We are pleased to introduce the new digital Thorne Research Catalog. After receiving a great deal of feedback on our paper catalogs, we will now be providing information on our products electronically in order to:

1. Provide up-to-date product listings and information through ongoing, real-time updates for new product introductions, formula changes and line extensions.
2. Provide multiple means by which to easily find a product or class of products, through alphabetical and category indexes.  
3. Speed and provide greater ease in finding a product(s) through hyperlinks by which you can look up a product or category in the various indexes and click through to the appropriate page, rather than having to leaf through a number of pages.
4. Save paper and natural resources, however, you may elect to print a copy if you so choose.

You may access the new digital catalog by clicking the following link, 2015 Thorne Product Catalog, or if you are logged in as health-care practitioner you may go to our Resource Library under Product Literature.

We hope you find this new means to deliver a real-time, interactive catalog a means by which you can better serve your clients.  Feel free to contact Customer Service at 800-228-1966 with any questions or feedback you may have.  Thank you for your continued loyalty and patronage.

Thorne Research Inc., a leader in prevention, wellness, and health solutions, today announced a content agreement with Mayo Clinic. Under the new agreement, Mayo Clinic will provide Thorne Research with accurate, authoritative health information to offer to its clients.

Starting in August, 2015, Thorne Research will feature on its website Mayo Clinic’s extensive library of patient-centered health and wellness content, focusing on nutrition, exercise, lifestyle, and supplementation. In addition, Mayo Clinic will develop content to further address topics such as pain management, brain health, the aging process and more. Emphasis will also be placed on how to incorporate supplementation into the context of healthy eating and healthy living.

“There is a huge need in the marketplace for reliable, research-based health information, especially as people increasingly turn to the internet and mobile apps for healthcare answers and solutions,” said Paul Jacobson, CEO of Thorne Research. “At Thorne Research, we want to provide people with the information and tools needed to lead healthier lives. This includes not only providing high quality, nutritional supplements and digital health assessment displays, but also providing research-based education. There is no one better than Mayo Clinic to help us realize this vision.”

“Mayo Clinic continues to look for new ways to deliver health care information to patients worldwide,” said John Wald, M.D., Medical Director, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs. “This agreement gives Thorne Research access to Mayo’s library of health care content for its customers worldwide.”

In addition, Thorne Research will be actively seeking partnerships with organizations and networks that are looking for product, technology, and content solutions. By combining high quality, science-based nutritional supplements, technology platforms, including digital assessment displays and a telehealth platform, with reliable, research-based education, Thorne Research is positioned to become the leader in providing comprehensive solutions to improve one’s quality of life.

To learn more about Thorne Research, visit www.thorne.com.

About Thorne Research
Thorne Research is a global healthcare company dedicated to improving the health and wellness of people through science and technology. With a portfolio of trusted, quality, science-based offerings in nutritional supplements and lifestyle management, Thorne Research serves people around the world, targeting a number of health areas, such as cardiovascular health, metabolic health, cancer supportive care, skin care, healthy aging, and sports performance. Thorne Research is headquartered in New York City with a manufacturing facility in Sandpoint, Idaho.

About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit worldwide leader in medical care, research and education for people from all walks of life. For more information, visit mayoclinic.org/about/ and mayoclinic.org/news.

Download the Press Release

Leg cramps are common in pregnant women and are very uncomfortable. In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, four-week trial of magnesium supplementation in 86 healthy pregnant women, leg cramp frequency and severity were studied. In the group who took 300 mg magnesium daily, significant reductions were demonstrated in leg cramp frequency and intensity compared to placebo.

Supakatisant C, Phupong V. Oral magnesium for relief in pregnancy-induced leg cramps: a randomised controlled trial. Matern Child Nutr 2015;11:139-145.

While too much computer screen time can cause dry eyes, recent research has shown that intake of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil can help dry eye symptoms. In a study of 478 people with dry eyes who spent significant amounts of time at the computer, a fish oil supplement improved their dry eye symptoms. In the individuals in the study who took a modest amount of fish oil daily – 360 mg of EPA and 240 mg of DHA – 70 percent were symptom-free after three months. In the placebo group, only 15 percent had symptom relief.

