This post was sponsored by NOW as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

I’ve been on a wellness journey over the last year after going into heart failure. It has led me to learn to heal my body with the best vitamins and supplements so my body can repair itself. This led me to seek out the best vitamins and supplements brand with the cleanest and purest ingredients. I found one that not only exceeded my expectations but also offers their products at affordable prices. I’m blown away and excited to share it with you!

Healing Naturally

Before I dive in and tell you about my favorite brand for supplements, beauty products and health foods, I want to touch a little bit on why I believe in healing naturally. I am a Registered Nurse and well versed in the medical science behind western medicine and it’s approach. For many years I thought strictly in terms of prescription and over the counter medications and treating symptoms. My health journey that resulted in me being in heart failure started as an innocent yeast infection. After being prescribed an antifungal medication to treat that small (the size of a quarter) rash it quickly grew worse and resulted in six months of pain and struggling to control it.

One day I woke up and the lower half of my body was completely swollen to the point that I could no longer see my joints. Being a Registered Nurse, I immediately knew something was very wrong and that this problem pointed to a problem in my heart with fluid backing up into my lower extremities. My husband came home and quickly drove me to the emergency room. I spent the day undergoing test after test. I had everything from an echocardiogram (ultrasound of my heart) to a CT scan to an EKG and on and on. They threw every test they could at me.

My blood work indicated that I was in heart failure and they were racing to figure out why an otherwise healthy young woman was in heart failure. They were stumped for a majority of the day. It was finally discovered that my heart failure was a side effect of the antifungal medication I was on and that not only could it cause heart failure, but people had also died of it. Obviously, this is extremely serious and though we all hear the warnings of the side effects of prescription medications I believe we have become immune to hearing it and we think it won’t happen to us. I certainly wasn’t worried about the side effects of a common prescription medication.

I was immediately removed from that medication and doctors hoped my heart failure would reverse on its own and had no information to tell them if it would or not. That was a waiting game and remained to be seen. In the meantime, I was still dealing with a very serious yeast/fungal infection that had never gone away so while taking me off the medication would hopefully improve my heart function, the yeast issue still needed to be dealt with. Doctors weren’t entirely sure what to do with me and offered me no solutions.

That is what ultimately led me to seek out a naturopath in hopes that he could help me in ways that the doctors couldn’t. When I arrived at his office he couldn’t believe just how sick I was. Long story short, through major diet changes and supplements I was able to completely heal and reverse the heart failure and take care of the yeast/fungal issue I had been dealing with for over 6 months at that point. I was able to see extreme improvements in as little as three weeks.

This stunned me as a nurse because I had been following the doctor’s advice to a T for over 6 months with no improvements (and I actually got much worse). To see someone be able to lead me in a direction of healing without any prescription medications or medical interventions was eye-opening and inspiring. I discovered that while traditional western medicine can be very valuable, holistic medicine is overlooked and that is to our detriment. We need to merge the two and look at our bodies abilities to heal themselves with the proper diet and supplements.

Obviously, most people will not undergo such extreme circumstances as I did, but I hope my story inspires you to look further into ways to naturally heal your body without prescription medications. Look at healing the root cause of the problem rather than treating a symptom. Our bodies really are amazing!

After discovering the power of feeding my body what it needs I went on a journey to find the purest, cleanest supplements I could find at a price I could afford. In the course of my healing, I spent thousands of dollars on supplements and I knew that in order to sustain that course I would need to find clean, effective supplements that were offered at a value price point. I thought I was looking for a unicorn and I really was, but I found one!

Now Foods

NOW is celebrating 50 years as a trusted natural products manufacturer, and is dedicated to providing customers with a comprehensive approach to wellness by offering more than 1,400 high-quality, natural and affordable products. NOW Foods manufactures vitamins, supplements, essential oils and health foods.

In my search for quality supplements their brand often popped up in my search results but with such affordable prices, I was skeptical of the quality and purity of their products. How good could a product be when it was cheaper than the other alternatives on the market?

Well, after touring their factory and learning more about their brand, my question has changed to; “why is the competition charging so much?”. With a 100% to 300% markup on this niche of products, there is a huge margin of profit on these products.

NOW chooses to keep their prices low and their quality high. They’re a family-owned company and this has always been their mission. Sounds great, but I was skeptical. I’ll show you what changed my mind and left a big impression on me.

NOW Factory Tour

I was SO excited to receive a tour of the NOW foods factory where their supplements, essential oils and other products are made. It was very interesting and more importantly, very informative. We were flown into Chicago and the first night was spent with the NOW CEO and several other NOW employees at a cooking class where we competed Iron Chef style in a cooking competition. I’m happy to report that my team took 3rd! Woohoo. The next day we were taken on a tour of the NOW factory and were able to learn more about them as a company.

The CEO (pictured above) actually spent a ton of time with us which really impressed me. I’ve been on plenty of brand-sponsored trips where the CEO rarely bothers to pop in and say hi, much less spend two days with us! That in itself spoke volumes to me. He truly is the most down-to-earth guy and he’s so transparent. He struck me as very trustworthy and easy to relate too. He gladly answered all of our questions and didn’t attempt to hide anything when asked hard questions.

