Before we can answer that question, let's look back to the origin of the concept. The product responsible for the phenomenon that we are experiencing today was discovered more than 70 years ago. As is the case with many important discoveries, its benefits were unanticipated. When a rancher named Thomas Jefferson Clark discovered a liquid solution which facilitated his recovery from a life threatening illness, he began searching for reasons. In his research with animals, he found a variety of other benefits which he attributed to this solution. As the word of his discovery leaked out, rumors ran rampant. A Legend was born.

Now here's the problem. We're all familiar with what happens when someone starts a rumor. Perhaps you remember seeing a classroom experiment whereby one student relayed a story to another and each student was told to pass the story on to the next. By the time the story circulated through the classroom, it bore little or no resemblance to the original. Even with the best of intentions, the real story is lost as a matter of natural evolution. When you add to this a profit motive for intentionally distorting a story, you have the currently occurring situation in the marketplace regarding colloidal trace minerals. If you want the true story----go directly to the source.

Exactly what are Clark Liquid Trace Minerals?

Clark minerals are formulated from specific and isolated mineral deposits. These minerals are the processed mineral remains of flora that existed during the cretaceous period of our earth's history. Once isolated, they are carefully processed using a proprietary formula devised by Thomas Jefferson Clark who had access to the legendary natural spring as his original guide. The spring may not sound too important, but if you could have seen the complex labyrinth of passageways and the many different materials it passed through and you think about the bit of information that follows, you can begin to see its significance.

The combination of the raw materials and the process create a synergistic solution of complexes and compounds, most of which remains unidentified to this day. To help visualize what I am saying, think back to the chart of elements you probably first saw in science lab at school. The modern extended periodic table chart shows many newly discovered elements, but only 94 which occur naturally. The others have been more recently found or created in nuclear reactors and atomic accelerators. Out of these known elements we have created approximately 7 million chemical compounds, approximately 75,000 of which are in everyday use. Clark minerals have over 70 of the 94 natural elements in a single solution forming an almost endless array of compounds. The complexity of quantifying exactly what these compounds, complexes and chelates are, let alone understanding why they work - boggles the mind.

Can the Clark Minerals product be duplicated?

Think about that last statement made for a minute. Most of these compounds remain unidentified. If you can't even identify what's in the product, you surely can't duplicate it. I doubt Coca Cola is too worried about someone duplicating their formula, and we all know what happened to The Coca Cola Company when they tried to duplicate a competitors formula. Now if it's not possible to duplicate a simple soft drink, you can understand why we're not too worried about anyone duplicating our formula. Clark's minerals are in a League of one. They have no peers. There are other minerals formulas, but they are just that, other mineral formulas. For those of you who have experienced our product let me put your mind to rest, we have absolutely no desire to duplicate our competitors formulas.

Are the lab analysis showing mineral amounts displayed by many companies important?

Because we are repeatedly asked, we provide this information as a courtesy, even though we believe it to be insignificant. Exactly what if anything, do these type of listings or content analysis tell us?

Here are some things we think you should consider:

First--Since it is a natural product, the amounts of each mineral will vary slightly from batch to batch.

Second--The few trace minerals that are beginning to be understood are required in very small amounts---there are no RDA's recommended. Typically, the amounts suggested will be measured in micrograms. A microgram is 1 millionth of a gram.

Third--The uniqueness of our minerals lies in the complexes, compounds and chelates, not in metallic content. If you wanted to gain valuable information, that would be the place to look. Unfortunately we are unaware of technology capable of giving you that information at this time.

Fourth--Misinformed salesmen and those engaged in the make-a-buck art of pseudo-science would lead you to believe more is better. When it comes to trace metals, nothing can be further from the truth. Can anyone possibly believe it is healthy to consume 38 grams of colloidal trace metals as I have heard one product is proudly proclaiming.

Fifth--As you have surmised by now; our product must be judged in its entirety. Evaluation through subjective interpretation of individual minerals does a disservice to not only the product but the consumer as well. For those consumers looking for a particular quantity of a particular mineral for a particular reason, we suggest you seek out that individual mineral. We hope you will bear in mind that more important than the mineral itself, is the form that it is in.

Do you think some of the colloidal trace mineral products are dangerous?

In a word - YES. There are really only a few manufacturing sources providing a flood of colloidal minerals products. Regardless of the label or distribution company, 99% of all products are derived from one of these raw material suppliers: Clark, The Rockland Corp, Bioflora, Intergrated Health Network. Many of these inferior products add flavoring and/or sweetners. Besides their questionable source of raw material, there is the question of method of processing. Clark minerals are naturally leached into purified water. This is a time consuming process. One method of speeding up production is to process with an acid leach such as citric.

What about all of these terms floating around the marketplace:

Terms like humic shale, colloidal, ionic, chelate, fulvic acid.

While the Clark Mineral product contains colloids, ions, and chelates, those terms don't tell you much about the efficacy of the product. To understand why, lets look at the individual meaning of the terms.

1. Humic Shale--This is an interesting term. Since we don't know what humic shale is, we assume it must have been coined in an attempt to give some sort of significance to someone's product. If we look at the words individually, humus is formed by the partial decomposition of vegetable or animal matter. Shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock readily splitting into thin plates or layers. The Clark minerals product contains neither humus nor shale. If you should desire a product made with these materials you will find them readily available in the form of compost and fine grained sand.

2. Colloids---colloidal simply refers to particle size, a generally accepted definition is a particle small enough not to settle out in its medium. Colloids are distinguished from true solutions by their inability to diffuse through a semi-permeable membrane (e.g., cellophane) and by their ability to scatter light (the Tyndall effect).

3. Ion---An ion is simply an atom or group of atoms which has either an excess or a deficiency of electrons and is thus electrically charged.

4. Chelate---A chelate is a coordination complex, with a cyclic structure usually of five or six members, in which the coordinated groups have at least two bonds to the central ion.

* 5. Fulvic Acid---A general group of naturally occurring acids found in all plant derived mineral matter. For more information on fulvic acid see this SilverStream Research publication.

When all is said and done, you will find the value of any medicinal or nutritional product only through observation. Scientists may be able to see what a compound is doing under clinical analysis but they would be remiss to say why it is doing it or what long term consequences may be associated with its use. So it seems that we are back to square one with regard to the Clark Mineral product. If over 70 years of perceived benefit and continued use by millions of consumers is not enough to convince you it's a valuable nutritional supplement, we can only recommend that you stick to the old proven adage "An apple a day". Now that has to be a good thing - right? Wonder what kind of soil that apple tree was grown in?

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1175 Grass Valley Hwy
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