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Our collagen comes from pasture-raised, grass-fed cows from South America. Each batch of our hydrolyzed collagen peptides is third-party tested for heavy metals, contaminants, and allergens.

Yes. Our Multi is third-party tested for heavy metals, contaminants, and allergens. It contains no dairy, eggs, gluten, tree nuts, fish, or soy.

Woodstock Vitamins products are made in several US facilities, hand-selected and vetted by our founder, Dr. Neal Smoller, PharmD. All products are manufactured in the United States in cGMP-compliant facilities. We use a variety of contract manufacturers to ensure each product is made by the specialists best equipped for that product type. Our high-quality ingredients are sourced from around the world, depending on the best location to grow, harvest, and process them.

Yes. All of our products are third-party tested for heavy metals like lead, cadmium, and mercury, as well as contaminants like E. coli, Salmonella, yeast, and mold. Every product we recommend must meet the Supplement Quality Standard — our internal benchmark for quality, manufacturing compliance, sourcing, and value. If a product fails any part of it, we don’t sell it.

One of the best parts of getting your supplements at Woodstock Vitamins is knowing that what you’re taking for your health and wellness was formulated by a pharmacist. Dr. Neal Smoller, to be exact. He’s a holistic pharmacist and supplement strategist with over 20 years of experience in the pharmacy setting. But having a supplement formulated by a pharmacist isn’t the only definition of pharmacist-formulated. There are other factors that play a role in this important term. Here’s why having a pharmacist create your supplements is such an asset. 

What Pharmacist-Formulated Actually Means

In a nutshell, “pharmacist formulated” means a product that was developed or designed with input from a licensed pharmacist. In our case, that’s Dr. Neal. He used his 20+ years of running a pharmacy that prescribes medications to give him the knowledge of how ingredients, nutrients, and substances interact in the body to help create a great supplement.

Safety First

When it comes to supplements, not all of them are made safely or with high-quality ingredients. That’s where having a pharmacist formulate your supplements makes a big difference. We focus on the Supplement Quality Standard, a rigorous framework that focuses on supplement manufacturing safety, quality, fair pricing, and sustainable, ethical ingredients. This is what sets great supplements apart from cheap, ineffective duds. Pharmacists are trained in drug interactions and dosing to ensure supplements avoid harmful combinations or ineffective ingredients. A pharmacist prioritizes safety and quality, in contrast to supplements not made by health professionals.


Science Forward

Unlike other formulations, supplements formulated by Dr. Neal are based on science. Pharmacists obtain doctoral degrees, which often means they have learned how to read, analyze, and even write scientific papers. A pharmacist-formulated supplement is often made to address a specific need (e.g., sleep support, digestion, skin health) based on scientific research. This is a big contrast to other formulators who use misleading claims, marketing buzzwords, or hype.

Fair Pricing

While many supplement brands are thinking about how to keep their product as cheap to make as possible and padding their margins, pharmacists like Dr. Neal are thinking about fair pricing for their supplements. They’re concerned with the dose of their supplement and if their customers are going to think the capsule is a horse pill or not. They’re thinking about third-party testing their ingredients and the cost to make sure their supplements are safe. They’re thinking about ingredient interactions and what’s going to sit well in the stomachs of their customers. Pharmacist-formulated supplements come with that additional thoughtfulness around pricing, fairness, ethics, and what’s truly going to be valuable to their customers, not just what’s valuable to their bottom lines.

Important Considerations

While “pharmacist-formulated” is a sign that a supplement may be of interest, it doesn’t mean it’s FDA-approved. It is still widely used in marketing and can convey a range of quality, safety, and efficacy results. So be mindful of which pharmacist formulated your supplement and their methodology. At Woodstock Vitamins, we aim to bring you the highest quality essential nutrients, with ethically-sourced ingredients and manufactured safely. You can learn more about Dr. Neal and our Supplement Quality Standards here. 

Woodstock Vitamins isn’t just another supplement brand. We know that’s what everyone says. But honestly, if we’re not here to convince you that you need a million unnecessary supplements in your medicine cabinet right now, then why are we even here? What is it that we seek to solve, and why are we hell-bent on being the ones to solve it? Here’s the rundown on why Woodstock Vitamins exists and what it means for you and your health journey. 

The Elephant in the Room: The Supplement Industry Sorta Stinks

We can all agree that something is fishy about the supplement industry. Why are there thousands of supplements in the United States, and yet people are still sick, tired, and riddled with health issues? The answer is two-fold: companies want to profit off of you, and most supplements don’t actually work.

