Sciatica PRO+ Supplement Facts, Panel by Panel

This page is a transcription. Everything below is read off the wrap label supplied with the product artwork, panel by panel, in the order the panels appear on the bottle, with the commentary kept separate from the quotation.

Ten ingredients, ten amounts, no proprietary blend. Every figure on this panel describes the two-capsule serving the directions ask for, so nothing has to be doubled or halved to be read. This is the most complete Supplement Facts panel in this series.

And credit where it is due: the conversion is right. ODS gives the rule by example — “240 mcg of folic acid and 400 mcg of folate are both equal to 400 mcg DFE”. Apply that ratio to this label’s 230 mcg of folic acid and you get 383 mcg DFE, which is exactly what the panel prints. Somebody did the arithmetic properly.

Doing the arithmetic yourself

Folic acid in a supplement is absorbed more efficiently than the folate in food, so a label has to convert it into dietary folate equivalents before it can print a percentage. The ODS worked example gives a ratio of five to three. Apply it to the 230 mcg on this panel and you get 383 and a third, which rounds to the 383 mcg DFE on the bottle. Against an RDA of 400 mcg DFE that is 96 per cent, the figure in the %DV column.

The folate row is worth one more sentence. ODS notes that “taking large amounts of folate supplements might hide a vitamin B12 deficiency because these supplements can correct the anemia that the vitamin B12 deficiency causes but not the nerve damage that the vitamin B12 deficiency also causes”. This label’s 230 mcg of folic acid is well under the 1,000 mcg upper limit, so it is not a large amount. But a product that pairs folate with a below-RDA dose of B12, and is sold for nerve symptoms, is a product where that interaction is worth understanding rather than discovering.

And the row the arithmetic cannot rescue

The four vitamin rows are the ones the marketing leaves out, and on a nerve product they are the most interesting rows on the label. Vitamin B12 is the one to look at first. The NIH Office of Dietary Supplements says B12 “helps keep your body’s blood and nerve cells healthy”, and that when you are short of it “your hands and feet might become numb or tingly, a sign of nerve problems”. That is the closest thing in nutrition to the symptom this product is named around. The adult RDA is 2.4 mcg. This label supplies 2 mcg — 83% of a Daily Value, and less than a day’s requirement. Vitamin B6 is the mirror image. ODS: “Taking high amounts of vitamin B6 from supplements for a year or longer can cause severe nerve damage, leading people to lose control of their bodily movements.” B6 in excess is a recognised cause of neuropathy — and NINDS lists “vitamin B12 deficiency and excess vitamin B6” as the two best-known vitamin-related causes of peripheral neuropathy. This label has it at 1.7 mg, exactly 100% of the Daily Value and far below the 100 mg upper limit, so there is no problem from this bottle. There would be a conversation worth having if you stacked a B-complex on top of it.

The FDA disclaimer

Printed on the label in a grey box: “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food & Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.”

Printed on the label itself, in a grey box, tied by a dagger to both front-panel claims. It is where it should be and it says what it should say. Both front-panel claims carry a dagger and it resolves here. A structure/function claim may “describe the role of a nutrient or dietary ingredient intended to affect the normal structure or function of the human body, for example, ‘calcium builds strong bones.’” That is what “Supports Nerve Health” is. A disease claim says a product can “diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease”. Only drugs may legally make one. Nothing on this label makes one: the criticism this product deserves is not that its label overclaims, but that the name on the front is a diagnosis.

The distributor line and REV 0424

The label prints “Distributed By : Sciatica Pro+, Akron, OH 44301” with a support phone number and an email beside it; both are listed in the site footer. The label names its own distributor, with a city, a state, a ZIP, a phone number and an email address. After seven products in this series where that line was simply absent, it is worth saying how unusual that is.

A name, a city, a state, a ZIP code, a telephone line and an email address is everything you would need to raise a problem with a real company, printed on the object itself rather than on a page that can be taken down. Down the right-hand edge of the wrap the label also carries its revision code, REV 0424, which lets artwork be dated: a question to the distributor can name the exact document being discussed.

The four seals on the wrap

Four marks are printed on the label itself: made in the USA with global ingredients, scientific formulated, GMPc facility, and made with non-GMO ingredients. Each describes a factory or a sourcing policy. None is an approval of this formula, and no dietary supplement is FDA approved. The made-in-the-USA mark appears in its long form — the honest version, and not the one most brands choose.

What the label does not say

Six things are missing and none of them is unusual. No trial of this formula, no standardisation figures for the three powders, no curcumin content, no expiry date in the artwork we were given, no price, and an order number supplied to this desk that cannot be dialled. Set against everything above that is a short list, and what remains to criticise is the name on the front, not the document on the back.