With the aging process, changes occur in the body. When it comes to the skin, these changes can be internal and external. External changes are associated with the skin’s appearance while internal changes occur beneath the skin’s surface on a cellular level. As you may know. the skin has three layers: The Epidermis (Outermost layer) The Dermis (Middle layer) The Subcutaneous layer (Below the Dermis) As we age, the epidermis begins to thin and melanocytes start decreasing in number…giving the skin a pale appearance. As we age, our skin also loses its suppleness, texture and strength. This is associated with the Five Main Causes Of Aging…resulting in sagging appearances, wrinkles, fine lines and other visible signs of aging. Here is the progression of the visible signs of aging characterized by age group: Age 20-25: Vertical wrinkles start appearing on one’s forehead and even lines between the eyebrows may already be visible. Fine lines at the external edges of the eyes are not yet noticeable…however, a history of heavy smoking, drinking and/or excessive exposure to the sun may result in these signs of premature aging starting to appear early in life. Age 25-40: In the epidermis, wrinkles begin to deepen and more fine lines start appearing. Wrinkles are less than 0.0005 mm in depth and are usually caused by the superficial drying out of one’s skin, damage and loss of collagen in the skin, as well as the slowing down of cellular renewal. Age 40-50: Fine lines start appearing around the lips, crow’s feet around the eyes, lines parallel to the nose and the line separating the eyebrows are all beginning to deepen and widen. The skin is now losing more of its natural strength and elasticity while shape of the face starts changing as the skin begins to sag…resulting in less defined facial contours. Age 50 and over: Hormonal changes associated with menopause in women and the conversion of testosterone into estrogen in men accelerates the aging process. The skin’s surface now shows clear and distinct signs of aging…these signs are only exacerbated by lifestyle factors like smoking, drinking, environmental elements, excessive junk food etc. Regardless of your age, your skin needs a healthy foundation and the best way to nourish this foundation is through natural effective skincare products as well as dietary supplements formulated to contain ingredients that have proven efficacy when it comes to supporting skin health. This one-two-punch combination is a great way to ensure your skin is getting the best nourishment it can. Fight the Five Main Causes of Aging with the Xtend-Life skincare range. We have a women’s and a men’s range of products specifically formulated to suit the specific skin physiology and differences between the two genders. Complementing this with products like the Total Balance range to nourish your skin from the inside out with Omega 3 / DHA Fish Oil Premium. You’ll be building the ideal foundation on which youthful, healthy skin can be built…regardless of your current age. It’s never too late to start a complete skincare regime so why not give your skin the health and appearance it deserves by visiting the Xtend-Life skincare and Total Balance pages right now!

Over the years this question has constantly come up. Just yesterday it was raised on the Blog by a reader/customer. This is what was asked: “Hi, I noticed your products are not covered or reviewed by ConsumerLab.com (the most famous/trusted provider of independent test results and information to help consumers and healthcare professionals evaluate health, wellness, and nutrition products) May I know, is there any specific reason? I emailed ConsumerLab.com and they requested I suggest to you that your company participate in ConsumerLab.com’s testing. Thanks.” Because it is a question in many customer’s minds I thought that I would put the time into giving a detailed explanation to clarify the situation. So, the following is our response to this question: Yes, we would like to do something with Consumer Lab but it is not practical to do so as I will explain further. I would make the comment though that the assertion that Consumer Lab is ‘the most famous/trusted provider…’, is somewhat off the mark and they have been very controversial over the years. Some of the work they do is very good…but, quite a bit is questionable. Consumer Lab is a very effective marketing business, and they are there for a single reason…profit!! They are not a consumer organization as it seems at first glance. In fact, they are not actually a laboratory at all. We understand that their lab work is contracted out to various laboratories but a list is not supplied identifying whom these labs are and as such it is not known if those labs are GMP compliant. Consumer Lab provides services to manufacturers for a fee and