There are too many products, protocols, and marketing out there that people are just straight up confused. What should they be taking for their health concerns? And who can they trust? Brands are overpromising what their products do while underdelivering. Companies are choosing profit (and making lots of it!) off you and your confusion. The worst part is that it’s intentionally deceptive. At the end of the day, when your medicine cabinet is full of supplements, and nothing is moving the needle, guess who’s left carrying the bag? You. For many people, the supplement industry is the Wild West, and no one knows where the sheriff is. 

That’s why Woodstock is bringing something different to the table. You see, Dr. Neal Smoller, our founder, holistic pharmacist, and supplement strategist, is one of the most vocal critics of the supplement industry. After serving in a pharmacy setting for nearly two decades and selling some of the country’s most popular supplements, he peeked underneath the hood of the supplement industry, and he didn’t like what he saw.  

What he witnessed were brands who shrouded their mediocre formulations with hype, shiny packaging, inconsistent quality, and little transparency. He got tired of selling people supplements that did nothing for their long-lasting health and wanted to create his own brand, one that would actually transform people’s health and not just say that it does. 

When Dr. Neal created Woodstock Vitamins, he had three main goals:

That’s the meat and potatoes of why we’re here and what makes us different. But that’s not all.

Helping People Get Foundational Nutrients; Not Just “Nice to Haves”

There’s one more thing we’re obsessed with here at Woodstock, and that’s offering our customers the foundational nutrients they need for total body health. That means we don’t offer trendy, hard to pronounce supplements from far distant regions of the world because they’re “cool” and “trendy”. 

Instead, we actually want you to take fewer supplements, but the right supplements. Those with the essential nutrients that work in multiple systems of the body, like your nervous, digestive, immune, and cardiovascular systems. These few supplements are what we call The First5. They are the first, foundational nutrients you need to get your body to work at its peak. 

These five supplements, we argue, contain the nutrients you need before anything else. So instead of spinning your wheels buying supplements that don’t work and don’t move the needle on your health goals, we exist to provide you with the truly essential nutrients your body is asking for: 

With these five supplements in your health routine, you’re setting the foundation for years of long-lasting health. And that’s what we’re here to help you achieve: simpler supplements for longer-lasting wellness.

Holding Your Supplements to a Higher Standard

Building off of the earlier section, the supplement industry stinks. We know this. There are lots of poor formulations out there, using unsustainably-sourced ingredients, that negatively affect your health and hit you hard in the wallet. We wanted to hold supplements to a higher standard. One that focused on: 

That’s where the Supplement Quality Standard comes in. A rigorous set of standards created by Dr. Neal himself to ensure that every single supplement that comes out of Woodstock Vitamins is well-formulated, manufactured safely, fairly priced, and made with people, animals, and the planet in mind. We offer the standards that other supplement brands do not, so you can finally trust that what you’re putting into your body is going to do the job and be good for your wallet and the planet.

[SQS graphic]

We Don’t Sell Supplements — We Offer Solutions for a Long, Healthy Life

Dr. Neal didn’t create Woodstock Vitamins to trick you into wasting your money on another health trend. He made it so you could finally have high-quality supplements that fill the nutrient gaps your body needs to thrive. We do that by creating supplements that affect nearly every system in the body in a way that builds the foundation for total-body health. So when you shop around our site or read our blog articles, you can trust that we’re giving you science-backed, no B.S. health information and solutions that will actually help you reach your health goals this year and beyond. 

We’ve already said our piece about New Year’s resolutions — how and why exactly we think they stink. But, if we’re being honest, there is one pact we think every wellness seeker should make with themselves this year. 

And that is: To stop wasting money on vitamins and supplements. 

Does that mean we think you should stop buying supplements altogether? Not quite. Although Dr. Neal is constantly encouraging folks to take fewer — hence why he makes a great holistic health advocate and a terrible supplement salesman. 

We just mean that, in the year of our lord 2026, there’s no reason for you or your friends to overspend on underwhelming supplements made with cheap, ineffective ingredients. 

Because the 14 mega corporations who own the vast majority of supplement brands might be clever with their million-dollar marketing schemes, but we can be cleverer! Or, at the very least, we can be more discerning of the skeevy sales tactics that inundate the natural health industry.

So before you new-year-new-you yourself into an overflowing supplement cabinet and an empty wallet, read through these 4 steps to buying supplements in 2026. Fresh from Dr. Neal’s boat-rocking, middle-path-walking desk. 

In This Article:

1. Do the Foundational Work First

The easiest way to avoid wasting money on supplements is to simply not need them in the first place. Pretty straightforward, right?

