About The Natural Health Research Institute

James J. Gormley has fought for consumers on a wide range of issues, including: dietary supplements, folic acid fortification, DHA for infant formula, organics, healthy kid foods, food irradiation, GMOs, sustainable agriculture and many other issues. An award-winning journalist, consumer health advocate and commentator, he has been a frequent guest on television and national radio, and today is a sought-after speaker on health, health-freedom and regulatory issues. A U.S. delegate to a major health conference in China in 2001, Gormley is the author or co-author of the User’s Guide to Natural Treatments for Lyme Disease (2006), User's Guide to Detoxification, Health Benefits of Phosphatidylserine, User’s Guide to Brain-Boosting Supplements, and DHA, A Good Fat (Kensington/Zebra, 1999). His recent scientific articles include the lead review on nutritional supplements and metabolic syndrome in the premiere issue of the journal, Current Nutrition & Food Science. He has served on Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) delegations to Codex Alimentarius in Paris and Rome and on the National Nutritional Foods Association (NNFA) Communications Committee since 1996. Gormley, who is a member of Jonathan Emord's Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship has a regular editorial column on NPI Center and is also on the Board of Directors of Citizens for Health. He is the Scientific & Regulatory Liaison for Purchase, New York-based Nutrition 21, Inc., a leading nutritional bioscience company (www.nutrition21.com) and is the chairman of the AOAC Chromium Working Group.

Michael Lelah, Ph.D. is Technical Director at NOW Foods, in Bloomingdale, Illinois. NOW Foods is a manufacturer and distributor of natural dietary supplements and foods. Michael is responsible for Industry Advocacy and External Affairs, R&D, Quality, Science, Regulatory and Nutrition Services. Michael is a strong supporter of science in our industry and is committed to addressing the twin incorrect views - supplements don't work and supplements aren't safe. Michael has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and has worked in the food, pharmaceutical, healthcare and plastics industries variously as a scientific researcher, responsible for R&D, Quality and Scientific Affairs. You can reach Michael at michael.lelah@nowfoods.com.

James S. Turner, a principal in the Washington, D.D. law firm, Swankin & Turner, represents businesses as well as individuals and consumer groups in a wide variety of regulatory matters concerning food, drug, health, environmental and product-safety matters. He has appeared before every major consumer regulatory agency, including the Food and Drug Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, Consumer Product Safety Commission and Federal Trade Commission, as well as the Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health. He has served as Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Food, Nutrition, and Health, and to the U.S. Senate Government Operations Subcommittee on Government Research. Author of the now-classic book, The Chemical Feast, he has also been a policy consultant to major corporations in the food, pharmaceutical and telecommunications industries, including such companies as Kraft Foods, The Quaker Oats Company, Hoffmann-LaRoche, and AT&T. He was the lead attorney on a successful petition to the FDA to reclassify acupuncture needles from Class III to Class II medical devices, thereby permitting their legal importation and distribution. He is a graduate of The Ohio State University School of Law.

Professor Ronald Ross Watson. Chairman of NHRI, has edited 60 biomedical books, particularly in nutrition and food sciences. He presently directs or has directed several NIH funded biomedical grants relating to immune function and cardiovascular effects. Professor Ronald Ross Watson was Director of a National Institutes of Health funded Alcohol Research Center for 5 years. The main goal of the Center was to understand the role of ethanol-induced immunosuppression on immune function and disease resistance in animals. He is an internationally recognized CAM researcher, nutritionist and immunologist. He also initiated and directed other NIH-associated work at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He is also a professor at the College of Public Health. Professor Watson attended the University of Idaho, but graduated from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, with a degree in Chemistry in 1966. He completed his Ph.D. degree in 1971 in Biochemistry from Michigan State University. His postdoctoral schooling was completed at the Harvard School of Public Health in Nutrition and Microbiology, including a two-year postdoctoral research experience in immunology. Professor Watson is a distinguished member of several national and international nutrition, immunology, and cancer societies having published 450 research papers and reviews. He has a patent pending for a dietary supplement and has worked extensively for decades on the role of nutrient supplements in immune regulation, recently studying Pycnogenol in heart disease therapy. He is the panel manager of the research team reviewing grants in bioactive food for the USDA