Bhargava R, Kumar P, Phogat H, et al. Oral omega-3 fatty acids treatment in computer vision syndrome related dry eye. Contact Lens and Anterior Eye 2015;38:206-210.

Thorne Research’s Chief Medical Officer, Robert Rountree, MD, has been named the recipient of the 2015 Linus Pauling Award at the Institute for Functional Medicine’s 2015 Annual International Conference.  This award is a testament to the significant contributions Dr. Rountree has made to the field of Functional Medicine.  In combination with his private practice, his contributions to Thorne Research, and his educational lecturing around the world, Dr. Rountree continues to influence the way health-care practitioners and patients approach preventative medicine.

Thorne Research’s President, Will McCamy, said this about Dr. Rountree:  “We could not be more proud of Dr. Rountree and his receiving this honor from the IFM community.  Bob’s unwavering commitment to educating his fellow practitioners on a functional medicine approach has significantly impacted how thousands of patients receive treatment today.”

To learn more about this award, please visit the following site: https://www.functionalmedicine.org/news.aspx?state=2&news=97. 

Everyone knows that the types of foods you eat have a major impact on your health. As it turns out, when you eat could be almost as important. A new study published July 23, 2013, in the journal Circulation revealed that men who skip breakfast are 27 percent more likely to develop heart disease than men who begin each day with a meal. And men who eat late at night have a 55 percent higher risk for cardiovascular disease than those who go to bed on an empty stomach.

Previous trials have shown that adults who skip meals are more likely to exhibit certain cardiovascular risk factors, such as excessive body weight, hypertension, dyslipidemia, insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. Habitually skipping breakfast, for example, can increase your chances for significant weight gain by 15 percent and heighten your risk for type 2 diabetes by over 20 percent. Until now, however, no study has linked poor eating patterns to coronary heart disease.

While people who skip breakfast may also engage in other behaviors that increase cardiac risk – smoking, physical inactivity or consuming too much alcohol, for example – missing the most important meal of the day might confer some physiologic costs that are independent of these behaviors. Compared to people who spread their daily energy intake over three or more meals, individuals who consume all of their daily caloric needs at one sitting tend to have higher LDL-C, triglyceride, apolipoprotein-B and blood pressure levels.

Finally, breakfast is more likely than any other meal to be composed of healthier foods, such as yogurt, fruit or whole-grain cereal or breads. When these foods are chronically supplanted by less wholesome items, the undesirable effects begin to stack up.

Cahill LE, Chiuve SE, Mekary RA, et al. Circulation 2013;128:337-343.
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/128/4/337.full

Critics of the dietary supplement industry are quick to point out studies that suggest supplements don’t work and are a waste of consumers’ money. But if health-care policymakers become aware of a study published last year in the Journal of Dietary Supplements, such criticism could finally be relegated to the dustbin. According to Drs. Christopher Shanahan and Robert de Lorimier, who collaborated with Frost & Sullivan’s Health Care and Life Sciences Team to gather data for the study, the routine use of omega-3 supplements and B vitamins by individuals who have coronary heart disease could save billions of dollars in health care costs. Those are the kinds of numbers that change the way doctors practice medicine.

Coronary heart disease (CHD), a condition that affects 16 percent of Americans over the age of 55, causes 385,000 deaths and accounts for one of every six fatalities in the United States each year. The hospital-related costs for treating CHD patients now surpasses $100 billion per year, with costs for individuals over age 55 accounting for 60 percent of that figure. In order to determine whether the daily use of supplements at preventive intake levels could impact the financial burden of CHD-related events, Shanahan and de Lorimier analyzed 17 peer-reviewed, published studies evaluating the relationship between omega-3 or B vitamin supplementation and CHD-associated hospital utilization costs.

According to these researchers, if all Americans over the age of 55 with CHD took an omega-3 supplement every day, the average savings in avoided hospitalization costs would be over $2 billion annually. For users of B vitamins (specifically B6, B12 and folic acid), the savings for CHD-related hospitalizations would average $1.52 billion per year. Over the eight-year period from 2013 to 2020, after accounting for the cost of the supplements, the country would realize a net savings of more than $9 billion if everyone in this high-risk group used both omega-3s and B vitamins – that’s money America’s health insurance companies (not to mention its citizens) would like to keep in their pockets.

