This product is not manufactured with milk, egg, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, wheat, peanuts or soy. It is produced in a GMP facility that processes some of these allergens.
As part of GMP, quality procedures to prevent cross contamination and allergen contamination include separate warehousing, special air handling systems, physical separators, robust cleaning procedures, residue testing after cleaning, equipment surface swabs, etc. The standard operating procedures ensure compliance with current FDA guidelines and requirements for allergen control.
If there is a conflict between resveratrol and quercetin, then it would be a huge surprise to red wine. Quercetin, resveratrol, and catechins are all found in high concentration in red wine. It would be very interesting if nature packed them together so that they each canceled out the others effects. Natural selection makes that highly unlikely. As to resveratrol not doing anything when ingested, that would come as surprise to all the animals who had their diets supplemented with it during studies such as the 2006 study where resveratrol supplementation extended longevity markers in mice. It is highly unlikely that the mice were influenced by the placebo effect, wouldn't you agree?
The bottom line is that it's very, very, very important to understand that just because something is published on the internet, doesn't automatically make it true.
You're talking about one study almost 20 years ago that has not been supported by any subsequent studies. In fact, new studies have shown just the opposite - that NAC can actually enhance immune system activity. For example:
Unless you're dealing in medical doses--and yes, NAC is used at extremely high doses for some medical treatments--all indications are that NAC is extremely beneficial at supplement level doses as found in the Ultimate Antioxidant.
Bottom line: it's never a good idea to base conclusions on a single unsupported study.
Different forms of selenium have different levels of toxicity. Methylselenocysteine (MSC) is converted in the body into methylselenol. And once methylselenol is formed from MSC, it is soon transformed into dimethylselenide, which is rapidly excreted in the breath. Any dimethylselenide not so excreted is converted to trimethylselenonium, which is thoroughly excreted in the urine. Thus, since MSC goes directly into the methylated selenium pathway, it cannot easily build up to toxic levels in the body. And because it is directly converted in cells to the preferred apoptotic selenium form methylselenol, methylselenocysteine has a powerful and safe anticancer effect.
That said, for the first 10 years Ultimate Antioxidant was on the market, it carried 140 mcg of selenium per serving. In 2013, Jon cut it to 55 mcg. The reason is that Jon does not design formulas to look good on labels, but for how they are used in the real world. When Jon first created UA, almost no one included selenium in their supplements, so Jon pushed the dosage up to provide the optimal amount they needed, assuming they were also getting some, but not necessarily enough, in their diet. What changed is that over the last decade studies came out promoting the value of selenium so that it suddenly became ""hot"". Now everybody includes selenium in their multivitamin/mineral formulas -even Centrum now includes selenium, the inorganic kind, of course, but still included. Thus it made sense to cut the amount of selenium in UA for two reasons.
First, most people-between the 55 mcg they get in UA and their multivitamin-- are now getting enough selenium. And second, although the methylselenocysteine form that Jon uses is safe, not every company uses that form in their supplements; thus there is potential for some people getting too much selenium and reaching toxic levels. Since Jon designs his formulas for the real world, not label bragging rights, this provided the second reason for backing the amount of selenium down to 55 mcg in UA to avoid the problem of potential overdosing.
There are no appreciable levels of vitamins or minerals in Ultimate Antioxidant's antioxidant formula, not a multivitamin formula. Correspondingly, a multivitamin pill with a dash of added antioxidants will not replace the need for a dedicated antioxidant formula such as Ultimate Antioxidant.
For the first 10 years Ultimate Antioxidant was on the market, it carried 140 mcg of selenium. Last year, Jon cut it to 55 mcg. The reason is that Jon does not design formulas to look good on labels, but for how they are used in the real world. When Jon first created UA, almost no one included selenium in their supplements, so Jon pushed the dosage up to provide the optimal amount they needed, assuming they were also getting some, but not necessarily enough, in their diet. What changed is that over the last decade studies came out promoting the value of selenium so that it suddenly became ""hot"". Now everybody includes selenium in their multivitamin/mineral formulas. Centrum now includes selenium, the inorganic kind, of course, but still included.
This presents a problem. Selenium is actually something that becomes toxic to the body if you get too much. Jon designs his formulas for the real world, not label bragging rights. Since most people take a multivitamin, and since most of those contain selenium, Jon backed the amount down in UA to avoid the problem of potential overdosing.
This ingredient is not vegetarian.
Jon does use grape seed extract in his Ultimate Antioxidant formula. Grape seed extract is also sometimes identified by the name of its active components: oligomeric proanthocyanidins, or OPCs for short.
The problem is that your body can only utilize so many antioxidants per day. It excretes the excess in your urine. On the other hand, no single antioxidant works on every free radical, and in every area of your body. That's why Ginkgo Biloba is recognized as a "brain" antioxidant and milk thistle as a liver antioxidant. Ultimate Antioxidant offers a full spectrum of antioxidants for optimum health.
The ORAC value for Ultimate Antioxidant has not been calculated (nor has it actually been calculated for many products that claim high ORAC numbers). There is only one company authorized by the USDA to calculate ORAC values, Brunswick Laboratories. It's important to understand that raw ORAC numbers are only marginally indicative of the antioxidant properties of a particular formula. Among other things, the numbers only identify the activity of antioxidants vis-a-vis just a couple of free radicals -- far, far from the full spectrum of free radicals that attack the body. Also, the numbers are test-tube-based, which means there is no guaranteed connection between ORAC numbers and their actual effect in the body. Citing high ORAC numbers is a meaningless marketing game played by many companies. For more information, check out: