COMPOUNDING MEDICINES

 

We are an Apothecary in the true sense of the word meaning we compound and dispense medicines, including personalised formulas.

 

Our range includes -

 

• herbal capsules, tinctures and powder blends

• vitamin and mineral powder blends

• topical treatments

 

There are three reasons we started compounding.  The first was that sometimes in order to use all the herbs and nutraceuticals we wanted to prescribe, four or five products would have to be used.  This is prohibitive both in cost and compliance.

In most cases we are able to blend all the ingredients we require into one formula.

 

The second is excipients; non-therapeutic substances that are necessary for the ease of manufacture, formation or preservation of a supplement.

 

These are not always desirable, such as the acrylic coating on tablets for ease of swallowing or the enteric coating (triple layer acrylic) on fish oil capsules to prevent fish burps.  These place an extra toxic load on the body.  Often excipients contain gluten, lactose or other common allergens.

 

However, in my opinion the most counter productive exipients of all are STEARIC ACID, MAGNESIUM STEARATE and CALCIUM STEARATE.  These have been shown to reduce absorption of the supplement by up to 80%.  They are used as lubricants which coats molecules of vitamins/minerals etc to allow for faster manufacture.  It makes a big difference to companies if they can produce 120,000 capsules a day as opposed to 25,000.

 

The third reason is cost.  When you purchase a supplement there are a lot of people you pay.  The farmer/manufacturer of the raw material, the companies who manufacture the product, the warehouse that distributes the products, the shop where you purchased the product - there are a lot of middle men in the production and distribution of supplements.  In order to produce a cheap supplement a lot of corners are cut in quality, in order to produce a quality supplement there is usually a higher price to pay.

 

By compounding our own supplements we are able to eliminate most of the middle men resulting in high quality supplements at affordale prices.