they also sell information to consumers on the basis that it is independent. It is unclear if many consumers are aware of this. In other words they have a business model which creates revenue from consumers and industry alike and as such there sometimes appears to be some bias in what they do. There have been many complaints by industry that if they do not pay to have their products reviewed that they may find they get a negative one if selected for testing, but if they do pay and Consumer Lab gets a negative finding that they are not published. I have no first hand info about these issues and I make them as an observer from reading many news articles about Consumer Lab over the years. I actually met Ted Cooperman the President and Founder of Consumer Lab about 8 years ago in Washington and discussed the possibility of having Consumer Lab do testing of our products. I was told that this could have been done for a fee which at that time was around $35,000 for just one product. However we did not pursue this with Consumer Lab for several reasons which I will allude to shortly. The random tests that Consumer Lab conduct on a regular basis and publish to consumers on a subscription basis, are usually only for a very small number of actives in each product and this is generally done without each manufacturer being involved in the validation of the test methods. Because of this, the results can sometimes be suspect and this does from time to time trigger off legal action because of the damage it can do to the affected company. There is much more to testing a supplement product than just purchasing a product off the shelf and sending it to a lab and asking for an analysis of certain ingredients. Let me give you some background… You are probably aware that we are compliant with the FDA cGMP code for Dietary Supplements, and we are members of the Natural Products Association of the US. We also have a HACCP program which is audited by the NZ Food Safety Authority, part of the NZ Ministry of Health. We work with a range of GMP labs in New Zealand, Australia and the USA. In reality it generally costs between about $5000 – $15000 to do the method development and validation for each marker (ingredient) in the case of the complex products which Xtend-Life produces. The reason for this is that the marker has to be identified and quantified based on an active compound within anywhere between 30 – 90 other ingredients, all of which have the potential to either mask or magnify the test results. This means that a test method that works for an ingredient in one product may not work for the same ingredient in a different product. In the case of some ingredients it is impossible to test for them in a complex finished product. This is one of the reasons that Consumer Lab can have problems with manufacturers as it is sometimes impossible to get an accurate result unless the expensive method development and validation steps are first carried out. So, to put our Xtend-Life’s situation into perspective if it was possible to do this with every ingredient and Consumer Lab was to develop a protocol for all 85 ingredients in our Total Balance mix the costs to them would be in the order of around $750,000. An accurate analysis simply could not be done for $35,000. We have had to invest heavily in developing the protocols for ingredients but it would not be commercially sensible to share this info with others. One of the many reasons that we test the activity of every raw material we purchase along with using detailed SOP’s (standard operating procedures) is to control every process and every step of production, and there are dozens of pages of paperwork that follow every batch through production, with every step being signed and then checked and signed off by QC & QA staff. Finished product testing is important, and we do it not only for our own satisfaction but also to comply with our GMP program, but, it is only through following the rigorous procedures that I mentioned that we can be completely certain that every product is true to label. End product testing can never give a 100% reliable and accurate result.
Our processes how we achieve this will become more apparent to you as the posts explaining how we make our supplements are made over the next week or two.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog posting, I would give readers a simplified summary of how we make our supplements. To save time I have copied the main points out of a presentation that I did about three years ago to the A4M Anti-aging Conference in Bangkok where I was a guest speaker. This will be a series of blog postings in which using that presentation I will outline some regulatory background, the QA process and then the manufacturing steps through to when the product is dispatched to our customers.
