Thorne Research

Thorne Vitamins:

Thorne Vitamins Quality:

Thorne Research has been in business over 25 years to provide methods of enhancing and improving the general health and wellness of all people by creating professional quality and pharmaceutical-grade health supplements which are formulated and manufactured at the highest possible level to ensure superior purity and quality. As one of the most valued and respected brands in the supplement industry, Thorne Research is widely trusted by professionals in a wide number of specializations, as well as research organizations and other industry leading practitioner networks.

The technical and manufacturing knowledge that Thorne Research provides to practitioners and researchers has resulted in their products being included in numerous studies at highly prestigious universities and medical institutions, including Ivy League schools. The network of healthcare practitioners who recommend Thorne Research vitamins and supplements is in the thousands. This is directly attributed to the mission that Thorne vitamins should be the professional choice for practitioners when patients’ lives depend on them. This growing confidence is a driving force behind Thorne Research and their highly critical formulation and manufacturing processes.

Even among professional dietary supplement manufacturers, Thorne Research chooses to spend their money on research and formulations, rather than marketing ploys and clever advertising. By requiring that all products be independently tested, evaluated, and assayed for purity, quality, and bioavailability, Thorne Research continues to grow their network of healthcare practitioners who turn to Thorne vitamins and supplements when they need to produce consistently positive results in clinical settings.

Thorne Vitamins 

The vitamins and additional supplements formulated, produced, and manufactured by Thorne Research are the some of the highest quality supplements available. Through a strategic partnership with Indena, Thorne vitamins and additional supplements are now developed utilizing the highest-quality botanical and plant compounds, all based on scientific research and cooperation.

Thorne Research Difference:

Unlike most retail brands, Thorne vitamins are completely free of unnatural preservatives and low-potency ingredients. By definition, vitamins are essential for ensuring optimized human health. Thorne vitamins are all broad spectrum and their full lines of vitamins utilize the most active and bioavailable forms and ingredients for optimal utility and absorption.

Unlike most companies, Thorne Research vitamins does not use less expensive forms of B vitamins in order to make formulations that are more affordable or marketable. Rather, Thorne vitamins are manufactured with the notion that the best ingredients are the best choice for the customers; a more affordable product is not always a better product. At Clinic Vitamins, we call this the "You pay for what you get."All Thorne vitamins, minerals, and supplements, contain the most active forms possible, ensuring both safety and efficacy. Thorne Research vitamins do not contain premixed dilutions or micro-doses; these formulation and manufacturing methods often contain potentially detrimental ingredients and preservatives, which may compromise patient health. The undiluted mixtures used in Thorne Research vitamins ensure the proper amount of each purity tested ingredient is contained in each and every vegetable-based capsule.

Thorne's In-House Laboratory

Most companies rely on third party quality control testing for their products after they've been made. This will often cut down on costs and make the products easier to sell and market. In order to ensure the utmost quality, it's important to have your own, in-house, state-of-the-art laboratory.  Thorne Research separates themselves from their competition by having this.  Dietary supplements require persistent quality control checks in order to make sure they're of the highest quality possible. This state-of-the-art laboratory is a primary component to achieve the strictest control over every single aspect of vitamin and supplement manufacturing and quality. The products go through testing during multiple phases of manufacture.  From the organic, raw goods to the finished vitamin and supplement.  The laboratory and in-house testing ensures that all of their products meeet the quality standards set by the GMP (Good Manufacturing Process) and the TGA (Therapeutics Goods Administration).

Thorne's state-of-the art lab equipment includes:

Inductively Coupled Plasma Spectrometer (ICP)

• High Pressure Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) with Series 200 Diode Array Detectors and Series 200 Fluorescence Detectors
• Gas Chromatograph/Mass Spectrometer (GCMS) with Flame Fluorescence Detector and Electron Capture Detector
• Near-Infrared Spectrophotometer
• Microbiology lab
• Peroxide analysis
• U.S.P. dissolution

The standardized testing of every ingredient is what makes the potency of Thorne Vitamins so high.  Each and every ingredient is tested for both identity and purity before it's allowed for use in any Thorne Research product.  After the mixing phase of manufacturing, the ingredients are again tested to make sure that the mixture was 100% homogenous.  Before being released as a finished product, each product will go through another testing phase.  Without the use of an in-house laboratory, such high standards of quality control would be nearly impossible to attain.  This is what makes Thorne Research stand above and beyond the field when it comes to quality and purity. 

Purity and Quality

According to Bakiston's Medical Dictionary, hypoallergenic products are defined as non-allergy producing.  Preparation and manufacturing must be properly cared for to ensure the fewest instances of allergic reactions possible. 

