Introduction
"I had looked at a lot of things in the women's health area, and felt that the marketing opportunity was substantial," Oliva said. "The product clearly worked based on the clinical data - and you had a strong and dynamic leadership team."* quercetin 600 mgScherl became the company's president; Jaensch, its CEO. The pair named the new venture Semprae Laboratories Inc., and moved its offices to Saddle Brook. They launched a major overhaul of the product - a topically applied blend of botanical oils - and developed a new flavor, package, website and message.Stock your shelves with minerals. Mineral-containing water is like bugs and sunlight, essential for our survival and usually overlooked, even though life emerged from the mineral-rich sea and all biology remains tied to it. One practical, inexpensive, in-home source of two minerals, magnesium and sulfur, is Epsom salts. Don't use salt baths only for the occasional strained muscle; consider them a mineral source worth soaking in to help relieve the muscle aches of cold and flu symptoms. Just as salts leave the skin in the form of sweat, they can enter the body through the skin.by Ingrid kohlstadt MD, MPHThe company's marketing events also are a major platform to push its drug.Most drugs languish in
medicine cabinets simply because people don't know how to properly dispose of them. Many hesitate to flush pills down the toilet for fear of contaminating the water supply, while others worry that trashed medications will fall into the hands of children or criminals. By participating in National Take-Back Day, citizens gained peace of mind knowing that their medications would be turned over to law enforcement for safe disposal.Storage conditions matter. While most medications if kept in a cool, dry place are adequately potent beyond the labeled date, products not stored under these conditions expire sooner. Sometimes overlooked conditions include: products stored in a bathroom used for steamy showers; added to a day bag left in a hot car; or kept in a kitchen cabinet over the stove. Heat and moisture cause damage.9. Phytonutrient CapsulesThough a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed 43 percent of women reported sexual dysfunction, the market for female sexual enhancement products is virtually empty, while the male medicine cabinet is stocked with options like Viagra or Cialis.Start an autumnal equinox ritual: check your medicine cabinet by September 22 each year. Use your cabinet to prepare for the cold and flu season. Even better, include prevention. Here's a 10-item list to assist you in your new celestially linked tradition.Semprae has yet to reach turn a profit, but the owners hope to reach that benchmark next year. They now have 10 fulltime employees and 1 part-timer, as well as two full-time consultants. They're also working on different flavor and viscosity adjustments to Zestra, and an airless pump bottle version. Semprae also seeks other products to fold into its channel.So when a struggling startup called the pair in the spring of 2008, seeking help selling Zestra - its over-the-counter female arousal product - the pair instantly knew there was potential.So now that you have cleared the medicine cabinet, what should you put in? If you don't live in the tropics, stock bottled sunlight, so to speak. Vitamin D helps the body resist cold symptoms. At the first sign of cold symptoms, some people reach for their vitamin D supplements, taking 3000 IU a day for 3 days. The science of immune-system benefits from vitamin D may be new, but the benefits of heliotherapy (harnessing the sun's energy for vitamin D synthesis) for fighting infections dates back centuries.Also keep in mind that the first cranial nerve which "hardwires" our sense of smell is especially vulnerable to any chemicals entering the nostrils and sinuses, even if we are too congested at the time to notice the chemicals.The equinox is also the time to reinitiate a vitamin D supplement, since in most of the US the sun's ultraviolet light no longer has enough punch by October. You can store the vitamin D summer harvest. However, safe summer sun exposure and supplementation alone are not always sufficient to sustain vitamin D in the 32-60 ng/ml range associated with optimal cold and flu-fighting health. Adding viramin D to a midwinter blood draw may be prudent for prevention.Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are her own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the FDA.Stepping up efforts to combat prescription drug abuse in America, the Office of National Drug Control Policy recently released the 2010 National Drug Control Strategy, which outlined plans for "curbing prescription drug abuse by. . .encouraging community prescription take-back initiatives... [and] recommending disposal methods to remove unused medications from the home...." In support of the plan, the National Sheriffs' Association, National Association of Triads, and a total of 2,992 state and local law enforcement agencies took part in the first-ever U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration-coordinated National Take-Back Day. Hailed by DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart a "stunning nationwide success," the September 25 event netted more than 121 tons of medication from 4,094 nationwide collection sites, where citizens were encouraged to turn over expired and unneeded medications of all types, no questions asked.Some probiotics, oils, and nutritional supplements require refrigeration upon opening. So in a practical way, your refrigerator should be part of your medicine cabinet. Go beyond that and include healing foods. Elderberry and blueberry juices have antiviral activity, and only a small amount of sugar. Drink two 4-ounce glasses (diluted to 8 ounces) daily with the onset of cold symptoms. Ginger rood stored in the freezer can be easily grated to make tea or flavor food, to help reduce cold symptoms. Greens improve the body's acid--base balance, critical to fighting viruses and bacteria. Alternatives to fresh greens are herbs, frozen wheat grass juice, and unsweetened powdered greens drinks. Keep oral rehydration salts on hand as well, or some frozen homemade chicken soup.The product comes in discreet packaging, and saves the customers the trouble of going to the store for a refill. It also means an automatic repeat customer, unless the customer cancels online, though Jaensch and Scherl believe most women won't: In a clinical trial, 70 percent of participants reported increased sexual satisfaction.Salt-containing nasal sprays are a good choice for early signs of cold. Keep several on hand because they should be used by only one person and only for a few days.E-mail to:
jkaltwasser@njbiz.com6. Probiotics Especially for ChildrenOils of mint, eucalyptus, lemongrass, and other plants can be applied to the skin or added to water for steam inhalation. I recommend plant oils over petroleum derivatives such as Vaseline, Vicks VapoRub, and A D ointment (named for the fat-soluble vitamins that it contains), because we take in the oil-based plant nutrients through skin and linings.Ingrid Kohlstadt, MD, MPH, is an FDA Commissioner's Fellow, using diet to improve drug safety. She has been elected a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and is an associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She is the founder and chief medical officer of INGRIDients Inc., editing Food and Nutrients in Disease Management (CRC Press, 2009) and Scientific Evidence for Musculoskeletal, Bariatric and Sports Nutrition (CRC Press, 2006).Clark County alone set up five dropoff points. During the four-hour event, Lieutenant Donald Lucas of the Law Enforcement Division and Sergeant Ralph Underwood of the Community Services Division collected 4,600 bottles containing 25,000 pills. "Eight hundred and two people came out to our five locations, and the community was very pleased. I received phone messages saying how courteous the deputies were," said Sheriff Kelly.Certain seemingly innocuous overthe-counter (OTC) medications also represent a cheap, easy-to-obtain high for young abusers. Five percent of teenagers recently surveyed admitted to having experimented with OTC cough suppressants in the past year. Remedies such as Robitussin contain the active ingrethent dextromethorphan (DXM), which, while safe and effective when used as directed, can cause seizures, brain damage, or even death if taken in excess. Typically, young "syrup heads" chug 25 to 50 times the recommended dose to achieve the effects DXM produces.2. Pediatric Acetaminophen-Containing ProductsOliva, who also serves on Semprae's board, said she's pleased with the company's direction.* olive leaf extract, 500 mg"They've come up with the right positioning for the product, the right messaging," she said. "With limited dollars, they're really focused in their targeting" of customers.So how do you safely discard medications? Flushing them down the toilet prevents unintentional ingestion or later untoward uses, but it also can present an environmental hazard. One choice is to return them to the pharmacy where they were purchased. Another choice, depending on the medication, is to discard them in the trash out of harmful reach. Keep in mind that some medications, especially those with abuse potential, have an illegal market and a following of enterprising scavengers.Jaensch and Scherl, who both got their start in pharmaceuticals, were partners at the time at their own marketing and consulting firm, The Jannick G roup/ SPARK Solutions for Growth. They were impressed by the product, but the company that made it - South Carolina-based Zestra Laboratories - was collapsing under a heap of debt brought on by an over-the-top, underperforming commercialization strategy.Jaensch and Scherl also redesigned the company's distribution model, de-emphasizing retail sales - though the product is still on shelves at places like Walmart and Rite Aid - in favor of Internet-based sales, emphasizing an automatic refill model. Customers who purchase Zestra online receive 12 single-use packages of the product; every two months, another 12 automatically are delivered.
by Ingrid kohlstadt MD, MPH
Author: Ingrid Kohlstadt
