Ian Tracton from Interclinical Laboratories fills NTPagesTV roving reporter Kat Tate in on their range of nutritional supplements, some of which look to have impressive credentials as a superfood. Other elements on show include a heavy metal testing kit and a hair tissue mineral analysis service.
You can see the written transcription of the interview below.
Natural Therapy Pages: I'm Kat from NTPagesTV, and I'm here with Ian from Interclinical Laboratories. How are you, Ian?
Ian Tracton: Hi Kat, how's it going today?
NTP: I'm well. How's the expo going for you?
IT: It's going very well, thank you. We're very pleased with the show this year. We've really got a lot of people down here, and a lot of interesting people to talk to. We've been speaking to naturopaths and herbalists and remedial massage therapists. It's great that they have such a passion about our industry, and we've always got some new things to tell them about, which is important at Interclinical.
NTP: And what do you actually do, tell me about your company?
IT: Well, one of the major things that we do is that we would be the major provider for hair tissue mineral analysis, which is a fantastic way of checking out heavy metals and toxic elements in the body. And also, testing for nutritional elements - calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, zinc, all these essential nutrients. How do you know whether you need zinc or you need copper or, maybe, it could be calcium or magnesium, or it can be calcium and magnesium? Or, if you've got a burden of lead, well, if we know it's lead, then there'll be a certain protocol to remove the lead. But mercury is a different toxin again, so we have to know what we're dealing with. And having the right pathology or the right information onboard really assists our naturopathic and nutrition orientated doctors that we work with so that they can do a better job providing a service to their patients.
NTP: How are those tests actually administered? What format are they in?
IT: It's in the format of we take a hair - physical hair sample - and then that's sent to a pathology laboratory that specialises in analysing minerals. We actually have very low detection limits in parts per million and parts per billion, so it's all done by a fully accredited, above board pathology service.
NTP: Wonderful, and what have you got on display here at the expo?
IT: We've got a number of new products. Today we're working with an Australian marine phytoplankton. A lot of people have heard of things like spirulina and chlorella, which are microalgaes, and they are claimed to be the superfood of superfoods And this marine phytoplankton that we work with today under the brand called Algotene, is actually much richer than these other multi-microalgaes. In fact, when we compare the Dunaliella salina, which is an indigenous specie of phytoplankton to Australia, to, say, very popular spirulina today, it's got double the chlorophyll, six to eight times the minerals, and up to between 10 and 10,000 times the antioxidants.
I know spirulina has been calling itself the superfood of superfoods for a long time now, but maybe this particular marine phytoplankton wasn't commercially available. We're very pleased that we were the first company to bring this to market. We work with a lot of original formulations in our company. Our Reparen is an example. It's a special form of calcium phosphate for bone healing, connective tissue repairs, osteoporosis, and we actually use ionic calcium today for neuromuscular functions like cramping and spasms, where normally we'd look at magnesium and, very often if magnesium's not doing the job, it's actually a lack of ionic calcium that most calcium supplements don't break down in the ionic form. So, they actually won't give you that benefit. Only Reparen is one of the few products that will actually do that.
NTP: Sounds like a great range of products.
IT: Well, we have a product called Parazyme, which is like a natural antibiotic. We have a lovely memory enhancement formula based on Bacopa. We've just introduced acai, and everybody knows acai is a purple berry from the Amazon. And the reason we brought it in is because it's actually one of the world's richest sources of bioflavonoid antioxidants, and it blends very, very well with our marine phytoplankton. And between those two products, you'd be getting all the antioxidants you'll ever need.
NTP: Have you got a website for more information?
IT: We have a website at www.interclinical.com.au. That's available for anybody to go into and have a look at. We always encourage people to give us a ring, and if they have a few questions to ask, we're here to help them out over the phone and direct them in the right way. We work with a lot of naturopathic and nutritional medicine practitioners. And if you're looking for somebody, you can give us a call and we can direct you to somebody in that area as well.
NTP: It's a great product and a great service then.
IT: Oh, you're very nice, and thank you so much.
NTP: Thanks for your time.
IT: Okay, have a nice day. Thank you.
Originally published on Mar 10, 2011
