My replies are meant to be towards anyone reading, not specifically towards you. You are entitled to view things how you want to and spend your money however you'd like. There seems to be enough arguing going on; I just want to educate anyone reading this thread to help them understand product labels better, especially ones containing herbal ingredients so that they can make informed decisions on what products to buy.
Not too mention the FD&C blues and red garbage that’s in cycle assist.
The colors listed on the Cycle Assist label are the ingredients that are in the colored capsules themselves. Any colored capsule on the market has added colors in them but not all brands list these ingredients on the label even though legally they are supposed to.
Standardized means guaranteed amount.
CEL’s Non-fda approved product guarantee doesn’t mean squat to me. But hey, no offense I’m just stating how I view products and make my purchases.
Based off of your post here, I'm not sure if you have a clear understanding of the significance of standardized extracts.
In the case of most herbs for health benefits, it isn't the amount of herb itself that has any effect, it is the amount of active ingredient that the herb is standardized for.
For examples of this, you can even look at the bigger herb companies like NOW Foods and Natures Way to see a very clear difference in the potencies of standardized herbs to regular herbs. I use those two companies as examples because they both offer standardized and non-standardized herbs and both clearly acknowledge that their standardized herbs are stronger and more effective.
Let's use Milk Thistle for example:
Milk Thistle is the name of the herb but Silymarin is the active ingredient in Milk Thistle that provides the liver health/support benefits associated with Milk Thistle. It doesn't matter how much Milk Thistle powder you take, it matters how much Silymarin.
A label that shows 'Milk Thistle (Seed)' - 1,000 mg. would mean that there is 1,000 mg. of herb powder per serving but there could be as little as no Silymarin content at all which would mean that that there would be little, if any benefit for liver health/support.
A label that shows Milk Thistle (Stnd. for 80% Silymarin) means that you are getting a guaranteed amount of Silymarin per serving.
As today's current raw material pricing, Milk Thistle standardized to 80% Silymarin costs 350% what Milk Thistle Seed Powder does.
The same scenario applies to Hawthorn, Celery, Saw Palmetto, etc.
As far as the non-FDA approved portion of the comment, as a supplement consumer its important to realize that supplements in general are not FDA approved; this includes Vitamin C, multivitamins, etc.
