Raena Morgan: Hello, we’re visiting with Dr. Stuart Reeves. He is director of Research and Development at Embria Health Sciences here in Ankeny, Iowa. Could you talk to us about the research that’s been done on EpiCor?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: Certainly. First of all, we did a lot of laboratory research, which although not as exciting as human clinical trials, is really necessary to prove that a product will directly interact with the immune system. But, it basically established that the product did have effects in the laboratory. What we really have to do to prove how good the product is though is human clinical trials. And, we’ve done several human clinical trials and the two I want to mention were carried out last year.
One of them was carried out in Oregon in the allergy season, and what we showed was that the people taking EpiCor felt healthier. There was a statistically significant reduction in their minor health complaints and they believed this was due to the fact that they appeared to have less allergic reactions in the allergy season.
This was supported by changes in their blood chemistry, and what was really interesting was that EpiCor was, in fact, balancing the immune system. It wasn’t stimulating something or depressing something, it was balancing the whole immune system, and we believe this is one of the major benefits of EpiCor.
The classical thing people think of with the immune system is diseases. So, another trial we did was on colds and flu in South Dakota, in the winter, where they do get colds and flu and we fed people EpiCor at the recommended dose for 3 months and monitored the number and duration of colds and flu. There was a very significant reduction in both the number of colds and flu that they reported when taking EpiCor and the duration of those colds and flu.
So, altogether, over that 3 month period, the people taking EpiCor showed a 32% reduction in the number of days they were sick with colds and flu. That is huge.
Raena Morgan: Dr. Reeves, could you elaborate more on the type of studies that have been done?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: Well, the 2 that I’ve mentioned were double blind placebo controlled studies. This is in effect, the gold standard of human clinical trials because neither the patients nor the people running the study know which group is taking EpiCor and which group is taking a placebo.
This removes bias from the trial as much as humanly possible and, this we feel, is essential for the majority of trials we do.
We have done what are called “open label” studies in house, which shows some beneficial effects and these are valid. There is no doubt there was statistically significant benefits, but the double blind, placebo-controlled is always the gold standard, the Rolls Royce of trials.
Raena Morgan: What about the long term dosage?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: It’s a natural product. We all consume yeast and whether we like it or not it’s in bread, it’s in fermented products. It’s safe for long term use.
Obviously, it’s a new product; very few people have been taking it more than 3 years because it didn’t exist 3 years ago. But those who have been taking it who shown no ill effects and these include all our executive officers and they’re very careful about their health.
Raena Morgan: All right. Well, thank you Dr. Reeves, we’ll visit again.
Dr. Stuart Reeves: My pleasure.
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