Thorne Research Basic Prenatal - 90 Vegetarian Capsules

Pregnancy is a critical time for optimizing health and nutrition, both for the mother and her baby. Overall nutritional and caloric needs are greatly increased by pregnancy and breastfeeding. However, especially during the first trimester because of nausea, women are not always able to consume the desired number of calories or variety of nutrients. Several nutrients in a good prenatal multiple vitamin have been found to benefit pregnant women who suffer from "morning sickness," including vitamin C, vitamin B6, and vitamin K.

• the purest, highest quality prenatal on the market
• well-absorbed, highly bioavailable nutrients reduce risk of stomach upset
• because getting enough well-absorbed folate is essential during pregnancy, Basic Prenatal provides the active forms of folic acid – L-5-methyl-tetrahydrofolate and folinic acid in a balanced 1:1 ratio
• contains well-absorbed iron picolinate, which is easy on the stomach and non-constipating

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend folic acid supplementation for all women of childbearing age because the biggest need is during the first trimester, when a woman may not even be aware she is pregnant. A woman who consumes a healthful diet with adequate folate may reduce her risk of having a child with a birth defect of the brain or spinal cord. Folate intake should not exceed 250 percent of the government's recommended daily value (1,000 mcg).

The need for other nutrients, such as iron, increases dramatically during pregnancy and is not always compensated for by diet alone.

Multiple vitamin supplementation – during the year before becoming pregnant, during pregnancy, and while breastfeeding – can help produce a healthy baby and benefit the mother through labor, delivery, breastfeeding, and postpartum.

Basic Prenatal is a comprehensive supplement formulated with the special needs of pregnancy in mind. Manufactured with none of the additives and coatings usually found in mainstream prenatal tablets, Basic Prenatal includes only the most bioavailable nutrients.

High-potency multiple vitamins may sometimes be difficult for a woman to "stomach," particularly during the first trimester of pregnancy. Therefore, Thorne does not include large amounts of the nutrients commonly known to cause stomach upset. Instead, these nutrients are included in their most active or absorbable forms for superior utilization. Among these are the active forms of several of the B vitamins – pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (vitamin B6), riboflavin 5'-phosphate (vitamin B2), folinic acid and L-5-MTHF (active forms of folate), and adenosylcobalamin and methylcobalamin (vitamin B12).

Calcium in large doses may also cause stomach upset. Therefore, a moderate dose in the highly absorbable citrate-malate form is used. Additional calcium and magnesium can be supplemented, especially in the final trimester.

Basic Prenatal may also be taken by nursing mothers.

Dr. Michael Lebowitz D.C. Recommends:
This product is designed to meet the needs of pregnant women; it includes 500 mcg of 5-MTHF. This is an excellent, easy to take multi. With AK testing Dr. Michael Lebowitz finds about 50 percent of pregnant women test for this formula while the other 50 percent test for one of the other Basic Nutrients. During a patient's pregnancy, Dr. Michael Lebowitz also often finds the need for Cal-Mag Citramate, DHA, and UltraChrome.

Thorne Research's Mission
At Thorne Research, their mission is to enhance the health and well-being of people by providing superior dietary supplements that have the highest level of quality and purity – thereby creating the most respected and valued company in the dietary supplement industry.

The Thorne Difference.
For more than 25 years, Thorne has relentlessly pursued the highest possible quality and bioavailability in dietary supplements. At Thorne, they actually manufacture products that they sell – a key difference that allows Thorne to control every aspect of the manufacturing process and ensure that every Thorne product is in pure, completely hypoallergenic form, and without the common additives, flowing agents, and binders used throughout the industry.

A few other companies have tried to do what Thorne does, and many others claim to have the same philosophy and quality, but nobody has been able to duplicate what Thorne's clients call "Thorne Quality." Thorne has changed the industry in many ways over the past two decades, and they continue to raise the bar and set new standards in product formulation, raw material purity, manufacturing, and quality control.

