, spine and sports medicine, exercise science, nutritional biochemistry, metabolism and clinical research. Dr. Lopez is the CMO and Partner of Center for Applied Health Sciences, a multidisciplinary clinical research organization focused on elevating the body of evidence within the dietary supplement, natural product, functional medicine and functional foods/ beverage industry, and he is Founding Partner of Supplement Safety Solutions, a comprehensive Pre-market and Post-market safety, Nutravigilance®, adverse event and cGMP regulatory compliance consulting company.

Dr. Lopez’s clinical career began as the founder of multiple integrative orthopedic/ sports medicine facilities, and he has since moved on after his clinical career to become a highly sought after research scientist, product innovation, safety & regulatory key opinion leader in nutra-biosciences, dietary supplements, medical foods/ beverage industries.  He is the founder and managing director of an intellectual property discovery, incubation, development and tech transfer company whose goal it is to bring novel, bioactive compounds for out-licensing to the dietary supplement, natural products, functional foods/ beverage space grounded in science and safety. Dr. Lopez is a product developer and recognized consultant to professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, UEFA and MLB.

During our discussion, you'll discover:

-How Dr. Lopez got into the supplement industry…9:30

-Why Amazon is going to disrupt the nutrition supplements industry with their new “Elements” line (and what Ben thinks of this line)…27:30

-The shocking secrets Dr. Lopez has found in the nutrition supplements industry…36:15

-The difference between SOP and CGMP in the manufacturing facilities…39:30

-In an ideal scenario, what a nutrition supplement company should be doing with each supplement that they make…44:15

-What to look for on a nutrition supplement label, including what batch/lot the supplement came from, including NSF, Informed Choice/Informed Sport, Nutravigilance…50:30

-Some of the crazy new ingredients out there that Hector is most excited about…56:15

-Novel delivery mechanisms that go beyond things like encapsulation and tableting technology…1:05:15

-And much more!

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Resources from this episode:

The Kion supplements line

Nutravigilance: principles and practices to enhance adverse event reporting in the dietary supplement and natural products industry

PHprescription.com

Do you have questions, thoughts or feedback for Dr. Hector Lopez or me? Leave your comments below and one of us will reply!

Ask Ben a Podcast Question

26 thoughts on “Surprising Supplement Secrets From An Industry Insider (& The Shocking Truth About Your Multivitamins).

  1. R says:

    Been – I love your podcast but would love it even more if you could number your episodes.

    When I use the shortcut of the website to Google Podcasts it doesn’t take me to specific episode and it’s therefore very hard to find. Numbering would be awesome!

  2. Justin says:

    What is a trusted TeaCrine product? I would like to try it.

  3. David says:

    Are there any good websites that rate supplement quality?

  4. RG says:

    Transcription for this episode?

    Thank you!!!!

    1. They typically take about a week to populate.

  5. What supplements are Dr. Lopez using for his own health and performance?

  6. David says:

    Best podcast ever! You get me through traffic and something to think about training wise.

    I’ve listened to this podcast and must have missed what he said about multi vitamins. Does he say they’re good/bad?

    1. Markus says:

      Not from the podcast, but nonetheless interesting:
      https://examine.com/nutrition/do-you-need-a-multivitamin/

    2. Hi David,
      Glad you enjoyed…it was fun kickin’ it with Ben, as we’re both clearly passionate about optimizing health & performance (including the strategic use of bioactive ingredients, nutraceuticals, functional foods and dietary supplements).

      Regarding multivitamin use, I do advocate utilizing one for most of the population. The decision to supplement with a MVI (or any other product) should be grounded on weighing overall potential risk: with overall potential benefit. While there have been plenty of meta-analyses, academic reviews and scientific opinions showing mixed results on the value of multivitamins, the totality of the available evidence suggests that there is definitely benefit under special conditions (restrictive diets, hypocaloric weight loss diets, pregnancy, certain disease states), and marginal benefit for preventing age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and improving mood/anxiety/feelings of well-being.

      The relative benefit of broad-based MVI is inversely proportional to the quality of a whole-food, nutrient rich diet, and the effect size (magnitude of benefit) is small for most of the chronic diseases evaluated.

      I still use one (rotate between different ones, that are relatively low-potency in the 100% to 200% of the RDA range for most micronutrients) that allow you versatility in dosing.
      Cheers,
      Dr. Lopez

    3. Jesus M says:

      Interested in the carno prime beta alanine supplement. Where could I purchase this

  7. Robert says:

    You should definitely have Dr. Lopez back for another podcast. I understand not revisiting previous topics but I would be interested in more on delivery systems . . . and more clarity on best practices & GxP stuff like cGLP (current Good Laboratory Practices), cGCP (current Good Clinical Practices), and cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices). Especially in terms of the supplement industry not being regulated by the FDA the same way in comparison to the pharmaceutical/biotech industry.

    1. Dr. Hector Lopez says:

      Thanks Robert!
      Ben and I will try linking up again for “round 2” :)…we can be sure to hit some of those topics (and others)!

      Cheers,
      HLL

  8. Mary says:

    Thanks Ben for your generosity and been following you since #92. If you or Dr Lopez know of a trial for supplementation or other modality and need female subjects I would like to participate. I am 64 and been competitive athlete since 27ie ran 2:50 marathons. I did toxicology research for Burroughs Wellcome and was coordinator for AZT. I bio hack by Clear Light sauna, injected peptides into Achilles, etc. So I am willing to try almost anything. There is a shortage of experimental data on females and I’d like that corrected.

    1. Dr. Hector Lopez says:

      Mary,
      Sounds like you’d be a fantastic research subject for any applied clinical sports nutrition, exercise or rehab medicine research!

      Interestingly, there had traditionally been a relative void in number of female subjects as part of sports nutrition and general nutrition / dietary supplement research. Those numbers are growing thanks to many initiatives and presence of more female research scientists, investigators and role models within exercise science and nutrition.

      Depending on your location, you can google “exercise science” or “sports nutrition” research for investigators in your area looking to recruit and enroll subjects in studies.
      Best,
      HLL

  9. ben says:

    Anyone know of a refrigeration system that can be used to make ice-cold showers?

  10. Walter says:

    I assume, Ben, that you will link to certificates of analyses of all the supplements you sell ;-)?

    1. Yes, it's something we're working on.

  11. John Mills says:

    Is there any info on the “hormetic effects” of fermented or rancid fish oil he mentioned? Google didn’t pop anything up. This is fascinating and I’d like to dive into it further.

  12. Mira says:

    Ben,

    Come to Nashville – we have sea buckthorn in a local Russian store )

  13. Aggie says:

    Very interested and am a vitamin believer.

  14. D says:

    Hi love the podcast. Where can you purchase the t cream. That was referenced. Thanks

  15. Helena says:

    Thanks, Ben. How do we know what brands are “really” following GMP guidelines? And what companies have the Nutrivigilance Verified Seal?
    And FYI, the link to Nutravigilance is not working :)

  16. M says:

    What are you’re thoughts on the Onnit daily multivitamins packs? (Total human)

    1. Love Onnit. You can trust anything they make will be a solid product. Get 10% off by using this link: https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/onnit

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