We’re being a little reductive here, considering that even the healthiest American eaters can still suffer from deficiencies thanks to rapidly declining food quality. But the point stands — you’re less likely to go bankrupt on unnecessary supplements if you focus on the basics first.

The basics of health are, of course, the lifestyle domains that make up the foundation of your well-being. Diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and environmental changes.

Packaged in this simple, accessible concept we call the Wellness Pyramid, these mundane areas of everyday existence play a major role in your overall health and quality of life. If we ignore these basic building blocks, we can incur deficiencies, chronic inflammation, higher risk of disease, mental health difficulties, and more.

Because, as we oft say around these parts, you can out-supplement a Cheeto-based diet. Or, another one of our favorites, you can’t omega-3 your way through a sedentary lifestyle.

Start your supplementation journey a little closer to home by first clearing out the toxins, limiting beliefs, and unhelpful habits from your mental and physical spaces. Then focus on integrating more joy, gentle movement, nutritious food, and restorative rest into your life.

Summary

Learn More: The Wellness Pyramid — Your Roadmap to Holistic Health

2. Create a Strategy

It should go without saying… But we better not catch you buying vitamins and supplements willy-nilly in 2024!

Instead of buying based on hype, wield your hard-earned cash as an extension of your intelligence and buy supplements that make sense for your personal supplement strategy. Because supplements and vitamins, like their pharmaceutical counterparts, interact with your body, your other supplements, and your food in different ways.

And, if we buy into the hoopla around a particular vitamin or herb without doing our research, we can end up with overlapping nutrients, canceled-out compounds, and money down the drain.

Every supplement strategy is unique, but every good supplement strategy is rooted in science.

Start building your supplement strategy with the vitamins and nutrients that most people are deficient in, according to clinical research. The 5 most common nutrient deficiencies we can tackle first are also known as Dr. Neal’s First5.

Omega-3, probiotics, protein, bone support, and multivitamins.

After optimizing your intake of these 5 elements through diet and supplementation, check in with yourself before adding in more. You might just find, for example, that getting adequate amounts of probiotics and protein makes your gut issues and brain fog nonexistent.

No sea moss needed.

Keep moving forward by adding additional high-quality, data-backed supplements into your routine to target specific health concerns or conditions. Then, the next time you see a so-called miracle cure on TikTok, you can decide if and how it fits into your science-based supplement strategy.

Summary

Learn More: Why You Need a Supplement Strategy — Plus 3 Steps to Get Started

3. Find Your Brands

It’s true that supplements and vitamins have never been more accessible than they are in 2026. But this is a blessing and a curse.

Why? Well, because slick branding and clever marketing speak reign supreme in the world of supplement sales. Which is due, in part, to the fact the wellness industry has even looser regulations than that of traditional pharmaceuticals.

Plus, the natural health market was already worth over 15.5 billion dollars in 2024.

There’s quite a lot of money to be made off unwitting consumers who turn to supplements in hopes of simply feeling better and healthier. Is it totally unfair that wellness seekers have to get an unaccredited degree in supplement speak just to avoid buying cheap crap?

It is.

But it’s also empowering to use your influence as a consumer to support ethical brands! 

While it might take a little longer than shopping directly from your Instagram ads, it pays in the long run to buy from companies that prioritize safety and efficacy, environmental sustainability, and transparency. Thankfully, most supplement companies with rigorous standards will be upfront about these values.

Because it can be quite expensive and laborious to have strict quality control from source to shelf, and it’s not legally required. So in 2026, look for the supplement brands that don’t take the easy outs.

They’ll be the ones using data-backed, bioavailable ingredients from sustainable and traceable sources. And if they’re really great, they’ll have actual humans you can talk to about your supplements just a phone call away. 

Summary

Qualifying Quality

4. Get Comfortable with the Supplement Facts Panel

One of the most important things to understand before buying vitamins and supplements is that the front label is, like influencer campaigns and viral videos, part of a meticulous marketing scheme.

You might think that the front of a vitamin bottle is legally required to be based on reality, but that’s not really the case. If we want the cold hard facts about what a supplement is and does, we’ll have to venture to the dark side of the bottle. 

The Supplement Facts Panel. Or SFP, for short. 

The SFP can be an overwhelming place to be, what with those tiny fonts and 13-letter-long vitamin names. Who wants to clog up the Whole Foods aisle reading through every unpronounceable ingredient in their Women’s Daily Multi? Not us. 

But we, unlike the front label of vitamin bottles, are grounded in reality, and we know that there could be trickery afoot if there’s money to be made. 

