Lead In Vitamins

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So, I received a phone call the other day regarding the FDA finding lead in some of the children's vitamins on the market.  He had a long conversation with us reagarding this issue and that the FDA was not correct in their reporting. I was alarmed and upset. As upset as I was in the first place because one of the vitamins that was named was one I was giving  my family! I asked that he give me more to go on and more information that could help me clear up this confusion. So, perhaps what I posted weeks ago was not correct. Please read through this letter from him to us and click on the links he sent. Read through it. It makes a lot of sense to me. Here it is:

Aloha Dr. Brizman,

It was a pleasure to speak with you today.  As I mentioned there has been a great deal of confusion about the FDA report regarding lead in vitamins.  I am sending you a copy of an email that I sent to one of our customers.  
I am also going to send you samples of our product line.  Ola Loa was designed to support methylation.  This is the scientific foundation for all of our products and in essence is the key adaptive mechanism of the human body.  This pathway is responsible for the production of over 400 key by-products including your neurotransmitters, energy cycles, glutathione production and plays a critical role in DNA/RNA expression and regulation.  This article will give you more information about this incredible pathway:
I will also include some information regarding the Society for Orthomolecular Health Medicine.  My father is the founder and acting president of the organization which puts on a medical meeting every February in San Francisco.  I think you would find that members of ICAMA would find it to be a fascinating meeting.  Here is a link to the program from our 2008 meeting:  http://www.ohmsociety.com/2008/2008Program.pdf

To learn more about our product please visit our website at http://www.drinkyourvitamins.com/
You may also find some recent videos that have been posted on YouTube.com of interest.  You can see our videos here:  
Lastly I wanted to mention that we have both travelled on a similar path.  When I was a child I studied Kenpo Karate and as I got older was led into Wing Tsun, but for the past 12 years I have been dedicated to Chen Style Tai Chi.  
My response to one of our customers on the FDA report of Lead in Vitamins:
I have heard from one other customer like yourself who had seen the report from the FDA and were confused and did not know what to make of it.  When I first heard the news I was sure there would be a flood of people wanting information so I began drafting a document that I could send to them that would clear up the issues.  I hope once you read my response it will be very clear that in fact supplements and in particular Ola Loa are actually safer than food.  The fact is through a variety of means we ingest lead everyday.  To put this into perspective your typical flu shot has 150x more mercury and aluminum per dose than a packet of Ola Loa.  Mcg per mcg mercury is much more toxic than lead and injecting it poses an even greater risk.  Most of the lead that is consumed through food and water is processed via sulphur in your gut.  As for the products that did not find lead, as I mention in my response they also contain virtually no minerals and in fact almost no other nutrients.  Many of the other products are lacking in so many ingredients that you have to take 30-50 doses to equal 1 Ola Loa.  By the way, a key to detoxifying lead is in fact Vitamin C which generates oxalate, which is a metal chelator.
It should be noted that due to the recommended doses on our KIDS product, which lists 1-2 per day the actual total lead content was calculated based on 2 packets.  Sadly the FDA does not make any of this clear to the end user and because of this we are actually going to change the wording on our packets to read "take 1 per day or as directed by your health professional".  
Please let me know if I can answer any questions.  I hope my response is not too wordy and if you would like to discuss anything, please don't hesitate to email or call me.
My thoughts on the most recent analysis of kids and prenatal multi vitamins follows:
As usual our government excels at misleading and confusing the public.  In an attempt to validate the safety of the vitamin industry they have actually confused many of you.  What they should be saying is that after the analysis of 324 kids and prenatal vitamin products that the nutrition industry is doing a good job of providing safe products.  All of the samples were found to have a safe level of lead, in other words vitamins are safe and contain less lead than food!
By way of background I am the founder of Ola Loa Products and one of our products is in fact on the list.  My father Richard Kunin, M.D., is one of the world authorities in Orthomolecular Medicine (nutrition medicine) and was in fact the first M.D. in the U.S. to regularly test patients for lead back in the 1960's and is responsible for putting the hair test on the map.  For those of you who are interested you may find this article from Prevention Magazine in 1972 which highlights our work with hair analysis:    http://www.drinkyourvitamins.com/press/PrevMagPamphlet.pdf
Here are the highlights of what everyone needs to know regarding the FDA analysis on lead in kids and prenatal vitamins.
1.  Every product tested by the FDA was found to be SAFE.  What they didn't make clear is that the amount of lead found in these products is less than that of the food industry.  We get more lead daily by eating, drinking and breathing.  In other words supplements are, just like foods, they contain a certain amount of lead, but your safer taking vitamins than eating!
2.  Minerals come from the ground....they are in fact DIRT.  The amount of lead is so small, especially in our case that it is impossible to completely remove it without removing the other minerals.
3.  Our product has a guide, take 1-2 packets per day.  The FDA calculated our total lead content based on 2 packets.  In other words we're actually 1/2 the total amount they listed.  
4.  Of the 4 products that were found to not contain lead, you will also find there mineral content to be close to zero!
5.  No other children's formula offers as much nutrient support as Ola Loa.  In fact many of these products would require you to take 10 doses or more to equal 1 Ola Loa.  In reality per dose Ola Loa has far less lead than the others.
5.  Lastly, most are lost when it comes to measurement and how small these amounts are.  In our case 2 packets has less than 1 mcg of lead.   A microgram is 1 millionth of a gram, for comparison a large grain of salt is 140 mcg.  To put it another way.  Take a 1-gram vitamin C pill, break it into 1,000,000 pieces.  Take one of those pieces and remove 65% of it, that's how small this is...in other words...YOU CAN'T SEE IT.
As a percentage of weight this amount of lead is equal to .00000005% which represents .0005 parts per million or less than .5 parts per billion.  Our tap water contains many times that amount of lead and even with the new low level standards does not become a concern until you reach 15 ppb or roughly 30 times what you will find in our packet.  For example when you eat a typical serving of cereal, bread or porridge you can get up to 15 micrograms per day of lead which is 40 times greater than what you get out of 1 of our packets.  
6.  Don't be fooled.  You consume lead EVERY DAY.  The good news is the major contributor to lead toxicity for humans has been significantly reduced with lead being removed from gasoline.
If anyone would like more information or discuss this further feel free to contact me directly at info@drinkyourvitamins.com.
Wishing you good health and Ola Loa!
Gregory M. Kunin

Founder & CEO, Ola Loa Products/DrinkYourVitamins.com