Before I start, the photo that you see is where we are based in Christchurch New Zealand. This photo was taken before the series of earthquakes which started in Sept 2010 with the most severe one last February. The city skyline is a bit different now in that the high rise buildings that you see in the background have all now being demolished along with another 1000 buildings in the CBD. Some of the houses you seen in the foreground are no longer there as large pieces of the cliff ‘shaved off’ in the last big shake last June. Fortunately the quakes have now settled down and with a bit of luck will be stable for the next 1000 years or so. As I have mentioned in earlier blog posts, we were lucky in that our factory, offices and warehouse although damaged were all repairable so we had minimal disruption. OK, let’s start! The objective of the A4M presentation was: "To present an overview of how supplements are manufactured"
This will consist of the following: 1. Regulatory Overview
Overview of GMP Myths about the US FDA
2. Manufacturing: A Step By Step Process Regulatory Overview Some countries have strict regulations, some don’t. Those Countries with clear cut rules and enforcement are: Australia, Canada, USA. New Zealand has regulations and subject supplement companies to standards and audits. However, some of the regulations are somewhat dated and new regulations have been prepared and are currently going through the select committee process before being submitted to Parliament. Because the majority of our customers are in the USA we operate under USA FDA guidelines (cGMP). Some background about US GMP
When it was first proposed some years ago there was a lot of opposition from manufacturers because of the extra costs it would impose. The GMP code is very comprehensive and in our opinion reasonable and necessary. On the 28th June, 2010 every company wanting to sell products in the US or to the US market should be GMP compliant. Sadly as at 2011 apparently about 70% of US manufacturers will still not compliant. US FDA started visits to inspect foreign manufacturers facility as from October 1, 2010 Is a US FDA registered facility GMP compliant?
There is a lot of misunderstanding about what an FDA registered facility is. Here are the key points: The US FDA does not approve any facility. The only time that a supplement manufacturing facility may get an ‘indirect approval’ is if the FDA does a surprise audit and the facility if found compliant in all respects and no rectification notices are issues. That does still not amount to approval but rather that the facility was compliant at the time of audit. As such there is no list of FDA approved facilities There is however a list of FDA registered facilities which we are on There is not a list of GMP compliant facilities The FDA Registration of facilities came about as part of the “Bioterrorism Act of 2002” I felt it was important that the above was made clear as there is a lot of misinformation about GMP and regulations, particularly on the internet. Also, contrary to what some media and others may say the US FDA is very active in policing the GMP regulations. We receive copies of notifications of non-compliance and rarely does a week go by where a manufacturer is not issue a non-compliance notice with a demand for rectification. This will be enough for today. My next post will start on the manufacturing process. There are three vital components needed to ensure that supplements are of high quality and effective.
1. The Formulation. This is a very complex process and will not be addressed at this stage as the methods that we follow are commercially sensitive.
2. The selection of ingredients. This is critical and will make or break a supplement. I will explain not so much as to how they are selected but rather what is done to ensure that what is selected is what we get and use.
3. The manufacturing process itself which guarantees that the supplement contains what is says on the label.
NEXT post: The first step…

Watching my 16-month old son is more entertainment (and education) than anyone could ever want. I’m constantly blown away by how the little things he’s fascinated by, I generally take for granted. Besides sports, cars, birds, planes and the ocean waves, my son’s other favorite nuances have only recently given me a stark slap of reality and the sudden realization of how ‘perfect’ we are as babies and toddlers…and yet, we as human beings simply throw it all away as we age. Posture: Watch a toddler stand or sit…most of the time, they do it with a straight back and seemingly effortless stance. Now, watch the line of adults standing in a queue at the bank, DMV or airport lounge. Quite a difference isn’t it! But why? How can we lose the ‘skills’ we’re born with so quickly? Lifting: Most toddlers have this weird built-in awareness mechanism that prompts them to know how to lift an object off the floor easily and without damaging their joints…starting with the knees and NOT the back. Millions of people worldwide need to be aware of this before they do unnecessary damage to their lower backs Learning: You’re never too old to learn. At the ripe old age of 31, I’ve realized that despite my own stubborn nature…I’m still learning new things on a daily basis. The sheer pace and wide range of skills, words and gestures that my son is learning may be normal for a kid his age…but for adults, it’s nearly impossible. He already understands both English (the language which I speak to him in) and Portuguese (the language which my wife speaks to him in)…and yet, he can still learn another four or five languages at his age. Why? Toddlers’ brains are more fascinating than those of even the most intelligent adults. Toddlers don’t have any pre-conceived notions or self-generated hurdles that prevent