Nutrition and fitness guru Gary Null is currently suing the makers of one his own herbal supplements or more specifically, a company that provided some of its nutrient ingredients. The creators of the product in question had erred in preparing the Vitamin D source for the product, making it 1,000 times more potent than the product’s content label claimed.

Daily News reported:

The “Joy of Juicing” author, whose products include Red Stuff Powder and Gary Null’s Heavenly Hair Cleaner, claims he suffered kidney damage and was left bloodied and in intense pain from two daily servings of the supplement. Null alleges that after taking two daily doses of the product, Ultimate Power Meal, for a month, Null fell ill with “excruciating fatigue along with bodily pain” and bleeding “from within his feet.”

“Null continued to take the Ultimate Power Meal, all the while thinking that it would help him, and relieve his condition; instead, it made him worse,” the suit says.

A visit to his physician revealed extremely elevated levels of Vitamin D in Null’s body, which led Null to investigate the contents of the Ultimate Power Meal. Null’s complaint charges that the defendant in the civil case, Triarco Industries Inc., had erred in preparing the Vitamin D source for the product, making it 1,000 times more potent than the product’s content label claimed. The suit seeks damages of $10 million.

The suit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court accuses Triarco Industries of causing Null’s “near-death experience” by botching the testing and manufacturing of the supplement.

Null, who also owns an eponymous food shop on the upper West Side, contends he was hit last December with “excruciating fatigue” that left him unable to walk and forced him to fly back to New York and cancel lectures, counseling and filming.

“Null would later be told that if he had not flown back to New York and seen his doctor, then he could have died within a short period of time,” the suit says.

“Null then sequestered himself and fasted, only consuming massive amounts of water as he was told there was no medical treatment to lower the amount of Vitamin D in his system.”

The suit accuses Triarco of inadequate safety testing that led to six consumers being hospitalized with severe kidney damage. A company representative did not return calls.

“Null, in the midst of all this, while he was suffering in bed, had dozens of his customers calling him, along with condemning and threatening him,” the suit says. “In fact, they threatened that they would never buy any product of his ever again.”

A lawyer for Null declined to comment, but did say the tainted supplies of the Ultimate Power Meal have been pulled from store shelves.

The suit says Null, 65, is still suffering the effects of too much Vitamin D.

“Even now, Null’s condition is questionable as he continues to occasionally urinate blood,” the suit says. “Unfortunately, there is no medical treatment for this as it is a matter of waiting, watching and observing what develops next.”

LA Times quoted:

“New federal rules make the manufacturers of dietary supplements subject to inspections to ensure “good manufacturing procedures.” Those rules aim to improve quality problems that have long plagued the supplements industry. But for the smallest manufacturers, those regulations are just now coming into force. Otherwise, the Food and Drug Administration’s role in regulating dietary supplements is very limited: Dietary supplements are allowed onto the market without prior approval from the FDA. So, unless the agency has reports that indicate a product may be harmful, it can stay in broad circulation indefinitely.”

“Apparently it is not at all uncommon for the content of dietary supplements to contain doses wildly different than those indicated on their labels–and that’s when nutritional contents are listed on labels, which is not always. (At least one commercial lab regularly issues reports documenting the mislabeled and unlabeled contents of dietary supplements.)”

Of course the press have a field day with a story like this, taking any opportunity to slam the alternative health industry. People suffer and die from side effects of prescribed drugs everyday with little mention by the press. I wrote to Gary Null to let him know about Dr Staninger and this was his reply:
“The media took a non issue and blew it way out of context. I am 100% healthy. Never trust the media“.

Amen.

However, this does point out that it is important to choose quality products. Know the brands you use, their quality control and standards.

Dr Staninger, being an expert in toxicology, doesn’t take any risks when it comes to her own proprietary products. Each batch of iHs products are certified by IEIA to have had Raman Analysis testing for Molecular ID™ purity.

For any product to be endorsed by her, she requires she be allowed to review the analysis of their ingredients to prove purity, and that their labs comply with Good Laboratory Practice Standards (GLPS). Many of these products are now going through Raman certification as well, at her recommendation. This is an expensive process but guarantees the accuracy of the ingredients as listed.

All the products she endorses are 100% pure, 100% non toxic and Nano/GMO free.  For this reason, she endorses products on a product by product basis;  her endorsement of a product by a particular company does not mean that all products manufactured by that company meet her stringent requirements.

An example of this is Grandma’s Old Fashioned Lye Soap; while this product is endorsed by Dr. Staninger, at the moment some of the other products manufactured by this company contain dimethacone, a toxin.  Since Dr. Staninger has alerted them of the issues around this ingredient, they are working to remove it from their product line.

Healing Grapevine Team