Frequently Asked Questions

Dr. Bert is committed to using only the highest-grade herbal and nutritional supplements that are free from synthetic isolates and artificial man-made ingredients made in a laboratory. He is committed to using only those supplements and herbals that come directly from either concentrated whole foods, clean animal or vegetable sources or clinical-grade whole herbs. This ensures optimization of health through safe, effective and clinically reproducible and dependable products.

Clinical grade means that it is the highest level of effectiveness and support; that you would expect and be receiving from your doctor. There can be no mistake, short changing, scaling back or cutting corners in any way when clinical grade is implied or invoked. It implies that a product is vigorously and rigorously useful for difficult circumstances and under conditions of duress. Clinical grade is reserved for the special circumstance that is the doctor patient encounter and cannot be found in any other ordinary or commonly found or available treatment or product. It is what the doctor is recommending to you based on your consultation findings and the unique needs and demands your body has to feel better, balance your body chemistry, fill in what is really missing and experience well-being.

The 'clinical grade' distinction implies that you can depend on it to work and produce results when other things cannot, will not, and have not. In order for something to be clinical grade it must be the right product that one needs, the right quality, and the right amount, all at the right time, so that it will work. If any of these three criteria are missing at the same time, the product might not work. It is the dependable expectation and reliance on a product that it will work as expected and anticipated that makes it clinical grade.

There are certain rigorous standards that must be met in order for something to reach clinical grade. This coupled with the fact that it is the doctor's unique recommendation for you, makes the product stand aside, above and beyond the ordinary or beyond the commonly found or available, and usually and justifiably so, will have a higher price tag than you might ordinarily expect. That clinical grade is always more expensive is not always so. The doctor has much experience in the market place and has shopped around for you, to give you the lowest price so that your hard earned dollar goes a long way while not cutting back on product effectiveness and reliability.

The criteria that must be met for a product to come close or reach clinical grade status are as follows:

1. The product must be what it says it is; no substitutions because it is 'almost like' or is cheaper.

2. It must have a certain or specific quality (or qualities), or factors that make it what it is, that make it useful for what one needs or wants, and what one expects that it is; this also implies a certain level of freshness.

3. It must have a certain level of purity; that is no fillers, extenders or texturizers—at least none that will detract from its effectiveness or negatively impact a person's health. If it is to have an additive, it should be to or because it enhances the products performance without effecting its quality or the fact that it is a whole food or herb.

4. The right potency or strength—a product should not be un-necessarily watered down unless doing so enhances a products performance or makes it safer or more useful for a desired end that is beneficial for human consumption.

5. Standardization—a product must have the right elements or factors that make it useful in the right quantity and should not and cannot vary drastically or go below a certain useful threshold from batch to batch. If there is no standardization a product in one bottle (or even within the same bottle) will not be as effective as the same product in another bottle. A clinical grade product will have the same effectiveness from batch to batch, from year to year, year in and year out. So that it is the same product today that it was last year, and that it will be a year from now.

6. A clinical grade product should not lose its potency or strength, at least not easily or readily, over time after it is purchased.

First, a product must absolutely be what it says it is; there can be no substitutions! Certain things must be what they say they are or you will not have their benefit(s). For example, fish oils or cod liver oil, must come from the internal oil source of the fish. This is wholesome, nutritious, and must be assumed to be gathered fresh with a careful extraction process that maintains freshness and has it stay that way once it is in a bottle. It must be processed quickly with rigorous standards to maintain purity and freshness.

The packaging must be carefully selected and made to keep it free from contamination. This is very difficult to do and will be more expensive! A real fish oil will be fully digestable and safely absorbable so as not to 'come up' on you and give you an unpleasant taste or experience afterwards. If this happens, it is because the skin, or other inappropriate parts of the fish or old scraps of the fish were used. It is the common use of the scraps that allows large bottles to be filled for cheap and it is this that gives the unpleasant experience that is far too common of 'repeating' the 'fish oil'. Furthermore, the right fish oil comes from deep sea, ocean dwelling, cold water fish. If it does not, it will not have the desired effects one is looking for and needs for results. Farm raised simply will not have the characteristics necessary in the oil for it to give the desired effects. This leads to the idea of quality.

The quality of ocean going, deep sea, cold water fish oil makes it better and more useful for anti-inflammatory effects one wants and is looking for than some fish grown in a fish farm or pool away from the normal diet elements of the fish that produce the food factors that one needs in a nutritious and potent clinical grade oil.

