Auburn Labs founders Michael Van Noy, DVM, and his wife Joy had two strikes against them when they began marketing their adaptogens formula, Advanced Performance Formula, to the horse world in 1999.
Very few people had heard of these natural herbs. Plus, their ability to help horses – and later other animals and people – sounded too good to be true.
But that was over 20 years ago.
“We were ahead of our time,” notes Joy.
Adaptogens’ remarkable ability to keep all cell functions in balance required a huge commitment to education.
At least at the beginning. “There is a segment of the market that doesn’t care why something works,” Joy acknowledges. “Once we started to make inroads with people using Advanced Protection Formula for their horses, word of mouth took hold.”
Two-time endurance World Champion Valarie Kanavy and eventers Heather Morris and Tamie Smith were among the early adopters whose experiences became the best possible form of marketing to horse owners. APF now comes in three formulas to meet the varied health and performance priorities for horses of all kinds. And the Auburn Labs brand is ubiquitous on the equestrian scene.
What Are Adaptogens?
Adaptogens are described as “silent chaperones” because they don’t do anything unless something is “out of whack,” Joy explains. The technical term is “immune modulators,” and their role is to protect all bodily functions against the effects of stress.
Joy knows the wide-ranging benefits can sound unbelievable. In the beginning, her own and Dr. Van Noy’s personal experience with adaptogens fortified them against the skeptics. University-level research supporting those benefits and widespread anecdotal experiences form an ever-growing body of corroboration.
“Adaptogens exert no influence on any body function until it’s out of balance,” Joy explains. “That’s why it was a hard sell at first. We think of things having a one-directional sort of effect – as in either stimulating or suppressing the immune system. Adaptogens just sit there until they’re needed.
“If your immune system is over-reactive in response to an allergen, for example, adaptogens will turn that down,” Joy shares. “If your immune system is suppressed, they will dial it back up.”
The Formula is now available for horses, dogs and livestock and its human version, Adapta-Fuel, is hugely popular, too.
As the benefits of adaptogens have become well known and accepted — in animals and humans – the market for them has grown considerably. The rigorous testing Auburn Labs implemented from the start becomes all the more important in evaluating identification, quantities and – very importantly — the potency of the ingredients used.
Since the beginning, Auburn Labs has sourced its herbs from very cold climates in Russia. Plants grown in such extreme conditions are the most capable of modulating the cellular stress responses that environment causes.
The Van Noys continue to insist on working with processing facilities using the highest quality methods.
“How the herbs are handled from harvest to extract makes an enormous difference in the potency of each herb,” Joy explains. “As part of our commitment to provide our customers with exceptional herbal products, with repeatable and reliable health benefits, we have identified several laboratories which specialize in quantitative analysis of botanical ingredients utilizing high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). By using state of the art laboratory analysis of key botanical markers, we are able to consistently deliver products with reliable health benefits for your animals.”
Happy Human Customers
Impressed by the results in horses, people began trying APF themselves. Michelle Wood was so impressed by the results she approached the Van Noys about representing a version specifically for people and Adapta-Fuel was born.
Michelle knew the Van Noys through her Thread Needle Embroidery business that traveled the show circuit. It was a job with long days, late nights and lots of stress. “Dr. Van Noy gave me a bottle of APF to help with the stress and it changed my life!
“It balanced my hormonal system, which had been completely out of whack for years,” she continues. She lost 20 pounds quickly and later, in her 50s, dropped another 20 pounds without changing her diet or exercise routine.
“I called Dr. Van Noy and said, ‘I want to sell this to humans!’” And that’s what she does regularly at Galway Downs competitions, other events and through Adapta-Fuel Health. “I can tell you story after story of people who say they depend on it for their quality of life.”
Addressing Stress In all Its Forms
Adaptogens address stress and everyone has stress manifest in different bodily functions, Michelle explains. “One customer told me her vision had improved dramatically after 30 days of taking Adapta-Fuel.” For perfectly healthy people, Adapta-Fuel keeps the stress hormone, cortisol, in balance with the effect that “you have access to all of your natural energy.”
The formula for horses and people is basically the same, Joy explains. “The difference is in the dosage per pound. Because horses are herbivores, they are more sensitive to herbs and make more efficient use of them and they need less than humans do.”
In addition to helping horses and people with a powerfully beneficial product, the Van Noys give back to the equestrian world in many ways. Galway Downs is honored to be one of several venues Auburn Labs sponsors and many of the riders and horses who excel here are powered by their products.
“Joy and Mike are the loveliest, most generous, salt-of-the earth people I’ve ever known in my entire life,” Michelle shares.