It is true that many of us would prefer to take capsules rather than tablets. However, some supplement formulas are compressed into tablets because an excessive number capsules would be required to deliver the desired dosage. For example, the immunoglobulins in First Defense are characterized by such a low bulk density that eight capsules would be needed to deliver the same dose that can be compressed into four tablets.

Magnesium stearate is commonly used and is considered to be a rather harmless tableting excipient. Usually only a few milligrams per tablet are needed to ensure that the formula blend will flow through the tableting machinery. For example, our Green Calcium tablets only contain six milligrams of magnesium stearate each. It also has no known carcinogenicity, reproductive or developmental toxicity, or disruptive effects on the endocrine system. This is not to say that we like to use magnesium stearate. In fact, most of our products are in powder or capsule form just so we can have the “cleanest” line possible.

Out of precaution, I have vigilantly searched for a copy of the University of Texas research and have found that, according to their web site, the scientific journal “Immunology” did not exist in 1990. The archived issues of the journal only go back to 1996. Additionally, I scoured PubMed, the database from the National Institute of Health, for any and all articles dealing with magnesium stearate, and found three, none of them referring to toxicity. Finally, I also checked their TOXNET database, which confirmed the harmless nature of magnesium stearate.

This is not to say that the research was never conducted. But without a valid reference, it is impossible for me to confirm or refute this claim’s validity. Without knowing the procedures followed in any experiment, no real life application can be interpreted. For instance, if the test subjects were mice, and they were fed several grams of magnesium stearate each day, I would expect some form of toxicity appear because of the sheer scale difference. However, the conclusions would be totally inapplicable to the use of literally milligrams of the substance in supplements for humans.

The use of magnesium stearate as an excipient ingredient in our tablets is totally safe.