A clinical grade oil, product or herbal extract should be pure or have no foreign bodies or inclusions in it unless they are part of the natural matrix of the product that will be beneficial for the balancing and beneficial effects that it is wanted or desired for. A pure oil should always be clear of sediment. For example our jojoba oil has been centrifuged and then filtered to be cleared. Then it is allowed to stand in large vats for up to 30 days, so that it is completely clear of any un-desireable sediment. Our herbal extracts have the natural inclusions in it that are part of the whole plant that is part and parcel of its natural matrix that makes it whole and effective; without these the product would not be as genuine and effective.

In order for a garlic, onion or radish to be potent it must have the odor and extreme taste that it has. An herb must be bitter to have the effects it has to have. It is precisely in the distinct taste of the garlic or the bitterness of the herb, that the beneficial qualities are. If you take out these extreme tastes or smells, you lose the potency and the effect your looking for and need to have in order to derive the benefits from it that you need.

Lastly, you can say you have a product that meets all the above criteria, but it can be a hit or miss, if the product is not standardized, from batch to batch, one bottle out of a whole box could be useful but the rest of the bottles in the box could be useless. Needless to say you want to know that the bottle or product, you are getting will be useful to you and perform for you as it is supposed to. Clinical grade allows you to rest assured and be confident that you are rightfully getting what your paying for and that you can use it dependably now overtime and in the future; with the reasonable expectation that it will perform as need and want.

There are three different types of supplements that exist in the world. The first type, that you can normally buy at a store, is usually purely synthetic. You can tell because it doesn’t say something like “apple”, “carrot” or “beet root” in the ingredients list… instead it will say something like “ascorbic acid” (synthetic Vitamin C). The second type of supplements are mixed synthetic with whole foods. The last type of supplement is a whole food supplement. You can tell because the concentrations of nutrients are much lower than the average dietary recommendations and they contain real food sources. Our supplements and herbs are pure, the highest quality you can buy.

We are committed to ensuring you receive the highest quality supplements available. The doctor recommends supplements only from high quality and reputable manufacturers that can only be purchased with a practitioner’s license and recommendation. The Wellness plan that the doctor creates has specific dosages based on the exact ingredients in that specific supplement. If you want to do your own research on different supplements, we welcome you to do so, but we do not provide any other recommendations nor advise on other specific blends or brands. If you purchase other supplements from other manufacturers, please research carefully. Not all ingredients are equal, and there is not a guaranteed quality when you purchase supplements elsewhere, especially on Amazon.

Online vendors selling some of the same brand of supplements we might give you are not only selling illegally in some instances but there is no guarantee that the products are within the expiration date or have been stored correctly, preserving the important phytonutrients and phytochemicals. There is no price advantage when purchasing online our price is often times less. Also, if the incorrect item is ordered there might not be a return policy. When you purchase the recommended supplements from us, you are guaranteed to have the right ones that are not expired and have been properly taken care of. This ensures you will receive the maximum benefit from the herbal and nutritional protocol designed for you.

The substance(s) in our herbals are pure whole herbal/botanical extracts. The herbals/botanicals in our formulas are made in a FDA-registered manufacturing site. The herbals in our formulas comply with the highest and strictest standards of 'Good Manufacturing Practices' [NSF GMP]. They are Kosher Certified organically sourced, marked and certified to be of the highest quality and of the type that is needed, wanted and expected--with multiple levels of testing and layers of confirmation; to assure their phytochemical activity and equivalence to confirmed experimental findings and historical use. They are cold perculated and processed under sterile conditions for whole herb extract usefulness, quality, potency, purity, stability and safety; prepared so that the type, strength and phytochemical activity is standardized and equivalent from batch to batch. These herbals have been tested for and confirmed to be free of: pesticide residues, microbial levels, aflatoxins, heavy metals, foreign materials and radiation.

Fullscript and Wellevate dispensaries will accept returns for products that are unopened, non-heat sensitive/non-perishable, and purchased within the last 30 days. Fullscript US patient shipping rates subtotal must be $50 or more after discounts and before additional shipping fees and taxes to qualify for free shipping. If eligible, shipping will be discounted automatically. All orders placed before 3:00 pm Eastern Standard Time are shipped out the same business day. Wellevate shipping options for residential or business addresses include: Standard 4-7 Business Days is $8.75, or free shipping on orders of $49 or more. Expedited 1-3 Business Days is $11.95 or $4.95 on orders of $49 or more.

Standard Process shipping is a flat rate fee of $10 regardless of amount or weight. Expedited shipping is available for an additional charge. Typically a patient order will ship within one to three business days. Standard Process will accept returned, unopened product, must be in the original container (carton and bottle). There is a 20% processing fee on all returned products.

Prepaid lab tests can be returned for a full credit within one year of purchase.