Interview With: Art Bartunek

The founder of Beachwood Canyon, Naturally shares
Everything You Need To Know About Nutritional Supplements!

About 10 years ago my husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer and decided to take a natural approach to healing.  A book he read on the subject recommended nutritional supplements available through Beachwood Canyon, Naturally.  We spoke with the founder of the company, Art Bartunek, whose recommendations and quality supplements proved instrumental to my husband's healing.  We continue to order from Beachwood Canyon, Naturally to this day, and find their supplements to be of outstanding quality, and the customer service excellent.  Art has kindly agreed to share his experise with Heal With Hope visitors...for which I am extremely grateful!  Remember: we do not accept paid advertising or endorsements, everything recommended or mentioned on Heal With Hope has personally worked for me, or has been recommended by someone I know and trust.  (Click here to read more about my husband's journey)

HWH:  Please tell us about yourself and some background about Beachwood Canyon, Naturally.

Art:   I started in nutrition back in the 70s, when I was a full time Gestalt Therapist.  At that time I worked with basic nutrition for my clients, cleansing programs, and I had a great interest in herbal medicine.  That was when I developed an understanding of holistic nutrition, especially in how it affected behavior.  After about 20 years, in 1994 we decided to start Beachwood Canyon, Naturally, Ltd. and I pursued nutrition full time.  Q10 was just becoming available as a supplement, and was unbelievably high priced.  I set out to find affordable, effective Q10.  With my interest in brain nutrition, these were the first areas Beachwood Canyon, Naturally focused on.  I met the people at Jarrow, who were pioneering Q10 products at that time, and have been working with Q10 and with Jarrow ever since. 

I am President of Beachwood Canyon, Naturally, I do all the formulations, and select all the products we handle.  I have been working closely with Dr. Robert Bard, here in New York, on formulas for cellular health with respect to cancer nutrition, for both men and women.  I am currently working on a book on cancer nutrition, and I maintain an active consulting practice as well.

 

HWH: There is a great variance in pricing of supplements - does paying more mean you are getting better quality?

Art:   Quality and reputation of the company is more important than price, usually.  For example, if Freeda Vitamins makes a product using the exact same high-quality ingredients as another company, you will get a better product from Freeda, and at a lower cost.  So, while Freeda is a great place to start, they do not make everything you might want or need.  I usually start with Freeda for a multi-supplement, amino acids and especially anything with B-complex.  Also, I turn to them first for children’s supplements.

Children’s supplements are a good example of what the consumer is up against today.  As a working professional with a wider access to products, when I recommend for children and even teens, Freeda is the first company to whom I turn.  The next company I turn to is Pharmax, a professional line.  Kids need the highest quality products available.  You can see this with their need for proper DHA, a key component of fish oils, from the womb through their teens. The only supplement line I fully trust in this category is the Pharmax fish oils because of how they are produced.  You also need to keep in mind that these are supplements, so in this case the first choice is of course eating real, fresh wild caught fish, which is not always available.  VitalChoice does an excellent job with real fish you can always trust.  The typical consumer does not have access to the better, professional lines of supplements.  They often cost more, but the difference is worth it.

Another factor in the cost/quality issue is the raw materials a manufacturer uses. You can buy an ingredient for $35 per kilo, or $435 per kilo and be able to list either one on the label with the exact same wording. As a consumer you can’t tell the difference.  Nearly all the inexpensive materials come from China today.  While there are some high quality ingredients being made there, the good ones cost more, just like ingredients from the US, Europe or Japan.  So when a brand is too inexpensive, it is time to question what you are buying. Branded ingredients, like Lyc-O-Mato lycopene, BCM-95 curcumin, or Biosint™ L-Carnitine, manufactured by Sigma-Tau, all high quality, effective ingredients and they are often the materials used in the research you rely on to select what you need. But they are only used in the more expensive products.   Now we are back to the trust issue.  Some companies use high quality materials and, like Freeda, excel in manufacturing, so you know you are really getting what you are paying for.

