When we launched Myolibria a few years ago, we did so to address an overwhelming need.

Dr. Henry was helping his patients to live with less pain, and a big part of that became focusing on nutrition.

He began prescribing magnesium supplements to his patients.

His patients would go to their local grocery store or pharmacy, look at the shelf full of different magnesium supplements and think to themselves “How do I know which one to get?!?!”.

These patients would come back and say “I went to get some magnesium as you said, but there were so many and I didn't know which one to buy”.

The doc, confused about why this was challenging, decided to visit his local grocery store and see what they were talking about.

He looked at the shelf full of magnesium supplement and thought to himself “How do I know which one to get?!?!”

That led to us doing a lot of research on the supplement industry and in the process coming to some pretty disturbing conclusions.

• There are thousands of products - many are very helpful, but most are not. 
• Many companies lie about what is in their supplements, or they use deceptive labeling tactics to maximize profits at the expense of their customers.
• Most people will have a very difficult time figuring out what to take and in what dosage (the government recommended daily allowances are usually woefully inadequate, especially when starting from a point of deficiency).

We knew that in order for supplements to be effective for chronic pain sufferers, that we needed to be honest/transparent, knowledgeable and focus on creating really great products that are effective.

While we were figuring this out, the demand for Dr. Henry’s chronic pain treatments was, to put it mildly, exploding.

While most pain treatments are focused on “management” and accepting that pain is something that sufferers need to learn to live with, the majority of Dr. Henry’s patients were getting significant relief and in many cases becoming “pain-free”.

We knew that if we could help people make lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, cold swimming!), take supplements which would improve muscle (and overall) health, and get them access to the pain injections they needed, that we could help to change chronic pain from a life sentence to a treatable condition.

Dr. Henry is just one dedicated physician, and we knew that if we were going to make a significant impact on the "silent epidemic" of chronic pain, we would need to expand his treatment protocol so that other physicians could help the 1.5 billion people worldwide who live with chronic pain. 

How are we going to make a real difference?

Trying to create a paradigm shift is difficult.

Especially when the medical industry is quite comfortable with the status quo.

Fortunately, this is changing.

Prescribing opiates is no longer "standard of care" for chronic pain sufferers (ignoring the cruelty of preventing someone access to opiates if they were previously prescribed them/aren't given other options that work). 

Existing treatment options have some positive benefits, but everyone involved knows that there must be a better way, even if they don’t yet know what that might be.

We believe that treating the underlying causes of chronic pain (and all chronic disease) is unlikely to ever be a top-down solution.

With billions of dollars at stake, pharmaceutical companies and everyone dependent on their revenues (MD’s, scientists, researchers, universities), are not readily going to admit that drugs and surgeries are not always the appropriate solutions. We can't expect an industry that makes its profits from sickness to be on the frontlines of preventative medicine.

It needs to be said that the majority of people in medicine have the best of intentions, and are just working within the existing paradigm and doing the best that they can. 

Often the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs are vehemently opposed at first, and in time become the accepted way of doing things. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as the Semmelweis reflex or "Semmelweis effect", a metaphor for the reflex-like tendency to reject new evidence or new knowledge because it contradicts established norms, beliefs or paradigms (Semmelweis discovered that hand-washing was critical to preventing the spread of germs, and for his heretical views he was fired from the hospital he worked at and harassed by the medical community).

Just as it was easy for the medical community to ignore Semmelweis because the truth didn't fit with the commonly held beliefs of the time, it is easy to ignore the simple yet profound truths about what human beings actually need to live healthy lives free of chronic disease. (hint: we're not born with drug deficiencies)

Therefore, change will continue to be found through a grassroots, community-driven approach that is focused on education and the solutions that treat the underlying causes of chronic illness.

Moving forward

It was our mission from the start to play our part in helping to make this shift. However, one major headwind has unfortunately been self-inflicted. The name “Myolibria” is problematic.

“Myo” means muscle, and “libria” refers to equilibria (in reference to getting muscle in balance). The name requires quite a bit of understanding for it to make sense, it’s difficult to say/remember, and since our early days we’ve learned so much more about the complexities of the underlying causes of chronic pain (and disease) such that the name Myolibria is less meaningful.

While the Myolibria name has served us well, we think that there is a better name that will help us to get our message to more people. A name that is meaningful, memorable, easy to say, and which doesn't require expert knowledge.

People share messages that are meaningful and important to them - they want their friends and family to know about this awesome new thing they found.

A good example of this is Nike. The company was originally called Blue Ribbon Sports. When they started to sell their own products, they needed a new name. The founder, Phil Knight, wanted to name the brand "Dimension 6", because of their love for the pop group the 5th Dimension. Today, Nike is the most popular and respected brands in the sports industry, and one of the most valuable brands in the world. Had they decided to be Dimension 6, it's hard to imagine that they would be where they are today, inspiring millions of people worldwide to "Just do it".

We’ve been hard at work defining who we serve, and how we serve them, and most importantly why we serve them. Simon Sinek has a famous talk (and book) on this subject "Start with Why". 

We also have some other very exciting changes coming in 2019.

This includes –

• Our supplements will be available for purchase in the US.
• Dr. Henry is going to be available to answer questions via video and will be doing podcasts (maybe our own?). In addition, he plans to release his first book.
• The patent application for the injection formula has been submitted. This is very important because it will allow us to raise the necessary funds and support needed to complete clinical trials that will prove efficacy and help to garner support from physicians and pain clinics looking for a better way to help their patients.

Lots of big and exciting changes coming, and thanks for being a part of it.

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