At Ideal Health, we don�t promise miracles; we offer breakthrough custom nutritional supplement
programs based on sound science and years of research and clinical practice. We encourage your curiosity. We
want to answer your questions before we ask you to try our breakthrough product, Custom Essentials�. Here
are answers to some of the most common questions we hear.
Q: How does my PrivaTest� urine sample determine what my body needs?
A: The PrivaTest takes nutritional testing to the next level. We don't just want to know what nutrients are in
your body today. We want to know whether or not these nutrients are getting into your cells to do their work.
The PrivaTest does not involve a nutrient-bynutrient, milligram-by-milligram analysis of your nutritional status. Instead, using your in-home urine collection and Metametrix� Clinical Laboratory's analysis backed by
many years of published science, the PrivaTest provides vital information about how three critical areas of your metabolism are using the nutrients you ingest. These three areas were selected for testing because research has shown that poor or altered function in any of them contributes significantly to the causes of many modern
degenerative diseases. This approach is more useful clinically than simply looking at the nutrients existingin your body today. For that reason, the PrivaTest analyzes the end by-products of your metabolism � the chemical compounds that are coming out (or NOT coming out) in your urine.
Q: How does my PrivaTest urinalysis compare to a blood nutrient test?
A: There are several different blood tests for nutrients, and they are generally very expensive. Most simply measure nutrient levels in the blood on the day you give the sample. While this is useful for some specific diagnostics, it provides no information about cell utilization of nutrients by the body - the answers
everyone needs to know. Ideal Health's PrivaTest studies the by-products of cellular function in three biochemical pathways. This tells us how well the cells are using the nutrients, and whether the nutrients are even available to the cells. With that information and other data, your individual nutrient needs can be accurately determined.
Q: What scientific validation supports the PrivaTest?
A: The research methodology for your PrivaTest has been widely recognized in the scientific community as valid and reliable. Metametrix Clinical Laboratory is a world-class facility that uses the most advanced laboratory equipment and latest scientific methods to analyze your specimen. For more than 20 years, Metametrix has serviced thousands of physicians and researchers who use their exacting scientific research methods as diagnostic and preventative treatment tools.
Q: How do you determine what specific nutrients go into my Custom Essentials�?
A: First, a foundation nutrient formulation of all known essential vitamins and minerals is selected for you based on your gender and age. Dosages are determined using data for persons of your sex and age group derived from thousands of research studies evaluated by Metametrix's staff of PhD's and clinical nutritionists. Next,
your PrivaTest results are analyzed and applied against a sophisticated computer algorithm that is proprietary to Ideal Health. Each test category has certain sets of nutrients associated with it, which are known to influence the specific biochemical pathways described by your test result. Depending on your results, those nutrients are added to your foundation formulation in specific amounts. The total mixture is then homogeneously
blended in a stepped blending process under carefully controlled conditions to produce your Custom Essentials product. This special blend is the single, best-fitting combination for you out of 48 possible combinations of up to 55 essential nutrients and accessory ingredients.
Q: Who manufactures my Ideal Health Custom Essentials?
A: Ideal Health aligned with HVL Laboratories, the premier formulary of quality nutritional supplements for over five decades. HVL Laboratories services healthcare professionals worldwide, including Western Europe, Australia, and the Pacific Rim. HVL Laboratories produces Custom Essentials exclusively for Ideal
Health, using your PrivaTest results and joint proprietary technology.
Q: Are my Custom Essentials "cold-processed?"
A: Yes. Our formulary uses a true cold-processing technique that preserves nutrient potency. For capsules, this means that the product is processed at temperatures not to exceed room temperature (72-77 degrees). One of the primary reasons healthcare professionals recommend Custom Essentials is that the nutrients are chemically intact. Only intact nutrients give you maximum results.
Q: How are my Custom Essentials blended?
A: A major challenge in blending a multivitamin/mineral formula is to insure that the many separate ingredients mix together evenly. Most manufacturers dump all the ingredients in together and blend away. With multiple-capsule daily doses, this can often result in too much of one nutrient (zinc for example) in a few capsules and too little in the others. This kind of uneven ingredient distribution does not supply consistent nutrition to the body and may promote accelerated nutrient interaction. Through years of research, our manufacturer has developed a "stepped" blending technique to insure uniform nutrient distribution for complex formulations. The process for Custom Essentials involves up to 15 separate blending steps. So you can be absolutely sure that what it says on your Custom Essentials label is actually in each daily dose.
Q: How do you test for quality, purity, potency and freshness?
A: At least 4 tests are performed on raw nutrients, depending on the material. Initially, raw biological materials are quarantined in a separate facility until microbiological assays for yeasts, molds, E. Coli, Salmonella and bacteria are all negative. On average, about 30% of raw materials are rejected routinely because they do not meet Ideal Health's incredibly rigorous standards.The nutrients are then identified as being what they claim to be. This is done through High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Emissions Spectrometry (ICP). These tests result in a biological signature for the tested compound, which is then compared to known biological signatures for the desired compound. After manufacturing, the product is tested to make sure that it meets the USP standards for disintegration (how fast it breaks down in the stomach), dissolution (how easily the components go into solution), and stability (assurance of shelf life). Finished products are also tested for weight variance and (fortablets) friability, or fragility. Capsules and tablets are analyzed with an automatic weight variance machine, which automatically rejects any capsule or tablet that is outside fill weight specifications. There is also a visual inspection by specially trained staff who use inhaling wands to remove any capsule or product from the batch that does not pass visual uniformity standards.
Q: What emphasis does Metametrix place on peer-reviewed scientific research?
A: About 90% of our formulation information comes from peerreviewed research studies. However, because we are on the cutting edge of nutritional science, we go a step further. We make formulation modifications based on real-life, clinical experience and feedback from physicians and other healthcare practitioners who use functional medicine in their practices.
Q: Do you accept the certificate of analysis or do you do spot-lot checking?
A: Our formulary maintains three sophisticated in-house laboratories to routinely perform their own in-house analysis of raw materials and products. In addition, a vendor audit system is in place whereby the professional Ph.D. staff annually screens new and existing vendors to make sure they qualify and continue to qualify for our stringent raw materials standards. If they do not, they are dropped from the preferred vendor list.
Q: How absorbable - and bioavailable - are Ideal Health's Custom Essentials� formulations?
A: We use information from research that has been performed for specific forms of nutrients showing the relative bioavailabilities of each form. For instance, industry research has found that the amino-acid chelate minerals that we use in our products are 30-50% more absorbable than inorganic mineral forms such as carbonates or oxides. In addition, the USP standards used for disintegration, dissolution, and pH ionization also
provide a good indicator of how well a product will be utilized. However, the best indicators of bioavailability
are the results produced in the human body. Years of use by thousands of practicing healthcare professionals has given HVL Laboratories and Metametrix the valuable real-world feedback as to what nutrient forms
work most effectively. Improved clinical symptoms and normalized laboratory values are powerful evidence that Ideal Health products are being recognized and utilized by the human body.
Q: How would you describe the uniqueness of Custom Essentials?
A: Custom Essentials is the cutting-edge multivitamin/mineral supplement, providing all known essential nutrients that have been customized to the specific needs of age, gender and the individualized targeted nutrition based on the three vital metabolic areas evaluated in the PrivaTest. It is simply the best supplemental nutrition that science has to offer. And our formulas will remain on the cutting edge of science as new discoveries continue to be made.