A related issue is, can you digest and assimilate the nutrition you are paying for?  When I do a nutritional interview I spend a lot of time reviewing digestion, no matter what the person has come to me for.  Poorly made supplements are more difficult to digest, and a poor digestive system compounds this.  But even with excellent supplements, if you can’t digest and assimilate the nutrition you are paying for, you are not only wasting money, but may be inclined to take too many supplements, and in turn spend too much money, with little result.  So I spend a lot of time on issues of digestion, constipation, cleansing, and liver function, with most of my clients.  This is a major first step to health and to getting the most out of your supplements and diet.

HWH:  What is the difference between natural and synthetic vitamins?

Art:   The essential difference is that “natural” vitamins are derived from plant food, or in the case of fish oils, for example, animal sources. Synthetic vitamins and supplements are manufactured in a laboratory.  The problem is that this can also be a misleading marketing distinction.  For example, standard “Natural” alpha-lipoic acid is actually a laboratory extraction from natural material that in most processing also forms a “synthetic” analog which is in the capsule as well.  There is no requirement to tell you that the product contains both, as both are, technically, alpha-lipoic-acid. Unfortunately, the synthetic S- analog negates the benefits of the beneficial R+ form.  You need to turn to a product like AOR’s R+ Lipoic Acid to a get real, useful, truly natural supplement. 

Fish oils are another case where chemicals are used to separate the molecules in the oil and prepare it for processing.  Only one company, and they hold the patent of this process, uses enzymes to process the oil in the exact same manner that your digestive system does, that is as natural as you can get.  You will find this oil under the Pharmax and the Seroyal labels, both professional products. 

Similarly, most soy products contain traces of Hexane, a toxic chemical used to process the soy into isolated parts.  But, you will see on the label that it is “natural.”  The companies do not need to disclose this “trace” amount.  You will find other ‘Natural” products processed in similar ways.  One way around this dilemma is to look for supplements, like soy, that are processed by a supercritical carbon dioxide extraction process.  No chemicals are used and it does not damage the materials. This is sometimes noted on the label.

Before the supplement market exploded it was relatively easy to distinguish between natural and synthetic.  Today is it a real challenge, even for people in the business to know how everything is being processed.  This makes it even more important to stay with well trusted brands that are respected by knowledgeable professionals.

HWH: There are hundreds, maybe thousands of brands of supplements - do you have any tips or guidelines for consumers as to how to choose the best product?

Art:   I addressed part of this in the previous question.  Professional lines, in general, are held to a higher standard than consumer products.  Companies like Freeda, who have been around for a very long time – since 1927 for Freeda – have earned their reputation with both professionals and consumers.  Store brand items are usually unknown entities – who actually makes them, quality control, ingredients used, etc.  Few stores have the volume or expertise to control the quality of what is sold under their label. 

Most quality large firms have over 300 products, and quality control is difficult with that volume, for any company.  But each has its flagship products, usually just a few, that are excellent and well documented.  Other brands have both “flagship” items, and a depth of quality in their lines. For example, Jarrow’s whey products and their Q-absorb Q10 are unsurpassed in the industry and have a reputation based on clinical use and professional experience with the products.  Bluebonnet typically uses branded, high quality ingredients, and you can tell what you are getting right on the label. 

When you see independent research using the products, and the benefits have been demonstrated, you can have more trust in the overall line.  There are other quality companies, and I don’t want to give the impression that the ones I mentioned are the only good ones, I just don’t have the space here to go into all the supplement companies, nor have I had the time to explore every company on the market.  I just wanted to give you an idea of what to look for, and what questions to ask in order to get past the marketing hype.  In general though, if you are serious about nutrition, you will probably have to rely on someone who has put in the time and study, and has wide exposure to the industry.

HWH: Does everyone need to take supplements, including healthy people?

Art:   With today’s food supply in most industrial countries, and in areas where western agriculture has been adopted, you can’t supply key nutrition without supplementing.  So yes, today everyone needs to supplement just to replace what industrial agriculture has taken out of our food

HWH: You read so much about certain supplements preventing cancer, or have anti-aging affects - you communicate with doctors as well as consumers - what has your experience been in this regard: do supplements have preventative qualities?

