HOW TABLETS ARE MADE

Makers of pills, tablets or capsules have standard size molds for the precise size of their pill. It does not matter what the active ingredients are because the manufacturer will add fillers, binders, waxes, and other excipients to take up the space. A filler does nothing more than take up volume and some common fillers are talcum powder, sugar, whey and yeast.

If a company claims it does not use any of these common fillers, then they surely use dehydrogenated animal fat. They have to have something to fill up the space within the mold. Also they must use wax or some kind of binders to make the components stick together when they squeeze everything to make the pill.

The molds must be sprayed with a releasing agent which is another form of wax or grease to allow the pill to drop out of the mold. Some tablets are coated with a shiny coating. This is normally shellac - the same as used on wood floors and boats! It is a mixture of shellac and 200 proof alcohol that makes time release capsules. There is a little bit of active ingredient and fillers coated with the shellac/alcohol mixture. The percentage of alcohol controls the time the pill takes to dissolve in the stomach.

Normal tablets must meet U.S. Pharmaceutical standards here or European standards in Europe. Pharmaceutical standards means tablets must dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes once in your stomach. To test your tablets, place white vinegar in a dish or glass and drop in your pill. Check periodically. It should dissolve within 15 to 30 minutes to meet U.S.P. standards. If it doesn't, then you are paying a high price for talcum powder! You can keep this test up for 45 to 60 minutes, but if the pill is not dissolved by then, it can't possibly generate any benefit to your body.

WHAT ARE BY-PRODUCTS?

By-products are the second-hand substances derived from an original product. Brewer's Yeast is a leftover in the making of beer, as yeast is used to ferment the sugar. Many companies take these secondary products, put them in a white plastic bottle with some other ingredient like caffeine and label them with sensational sounding names - but what they really are is just waste products with some nutritional value. Sure, they list the percentages of each component they can find, but dirt is high in mineral content too. Would you pay money for dirt? It's hard to understand why some people will pay a high price for secondhand products.