It started in 1992 with the USANA^® Essentials—antioxidants in optimal doses—and continues to Olivol^® and self-preserving skin care and Nutritional Hybrid Technology and the True Health Assessment and USANA MySmartFoods. And we’re missing almost as many as we listed.

Who are the people behind USANA’s expertise:

Kevin Spelman

The PhD that follows Kevin Spelman’s name already says a lot. Those three letters represent a rarified level of knowledge. But painting a full picture of the expertise of USANA’s executive vice president of research and development requires much more.

Kevin Spelman, PhD, post-doctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health, Marie Curie fellow in the European Union, former advisor to the White House Commission of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, publisher of 27 scientific papers, and 30-year veteran of the natural-products industry.

We sat down with Dr. Spelman to find out more about him, the amazing team of scientists at USANA, and what innovation means to him.

When did you know you wanted to be a scientist?

Early on, as a young child. I can’t give you an age. I was always interested in the way things worked. I was especially interested in biology, the wonderment of life. This sometimes got me in trouble with my parents. I once built an ant farm in the bathtub when I was quite young.

What was it about biology that sparked some inspiration for you?

Life is juicy. For me, chemistry was fascinating, but too dry. Biology gave chemistry meaning to me. I’m just fascinated by life, whether it’s social structures, the xenohormetic physiological cues from our surrounding environment, the molecular pathways of our bodies’ web of life, or the network nature of ecology. I’m fascinated by all of it, particularly on a molecular level. I tend to think on a molecular level, as well as from the 30,000-foot view.

Why did you want to focus on nutrition?

My own health, actually. I was frequently ill as a child. In my early 20s, I started really getting interested in what type of foods I was eating and the impact it was having on me. It made a huge difference in my health and made me understand that there was much more to health than what our medical community knew.

You have so much amazing experience. What made you choose USANA?

Honestly, Dr. Wentz. Seeing that USANA really is based in science—and everybody says that—but USANA really came from a scientist’s conception of wanting to improve human health. After hearing Dr. Wentz’ story, he won me over.

What do you think sets USANA apart scientifically?

The quality of our R&D team. We have some very thoughtful and critically thinking scientists in the R&D department that really want the very best for every product that goes out. I’ve been in natural products for 30 years. It is unfortunate that R&D teams are more than occasionally an illusory part of supplement companies. Our R&D team is real, hardcore, and well-funded. We spend a lot of resources getting everything just right. The fact that we have pharmaceutical-grade GMPs was another thing that won me over. I thought to myself, “USANA is really serious about their quality control.” Our QC is just spot-on in terms of pharmaceutical GMPs. I think those are the things that really set us apart.

Why is it so important to ground our products in scientific research and not just chase trends?

We’re not a member of the molecule of the month club. We want something real. We want something that’s going to last. We want something that’s really going to improve people’s health over long-term use. Trends often don’t do that.

Rachel A. Brewer, PhD, senior scientist specializing in microbiome research

How did you start to add to the R&D team?

We started with a preexisting base of excellent scientists, so that was an important piece. Then we hunted for the brightest minds we could find. Since we already had a good foundation with some highly experienced and intelligent scientists, and then we added a microbiome expert to our R&D team, we have generated an extraordinary and exciting innovative potential.

What does Dr. Wentz’ vision mean to you?

It means that he’s really got his heart and his mind in the right place. He was innovative early on, in a way that nobody else was, and he took a chance, a risk, and it turned out to be the right thing to do. I think that’s one of the things I keep having to remind myself and the team is that we have to push our comfort level. Innovation is stepping into the unknown. We are not interested in “me too” products.

Why is innovation so important to you and to USANA?

I think because our Associates see that we are leading the way in nutritional science and they expect that. And the only way we’re going to continue to lead the way is to be innovative and to step into uncharted territory. It is my goal that USANA continues to disrupt the natural products industry by putting out novel products based on cutting-edge research in the nutritional sciences. We have everything in place to be 15 strides ahead of our competition.

Continuing the Legacy

It’s time to lengthen that timeline, because we aren’t done innovating.

