8/ MAY 2022 THE RIDER


Catching Up with Founder Gordon Chang: 30 Years of Omega Alpha®


Toronto, Ontario (March 19, 2022)- In 1992, dressage rider Cynthia Ishoy was rep- resenting Canada at the Barcelona Olympics, Celine Dion was at the top of the music charts, Brian Mul- roney was still Prime Minis- ter, and a young medical engineer in Ontario named Gordon Chang was formu- lating and concentrating nat- ural herbal supplements for a unique new company that would prove to be in the right place at the right time, Omega Alpha® Pharmaceu- ticals. Chang had completed


his post-doctoral work and had started a career in human-grade, private label pharmaceuticals when he saw how interest in natural products was “taking off” in health and wellness commu- nities. “I said to myself look; you’ve got the science background. You know what you’re talking about, and how to go through the steps to identify the possi- bilities in a product.” He started the company on the human side, offering all-nat- ural products to support joint, digestive, respiratory, and immune system health. “Horses were next.”


Omega Alpha® had com- mercially established itself for a decade when a tack supplier named John Mc- Cloud walked in the door. “Gordon, he asked, “would these products work for horses?” I said, “I don’t see


Boiling It Down Looking back on 30


years of creating vegan nat- ural products, free from gluten, wheat, dairy, egg, soy and sugar, in powder or liquid formulas is a re- minder that Omega Alpha® started with human-grade materials for humans and has never veered from using the same high quality raw materials for animal supple- ments. Meeting a human-


grade standard makes Omega Alpha’s production unique, Chang said. “We use the same equipment. Maintain the same stan- dards.” One resource is HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography), a power- ful machine used in analyti- cal chemistry to separate, identify and quantify each component in a mixture. Omega Alpha® can as-


Gordon Chang with a customer


why not. Horses are mam- mals like you and me. All we had to do was offer doses at levels to show a benefit. We started with joint supplements and had great success! Back then, all people wanted to hear was glucosamine, chondroitin, or MSM. That was impor- tant but nothing was offer- ing an anti-inflammatory effect. Every joint that has suffered damage has inflam- mation. You have to address inflammation.” Chang knew of herbal


anti-inflammatories that he could add. “We did, and horse owners said the differ- ence was night and day. So, I asked John what else goes wrong in the horse world, and he said, everything!” More Omega Alpha®


products, for horses and pets, followed. “Horse own- ers kept asking if this could be used on their dog or cat. The light bulb went off that every person with a horse usually has dogs and cats. That’s why we launched the pet line.”


sure detection of trace mate- rials to minute levels, which has built confidence in con- sumers who are competitive equestrians. “We check our herbs. Nothing falls through any check list for banned substances.” Through liquid extrac-


tion, the efficacy of an herb or herbal formula can be concentrated and controlled. “It’s like brewing coffee. If I give you grounds to chew on, you’ll never get that caf- feine hit! You won’t digest it the same way as brewing (extracting) the caffeine.” “The advantage of liq-


Pharmaceuticals


uid extracts is getting a con- centrate to a level high enough to be effective. We choose herbs based on what we know they can do. Turmeric has powerful anti- inflammatory properties, which we use in a couple of products. We also know other herbs that work like that, which is why we make formulations as opposed to single products, to try and maximize all the beneficial effects.”


Chang uses an analogy


of hauling resources up a mountain: having more than one path delivers things faster. Turmeric is an anti- inflammatory; so are arnica and milk thistle. “Don’t let a ‘landslide’ block a path. Have more than one path for the job.”


The Next 30 Years Chang is still CEO


while acknowledging how the growth behind the Omega Alpha® tenet, effec- tive supplements through science, has - like a develop- ing dressage horse — re- quired fresh flocking of its metaphoric saddle. “I can’t do it all. There is a talented team for that. But I sup- pose,” the scientist and en- trepreneur laughed, “If I think there is a light bulb in the office that needs chang- ing, I’ll still go ahead and change it!.” On a more contempla-


tive note, “It’s been satisfy- ing to see where we’ve come from and where we are now. Omega Alpha is in almost every facet of health- care and ten years from now, I hope we’ll be even bigger


in the different export mar- kets.” “A horse is an expen-


sive investment. If you’re going to supplement an in- vestment, you want some- thing that works. That has separated Omega Alpha from the rest.” Omega Alpha® is a


Canadian-based company offering all-natural products to support optimum health in horses (as well as hu- mans) with a division, Omega Alpha® (Equine) USA, in Florida. Experience the benefits in improving and maintaining respiratory, digestive, joint, hormonal and immune system health, detoxification, muscle reha- bilitation and performance at www.OmegaAlpha.com.


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