Lester’s Oil is a new generation Omega-3, vitamin and antioxidant complex. That may sound like a mouthful, but it can be thought of as having all the benefits of fish oil, plus several other supplements all rolled into one. While not an exhaustive list, the benefits of Lester’s Oil include joint mobility, eye health, brain health, nervous system health and mood balance, immunity and heart health. Essentially, it has been formulated to greatly simplify your daily wellness regime, and to specifically address the common problems and risks associated with the ageing process.
While many of you know by now that Res-V Plus was a resveratrol based product that I came up with to help my mother, well before About Health existed, you won’t know the other formative About Health story. My father Lester passed away in 2009 after a short illness. Dad had put a lot of faith in the medical profession and was just beginning to learn about the benefits of certain supplements. He was very entrepreneurial (where I guess I get it from) and when I was in the hospital with him, I thought to myself that there must have been something that I could have done, if only I had more time, and if Dad had been willing. He died of pancreatic cancer; a very deadly and aggressive form of cancer that conventional medical wisdom suggests is invariably fatal. There is more to this story, but that can wait until another day.
Where it all began...
In 2007 I started reading about vitamin D. I had been using it for quite some time myself (about 4 years), and I also had my mother on it (she now uses Lester’s Oil). Vitamin D is currently the subject of a huge amount of research; it is associated with immunity, and one study, involving thousands of participant, suggested that those with the highest vitamin D levels had the lowest rate of death from all causes, over a period of several years. Vitamin D deficiency is very widespread; not in a small part due to the ‘campaign against the sun’ fought by the cancer society. This message has now been moderated and it is no longer the sun that is the great enemy, but sun burn. Vitamin D is obtained from certain foods but is mainly formed when sun falls on our skin. The formula behind Lester’s oil started with Vitamin D, but as with all our products, we like to have multiple ingredients and therefore multiple benefits in each formula. This simplifies things considerably for our customers (less pills to swallow each day) and it greatly reduces the cost.
Supporting your good health can be as easy as 1, 2, 3!
When I bought my ex business partner out of About Health in late 2010, I decided that About Health should have three products that I consider the ‘core’ of a daily wellness regime. Firstly there is Res-V (Plus or Ultimate) that provides super concentrated extracts of herbs renowned for their health benefits; secondly, Multiva, our multivitamin mineral and nutrient formula, formulated specifically for New Zealanders to address deficiencies in our soils and therefore, our food; and thirdly, Lester's Oil - an Omega-3 essential fatty acid formula. Omega-3 from concentrated fish oil is the second ingredient of Lester’s Oil.
There has been a huge amount of research on Omega-3’s - at least 17,000 studies. They are known as essential fatty acids (EFAs) as our bodies cannot make them therefore we have to get them from our diet. The typical western diet has moved more towards grains and away from fish, and this has dramatically upset the balance between Omega-6’s and Omega-3’s in our diets.
Research suggests that ideally the ratio should be 1:1, but in reality that ratio is estimated at around 7:1. This imbalance may be part of the reason that supplementation with Omega-3’s, by helping to correct the imbalance, has been associated with so many health benefits in humans.
These benefits include heart health - support for healthy cholesterol levels and normal blood pressure; brain, mood, and mobility to name just a few. Formulating is a complex process, and I prefer to draw upon the expertise of professionals in their fields. In the case of Lester’s oil, I have called upon Dr Laurence Eyres. I first met Laurence at Auckland University when I asked them to develop a consistent lab test for the resveratrol we used in Res-V Plus. Laurence is considered an expert of oils and fats; in fact when consumer magazine did their review of the quality of fish oils on the NZ market, they asked Laurence to do this. He was indeed the perfect person to assist with the oil side of our formulation, as well as assisting with stability testing under laboratory conditions (before we made the first production run we made a sample batch and put it through accelerated aging tests).
The third ingredient is called Coenzyme Q10, or CoQ10 for short. It is a vitamin-like substance that is found in every cell in the body, but concentrated in the heart, kidney and liver cells. It is primarily found in the mitochondria of cells (cellular power plants!) CoQ10 is extremely popular as a supplement in its own right, but it is included in Lester’s Oil for its benefits for heart health, brain health and energy. Many people who use it report a real boost in their energy levels, especially people on statin drugs (drugs to lower your cholesterol).
A side effect of statin drugs is the inability of the body to synthesis CoQ10. The next two ingredients are Lutein and Zeaxanthin (usually used together) which are substances found in the human eye. Supplementation has been shown to assist with eye health as we age. Lastly, is a rising star of the supplement world, astaxanthin. I believe astaxanthin will become better known in years to come as it is being researched for a very wide range of benefits - from eye health, to brain health, to mobility. Astaxanthin is one of the most powerful antioxidants known, and is also being studies for its ability to prevent fish oil from oxidising (going off). We source our astaxanthin from an NZ supplier. My hope is that you will see that the above list of ingredients and partial list of benefits goes well beyond most fish oil supplements available on the market today.
Lester’s Oil is the formula I wish I could have given to my father in the years before he passed away. While there are no guarantees in life, I firmly believe that supplements can increase our chances of living longer, healthier lives. Daniel King