We really just can’t help ourselves. Right now, in a building on the west side of Salt Lake City, another major evolution is in the works. And it’s a big one.

Do we know what it is? Sure we do. Have we been sworn to secrecy about it? You could say that. But we can tell you when it will be unveiled: August 25, 2016, at the USANA International Convention. See you there!

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Take a walk through the halls of USANA’s office in Salt Lake City, and you’ll see plenty of people in lab coats. Listen carefully and you’ll hear a strange language filled with mysterious words and phrases like mitophagy, glutathione reductase, oxidative phosphorylation, and nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor. Look around at some of the walls on the third floor. You’ll only see posters of scientific studies for decoration.

The coats aren’t a fashion statement. The scientific language isn’t a secret code. And the posters weren’t hung to create a particular feng shui. It’s just who USANA is, and we’re proud of it.

We Heart Science

We’ve been nerdy since ’92—way before it was cool. We can’t help it, and we don’t hide it. In fact, we embrace the scientific culture coded into our DNA. Science is literally in our name—USANA Health Sciences.

You’d expect nothing less from a company founded by a world-renowned microbiologist, Dr. Myron Wentz.

Why do we do what we do?

You aren’t born with the passion and vision required to alter the world. At 17, Dr. Wentz lost his father to heart disease. He was the first of many family members taken too soon by degenerative disease.

It was then Dr. Wentz decided to look for solutions in his other love—science, and developed his vision and dream of a world free from pain and suffering.

Dr. Wentz’ dreams of a world free from disease and believes the USANA family will be the healthiest family on earth.

“Share my vision. Love life and live it to its fullest in happiness and health.”

Our Scientific Method

Scientific innovation is work and time, trial and error, and an adherence to a standard set of steps—the hypothesizing and testing found in the scientific method.

We start in the pages of scientific literature, reading the current research. Kevin Spelman, PhD, USANA’s executive vice president of research and development, says our scientists also look at what innovative practitioners are doing, too.

After investigating the findings, a hypothesis is developed. That’s a familiar step. But the next step isn’t something you learned in middle-school science class.

“When we have that hypothesis, we’ll all put ourselves in a room and have a spirited debate on whether the model is accurate,” Spelman says.

From there, our scientists start to support the hypothesis or not. This could lead to a pilot study and further investigations by one of our research partners. The result of the testing either proves or disproves the hypothesis, and those results help shape our conclusions, which then develop the products you trust every day.

A Glimpse of the Future

Science is maybe the closest thing we have to real magic. Instead of pulling rabbits out of hats, scientists search the unknown, working to pull knowledge from nothingness. Our scientists continue to search the uncharted frontiers of nutritional science, discovering the next groundbreaking innovation that will brighten the future.

We are leaders in nutritional science. We are the healthiest family on earth. Science is a part of who we are. One of the most revolutionary changes are happening in our company! We can’t wait to share it with you at the 2016 USANA International Convention! See you there!

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Dr. Myron Wentz. Synonymous with scientific brilliance and the kind of disruptive innovation that accelerates the sluggish pace of science—and changes the lives of millions in the process.

Dr Wentz’ Vision

You aren’t born with the passion and vision required to alter the world. If only it were that simple. The creation of monumental change comes at monumental cost, too often paid in the currency of personal tragedy.

At 17, Dr. Wentz lost his father to heart disease. He was the first of many family members taken too soon by degenerative disease. These traumatic events forced a talented young musician named Myron Wentz to look for solutions in his other love—science.

Over the course of his life, these losses galvanised into a purpose-driven vision to improve the health of people all over the world, to save them from living too short and dying too long.

And that vision has made possible the long list of innovations and accomplishments listed next to Dr. Wentz’ name: internationally recognized microbiologist, pioneer in the development of human cell culture technology, developer of the first commercially available diagnostic test for the Epstein-Barr virus, and winner of the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences.

If you want to be the first to know about the biggest innovative changes happening in USANA, register for the 2016 International Convention today! We’re excited about what the future holds and can’t wait to share it with you.

https://www.usana.com/hub/#/content/InternationalConvention

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