So 2026 is going to be the year of overcoming our fear of the dreaded SFP and getting educated on vitamin forms — which ones work, which ones are crap, and which ones could actually be detrimental to our health.

Here are a few key things to look for on the SFP before buying:

Summary

Or, Call an Expert

Above all, we want you to have autonomy over your health. That starts with knowing what you’re putting into your body — be it supplements, food, or medications — and why.

But if you skimmed this blog and felt the panic start to creep in, let’s take a deep breath together. The world of supplements and whole-person health can be overwhelming and wrought with misinformation. Thankfully, you don’t have to navigate it alone!

If you want to ignore all that blabber about bioavailable nutrients and, instead, just ask Dr. Neal to translate the SFP of your favorite vitamin into English, we can do that too. Our supplement experts are always available via our always-free Counterside Consults.

Gather around girls, ghosts, and ghouls! Today we’re venturing to the dark side of the wellness world to celebrate the spookiest week of the year. 

Because, if you ask us… There’s nothing scarier than the costumes we see cheap vitamins and bunk supplements skulking around in! 

If our exposé on how environmental toxins affect your health wasn’t enough to make you sleep with one eye open, this post surely will be. From the wretched origins of your favorite vitamins to the horrifying truth about herbal supplements, we’re pulling all the marketing machinations from their crypts and into the light.  

Thankfully we have the medical myth-buster and notorious loudmouth, Dr. Neal, to offer expert advice for navigating (and surviving!) the treacherous terrain of supplement sales tactics. 

Grab a trusted safety blanket and read on!

In This Article: 

The Illusion of Free Choice 

Did you already know that strolling down the supplement aisle of your local health foods store was akin to walking through a haunted house of mirrors? 

If not, don’t blame yourself. Most of us modern consumers are fooled by the myriad of names, logos, brand colors, and mission statements into thinking that there are scads of supplement companies to choose from.

The frightening reality of the matter is that just 14 mega corporations own all the hundreds of vitamin brands you see on the shelf. It’s true. Corporations like Nestle and Clorox, dressed up as Pure Encapsulations and Rainbow Light Vitamins, are the villainous faces unmasked by us meddling kids. 

The supplement industry was valued at roughly 163.9 billion just last year. So it should come as no surprise that these profit-driven global syndicates want a piece of the pie. For health and wellness seekers, though, that means the shopping process isn’t so sweet. 

Choosing a pure, potent supplement isn’t about picking the brands with green labels any more.

To find the vitamins and nutrients that are what they say they are, consumers need to deep-dive the ethics of their chosen companies. (Preferably before handing over their hard-earned cash.)

The 14 Mega Corporations That Own Your Supplement Brand

The Organic Standards Graveyard 

Shining out like a beacon, the USDA Organic Seal has become something like a lighthouse for health-conscious folks across the country. Since the late 90’s, savvy consumers have sought brands that carry this illustrious label, under the presumption that organic means…organic. 

Unfortunately, that’s not really the case. 

The NOSB, or National Organic Standards Board, which was created to oversee the regulations hasn’t actually reduced the number of synthetic chemicals permitted in so-called organic foods and supplements — they’ve increased it. 

“More than 250 non-organic substances are now allowed in organic foods, up from 77 in 2002.”

Dr. Neal Smoller

And we have the corporations that moonlight as board members for the NOSB to thank for that!

Companies like Whole Foods Market and General Mills have used their voting rights to push for more chemicals — and even herbicides — to be allowed in organic foods and products in order to protect their financial investments in the supplement industry. 

Strict manufacturing standards and safety regulations result in higher testing and production costs and, subsequently, lower profits. Translation: It’s cheaper and easier to cut corners. 

So don’t be fooled by this clever disguise! Instead, scrutinize organic products as carefully as you would non-organic.

In some cases, buying a supplement from a small, trusted brand might be safer than buying one with the organic seal and a million-dollar marketing plan. 

The Herbal Anti-Heroes 

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of the natural health industry’s dark underbelly is that, in it, a highly profitable, highly polarizing dichotomy has been created. 

Natural vs. synthetic, traditional vs. modern, herbal vs. pharmaceutical, us vs. them, hero vs. villain. It’s a prolific and profitable sales tactic known as oppositional marketing or oppositional brand loyalty. 

In essence: If we’re the kind of people inclined to choose natural products, we must hate all forms of modern, non-traditional medicine. If we’re the kind of people who prefer allopathic medicine, we must forsake all forms of herbal or holistic healing interventions. 

No nuance allowed. 

So herbs are, depending on which side you fall on, seen as either miracle cure-alls with no negative side effects or useless, overhyped hippie junk. The truth, gang, lies somewhere in between these contrasting beliefs. 