them from forming opinions or questions about who/what/where/how/when/why… It’s always good to ask these questions but when it comes to learning something new…it’s best to simply open your mind to it and embrace it with minimum fuss and stress. A great way to experiment this is to try throwing a ball or writing with your less-dominant arm/hand. By visualizing the movement/action with your dominant hand and carrying this through via some practice strokes with your less dominant hand, you’ll surprise yourself at how quickly you can become ambidextrous. Explore the world: Some may say it’s a genuine human trait, others may say it’s something that we cannot ignore. When it comes to exploration…I say we’re already doing it as children, so why stop!? Exploration generates knowledge and this knowledge can benefit every aspect of how lives. My son exploring the garden yields new sights, smells, sounds, touches (and unfortunately, some bad tastes too) for him on a daily basis. These experiences will stay with him for life and help paint a picture of the world in which he lives. The same can be applied to us adults. Exploring new territories, cultures, foods, lifestyles and beliefs makes us remember that we share this world with over 7 billion people. Exploration leads to knowledge and this knowledge leads to respect for our fellow man. Sugar is Evil: A birthday party where too much sugar-laced sweets and drinks were given resulted in a miserable, over-stimulated child that wasn’t the one I was used to. More proof that sugar should be avoided at all costs…from birth to adulthood. All You Need Is Love: The Beatles summed this up perfectly in their 1967 hit tune. When I get home late, tired and weary from a long busy day, my son’s beaming smile and tight little hug not only take away any stress I was feeling…more importantly, it makes me realize what’s real and what’s really important in life. These are just some of the things I’ve learnt from my 16-month old son and I thought that I’d share these with you to help you apply them to every day experiences you may encounter on a daily basis.

With regular news items about this or that supplement being found to either have contaminants or not contain what the label claims, it is natural that we sometimes have customers questioning us about our manufacturing processes and quality control. So, I thought that it would be sensible to put together a series of blog articles which goes through the various steps that we take to ensure that we only supply you with the highest possible quality products and why they are ‘true to label’. These articles will start next week and will include photographs and copies of documents which will give you a better understanding of what it takes to make a quality supplement.  It will also enable readers to ask questions about the process at any step of the way. We won’t at this stage deal with the rationale which goes behind the formulas and why certain ingredients are selected.  The focus will be on the process itself. Until next week…

The blog article that Caramia wrote yesterday prompted me to ‘reprint’ an article I wrote almost ten years ago.  It is still in the archives of ‘Xtend-Your-Life’ on the newsletter page of our website.  As the content is still appropriate today given the situation has not improved but rather has continued to deteriorate, I thought you may find it interesting. Malnourished…with fruit and veges? This will shock you!   Published on the 21st August 2002 This is a concept that you may have difficulty in accepting. Nonetheless it is one that I have been ‘preaching’ for years and has now been confirmed by studies showing people in the US, Canada and the UK are amongst the most malnourished in the world. This is the case in spite of obesity reaching epidemic proportions in the US. Malnourishment is without doubt a leading factor in a wide variety of health problems including cancers. Does this mean that overweight people are eating all the food to the detriment of the rest of the population? Not at all! In fact, obese people figure prominently amongst those people who are malnourished. I can sense you thinking… ”That’s a crazy statement”.

You’d be amazed at the choice that some men would prefer… especially in light of the hair-loss drug called finasteride. According to this article , some of the potential side effects are low libido and the inability to orgasm in men using the drug. Worse still, these symptoms may still occur for many years after stopping the drug! The following excerpt from the article looks at the study published in the Journal of Sexual Medicine…the results may shock you: “…the new survey of 76 men aged 21 to 46 found that sexual problems including erectile dysfunction and premature ejaculation lasted at least three months after men stopped taking the pill. “Among the study participants, some of whom had taken finasteride for just a few days, 94% said they experienced low sexual desire, 92% reported low sexual arousal, 92% developed erectile dysfunction and 69% had trouble having orgasm. “Participants had taken finasteride for 28 months on average, and reported sexual problems for an average 40 months, but the study author said that 10% of the surveyed men had used the drug for less than a month.” However, as scary as these side effects are, some men still take hair-loss and baldness so seriously, they may ignore these risks and use this drug or other expensive and potentially dangerous hair-loss ‘cures’. Male pattern baldness is caused by various factors such as genetics, aging and nutrient deficiencies. Some men find that by taking a daily nutriment supplement like Total Balance , their rate of hair-loss reduces and according to one Xtend-Life customer, his grey hair even returned to its natural dark color.