Drs. Shanahan and de Lorimier designed their study to examine the societal impacts associated with targeted supplementation in an at-risk population. What they couldn’t fully explore were the benefits individual CHD patients might reap from consuming a few dollars’ worth of supplements every month. Despite the lack of this additional information, it seems reasonable to assume that, in addition to saving money by staying out of the hospital, people with CHD stand to gain something even more valuable from supplementation: improved quality of life.

Reference
Shanahan CJ, de Lorimier R. J Diet Suppl 2014 Aug 28 [Epub ahead of print]

Almost every schoolchild knows that vitamin D – the "sunshine vitamin" – is important for building strong bones. After all, for nearly five decades following its discovery, scientists believed vitamin D was primarily involved in regulating calcium absorption and maintaining skeletal health, and most people still think of it that way. Within the last 40 years, however, researchers have learned that vitamin D behaves more like a hormone than a vitamin, and scientists are currently exploring its roles in electrolyte metabolism, protein synthesis, immunity, nerve and muscle function, and an array of other physiologic processes.

Over 75 percent of Americans could be vitamin D "insufficient", meaning they get enough vitamin D to avoid deficiency but not enough to maintain optimal healthy levels. In elderly individuals, vitamin D insufficiency has been linked to muscular weakness, poor balance, delayed reaction time, and a higher risk for falls and fractures. A review in the May 2013 issue of Nutrients suggests that even mildly low vitamin D levels can adversely affect young people, too, and such insufficiency could be particularly consequential in athletes. According to Dana Storlie-Ogan, a nutritionist at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, athletes who do not get enough vitamin D might find their performance lagging, they may require longer recovery times, and they could be more prone to stress fractures and muscle injuries. Athletes who participate in indoor sports are especially likely to develop vitamin D insufficiency.¹

The average person needs at least 3,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D every day.² Since vitamin D participates in metabolic pathways that are "up-regulated" during exertion, physically active people require more vitamin D for peak performance. Storlie-Ogan advises athletes to have their vitamin D status evaluated and adjust their vitamin D intake to maintain a serum 25(OH)D level above 40 ng/mL.

1. Ogan D, Pritchett K. Nutrients 2013;5(6):1856-1868.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3725481/pdf/nutrients-05-01856.pdf

2. Holick MF. J Nutr 2005;135(11):27395-27485.
http://jn.nutrition.org/content/135/11/2739S.long

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a condition that affects 1 in 68 persons in the United States. ASD is characterized by deficits in communication, impaired social interaction, and repetitive or obsessive behaviors. Boys are four times more likely than girls to suffer from ASD. The cause(s) of ASD are unknown, although genetic factors and environmental factors both appear to be involved. The level of disability associated with ASD ranges from mild to severe.

At the present time there is no cure for ASD, so treatment is aimed at relieving specific symptoms and improving an affected individual’s function. Interestingly, many parents of autistic children report that ASD symptoms temporarily improve when their children develop a fever. The factors involved in this so-called “fever response” have not yet been identified, although some experts believe that a fever can awaken one or more protective mechanisms within the brain that are otherwise dormant in individuals with ASD. As a result of recent research on broccoli sprout extract conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital’s Lurie Center for Autism, we might be one step closer to understanding why fever can alleviate the symptoms of ASD, which could lead to new treatments.

In a Massachusetts General Hospital clinical trial involving 44 young men with ASD, daily administration of sulforaphane – an extract derived from broccoli sprouts – substantially improved behavior and communication in the young men who received the treatment. Individuals who received only a placebo showed no improvement. When the treatment group stopped taking sulforaphane at the end of the trial, they returned to pre-treatment status, indicating that it was the sulforaphane that reduced the ASD symptoms in these individuals.

Sulforaphane is known to positively impact many of the physiologic abnormalities associated with ASD, such as excessively high oxidative stress, poor mitochondrial function, and inflammation within nerve cells. According to the scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital, sulforaphane probably triggers cellular processes that mimic the fever response in individuals with ASD. Although this research is only preliminary, it provides valuable insight into the underlying mechansims of a complex disorder.

Reference
Singh K, Connors S, Macklin E, et al. PNAS 2014;111(43):15550-15555.