Let’s break it down into fun-sized bites:
  1. YES, herbal compounds have been used as food and medicine throughout the history of human civilization. If you’re alive today, it’s because your ancestors ate plants, drank teas, and prepared extracts of herbal compounds to recover from illnesses. 
  2. NO, not every so-called superfood herb is what it seems to be. Modern research is still struggling to validate the historical claims of many herbs. The necessary funding and interest in the scientific community are lacking. 
  3. YES, there are herbs and herbal extracts with benefits that have been scientifically proven through rigorous testing and clinical research. It’s not all bunk and to claim such is to teeter into anti-science territory. 
  4. NO, herbal products and supplements aren’t inherently healthier than non-herbal products or synthetic vitamins. Some have contraindications with medications while others can be addictive. All plants, like humans, are only as “healthy” as the environments around them. Even herbal allies like ashwagandha and ginkgo can contain horrifying amounts of heavy metals from the toxic soils in which they grow. 

Herbal Adulteration – Dangerous, and Timely!

Our main issue with herbal supplements is not a matter of their efficacy or importance. It’s that most supplement companies don’t test the raw materials they receive from suppliers. This means that herbal products, like other supplements and vitamins, can be dyed, duped, or disguised by any number of masked manufacturing practices. 

The turmeric capsules you bought for their lovely, vibrant color, for example? They might be shining gold due to malachite yellow, a coppery dye additive that’s also a banned substance. 

So heavy metals can leech into your herbal products from soil, solvents during extraction, and dyes or additives during production. By the time it reaches your eager hands, your herbal supplement might be more trick than treat. 

Seeing Through the Nefariousness of “Natural” Products

Okay, so maybe this blog won’t keep you up at night like Friday the 13th or Hereditary will. But the lack of choice, education, and regulations in the supplement sphere is pretty scary, no?

That’s why our whole jam here at Woodstock Vitamins is facing our fears head-on — looking behind the curtain of slick branding to reveal the phonies for what they are.

Because you shouldn’t have to traverse this haunted house of health products alone! Explore our other myth-busting manifestos or hop on a free Counterside Consult for direct guidance. Our supplement strategists and holistic wellness experts promise not to tease you if you jump or squeal at the marketing tactics that go bump in the night.

 

The infamous Prop 65 has had supplement savants quivering their boots since its inception in the late 80s. 

Short for the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, Prop 65 was passed as a California state law to address growing concerns about gross stuff sneaking into foods, drinks, supplements, cleaning solutions, etc. 

The gross stuff is toxins, heavy metals, chemicals that cause cancer or reproductive harm, and the like. Now, on the opposite coast and almost 40 years later, we experience this scenario with relative frequency: 

“I looked at your collagen and I saw this warning!”

“I let out an audible gasp, fell off my chair, dropped my coffee, and lost the remote… Things just aren’t right in my home anymore!”

(As the rebels in the wellness industry, we’ve been known to have this effect on people.) 

We, the Woodstock Vitamins team, believe unwaveringly in transparency. Our whole thing is making it easier for individuals to achieve their health goals through high-quality supplements and even higher-quality education. 

But choosing the right supplements requires a solid understanding of labels — what matters, what doesn’t, what’s fact, what’s marketing fiction, and so on. 

So we asked Woodstock Vitamins founder and practicing holistic pharmacist of 20 years, Dr. Neal Smoller, for the run-down on the California law. Keep reading to learn from the wise-cracking Wellness Wizard about the good, the bad, and the ugly of Prop 65. 

And, of course, why it’s quite alright to use our collagen peptides despite that ghastly warning…

In This Article:

What is Prop 65? 

Proposition 65 — one of the many controversial components of California’s legislative landscape.

We like to think of this humble law as the state’s guardian angel who means well but is easily spooked. The proposition requires all manufacturers selling in the Golden State to alert consumers to the potential dangers lurking in their everyday products.

So, in 1986, Prop 65 set in motion two things: a new convention for labeling practices in California, and a new standard for acceptable levels of carcinogenic components.

The Prop 65 limits for heavy metals in supplements, for example, are as follows:

In its most shining form, the goal of Prop 65 is simply to make sure shoppers in Cali are informed and making empowered purchases.

In practice, however, the overwhelming amount of information made available by Prop 65 has caveats that have garnered criticism. One being that the limits to toxin exposure are in amount per day — neither amount per serving nor cumulative exposure are factored in.

That, and the fact that these standards are comparatively aggressive. (Key word being comparatively.)

