5 Controversial Things We Do at Mara Labs

At Mara Labs, we never set out to start a company.

In the search for a sulforaphane supplement for Mara, we found the only options on the market were precursor supplements, so Dr. Gildea set out to find a way to stabilize sulforaphane...for Mara. He worked tirelessly for FOUR years and as it became clear that he was going to succeed in creating something that didn't exist, Mara began raising funds to make BrocElite on a larger scale. What started as a labor of love for one person quickly scaled into a small production for friends and family and is now the Mara Labs you know and love. We've stayed true to our commitment to do everything - from seed to shipping - in our lab here in Charlottesville, Virginia. This allows us to monitor quality and processes much more closely than if we outsourced, which is the norm in the supplement industry. Why is this important?

At Mara Labs, the people who formulate and test these products are the same people taking them every day - and that changes everything about how we operate.

Here are a few controversial things we do as a company, precisely because we practice what we preach.

1. We don’t believe our product is magic

Most supplement brands imply that their product is a “fix” for whatever ails you. At Mara Labs, the opposite is true: we do not believe any supplement is a cure-all. We are thrilled with the quality and impact of our supplements, but we know a supplement will never replace healthy lifestyle habits and diet.

We live in a toxic world - breathing in chemicals, moving at a pace no human nervous system was built to handle, and scrolling enough bad news before breakfast to spike cortisol for hours. No capsule can undo a lifestyle that is slowly chipping away at your health.

Our products are designed to:

•      - Create physiological breathing room so your body has a better chance to repair and rebalance.

•      - Support cellular pathways involved in detoxification, inflammation regulation, and resilience.

•      - Give you a leg up on longevity so you'll be here, and be able, to play on the floor with your grandchildren and chase your dog around the backyard for decades to come.

Supplements can be a powerful tool, but they cannot do the work for you. They work best when you’re willing to change how you eat, move, sleep, and live.

2. We teach you how not to need our product

From a business perspective, it sounds crazy. From a human perspective, it’s the only thing that makes sense.

Our goal is for you to understand how to support your own biology so well that you rely less - not more - on supplements over time. That’s why our content goes far beyond “take this pill.” On our blog and emails, you’ll find:

•      - How to sprout for maximum sulforaphane and why compounds like sulforaphane matter in the first place.

•     - How to get the most nutrition from real food - through cooking methods, food combinations, and smart sourcing.

•     - How to reduce inflammation using lifestyle levers like stress management, light exposure, movement, and blood sugar balance.

•     - How to improve your sleep with or without a supplement, so you’re not dependent on a bottle to get rest.

One of our founders is a practicing physicians who spends his clinical days trying to keep people off medications and out of the medical system as much as possible. That philosophy is one of the many that has shapes how we formulate, how we educate, and how we define success. If you eventually feel so well that you need us less, we consider that a win.

3. We don’t think “organic” is good enough

Organic certification is a step in the right direction, but it’s not the gold standard for safety or quality. Organic labels do not fully account for:

•      - Trace levels of pesticides that drift from neighboring fields

•      - Heavy metals that accumulate in soil and water

•      - Residual solvents and contaminants introduced during processing

We care about those details because we swallow these capsules - and so do our kids, parents, and patients. So we go further than most:

•      - We choose ingredients based on actual farmer practices, not just paperwork.

•      - Every ingredient is tested in our Charlottesville lab, not just accepted “as is.”

•      - We test on renal proximal tubule cells - some of the most fragile kidney cells in the body. If there are even trace amounts of certain solvents or heavy metals, these cells die. Our products have passed both this in-house cell-based screening and standard 3rd-party testing before they ever make it into a bottle.
  

On top of that, our facility is GMP certified, we make sure:

•      - We don't use filler or flow agents

•      - Our ingredients don't have herbisides or GMOs

•      - And our ingredients are vegan, and allergen-free

Those layers of protection are not marketing bullets to us - they’re the standards we have for products we’re willing to put in our own bodies long term.

4. We release our third-party testing

Many companies say “third-party tested” and stop there, expecting you to take it on faith. We don’t think that’s good enough.

For each batch we produce, we:

•      - Run third-party testing and then make those results available on our website.

•      - Decide not to sell any batch that doesn’t meet our internal standards, even if it passes basic regulatory thresholds.

That decision is partly ethical and partly selfish:

1. We started making these formulas because we couldn’t find what we wanted on the market.

2. When we did test similar products, a lot of them didn’t meet the standards we want for our own families.

If we’re not proud enough to take it ourselves every day, we won’t sell it. Transparency is not a marketing angle for us - it’s a survival requirement.

5. We won’t talk bad about our competition

In the supplement world, it’s easy to grow by tearing other brands down. We’re not interested in that game.

We’d rather spend our dollars and energy making genuinely bioavailable supplements from compounds that have historically been notoriously non-bioavailable.

Our focus stays on:

•      - Designing formulas that actually reach the bloodstream and tissues at meaningful levels.

•      - Pairing ingredients with the right delivery systems and testing to ensure they do what the research suggests they can do.

•      - Educating you clearly so you can look at any label - ours or someone else’s - and make an informed choice.

We’re not here to win by “canceling” other companies. We’re here to raise the bar and let you decide what feels safe and effective for your body.

6. We won't make a new supplement that already exists

(Bonus)  You might notice that almost every supplement company has a Vitamin C, collagen, and Vitamin D product. These are inexpensive to make and easy to sell, but you won't find them on our site. Why? Our commitment is to use our time and resources to only bring you supplements that don't already exist in pure, solvent/filler-free, highly bioavailable forms.

Every product at Mara Labs begins with a search. We order and test the top options on the market and if they contain fillers or flow agents, aren't bioavailable, use chemical solvents in the creation process, or do not release their 3rd party testing, we wouldn't take them ourselves, so we believe you need a better option too!

At Mara Labs, the “controversial” things we do come from one simple reality: we are our own first customers.

We use what we make.

We test what we consume.

And we build every product with the assumption that it will be in our own supplement stack for years to come.