Raena Morgan: Hi! I’m Raena Morgan, visiting with Dr. Stuart Reeves, the Director of
Research and Development at Embria Health Sciences in Ankeny, Iowa.
We’d like to ask you a very basic question. What is Epicor?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: EpiCor is a natural dietary supplement based on yeast—the same yeast
that is used in brewing and baking. And, what it does is help balance the
human immune system for overall better health.
Raena Morgan: And how was it discovered?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: Well, that’s an interesting question. The parent company of Embria Health
Sciences is Diamond V. Mills, and they’ve been making, in effect, an
animal dietary supplement for over 60 years. And, earlier this century we
discovered that the workers in the plant making this dietary supplement
were healthier than they should be. The employees were not going to the
doctor. We noticed this for two reasons: one is health insurance premiums
didn’t rise; they stayed stable for two years when the national average
increase was over 11% a year. And secondly, the employees asked that
their sick time and vacation be combined because they weren’t taking their
sick time and they wanted time off. At the same time the dietary
supplement for animals was used largely as a digestive aid but I’d started
looking at its effects on animal health, and [it was] showing some very
beneficial effects on animal health. So, we figured that it’s possible that
the exposure of the workers to the animal product was making them
healthier.
Raena Morgan: Now, there was not this same effect on people who were working in the
office?
Dr. Stuart Reeves: Correct. Most of the benefits from the reduced health insurance were via
our plant workers. They just weren’t going to the doctor, basically, and
their families were. So, we figured that if they were, indeed healthier,
there ought to be some visible effects on their immune system. So, we
took saliva and blood from plant workers and compared it to HQ workers
who have never been exposed to the product. And, yes indeed, there were
some significant, good differences in their immunes system.
Raena Morgan: Thank you Dr. Reeves. We’ll visit again.
Dr. Stuart Reeves: Okay.
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