This was a question put to the audience at a recent industry conference at Anaheim, California (March 2012) by one of the invited speakers Bill Sardi.  The rationale for his question arose from the fact that the FDA and most other authorities throughout the world do not allow claims that a supplement or natural ingredient will prevent, treat or cure a disease or illness. So, what happens if there is irrefutable evidence that a supplement ingredient does those things?  Frequently new evidence comes up somewhere that supports this or that ingredient does prevent, treat or cure illnesses!  Some of the evidence has been around for a long time…for example, we all know that Vitamin C prevents scurvy but it would be illegal to make a claim to that effect as that would make Vitamin C a drug! Bill Sardi is known in the dietary supplement industry for his well-researched writings on a variety of subjects and the promotion of a brand of resveratrol supplements.  He raised this matter at the conference because he was frustrated from being prevented by the FDA to carry out a clinical study on resveratrol with Duke University.  The main focus of the study was to consider the efficacy of resveratrol on aged macular degeneration.  However, because it was essentially a disease prevention study the FDA refused approval for it to proceed! This creates somewhat of a quandary for manufactures/developers of dietary supplements who want to prove the efficacy of a product or ingredient.  We have started investigating ways in which a clinical study could be designed to help prove the efficacy of Total Balance.  It is not an easy thing to do as there are many barriers to overcome such as the one which Bill Sardi has experienced…but, it will happen…although it won’t be any time soon.

The US FDA now requires the manufacturers of cholesterol lowering drugs known as statins to add warning to their labels.  This will affect the popular brands such as Lipitor, Crestor and Zocor as well as the generics. The reason!  The FDA has finally officially recognised what has been known for years…statin drugs can cause memory loss and more recently that they may raise levels of blood sugar and thus promote diabetes.  Some analyst’s suggest that they could contribute to around 100,000 extra cases of diabetes a year. The FDA does warn patients not to be scared into stopping taking their drugs “because they have been shown to significantly reduce the risk of heart attack or heart disease”.  ‘Significant’ is a debatable point as there are many groups of people who receive no benefit from these drugs at all. Recent studies have indicated that any benefit that may be derived from the statin drugs does not come from their ability to lower cholesterol but rather the beneficial effect on inflammation in the blood as measured by C-Reactive Protein.  Interestingly for years we have argued that C-Reactive Protein is a more important marker for heart disease than cholesterol.  This is now being gradually accepted by mainstream medicine as a fact. However, you can reduce the inflammation in the body by using high quality Omega 3 fish oils along with a quality multi-nutrient supplement such as our Total Balance.  My own levels of C-Reactive Protein is testimony to that.  They are at the levels of a healthy child not a 65 year old man. Back to the statin drugs…I wonder when the FDA will require manufacturers to put a warning on the label about the potential of impotence in men which is also common with users of this drug! There is some more info about this on a Reuters article which you can access by clicking here .

As strange as it sounds, there’s no need to panic. Zombies still only exist in horror movies even if you may feel like the ‘walking dead’ the next time you’re low on nutrients, vitamins and energy. Nevertheless, it seems that according to this article on the Time website, zombies have become the inspiration to help get lazy gamers and other couch potatoes off their butts and onto their feet. ‘Zombies, RUN!’ is an iPhone app that puts an exercise aspect to what is essentially a zombie game. Users have to complete various audio missions by listening to clues and stories through their headphones, running around to collect supplies and ultimately avoiding brain-eating zombies. Because everything is audio, there’s no need to look at the app, meaning you don’t have to worry about running into obstacles like the neighbor’s cat or worse…oncoming traffic. The zombies app records all sorts of data like time, speed, calories burned and total distance. The exercise app is proving to be rather popular with people who either haven’t exercised before or those who have hit a plateau in their training regime and would like to try something different and fun, yet still effective. I personally can’t see myself using this app as I prefer to run and exercise without any external distractions. I’ve got a habit of thinking too much…especially in social situations, so I try to do most of my thinking while exercising