Integrity Direct came into being in September of 1998. For the previous 10 plus years, Stan Mann had been researching the work of Johanna Budwig (in the original German) and experimenting with cofactors that could not only copy the action of Budwig’s flax oil recipe, but improve upon it.
When finished, he took his product to the University of Minnesota for testing, where he also developed his own blood test that would produce what he called, at that time, an inflammation index.
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The results of the testing were not for publication, especially since the studies were not conducted under the watchful eye of the FDA and the results, were they published especially at a website that sold the product, would get him and his new company into big trouble. The FDA does not like anyone publishing studies they’ve not approved.
By total coincidence I met the physician who oversaw the study. He was the surgeon who repaired my hernia (I’d received from a horse kick to the gut). The product came up when the doctor informed me that, based on the damage done by the kick, I should be dead. There had been damage to my spine (that came thru the belly) and a force like that should have burst my descending aorta, along with quite a few other blood vessels leading to my organs. It was then that I said, “It must be the Omegasentials.” He looked up at me, furrowing his brow. “Kept my blood vessels supple,” I added.
“So you know Bill and Stan,” he said.
I was taken aback, to say the least. We sat together for the next half hour discussing the product and the tests he’d run back at the U.
He said that of all the different delivery methods of flax, that Omegasentials™ was the superior form, and that it went to work right away cutting lactic acid and decreasing inflammation. Since my favorite hobby is digression, we touched on quite a few subjects ending with a study he said had been published in JAMA recently. They had tested Echinacea and it had failed.
I told him I’d find a copy of that edition, look over the study, and get back to him on that. He gave me his phone number at the U, and two weeks later I called him pointed out to him the ridiculous methodology used in the study that seemed to be just asking for failure. He agreed.
William E Rezmerski, the head of the Integrity Direct, passed away nearly two years ago on June 24th, 2014.
Bill was a hard worker, an insurance salesman who people respected and trusted because he was so darn honest. Omegasentials™ was something he marketed on the side. He believed very much in the product and was always trying to establish new networks to distribute it, along with some of the goodies they’d made from it; their Omegavore treats.
Sadly, the cost of making their Omegavore snack bars just put the retail price too high and the product never took off.
Like most hard workers, Bill never really took care of himself. He stayed up late, got up early, and ate fast food on the road. His lifestyle eventually took its toll. He was one of these people who was so busy trying to get Omegasentials™ to others that he hardly got around to enjoying his own product. When the Omegavores didn’t sell before their expiration date passed, he gave them to his family and friends.
After he passed away, friends of his, some who had helped him early on with his products, stayed in touch with the family to see if the company was going to keep producing Omegasentials™.
Sadly, there was little interest. The family did want to sell the remaining inventory, but they wanted full price for a product that had gone past the expiration date. Those of us in the know were aware of the artificially imposed expiration date of ground flax products; none of them were like Omegasentials™ which had been stabilized, but still, even Bill practically gave the product away after it expired. In fact, he once gave me two cases of expired product for my chickens. My chickens got half. The rest went into my freezer. In fact, I think I still have one bag left.
After a while, we realized that the family was not interested in the product in any way, nor were they interested in continuing Bill’s legacy. They were not going to turn over to us the formula either. To the many who’ve used it over the years, it just seemed that Omegasentials™ was dead and gone.
For one thing, no one could locate Stan Mann, the inventor. He had the formula. He was the genius behind it.
Using all my skills as an investigative journalist, I began tracking down Stan’s children and eventually found one out in California working in the movie industry. He was awfully hard to get a hold of, but one day, he did pick up his land line. He told me he hadn’t seen his father for years and that his sister had cared for him for a while recently, in Michigan. I responded, “Oh? Is he in bad shape?” Indeed, he was. His divorce took away his will to live. He moved in with a daughter for a while. He didn’t eat much, drank pots of coffee at a time till he started rattling off incoherent sentences like a speed freak, and was soon diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. His son gave me his cell phone number, explaining that his dad had some good days, but mostly bad.
I finally got through to Stan and he was somewhat lucid. When I told him Bill had died, he started to cry. He asked about Nu Rituals (which was his company, the one that had developed Omegasentials™). He was unaware that it had gone under because he (Stan) was the CEO.
Then I started to lose him. I asked him about the formula and he said Bill had it and I should contact him. I reminded him that Bill was dead and there was a silence. He asked me if anyone was making Omegasentials™ and I told him no; that it looked like the product was dead and gone. He told me, “Daniel, don’t let it die!”
I didn’t remind him that my name was David. I just said, “I will do my damndest.”
That was the last time I spoke with him. He passed away two or three months afterwards. I realized this when I called his cell phone number and found that it was no longer a working number.
So all we knew about the manufacturing of the product was that they got their golden, wild crafted flax from a company in Canada run by a woman named “Pizzy” or something like that. Within a week, we found the company. Then we discovered that the company that mixed the flax with the “secret” formula had been purchased by an Irish outfit and no longer did that particular service. The Pizzy’s were able to tell me that Bill got his mixture from a company in either Louisiana or Mississippi; they weren’t sure, but they knew it was one of the gulf states.
I created a pretty good sized list of possible companies big enough to make up a “secret” formula and I started to make calls. In just about three days I hit pay-dirt. A person at The Wright Group said that he had worked with Bill from Integrity Direct. I told him that Bill had passed away and we were trying to resurrect the product. He said that the formula can only go out to (or be mixed and sold to) the company Integrity Direct.
I went to our Sec of State’s office and discovered that the family had not renewed their hold on the name Integrity Direct, and within a few minutes, I was the new CEO of the company. We published this in a local newspaper according to law, and then I sent proof of ownership to that fellow at The Wright Group. About a month later I realized we’d not heard back from him, so I called. He no longer worked there. Someone else was in charge of his accounts. We asked to get a call from her. Never got it. We called again, was told that she’d send us the formula. Never got it. We called again. They were sending the formula that day. The next day I got the formula, opened it up and then discovered that in the middle of our secret formula, was another secret formula made by The Wright Group. We asked for that formula and they said, “It’s a secret.” I said of course it is, but if we don’t know it, we can’t figure out the mixture of flax to formula. I told them we had to know all the ingredients so that we could mathematically work backwards from the label to calculate the ratio of ground flax to formula. Without knowing that, we couldn’t make the product.
Again, I was told it was a secret that only the inventor of the mixture could obtain. In fact, even the inventor’s name was a secret.
Long story short, they contacted us a few weeks later and said they could give it to us now, and then it hit me. Stan Mann was the inventor of that mixture, and when they found he had passed away, or possibly could not locate him at any of his phone numbers or email address, they realized he had left the planet and they could then pass it onto us.
So, now we have the formula, we’ve calculated the ratio, we have tested it and it’s exactly what we’d gotten in the past, so all we had to do was find someone to mix it all up, bag it, and label it.
Ay, there’s the rub!
Every local company we’ve contacted will not make up less than a ton. We don’t have Bill’s lost laptop. The family won’t work with us. We have no distribution chain. And the only shop we know that sells it is Simply the Best. We couldn’t possibly sell a ton before the expiration date. Simply the Best might be able to sell 12 bags in a month. Their best month ever was when 36 bags (two cases) went out the door.
We had one option left. Order 100 Kilos of the formula (their minimum order) and freeze it, order as much ground golden, and this time organic flax, as needed, mix it ourselves using the commercial kitchen at our local co-op, and instead of bagging it up, we’d fill half gallon and full gallon plastic bottles, label it and ship it out the door as needed so that the expiration date would always be six months from the date ordered. (The FDA has declared that all ground flax products have an expiration date of six months from manufacture. Omegasentials™ is stabilized, lasts two years at room temp packaged, and indefinitely refrigerated, but still must comply with FDA rulings.
What I found most interesting when testing was that we were able to fill two and half pounds in the half gallon container but only 4 pounds filled up the gallon container. We’ll freeze the formula so it lasts indefinitely and order ground flax, which comes refrigerated, to be used as needed.
Now, did I do this because it’s my favorite product of all my discoveries since starting this quest some 25 years ago?
Hell no.
When we posted that Omegasentials™ were no more, we received at least 100 emails asking us for advice about finding a comparable product (there is none), or when it will be back.
One letter came from this happy customer:
I had breast cancer 6 years ago and used your product after I was diagnosed/before my surgery. The area of cancer was not found when they did my surgery- made me left to wonder why I had the mastectomy, but it was found on 2 separate biopsies before.
Tanya
When you get a note like that one, you really want to do all you can to resurrect this marvelous product. And that’s why we did it.
Today the product can be found at Simply the Best. It is made up when you order it. Our suppliers of golden, organic flax have dried up and we now use a non-GMO flax. I personally mix each batch up when we receive an order and it goes out the door Monday morning. I am still making recipes with Omegasentials and here is one published at this site that is very healthy and perfectly good for a diabetic.
Banana Chocolate Chip Omega-Muffins