Don’t dismiss value of supplements

I was extremely troubled by Shanthi Appelo’s article regarding the dangers of supplements (Sunday, Sept. 12: Fact Check: What you should know about dietary supplements.). Her takeaway for readers seems to be that only pricey big pharma drugs hold value and supplement companies are only out to defraud the consumer. This is a patently false, irresponsible and dangerous rhetoric.

As the owner and managing partner of an all-natural cognitive enhancer created to combat the effects of neurological diseases, like Alzheimer’s, our product is the result of 20 years of scientific research. Unlike many pharmaceutical companies, we did not pay to be part of these studies. Researchers found us. The results from clinical trials have been published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Has the FDA approved Memory Health? No. It doesn’t approve supplements, vitamins and minerals, only pharmaceutical drug products. Our product is a combination of nutrients found in healthy diets: carotenoids, omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E. Even with a healthy diet, today we don’t receive key nutrients in the quantities our brains, nutrients that keep brains healthy and healing faster. The brain needs nutrients, not drugs.

We’ve taken the extra step to ensure customer trust and have had our product Supplement Certified, a quality and stability certification assures consumers that Memory Health’s active ingredients are present for a defined period of time.

When people read articles like Appelo’s, they may be reluctant to try affordable and effective supplements like Memory Health. If we ignore supplements, we may be ignoring impactful, cost-effective treatments for what ails us. In the end, it might just be a natural solution that heals us.

Edward Shehab Managing Partner, Memory Health Birmingham