Thorne's Commitment to Purity
Practitioners have become accustomed to seeing the vague "We use only the purest ingredients" in the promotional materials of almost every dietary supplement company. Perhaps these companies truly believe that. Perhaps they don't know any better. Nevertheless, Thorne Research, for more than 25 years, has been the standard by which companies in the industry are judged for product purity. Practitioners rely on Thorne as the company they trust for their extremely allergic, chemically sensitive, and immune-compromised patients.

Purity Takes Extra Effort
For example, instead of purchasing prediluted vitamin D, as other companies do, Thorne performs its own dilution to avoid detrimental ingredients, such as the preservatives or lactose that are found in many commercially available dilutions. Why must vitamin D be diluted? Because in its pure form, it is too concentrated to safely blend into a vitamin product. Pure vitamin D is 40 MILLION International Units (IU) per gram. The RDA for adults is 600-800 IU per day. To ensure proper mixing, it must be made into a dilute powder that flows and does not lose potency. So, unlike companies that use prediluted vitamin D that contains unacceptable excipients and preservatives, at Thorne, pure pharmaceutical vitamin D is first blended with pure mixed tocopherol vitamin E, and the resultant stable vitamin D is then blended with hypoallergenic cellulose powder. The final powder is blended in a large tumble blender and subsequently analyzed. Not only is the final product stable; it is also hypoallergenic and can be mixed homogeneously and at a safe level with other powders. Just as with vitamin D, Thorne utilizes similar processes for other raw materials, such as vitamin K, leaving it to other companies to purchase commercially available raw materials filled with unacceptable ingredients and preservatives.

Ingredients You Don't Want
Magnesium Stearate: Good for speed-hungry encapsulating machines. Not necessarily good for you. Manufacturing encapsulated dietary supplements isn't easy. Pure powdered ingredients are difficult to mix because they are either extremely dry, sticky with botanical oils, or attract unwanted moisture. So most manufacturers add magnesium stearate and other agents such as lactose and dextrose to make the powder flow quickly and easily through their high-volume machines. Problem is, these additives may compromise the bioavailability of the nutrients in the supplement, and might cause allergenic problems. At Thorne, they take a different approach.

Thorne will never utilize large fatty acid excipients in its manufacturing processes – ingredients such as magnesium stearate or stearic acid. These excipients are utilized as flowing agents to ensure that maximum productivity is obtained from capsuling and tableting machines. There are documented detrimental effects directly attributed to long chain fatty acids utilized as manufacturing flowing agents. Every qualified pharmaceutical compounder recognizes that large fatty acids, such as magnesium stearate, can interfere with product dissolution and influence absorption. Virtually all companies, because of the economic impact, ignore this data. As with most industries, the bottom line dictates the level of quality. The dietary supplement industry has one exception: Thorne Research, the company that does not compromise. Nevertheless, if a company cannot manufacture products without using detrimental excipients, they should not allude to being either "hypoallergenic" or "pure."

The Bottom Line?
Thorne is the only hypoallergenic dietary supplement manufacturer with the highest degree of purity that you – and your most severely allergic, chemically sensitive, and immune-compromised patients – can truly trust.

Quality Ingredients: A Higher Standard
At Thorne, they are committed to setting a higher standard of quality when it comes to ingredients. To produce their truly hypoallergenic encapsulated supplements, Thorne uses only the purest and finest ingredients available.

Every manufacturer has two basic options when purchasing raw materials: purchase either truly pure raw materials, or purchase raw materials to which substances have been added to facilitate manufacturing. This fundamental dilemma translates to these very typical questions: "Do I purchase pure vitamin C or vitamin C with additives?" "Do I purchase pure B vitamins or coated B vitamins for taste masking?" "Do I purchase pure enzymes such as pancreatin, pepsin, and bromelain or enzymes diluted with lactose?"

There are few commercial sources for vitamins B12, D, K, or biotin that are not diluted with substances such as lactose, cornstarch, and preservatives such as BHT. That's why Thorne developed methods that allow them to use pure, undiluted sources of these nutrients – and many others. It's just one more example that when it comes to quality, what everyone else accepts as an industry standard isn't good enough. While some companies say they are raising their standards....at Thorne they set them.