Glucotor-2,
An Interview with Jon Barron

Jon Barron is certainly closely connected with Baseline Nutritionals. After all, he designs all our formulas for us. But with his schedule (he’s been flying all over the country consulting for a number of major international corporations lately), he often has most of his contact with us by phone and email. It’s a treat for us too when we can get him to sit down and chat with us for awhile.

Recently, we got him to sit down and talk about some changes coming to the Glucotor-2 formula. We thought you’d find it interesting too, so here’s a transcription of that interview.

Jon Barron on the New Glucotor-2

BN (Baseline Nutritionals): Glucotor-2 has been out less than a year but is already one of the biggest selling products that Baseline Nutritionals carries. When a product is that successful and is liked by so many people, why would you look to reformulate it so soon?

Jon: There are a couple of reasons. First, that’s what I do. I’m always looking to improve the efficacy of my formulas. But beyond that, Glucotor-2 is a special case. Unlike many of the other formulas that I’ve created which tend to support long-term health, Glucotor-2 is a very specific formula that is designed to improve the body’s ability to metabolize sugar and starch from the day you start taking it. It either works or it doesn’t for any particular individual, and you can measure the results very quickly if you’re monitoring your blood sugar on a regular basis.

BN: Yes, we’ve heard from several hundred of our customers about how it’s lowered their Ac1 numbers dramatically.

Jon: Yes, but we’ve also heard from other customers that it hasn’t helped at all. I realize that nothing works for everyone, but as a formulator, you never like to hear that something you created didn’t work for someone. Statistically, we’ve seen that Glucotor-2 works for about 82% of the people who use it. That means that it doesn’t seem to work for about 18% of the people who try it.

BN: But isn’t an 82% success rate for a supplement actually quite huge?

Jon: From a business point of view, it probably is. I know most drug companies would love that kind of success, particularly for a formula that has no known side effects. But from a human point of view, that’s no consolation to the 18% whom it doesn’t help and who have to live with elevated blood sugar levels or rely on medication with its severe side effects just to survive. To me, an 18% failure rate is not acceptable in human terms so I wanted to see if we could cut that number.

BN: You’ve already done that to some degree with the advice you’ve given our customer service department, right?

Jon: Yes, we found that some of those 18% can get Glucotor-2 to work for them if they remove it from the capsules and have it with a little applesauce. The problem is that many people, particularly as they get older have burned out their ability to produce stomach acid. That’s the whole thing of not having enough live enzymes in your food so that you overcompensate by pumping out excess stomach acid for years. After doing that for too many years, though, you blow out your ability to produce stomach acid. Then not only can’t you produce it at elevated levels, but you can’t even produce it at moderate levels. Once you get to that point, you no longer have enough stomach acid to easily break down capsules – either gel or vegetarian. It then takes so long to break down the capsules that the fibers in Glucotor can’t get in place soon enough to block the carbohydrate receptor sites, and the formula won’t work for you. By taking the formula outside of the capsules, you bypass that problem.

And for some people, we’ve actually found that the formula works better if you take it after you eat, not before.

BN: And what percentage do those adjustments work for?

Jon: Probably about 30-40% of those who were having a problem. But that still leaves 10-12% for whom Glucotor-2 doesn’t work.

BN: So what did you do to improve the formula and help those people?

Jon: If you’ve been following the news for the past 12-18 months, you’ve probably noticed that cinnamon is getting a lot of press as the latest miracle herb to help with blood sugar. And, in truth, it’s actually pretty remarkable. The great thing about cinnamon is that it works in an entirely different way than any of the other ingredients in Glucotor-2. It operates at the cellular and molecular levels. It actually works to make the insulin receptor sites on your individual body cells more receptive. If you have enough cinnamon every day, you can actually increase your body’s insulin response threefold. That’s 300%, and that’s a big deal.

BN: So did you add cinnamon to the formula?

Jon: I’ve actually looked at the possibility of including cinnamon in the Glucotor formula for several years now, but as it turns out it’s not really practical. You need anywhere from ½ to 1 heaping teaspoon a day. That could be as many as 18 capsules a day – just for cinnamon. Also, when you start taking cinnamon at those levels, it has potential side effects. It can cause bronchial constriction, skin rashes, and inflammation. Cinnamon really isn’t practical for most people as a sugar management supplement.

BN: So what alternative do you have? Is it possible to identify the active ingredient?

Jon: Yes, but interestingly enough, it was misidentified at first. Originally, researchers thought the active ingredient was something called MHCP, methylhydoxychalcone polymer, and in fact, a number of companies came out with supplements based on that biochemical. If you search on the net, you’ll find dozens of formulas that use MHCP.

BN: But you said “misidentified.” Does that mean that MHCP doesn’t really help control blood sugar levels?

Jon: That’s right. As it turns out, MHCP is not the active component in cinnamon. And that, of course, is one of the reasons I tend to be very careful about using isolates in my formulas. They often tend to be the wrong component, or an incomplete fraction. On the other hand, if you can actually get an isolate that’s proven to be the active component(s), then that allows you to concentrate the benefits to a phenomenal degree. It can be very powerful. The trick is you’ve got to be sure. If you’re going to use isolates, they really need to be clinically tested.

