To help consumers, caregivers and healthcare providers make more informed choices about nutrition and health supplements through an independent, comprehensive website that matches up-to-date science-based information to each person's unique personal needs.
Scientific research increasingly shows the benefits of nutritional supplements and consumer surveys document widespread use. Unfortunately, consumers often make decisions about supplements based on inadequate information. In a largely unregulated market with tens of thousands of products and no requirement to prove effectiveness and safety before selling supplements, misinformation abounds. This confused situation can be dangerous for consumers and places impossible demands on the time of physicians.
Alicia Paladin founded PogoHealth because of frustration with existing sources of information about health supplements. She grew up in Australia, where complementary or alternative medicine is commonly practiced, supplement usage is accepted, and products are regulated for quality (Australia is one of only two countries where supplements are regulated to this extent; Germany is the other). A professional and a mother of four, Alicia uses health supplements based on a lifelong commitment to preventive care and maintaining wellness through good nutrition. Despite her personal awareness of the benefits of supplements, Alicia found it frustrating to try to find unbiased assessments, tailor recommendations to her needs, and more easily shop for products. Through discussion with friends, physicians, and colleagues, she realized that this problem was virtually universal. The difficulty of getting satisfactory information was keeping many people from understanding the risks and benefits of the use of supplements for them and their families.
Alicia quickly realized that confusion about supplements was growing despite an increase in research evaluating supplements. Simple internet searches produced more misinformation than reliable facts - and there was difficulty differentiating between the two, even for physicians. Her friends, family, and personal physician took supplements, but lacked the necessary knowledge and time to sort through information and choose products with confidence in their quality and suitability. Alicia was also acutely aware that poor decisions about supplements can be unhealthy and even dangerous. When she realized that there was no such thing as a single trusted source for dietary supplement information, individualization, and shopping, the idea for PogoHealth was born.
Work started on PogoHealth in 2004, when Alicia recruited a core team of academic nutritional experts. She knew that the cornerstone of the approach must be objective information based on solid, peer-reviewed science in order to become a trusted source of information for consumers and healthcare providers, and that these core values could not be compromised. The basic plan for the resource was sketched out and progressively refined to include a core team of like-minded scientists, physicians and business people that would uphold her vision. She also recognized that the portal to this information must be sophisticated enough to provide individualized guidance but accessible and practical to the average consumer. PogoHealth is easily accessible, affordable, and provides access to an enormous breadth of scientific information, individualized nutritional and product recommendations, and convenient shopping tools.