For our tour of the factory, we were required to watch a video first and then garb up in protective gear to preserve the cleanliness of the factory. Aren’t we cute? We then were taken into the factory and began in the receiving area. This is where they bring in their raw ingredients sourced from outside suppliers. We were able to see how everything goes into quarantine until the NOW labs have been able to test each product to ensure it is the correct product and is free from any contamination. Once they are able to confirm that the product is what it says it is and is free from any contaminants, the product can leave the quarantine area and begin it’s journey to being used in production.

After leaving the receiving area we made our way through many of the labs and were able to see firsthand how they test raw materials and finished materials and even work on developing new products.

One thing that really blew me away was the amount and quality of the laboratory equipment and staff they have on hand. NOW’s Quality Control and Quality Assurance programs are really what sets it apart and make it a trusted natural products manufacturer.

Despite what many in the media are saying, the supplements industry is regulated, and NOW goes above and beyond what is required to ensure it brings pure and effective natural products to market.

They have about $100 million laboratory facility there that is used to ensure that what the label on the bottle says, is what is inside the bottle. And one step further, that it doesn’t contain anything else that it shouldn’t (think metals, GMO’s, pesticides, etc). All of their products are non-GMO and many bear the Non-GMO Project label. Their aim is to have that label on all of their products eventually as the process takes time. They test and test and test some more until they are certain that their product is pure and their claims are true. They stand behind everything they produce and test more than necessary to ensure that they put out the very best product. They have 200 staff employed for the laboratory facilities alone! That is a lot of genius in one factory.

The amount of testing and extent that they test was beyond impressive to me. They even go as far as testing their packaging in special chambers to see how it holds up in the worst circumstances and how the product inside fares. They test their products and they hold them and re-test them at different intervals to determine when the product loses effectiveness which then determines shelf life. They test so much. I wish I could tell you more as I could talk about all of the testing they do but that would be an entire blog series.

NOW Essential Oils

NOW also makes high-quality essential oils and even has several organic essential oils in their line up. We were able to see the oils being bottled and we later tried them out and made some fun essential oil recipes. You can find a ton of really good essential oil recipes on their site. We made a divine facial mist to moisturize our face during our travels and we made a really relaxing bath soak.

I was really impressed that NOW offers high quality, pure essential oils for far less than you see most oils priced at. You can even get organic oils which most companies don’t offer. They source only the best ingredients and ensure they are free of pesticides and anything else that doesn’t belong in your oil bottle. I love their gorgeous diffuser too!

NOW Foods

NOW also makes a vast line of health foods which you can find at your local health foods store. I love so many of their products but I’d highly recommend you try their coconut oil infusions butter flavor (non-dairy) and their Better Stevia products.

Most stevia products are bitter and leave a bad aftertaste, however, NOW Better Stevia doesn’t! It’s the BEST stevia and even people that don’t like stevia like Better Stevia. Try it, you won’t regret it! I am absolutely in love with Better Stevia Maple in my coffee. I have an obsession with maple this fall and it is just perfect in my coffee. SO good!

They have such a huge variety of food products that you really must try! They are dedicated to producing non-GMO products for consumers at an affordable price.

NOW Sports Line

NOW also has a robust product line up in their sports division. They also do extensive testing on ingredients to ensure they are clean, pure and free of any banned substances that athletes may be concerned about. They have several products that are third-party tested on every batch to ensure there are no banned substances in any trace amounts or otherwise in their products. I was so impressed with that!

I honestly could go on and on about everything I was able to see and learn at the NOW Factory and headquarters. I am so impressed by their quality, commitment to their employees and their entire culture. They really are a family owned business and they treat their employees like family too. They don’t believe in layoffs and they offer profit sharing to all of their employees as well. It’s really a family owned and operated business that treats people like they’d want to be treated.

I can’t say enough good. The real testament is always in the pocketbook though and I will absolutely put my money where my mouth is and buy NOW products whenever they are a choice. Being able to have the peace of mind that I’m getting a pure product that is what it says it is, is worth gold. Luckily, they are a value brand so I won’t have to part with much money to use them.

Next time you look at NOW products and wonder why they are so cheap, instead ask yourself why their competitors are so expensive.

Visit NOW’s 50^th Anniversary Page here to learn more about their story, quality products, advocacy in the natural products space, family promise, and more.

NOW Foods Giveaway

I was gifted a huge swag bag worth over $500 from NOW which is pictured above. They are generously offering up a second swag bag with the same contents for a lucky reader! Enter to win below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One more way to win!

To celebrate their 50^th Anniversary NOW is saying “thank you” to everyone who has made NOW a trusted partner in their wellness journey with the “Celebrate NOW” Instant-Win Game, where YOU can have a chance to win 50 – $10,000 prizes. How? NOW is producing one million supplement bottles across 50 SKUs with special gold caps. If you find a golden ticket inside one of these gold-cap bottles, you instantly win $10,000 (upon meeting eligibility requirements and prize verification). Check here for more details about the Game, including Official Rules, a list of eligible products, and alternate means of entry.

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