Alongside the standards set by the United States Pharmacopeia (USP), a government organization, and the trade organization called American Herbal Products Association (AHPA), Prop 65’s decrees don’t seem so strict!

Except for lead — Prop 65 has a lead risk level that is 12-20 times lower than what other groups have set. Is that an issue?

In our industry-informed and health-forward opinion, no. There’s nothing wrong with wanting less exposure to heavy metals, especially during pregnancy!  

But, when it comes to critiquing Prop 65, there are a few aspects of the Haterade upon which we will sip.

Prop 65: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Good

Prop 65 provides unparalleled transparency for consumers.

Ingredient and compound quality information should be accessible to all humans who eat, drink, breathe, or otherwise ingest these products — no ifs, ands, or buts.

It’s important to understand what is going into your body, especially if you’re building up the foundation of your wellness.

The Bad

Prop 65 requires a notice, not transparency.

Wait, what? Are we contradicting ourselves? Very well then — we contain multivitamins and multitudes.

Prop 65 does alert consumers to the potential dangers hidden within, but it doesn’t actually offer the opportunity to build a true, apples-to-apples comparison of products or services. To do that, we’d need to see significantly more detail on those labels about how much of which compounds are detected.

Is it 10x the established safe harbor levels for lead? Is it slightly above the standard for cadmium exposure?

Without a Criminal Minds-level investigation into each product, we’ll never know.

The Ugly

The inundation of Prop 65 notices has numbed us.

For folks in California especially, the flood of identical labels slapped on everything from diesel engine exhaust to Starbucks Refreshers has, unsurprisingly, led to widespread desensitization.

For the rest of us outside of the Golden State, Prop 65 labels land in one of two ways:

  1. They stir up a tizzy of panic and confusion.
  2. They bounce off the concrete wall of our indifference.

The other ugly part? There are health and wellness brands out there that don’t give two hoots about violating the statutes of Prop 65. By creating special labels for sales in California and truncated labels for sales in other states, these ne’er-do-wells pirate profits from reputable companies all the time.

“Your collagen has a Prop 65 label, but theirs doesn’t — Woodstock Vitamins collagen must have higher levels of heavy metals!”

Yeah, that, or some supplement manufacturers aren’t playing by the rules.

Are Supplements with Prop 65 Labels Safe to Take? 

Yes, definitely. 

As counterintuitive as it may seem, supplements with a Prop 65 label might actually be safer to take than those without. That label, while pesky at times, means the manufacturer has quality at the forefront of their production process. 

But do your own vetting — as much as we’d like a black-and-white answer, we rarely get one in the wellness world. 

Some great companies have bad products; some bad companies have great reputations. Even bad companies can have a Prop 65 label on a product that’s safe, too! All these things can be true at once. 

With vast swaths of gray areas, label lies, and no comprehensive measure of quality in the wellness industry though — how does a health-conscious hero find supplements that are rigorously tested for purity and quality?

Our best answer is… You have to hunt them down. 

Look for verifiable transparency and unique quality markers that go above and beyond industry-laid standards. Here at Woodstock Vitamins, that looks like our Supplement Quality Standard, created by Dr. Neal. 

Learn More: Quantifying Quality | Dr. Neal Smoller

We don’t mean to toot our own horns, but our Supplement Quality Standard functions as both a framework for consumers to judge quality and a benchmark to push industry standards to higher, safer, and healthier levels. 

Are There Heavy Metals in Woodstock Vitamins Collagen? 

YES! 

We’re not exclaiming because we’re excited about heavy metals, we’re exclaiming because we’re committed to keeping it real — even if it means contradicting every marketing tactic in the playbook. 

Here’s the skinny: All beef-based collagen powders will have levels of heavy metals that necessitate a Prop 65 label. 

Our collagen in particular is one of the cleanest options for modern consumers, but what really sets it apart is that we’re constantly improving our supplements and formulas. 

Case in point: Our current collagen has a lower heavy metal amount than our last!

When Dr. Neal has time to develop the next set — in between educating the masses and making waves in the wellness industry — you can bet your buttons it’ll be better than the current version, too. 

Woodstock Vitamins Collagen: An In-Depth Look

It’s one thing to say our collagen is one of the best on the market, and it’s another to prove it. So let’s get real, real transparent with our current lot of protein-packed peptides. 

4/6/23 Analysis of Collagen Peptides Lot 04CH2000035

The image below is cut and pasted directly from a lab analysis conducted just a few weeks ago. 

As requested by Dr. Neal, this is the second analysis of the finished product, and the third analysis all together if you include the one provided by the raw material supplier. 

But before you frantically scroll back to the Prop 65 or USP safe levels graphs above, keep in mind that PPB is not the same as micrograms per day (mcg). 