BN: So what is the right component?

Jon: Interestingly enough, it was identified by the United States Department of Agriculture laboratories. It’s a water soluble Type A polyphenol polymer. They licensed it to a commercial company, and it’s sold under the name Cinnulin PF.

BN: Is it as effective as cinnamon?

Jon: It’s actually more effective. As I mentioned before, cinnamon can increase insulin sensitivity threefold; but studies have shown that Cinnulin can increase insulin sensitivity twenty fold. In other words, it can improve the efficiency of insulin in Type 2 diabetics (and pre-diabetics) by some 2,000%. That’s huge. And it’s the only cinnamon derivative that’s clinically tested and validated. As I said before, if you’re going to use isolates, they absolutely must be clinically tested. And the great thing about Cinnulin is that it was tested and proven by the USDA. And, as an added bonus, it also has no known side-effects. The bottom line is that you get 20 times the benefit of cinnamon itself with no side effects and a whole lot more convenience.

BN: Doesn’t it also have cardiovascular benefits?

Jon: Yes, absolutely. In addition to helping lower blood sugar levels, Cinnulin has been shown to help significantly lower LDL cholesterol and triglycerides.

BN: I can see why you wanted to add it to the Glucotor-2 formula.

Jon: Yes, but there were two problems we had to work around. First, I didn’t want to compromise what we already knew worked by lowering any of the other active ingredients in the formula. We only needed 50 mg of Cinnulin in each capsule, but that represents 10% by weight of a 500 mg capsule. If we reduced one of the other active ingredients by 10%, we risked compromising its effectiveness.

BN: So how did you get around that?

Jon: Very cleverly [Jon chuckles]. We worked with the encapsulator to see if we could “overstuff” the capsule. For the Glucotor, we use what’s called an “0” size capsule, which can hold 350-500 mg of ingredients. I didn’t want to go to a larger “00” size capsule because it can be harder for some people to swallow. Anyway, after a lot of trial and error (and changing how we ground and blended the formula), we found we could get the equipment to fill the “0” caps with 550 mg of formula. In other words, we were able to add the Cinnulin without having to change anything else in the formula. It took several months to work that problem out.

BN: You mentioned there were two problems.

Jon: Yes, Cinnulin is a very expensive ingredient. Adding just 50 mg to each capsule increases the raw cost of the formula by close to 30%.

BN: That’s a huge increase.

Jon: Yes, and as you know, because you were involved in those discussions, that presented a significant problem because I was adamant that we not increase the cost of the product to the customer. Too many people depend on this formula in a critical way. For those who need it, this is not an optional formula. I didn’t want to make it unaffordable for the people who depend on it. Of course, as you will also remember, we discussed an option to raising the price, and that was to keep the price the same, but cut the number of capsules in the bottle. But to my mind, that amounted to the same thing as raising the price, and as I said, I didn’t want to do that with Glucotor-2. I absolutely would consider it for some of the other formulas if needed, but not the Glucotor.

BN: Yes, I remember those discussions.

Jon: In the end, we settled on carrying Glucotor-2 as almost a loss leader for the time being – counting on larger volumes to reduce our ingredient costs in the not too distant future.

BN: Yes, as you pointed out to us, our volumes are growing rapidly enough that there’s a good chance we will be able to order the Cinnulin, and all of the other ingredients in the formula, in sufficient quantities to bring our costs back into line by the end of the year. Until then, holding the price at $49.95 a bottle is our gift to our customers. So when will the new version of the formula be available?

Jon: We were originally geared up to have everything in place to release the new formula around July 1st, but your customers cleaned out your entire inventory of the old formula in the last week in April – three months ahead of schedule. We didn’t want to run another batch of the old formula, because that would have delayed by several months our ability to make the new formula available. Instead, I called in favors from our ingredient suppliers and encapsulators to expedite production of the new formula. We don’t have a hard and fast date yet because this is an emergency run they’re doing for us (and we’re still working out the final details on adjusting the encapsulating equipment so we can “overstuff” the capsules and fit everything in, but we’re hoping to have the new and improved Glucotor-2 available sometime in early May.

BN: So how much better is the new version of the formula?

Jon: If Glucotor-2 already works for you, you won’t notice any difference taking the new formula. The difference will be for those who are not seeing benefits with the current version. I know nothing works for everyone, but I’m hoping we can move the efficacy rate up close to 95% with the new version of the formula. If we can do that, that would be exciting. That would make it all worthwhile.

BN: One last question. I know you and Kristen do not have sugar problems, but you use Glucotor-2 every day. Why?

Jon: The Glucotor formula is not just for people who have problems. It’s also valuable for people who want to prevent them. And, as I’ve discussed in other newsletters, it can play a significant anti-aging role. Kristen and I use Glucotor-2 to minimize any damage that might occur in our bodies as the result of protein cross-linking caused by excess sugar in the blood. We think of it as a life extension formula.

BN: Thanks, Jon. I know we’re all looking forward to being able to use the new and improved version of Glucotor-2

THE ABOVE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS INGREDIENT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE, OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE.