Glyco Harmony FAQ: 64 Questions, Short Answers

<b>0.7 micrograms</b> per 1 ml serving, which the label correctly prints as 2% of the Daily Value — the FDA figure is 35 mcg and the arithmetic checks out. What the figure means is the harder part. The NIH says most multivitamins carry 35 to 120 mcg of chromium, that chromium supplements commonly provide 200 to 500 mcg and sometimes up to 1,000, and that trials of chromium and glucose used 1.28 to 1,000 mcg daily. This is below the smallest of those.

We cannot tell you it does nothing — nobody has tested 0.7 mcg, because there would be no reason to. What we can tell you is that it sits below every dose in the NIH's own summary of the chromium literature, and below the amount in an ordinary multivitamin by a factor of fifty or more. If chromium is why you are buying this, that is the number to weigh.

At most 25 mg, and possibly far less. It is eighth of twenty-two in a 200 mg blend, and no standardisation is printed. The monograph we read says clinical studies of gymnema for blood sugar typically used 200 or 400 mg a day of extract standardised to 25% gymnemic acids, or 500 to 1,000 mg a day of leaf extract over two to three months.

Because it is the heaviest in the blend by weight — that is what first position means under the descending-order rule. It could be anything up to the whole 200 mg. Maca is a Peruvian root usually sold for energy and libido rather than blood sugar, and it is not one of the ingredients the marketing leads with.

It is common in this category and it is worth thinking about. Two hundred milligrams divided twenty-two ways averages nine milligrams each, and because the rule requires descending order, the ones near the end are smaller still. A long ingredient list reads as generosity on a sales page and works as arithmetic on a panel.

A way of declaring several ingredients under one total weight instead of individually. 21 CFR 101.36(c) permits it: the blend's total must be printed and its contents listed in descending order of predominance by weight, and nothing further is required. Here it means one number — 200 mg — covering twenty-two ingredients.

The reasons usually given are protecting a formula from being copied and stopping competitors reverse-engineering the ratios. The practical effect for a buyer is that no ingredient can be compared with the research and no two products can be compared with each other. We have no way to know which motive applies here, so we describe the effect rather than the intent.

From the descending-order rule and nothing else. If ingredients are listed heaviest first, the ingredient in position n cannot exceed the total divided by n — otherwise everything above it would have to be smaller and the order would be wrong. In a 200 mg blend the eighth ingredient is at most 25 mg and the twenty-second at most 9.1 mg. It is arithmetic, not an estimate.

No, and this matters. A ceiling is an upper bound and the rule sets no lower bound at all. The gymnema could be 25 mg or 0.2 mg and everything printed on the label would still be true. Every figure on this site marked ≤ is the most that can be there, never the amount that is.

Yes. The total is declared, the contents are in descending order and the dagger points at &ldquo;Daily Value not established&rdquo;. That is what the regulation asks for. Our criticism is not that the label breaks a rule; it is that the rule allows a label to tell you almost nothing, and this one takes the offer twenty-two times over.

We do not know, and the label does not say. L-glutamine, L-tyrosine, L-arginine, beta-alanine, GABA, L-ornithine, L-tryptophan and L-carnitine occupy positions fourteen to twenty-two, so each is capped between 14.3 mg and 9.1 mg. Amino acids are normally dosed in grams — a gram being a thousand milligrams.

Because the panel does. The brief and the brand's <i>Inside Glyco Harmony</i> artwork both name six — chromium, gymnema, African mango, green tea, maca and panax ginseng. All six are genuinely on the label. So are seventeen more, including guarana, capsicum, coleus forskohlii, a licorice derivative and eight amino acids. The label wins, and the label says twenty-three.

A dietary supplement in liquid form — an amber glass dropper bottle holding 2 fl oz (60 ml). The front of the bottle reads GLYCO HARMONY, <i>Blood Sugar Support*</i>, Dietary Supplement. The Supplement Facts panel declares chromium at 0.7 mcg and a 200 mg proprietary blend containing twenty-two further ingredients with no individual amounts.

Per 1 ml: 0.7 micrograms of chromium as chromium picolinate, and 200 mg of a proprietary blend listed as maca root, grape seed, guarana seed, African mango seed, eleutherococcus senticosus root, astragalus root, green tea leaf, gymnema leaf, coleus forskohlii root, capsicum annuum fruit, grapefruit fruit, panax ginseng aerial, raspberry ketones, L-glutamine, L-tyrosine, L-arginine, beta-alanine, monoammonium glycyrrhizinate, GABA, L-ornithine HCL, L-tryptophan and L-carnitine. Plus glycerin, water, organic lemon extract, stevia, xylitol, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, citric acid and natural flavors.

Monoammonium glycyrrhizinate, eighteenth of twenty-two, so at most 11.1 mg. It is a salt of glycyrrhizic acid, the compound in licorice root. NCCIH says glycyrrhizin &ldquo;can cause serious adverse effects, such as irregular heartbeat and cardiac arrest&rdquo;, and that &ldquo;even small amounts&rdquo; have been linked to severe adverse effects in people with hypertension, a high salt intake, or heart or kidney conditions. The amount here is not published.

Twelfth of twenty-two, so at most 16.7 mg. NCCIH reports that Asian ginseng improved several cardiometabolic factors including fasting blood glucose, while calling the research on blood sugar control in people with diabetes &ldquo;inconclusive and conflicting&rdquo;. Its practical note is the one to read: &ldquo;If you have diabetes, consult your health care provider before using Asian ginseng.&rdquo; Note also that this is the <i>aerial</i> extract rather than the root most research uses.

Almost certainly a small amount, and the label will not tell you how much. Guarana is third by weight in the blend and green tea seventh, and both contain caffeine; neither carries a caffeine figure. The FDA cites 400 mg a day as the amount not generally associated with dangerous negative effects in healthy adults, and you cannot add an unknown to that sum.

Not at this size, and this is one of the few places where the smallness is a margin rather than a shortfall. NCCIH notes that liver injury has been reported in some people using green tea products, primarily extracts in tablet or capsule form. Seventh of twenty-two caps this at 28.6 mg, far below the intakes that signal attaches to.

Stevia extract 97% (Reb A) and xylitol, both in the other-ingredients line. On a blood sugar product that is a sensible choice and it is disclosed, which is what matters.

For a healthy adult taking the label dose, the individual ingredients are in common use and the amounts involved are small. Whether it is safe for <i>you</i> is harder than it needs to be, because twenty-two of the twenty-three ingredients carry no amount — including a licorice derivative and a botanical that may lower blood sugar. The caution panel tells anyone with a known medical condition to consult a physician first, and on this formula that is the right instruction. We are not clinicians and this is not medical advice.

Ask the person who prescribes it, and take the bottle with you. NCCIH says Asian ginseng might lower blood sugar levels and that anyone with diabetes should consult their health care provider before using it, and warns that using herbal supplements alongside conventional diabetes drugs can cause unwanted side effects. Because no amount is printed, nobody can size that question from the label.

It is the reason we would want the glycyrrhizinate quantified. NCCIH writes that even small amounts of glycyrrhizin from licorice root products have been linked to severe adverse effects in people with hypertension and in those who consume a lot of salt. The ceiling here is 11.1 mg and the actual amount is not published.

NCCIH records that interactions between licorice and corticosteroids have been reported. Same ingredient, same missing number, same answer: that is a pharmacist question before the first dropper.

We cannot say, and neither can the label. What can be quoted is NCCIH on Asian ginseng: &ldquo;Some evidence suggests that Asian ginseng might lower blood sugar levels.&rdquo; If you already take something that lowers blood sugar, an unquantified second thing that might is a conversation to have in advance rather than afterwards.

The label's caution panel says pregnant or nursing mothers should consult a physician before using this or any dietary supplement. We would follow it.

The caution panel says children under the age of 18 should consult a physician before use. The brief is firmer and says it is for adults 18 and over.

As printed: <i>Shake well before each use. Take 1 or 2 droppers full daily. Place in mouth and swallow.</i> The shaking matters on a liquid where plant extracts can settle.

The label does not say, and it is the biggest practical gap on it. The Supplement Facts panel is written per 1 ml. At two droppers every amount doubles — chromium 1.4 mcg, blend 400 mg — and a bottle lasts thirty days instead of sixty. Nothing on the label states how much a full dropper holds, so even choosing one does not guarantee you have taken the serving the panel describes. If it matters to you, that is a question for the order desk before you buy.

Not published. A 1 ml graduated dropper is common on a 60 ml bottle and would make the panel and the instruction agree at one dropper, but the label does not say so and we do not print figures we have not seen.

Both answers are on the label. Sixty 1 ml servings is sixty days at one dropper and thirty at two, and the suggested use offers either. This is the arithmetic to settle before you choose a pack, because it decides whether a pack finishes inside the 60-day guarantee window.

Not published. The label says daily and nothing more. Two of the blend ingredients are caffeine sources, which on most products would be an argument for the morning, but the amounts are unknown and probably small.

Not published. The label gives no instruction either way.

<i>Keep away from heat, light, and humidity to preserve freshness</i>, and, further down the same panel, <i>STORE IN A COOL, DRY PLACE</i>. The two agree. Neither gives a temperature, which on a liquid is worth more than it is on a capsule.

The label has no instruction for a missed dose, and the caution panel says not to exceed the recommended dose, so doubling up the next day is going against the only relevant sentence on the bottle.

Nobody can tell you honestly, because the amounts are not published and no published human trial exists on this formula. What can be said: the gymnema trials that reported findings ran two to three months at doses eight to forty times the ceiling here, and NCCIH's summary of the whole category is that for most supplements there is not evidence of a beneficial effect on diabetes or its complications.

<i>Blood Sugar Support*</i>, and nothing else. It is correctly constructed structure-function wording: blood sugar is a normal body process, <i>support</i> is the permitted verb, no disease is named, and the asterisk points at a boxed FDA disclaimer on the same wrap. The five longer supports come from the sales page, not the bottle.

It is doing three jobs on one wrap. It marks <i>Blood Sugar Support*</i> on the front, it marks the FDA disclaimer, and it marks the panel footnote <i>*Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie Diet</i>. The claim-to-disclaimer link is the one the regulation asks for and it works; the shared symbol is untidy rather than wrong.

Three. <i>Lepidium mevenii</i> should be <i>Lepidium meyenii</i>; <i>Irvingia gabonesis</i> should be <i>Irvingia gabonensis</i>; <i>L-Typtophan</i> should be L-Tryptophan. None changes what is in the bottle. All three are printed on it, so all three are recorded.

<i>Natural</i> has no regulatory definition for a dietary supplement, so the roundel means whatever the reader supplies. The bottle contains chromium picolinate, a manufactured mineral complex, plus sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate and a 97% steviol glycoside isolate. All ordinary, all disclosed, none of them foraged.

Not stated. Nothing on the ingredient list is obviously animal-derived, but the label makes no claim either way and neither will we.

On the base of the bottle where the bottle carries one, not on the printed wrap. Check the bottle you receive.

The brief gives lot GLY-26/GO-2503 and a certificate reference GLY-2503-26-GO, and the same document describes both as draft labels rather than lab proof. We have not been shown a certificate of analysis, so we treat those as references rather than evidence.

The label gives <i>Instituto Experience, Lakeland FL, 33804</i> — city, state and ZIP but no street. 21 CFR 101.5 permits the street to be omitted only where the firm is listed in a current city or telephone directory, so the label relies on that exemption. A phone number and an email are printed alongside.

Not stated. The label says <i>distributed by</i> Instituto Experience of Lakeland, Florida, which identifies a distributor rather than a manufacturer. No facility is named anywhere.

We are a USA Authorized Glyco Harmony Retailer. We sell the product and we wrote this review of it, which is a conflict of interest and the reason every critical figure here is sourced and every source is linked.

Yes. A purchase through this site earns us money. That is why the dosage page leads with 0.7 micrograms rather than with benefits.

