Comment · Tue, October 29, 2019
Consumerlabs Ashwagandha Testing Results
Original post in this thread
MisterYouAreSoDumb · 44 points
I actually just wrote most of this in a comment on /r/Nootropics, but I figured I would make a post here for everyone. We have been getting a lot of emails about this, so I wanted to address it.
Consumerlabs recently released a report of a bunch of ashwagandha products on the market. They did not test any of our products. However, they did test Life Extension and Jarrow, which use KSM-66 and Sensoril. Those failed for withanolides, which caused some of our customers to be concerned about those extracts. Before I start, I want to stress that both of these extracts have human clinical research behind their effectiveness. They have multiple studies in humans that show improvements. So this is absolutely not a case of fake or low quality product. Anyone that has used these extracts knows they work. They are some of our most popular patented natural extracts. It's not some mass placebo happening here. They actually do work, and there is research showing that. So I want everyone to know that before we get into the science. I won't comment on whether other brands are using different ashwa…
What they were answering
GigaPaladin · 1 points
Interesting. I had a similar question about Doctor's Best and how their Synapsa is so cheap: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/djez3g/can_i_trust_doctors_best_synapsa/
Some things I read about them made me concerned so I bought some of your synapsa off of Amazon. How likely is it a company could have "KSM-66", "sensoril", "synapsa", etc on the label but bunk in the bottle? as you can see in that thread someone told me cgmp would make it unlikely but I am not entirely sold on that.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb
Honestly, I think that happens a lot. CGMP doesn't really mean anything. That just means current good manufacturing practicess. That's more process and documentation, and is NOT a certification. NSF or ISO are certifications. CGMP are just a set of suggestions by the FDA. The FDA does NOT certify facilities. They sometimes inspect and cite for issues, but many of those issues are not publicly released. Only the major ones are given a warning letter that the public can see. So many facilities are just doing whatever they want and banking on the fact they wont' get inspected, since the FDA is underfunded, and if they do it will be private citations. I thank many people are very misinformed how regulation in the supplement industry works.
There are some things being sold on the market right now under trademarked names that HAVE TO BE fake. They are selling for less than our cost, and I went to those manufacturers at Supply Side West a week or so ago and talked to them. They told me those suppliers were getting very similar pricing to us. So there is no way they can make the pricing work at what they are charging. It would be very easy for me to buy 100kg of a patented product, then mix it with 900kg of a cheaper generic, and sell it as the patented one. The patent holder requires quarterly notification of how many units you sold, and they match that up with how much raw they provided you, but they don't actually verify the numbers. They just take what you say as truth. So all you need to do is lower your sales totals to match what the raw amount you sold was. It's so dumb. I've alerted some of the people at these companies who have patented products, and they don't seem interested enough to investigate. Either some of these companies are selling at break even or a loss, or there is something fishy going on. I know for a fact I could slip cheaper generic raw materials into patented batches in such a way that NOBODY would ever find out. It would not be that hard. So I know less scrupulous people are doing it.