There are more than 280 nutritional supplements from Thorne and none will ever contain potentially allergenic binders, fillers, or lubricants. What this means is that even the most sensitive patient cause use these products.  Read above to see how they use in-house laboratory testing and quality control checks to ensure this standard and quality.

Thorne Research's Extra Quality Effort

As a consumer of supplements and vitamins, we're sure you've seen the "We only use the purest ingredients" time and time again from manufacturer's everywhere. At Thorne, we go above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that this is truly the case.  For more than 25 years, they have set the bar for the purity and quality of their products.  They are the standard by which most companies are measured.  Consumers and Practioner's alike rely on Thorne for their products. 

Let's use the example of Vitamin D. Vitamin D, in its purest form is cannot be consumed by humans. Pure vitamin D is 40 MILLION International Units (IU) per gram. The RDA for adults is 600-800 IU per day. Thus, Vitamin D must be diluted to allow for use.  When Vitamin D is diluted by most third party sellers, it's often done so with perservatives and lactose to save on cost and preserve the ingredients. Thorne Research chooses to do its own dilution, rather than purchase low quality diulted Vitamin D.  It does this to ensure there are no harmful ingredients in it. There is an art to diluting vitamin D that ensures that it remains potent.  First, they take the pharmaceutical grade vitamin D and blend it with pure, mixed Vitamin E (tocopherol). By mixing it with the Vitamin E, it creates a more stable Vitamin D ingredient for use in products.  They then take the Vitamin D and Vitamin E mixture and blend it with a hypoallergenic cellulose powder. This final mixture is then processed through a large tumble blender which ensures a more homogenous mixture.  This final product is then analyzed for quality and purity.  Not only is the final product stable; it is also hypoallergenic and can be mixed homogeneously and at a safe level with other powders. This is just one example of the process that Thorne Research goes through to ensure its ingredients set the bar for purity.  Not only do they do this with Vitamin D, but they also do this for all other raw materials that come in for processing.  

Ingredients To Avoid:

One of the biggest ingredients to avoid when you start taking vitamins and supplements is Magnesium Stearate.  Magnesium Stearate is great for cranking out capsules quickly.  However, this is not great for your body and the absorption of the supplement. Instead of being released in the stomach where your body can absorb it, the magnesium stearate doesn't break down until the small and large intestine.  At Clinic Vitamins, we understand that manufacturing vitamins and supplements is no easy task.  For this reason, we only choose the best at what they do.

Pure powdered ingredients are extremely difficult to mix because they are either extremely dry, sticky with botanical oils, or attract unwanted moisture. Most manufacturers, in order to make the powder flow quickly and easily, they use lactose, dextrose, magnesium stearate and other harmful agents. This allows them to create more capsules faster.  This, in turn, puts out a lower bioavailable products.  To counterat this, and ensure none of these ingredients get into Thorne products, they take a different approach.  Instead of using stearic acid or magnesium stearate (which is known as large fatty acid excipients), Thorne Research utilizes other methods to encapsulate their products (See below.) Most pharmaceutical compounders that are qualified recognize the fact that fatty acid excipients are detrimental and they just ignore the data.  For this reason, we recognize and undestand that at Thorne Research, they do not comprimise their manufacturing processes for the quick and easy way.  They are truly hypoallergenic and pure.  

Thorne Encapsulation Process

Tableting dietary vitamins and supplements results in a loss of purity and bioavailability of nutrients.  This is why, at Clinic Vitamins, most of our manufacturers choose to encapsulate, rather than use tableting. Unfortunately, when tableting, other ingredients are required to be added.  Most of the time, these ingredients are detrimental, such as binders, lubricants, disentegrants, coatings.  This ensures that the tablet doesn't fall apart. It will also make the tablet look shiny and allow it to fall apart when digested.  

Another problem with tableting is the machines that are used to compact the powdered nutrients together.  They are proccessed by being compacted with a tremendous amount of force, and to make them shinier and easier to swallow, they are often coated with a spray known as shellac. Yes, shellac (also found on furniture).  Instead of being called shellac, however, it gets a fancy name like "pharmaceutical glaze" or "vegetable protein."  The "vegetable protein" is often a derivative of corn. 

After years of teseting and pioneering, Thorne Research is the tour de force of encapsulating its products.  A capsule will allow for a perfectly timed release of the produt to ensure rapid dissolution within the right organs and ensures the highest absorption in the body.  At Thorne Research, they go above and beyond to ensure that your body gets the most efficent nutrient possible.