Some supplement manufacturers and wellness companies will bank on the fact that most consumers won’t understand the numbers and acronyms littering the graphs provided. That’s not the case here. 

Instead, we’re going to translate the above analysis into real-world numbers. We know that what matters is how much of a heavy metal you’re being exposed to with each dose — that’s how you’ll be able to calculate your daily exposure. 

Bottom line: Our collagen peptides are adorned with a Prop 65 label solely because the lead content of one serving is slightly higher than the ultra-aggressive reproductive toxicant level set by California. 

Essentially, you could eat a full 6 servings of Woodstock Vitamins collagen peptides before you bump up against the considerably meticulous AHPA guidelines for heavy metals. 

Please don’t do that, though. 

OMG, Am I Exceeding My Daily Heavy Metals Exposure Limit?!?!

Feeling panicked about the heavy metals that may or may not be accumulating in your body? You’re not alone! 

One of the exclamations we hear most often goes to the tune of: “Oh crap, there are daily limits?! How do I know if I’m going over?”

The first step is to not take more than 5 servings a day of our collagen peptides. Pretty easy, actually. 

The second step is to take a good, long look at your supplement cabinet because there’s a reason Dr. Neal has long promoted moderation in, well, everything! There are dangers inherent to taking too many supplements.

One that is rarely thought of is the total exposure to contaminants — naturally occurring or otherwise — over time. 

You can (and probably should) evaluate the types of foods you eat and the products you ingest to determine what your real exposure is.  This requires 3 things:

  1. Transparency.
  2. A calculator.
  3. A sh*tload of patience.

How Do Heavy Metals Get in Supplements?

But wait, let’s wind it back a little bit. How did all these heavy metals get into your supplements in the first place? Have foods, supplements, tap water, etc., always been this toxic? 

Yes and no.

Heavy metals are natural elements — they’re a part of our world just as much as the bees and wildflowers we cherish so much this time of year. Because of this, or perhaps in spite of it, no one is immune to heavy metal exposure and accumulation. 

At the same time, though, most exposure to heavy metals results from human-centric endeavors — mining, industrial production like coal-burning power plants and petroleum combustion, agricultural activities, and so on.

Sure, a volcanic eruption can crank up heavy metals exposure levels, but mostly, this is happening because we’ve torched the planet. 

From the 1950s onward, we humans seemed to think, “Hey, our backyards and lakes are a great place to put all this toxic waste we’ve been creating!” 

As a result, we have acid rain, pollution, and increased heavy metal contamination in basically everything we eat or put in our bodies. 

Being Transparent Shouldn’t Hurt Us

It bears repeating that being radically transparent could make people avoid our products. 

“That Neal guy’s got lead in his product! Run away!!!!”

But we’re willing to risk it because even the most scrupulous of research deep-dives into different collagen options won’t yield accurate results for consumers.

Here’s why:

A. There are products that are collagen in name only.

  1. Bone broth collagen technically has collagen, but it is not nearly as concentrated as collagen peptides — don’t fall for this clever phrasing. 
  2. All marine or chicken sources will have lower collagen amounts, and therefore lower amounts of heavy metals — it’s not an accurate comparison.  

B. Plus, Prop 65 is just one piece of the puzzle.

  1. While a product may have nearly no lead, it could still have greater heavy metal content than would normally be acceptable — without transparency from the manufacturer, you’ll probably never know. 
  2. Prop 65 is just one set of standards set by one state — consumers need to compare numbers against other standard bodies alongside Prop 65. 

As consumers, we need to get a lot better at math, research, and data analysis to truly understand what we’re putting into our bodies. 

But, if you ask us, it shouldn’t be that difficult. 

So we’re willing to share the nitty-gritty details about our collagen peptides and various products, in the hopes that our small acts of rebellion will begin to turn the tides of the supplements industry.  

The Woodstock Vitamins Commitment 

Luckily, our team is led by a purity pit bull — voraciously working towards elevated standards and education in the industry and beyond. Hence the Supplement Quality Standards that other manufacturers might call overkill.

Because, when it comes to your health and well-being, we don’t think anything is overkill.

Click around to learn more about the Woodstock Vitamins standard and Dr. Neal’s holistic approach to wellness, or hop on a Counterside Consult to discuss the intricacies of your supplement strategy — Prop 65 labels and all.

Hello there, fellow supplement enthusiasts!

Today we’re tackling an issue that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time (or, you know, since the invention of supplements): to toss or not to toss expired vitamins.