Art:  This is a yes and no issue.  When you look at basic research, there is enormous promise in terms of both anti-aging and cancer.  The problem is, most of the supplements do not match the materials used in the research.  For example, the resveratrol used in a laboratory is not the resveratrol you can find in a supplement.  Also, resveratrol is highly reactive and needs to be handled extremely carefully to prevent oxidation.  Few products on the store shelf either provide real, natural resveratrol, nor are they guaranteed to be handled with the care needed to prevent oxidation, which renders it useless.  In addition, the more important part of the grape, from a nutritional anti-aging perspective, is an analog of trans-resveratrol, a molecule called trans-e-Viniferin.  It is the combination that needs to be delivered to provide real anti-aging benefits.  Only one source of resveratrol delivers this full-spectrum of components, an ingredient called Reversitall®.  This material shows the promise of the base research. 

Another ingredient that can be anti-aging, anti-cancer, anti-dementia, etc. is curcumin.  Again, the material you buy in supplements most often does not match the material in the research.  It is not absorbed or utilized in the body like food sources of curcumin, and does not match the research reports. One ingredient, BCM-95 Curcumin, does fit the bill, and in fact is currently being investigated, step-by-step, for the treatment of cancer.  The initial research is extremely promising even though there is a long way to go yet.  This is a case where the supplement lives up to the promise.

The anti-aging and anti-cancer bottom line is a true Mediterranean Diet. However, you cannot do that out of an American or northern European supermarket today. Eating Mediterranean is an excellent start and does make a real, measurable difference, but the nutrition in the food itself is different here than in the food eaten in Greece, for example.  Here is where the anti-aging, anti-cancer, reduced cardiovascular risk promise comes in. It is the combination of eating well, plus supplements that restore the nutrition of the unaltered Mediterranean foods.  This includes proper phytosterols (specifically with high beta-sitosterol levels), curcumin, resveratrol, and key antioxidant herbs.  It is the whole package that can deliver the prevention you are asking about, as well as restoring health, and I believe that with the food available today the supplements are an essential part of this package.   

HWH:  What are the most common health complaints you hear?  And what are the supplements you most often recommend for these conditions?

Art:   This is a big question, and really could take up an entire book.  In fact I have been a contributor to such a book, written for professional nutritionists, “Crayhon Research’s Eating and Supplement Manual.”  I generally get called upon for prostate problems, menopause, PMS, digestive tract problems, bone and joint health.  I also get a lot of calls for ADD and ADHD, or people on antidepressants looking to eliminate the need for them through nutritional support. The main areas I work in are cancer nutrition, digestive problems, and brain nutrition.  So, as you might guess, the range of supplements I recommend is quite varied.

In general, I have a core group of products I start with.  I look at these as foundation products that most people need to complete their diets.  Replacing the missing phytosterols, predominately beta-sitosterol, that have been taken out of our food supply, and altered from their natural balance, is right at the top of my list.  For this, Life Assure®, or one of the professional versions of this product that I developed, is included in most programs. A basic multi-supplement with high quality B-complex, Ultra-Freeda, is also a key product, as is Jarrow’s Q-absorb Co-Q10.  The amounts vary person-to-person but this sets the foundation.  Next on my list is Unique E tocopherols and tocotrienols, products from AC Grace. The next class of supplements I look to is probiotics, I work mostly with the Pharmax and the Jarrow products for this area.  After this, we branch out into creating a personalized program, so there is no easy way for me to describe a program for each complaint, or even each person.  I hope that this gives you some idea of the complexity that is involved.

HWH:  What do you predict to be the next breakthrough or "hot" supplement?

Art:  I don’t think we will see any “hot” new ingredients this year.  You have to realize that it takes several years to bring a quality ingredient properly to market, and there are few new exciting ingredients in the pipeline right now.  The ones that have the potential to be recognized as making a real difference, I think, are the BCM-95 Curcumin I mentioned earlier, real resveratrol, although this will need to break through all the marketing misinformation that exists for pseudo-resveratrol already grabbing headlines, and perhaps the real, whole-body benefits of Coenzyme Q10.  There will always be new antioxidant drinks coming out, because they are easy to sell and to hype, even with little benefit for the money.  However, I believe that proven antioxidants, mostly from herbs like Aronia berry, will be the next group of products to take the spotlight.
 
HWH: Thanks so much for taking the time to do this, and for sharing your expertise with me and HWH visitors!!

Visit the BCN webssite: www.BCN4Life.com

Arthur W. Bartunek, MA is President of Beachwood Canyon, Naturally, Ltd.
212-665-8070 Toll free in US: 888-803-5333 art.bcn@bcn4life.com