Many nutrients occur in various forms, and not all are created equally. Nutrients that occur in nature, from plants and animals, are in specific forms that are optimally bioactive when ingested when foods are eaten, or supplements containing them are taken. In fact, it is often the form of the nutrient that determines both its effectiveness and its safety. However, many nutrients found in nutritional supplements are not in the exact bio-identical form found in nature. This occurs for various reasons, including cost, availability, stability, and practicality. Sometimes the bio-identical form of a nutrient is simply not stable enough to include in a supplement, or it is simply not possible or practical to derive a therapeutic quantity of a specific nutrient directly from a food or animal source.

While the bio-identical forms of nutrients are often optimal, synthetic forms made in a commercial laboratory process which are often not identical to the forms that occur naturally, can be used safely and economically in many cases. However, one's body generally must first convert the synthetic forms into their active bio-identical forms before the therapeutic effects can be realized. While this often happens easily and quickly in most individuals, some can have biochemical and metabolic uniqueness which makes this initial conversion more difficult. Recently, there has been information in the general media regarding potential safety issues with synthetic folic acid due partly to these conversion issues in some people.

Designs for Health are highest quality, safest and most effective nutritional products, containing therapeutic levels of ingredients at realistic prices for us to offer to our patients. We are further committed to identifying, sourcing, and utilizing bio-identical forms of nutrients whenever possible and practical. All synthetic folic acids have been removed from our professional nutritional supplement line years ago, and replace it with a bio-identical mixture of natural folates called NatureFolate. We also offer only truly mixed tocopherol vitamin E, including high-levels of the protective gamma-tocopherol fraction in ratios found in most foods, in our Ultra Gamma-E, and all of our other vitamin E-containing formulas. We have also demonstrated this commitment by launching the first available TruTG professional line of high potency concentrated fish oil products with levels of the natural and bio-identical triglyceride form of EPA and DHA not found in other products. The DFH focus on the use of bio-identical nutrients should not be confused with so called "food-form" based nutritional products. Upon close inspection many of these types of products are nothing more than the addition of certain synthetic USP nutrients (i.e., pyridoxyl hydrochloride), added to a relatively non-potent food mash. DFH does not make this "food-form" products claim because we understand achieving therapeutic potency for most of the nutrients required in a fullspectrum professional line of supplements cannot be realized with this strategy. At DFH we will continue to make the appropriate decisions on what forms of nutrients we use in our professional products based on our "Science First" commitment and will continue to be responsible and truthful in claims made regarding the source of nutrients in our products.