That is the question! It’s a dilemma that we’ve all faced. You come across a bottle of lord-knows-what that expired three years ago, and you’re left wondering if it’s still okay to put in your body.

Do you risk it and hope for the best? Do you toss it and waste your hard-earned money?

Fear not, dear readers. With Dr. Neal and his 20+ years of clinical experience guiding the way, we’re going to navigate the murky waters of supplement expiration dates. Keep reading for the ins and outs of legalities, potencies, and standards — or lack thereof — in the supplement industry.

In This Article:

Are Supplement Expiration Dates Essential or Just a Myth?

Counter question: Did you know that supplement manufacturers aren’t legally required to put an expiration date on the bottle?

All they have to do is slap on a manufacturing date and call it a day.

Accurate supplement expiration dates require tedious and expensive tests to be determined, so most manufacturers simply don’t. They’ve got bills to pay and brand accounts to curate — can we blame them? 

That doesn’t mean expiration dates are meaningless, though, despite the lack of meaningful regulation around supplement production quality. 

When it comes down to it, the answer is nuanced. Expired vitamins and supplements won’t turn you into a radioactive spider, probably, but it’s not the best idea to take them after their expiration date. 

Why? Because supplements do, in fact, lose potency over time. 

The Battle of Potency Decline vs. Expiration Dates

If there’s one thing to know about vitamin expiration dates, it’s that they are actually a guideline for potency. 

Most supplements will start to lose potency over time — even more rapidly if they’re stored improperly. So if a supplement label claims to contain 250mg of magnesium, it is legally required to contain 100% of that claim until the expiration date. 

To complicate things further, some companies will put more of the respective compound in their formulas just for good measure. That’s right: the regulations don’t swing both ways. If a supplement contains 99% potency, it’s considered expired, but if it contains 105%, it’s good to go. 

And if you’re thinking that this sounds like it could be troubling for those with sensitivities to certain vitamins and whole-food compounds, you’re absolutely right. 

In comparison to the pharmaceutical industry, supplement regulations are loose at best. If you want supplements that are what they say they are and do what they say they do, the burden of quality vetting rests on your shoulders. 

(Now’s probably a good time for a bone-building supplement if you’re going to be carrying all that weight, right?) 

Can Supplement Quality Markers be More Useful than Expiration Dates?

So the supplement industry is like the Wild West, wrought with weak standards, warring opinions, and weaponized trends. 

We’re all just cowboys out here, trying to find the best supplements for our trusty steeds — AKA our bodies — without breaking the bank. Throw in all this nonsense about expiration dates vs. manufacturer dates, and it quickly becomes a confusing landscape of hype and misinformation. 

So, let’s cut through the overwhelm: The true measure of a supplement’s effectiveness, safety, and potency lies in its overall quality. 

A supplement or vitamin’s overall quality encompasses a wide range of factors, from sourcing to ingredient purity. In fact, if you focus solely on the expiration date, you’ll be missing a lot of important considerations in your decision-making process. 

Cheap, low-quality supplements might last longer on your shelf but can contain fillers, additives, or ineffective forms of vitamins that our bodies struggle to absorb.

Conversely, a supplement with a shorter lifespan might be a knock-out for quality and provide better, more tangible benefits. 

When it comes to choosing the right supplements for you, then, you should look at expiration dates as just one piece of the puzzle. For ultimate confidence in your supplement purchasing, you should look at the whole picture, including ingredient purity, third-party testing, and manufacturing standards. 

Learn More: Supplement Spring Cleaning in 4 Simple Steps

The Woodstock Standard 

We don’t like to toot our own horn very often, but when it comes to sharing the 20+ years of boots-on-the-ground experience and research prowess of our founder, Dr. Neal…

Toot-freaking-toot. 

Our Supplement Quality Standard, AKA the Woodstock bible, was developed by Dr. Neal after decades of working one-on-one with patients as a holistic pharmacist. The four components — science, compliance, virtues, and value — aren’t just fancy buzzwords, they’re the backbone of our mission. 

That’s why, when it comes to evaluating our supplement formulas, for example, we use third-party testing to ensure a blue-ribbon type of quality.

Then, because the voraciously curious Dr. Neal is rarely satisfied with just a blue ribbon, we test it again ourselves.

So your vitamin vetting doesn’t have to be all doom, gloom, and endless research! We’re here to bring a little sunshine and some rebellious Woodstock spirit to the supplement game. 

How? By providing direct, actionable advice for all the wellness-inclined folk of the world — via our Counterside Consults, for example. Jump-start your wellness practices there, and ask Dr. Neal all the lingering questions you may have about supplement expiration dates, quality markers, and the like.