No dietary supplement is. The FDA &ldquo;does not have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed&rdquo;. The label says the product has been manufactured in an FDA <i>registered</i> facility, which means the factory filed an administrative registration. It is not an inspection result and it is not an endorsement, and no facility or number is given to look up.

Good Manufacturing Practice covers how a product is made, recorded, traced and kept clean. It is about process, not contents — a GMP-compliant facility can lawfully bottle 0.7 micrograms of chromium, because the amount is not a GMP question. No certifying body is named.

The badge is unqualified and the label is not, and here the label is the better of the two. The bottle prints <i>Made in the USA with globally sourced ingredients</i>, which is the qualified construction the FTC describes. The listing roundel drops the qualifier; the FTC reserves an unqualified claim for products all or virtually all made in the United States.

It is one of six bonus e-book covers supplied with this product, and it is the most serious conflict we found. The label may not claim to treat, cure or prevent a disease, and it carefully does not — its claim is <i>Blood Sugar Support*</i> with a boxed disclaimer. A bonus titled <b>Diabetes Freedom</b> names a disease and promises freedom from it, and a second, <i>Nerve Renew Guide</i>, addresses a diabetes complication that nothing on this panel relates to. 21 CFR 101.93 lists the name of a product and statements in accompanying material among the ways a disease claim can be made.

Because the brand put one there. The main product render stands the bottle in front of a glucose meter displaying a reading, and one bonus cover shows a finger-prick test. A numeric glucose result is exactly the outcome a dietary supplement may not claim, and the label's own wording does not claim it. The picture is doing what the text is not allowed to do.

Four marks — a journal wordmark, Nature, The Boston Globe and the American Physiological Society — arranged where a citation list would sit, with no paper, author, date or finding attached to any of them. Nothing in the material we were given connects any of the four to this product. It is the fifth time this desk has received that same strip.

Because we have none we can verify. The brief supplied a star score, an order count and eight named testimonials, and the same document states that the reviews, star scores and order counts in it are layout copy. We do not print invented people.

Same reason. The asset pack contains eleven portrait photographs of identifiable people presented as customers or as a named expert, plus a white-coated figure whose file name asserts a doctor this product never names. Publishing faces beside layout-copy reviews would be inventing people, so none of them appears anywhere on this site. The list is on our testing and quality page.

Not published to us in advance. Pack prices are the ones printed on the info page at checkout, which is why every pack card on this site says price at checkout rather than a figure we have not seen.

If you are trying it, one bottle. At one dropper a day it is sixty days and the guarantee is sixty days, so the two line up almost exactly; at two droppers it is thirty days and you decide with half the window still open.

Through this site, if you want this desk's refund window to apply to your order. We are a USA Authorized Glyco Harmony Retailer, and a purchase elsewhere is handled by whoever sold it.

Not published. What we can say: it ships from the United States unless the sales page says otherwise, and a tracking number arrives in the order email.

Sixty days from purchase, unless the sales page prints a longer window, in which case the longer one applies. It is a purchase policy rather than a medical promise.

Call +1 (925) 231-0148 with your order ID, or email [email protected]. Send your full name, email and order ID with the parcel to 712 Fifth Avenue, Floor 8, New York, NY 10019. Return shipping is paid by the buyer, and use a tracked service.

Three to five business days for the credit to be issued once it is approved, then a further five to ten days for it to appear on your card.

+1 (925) 231-0148 for anything to do with an order — tracking, changes, refunds. The website email address, [email protected], cannot see orders; it is for pages, typos, privacy and press. The +1 (507) number printed on the bottle belongs to the distributor, not to this desk.

1.3 out of 5, across eight weighted categories. Claim honesty scores highest at 3.5, because the bottle's own wording is careful. Panel completeness, standardisation and dose against research all score 0.5, which is the lowest this desk has recorded on any of them.

Five things, and we would rather say them plainly than bury them. The front-panel claim is modest and correctly asterisked to a boxed disclaimer. The country-of-origin wording on the label is properly qualified. The FDA-facility sentence is printed in full rather than reduced to a badge. All nine other ingredients are listed, including the preservatives. And the one percentage on the panel is arithmetically correct — 0.7 mcg really is 2% of the 35 mcg Daily Value.