Life Choice 2023 – A Year in Review

It seems that 2023 has barely begun and yet here we are already at the end of it. Many of us began the year hoping and praying it would just be better than 2022 – and at the very least better than 2020 was! Over the course of the last few years, the world has gone through unprecedented challenges. The number of health crises have skyrocketed through-out most populations. People have been forced to take a good look at their own wellbeing and formulate strategies to navigate the deluge of information and misinformation thrown at them on a daily basis. Obtaining trustworthy advice on maintaining one’s health has proven a difficult task in this environment of media noise and questionable expertise.

As an industry in Canada in 2023, many viewed the greatest challenge to natural health to be coming from our own government. Bill C-47 is a piece of legislation that “amends the definition of therapeutic products in the Food and Drugs Act (FDA) to remove the existing exemption for Natural Health Products from Vanessa’s Law within the NHPR.”[i] These amendments include fines of up to 5 million dollars for failing to comply. As many as 70% of natural health companies report they will have to pull products from the Canadian market and 1 in 5 report that they will leave Canada as a result of this legislation,[ii] removing many of the natural solutions for Canadians to combat their health issues with.

As a company, Life Choice made the decision to join with other concerned parties and speak out against this change of legislation. We printed and distributed thousands of postcards to our customers and retail partners, encouraging them to send the cards to the offices of their MP’s. It has been reported that the public response to this bill has been historical in Canada. There is already a private members bill being tabled to reverse the impact of Bill C-47 on natural health products and remove them from under the scrutiny and penalties associated with Vanessa’s Law.[iii] The verdict is in: Canadians love their natural health products and their freedom to choose their own health modality. We can only hope that our legislators listen to the voice of the people.

At Life Choice, 2023 was a year full of both challenges and successes. Logistically, high quality ingredients and other components required to create our products have become increasingly difficult to procure. Although now to a lesser degree, the chaos created through COVID in previous years has continued to affect supply lines and material availability. As a result of these market realities, we have had to modify some of our product offerings (for example, our DMSO Gel will now come in a 4oz bottle rather than a 3oz bottle) and updates to pricing will take effect in the new year.

Despite these challenges, however, Life Choice continued to grow and serve our customers. We welcomed new members to our warehouse and administrative teams. We were able to continue to produce our products and even released a new natural product this year to address urinary tract infections called UTI Health. We participated in several trade shows, the largest of these being the CHFA Now shows in both Vancouver and Toronto. We love these trade shows as it is an excellent opportunity for us to see old friends and make new ones.

One of the best things about our day-to-day at Life Choice is receiving testimonies concerning the impact our products make on the lives of our customers – we receive testimonies all the time! Improving someone’s quality of life is perhaps one of the most rewarding endeavours in life, and we get to do this daily!

This year we heard from Dale about how our DMAE – Lights On! and Sweet Dreams Liquid Melatonin helped both him and his son deal with ADHD: “Life Choice I would like to let you know how helpful your products have been for my son and I, we both have ADHD. I give my son 7 drops of Sweet Dreams liquid melatonin before bed; it helps him sleep through the night and awaken refreshed. Before school I give him your DMAE Lights On, it keeps him calm and focused, it has made a huge difference. BTW I take them both as well and have had very good results.”

We also heard from Angelo regarding our homeopathic Lithium: “My stuttering has diminished; I don’t loop mentally and repeat the same thing over and over anymore. I am very calm and present in the moment without worrying about tomorrow nor am I in anxiety of my past actions. This is the clearest I’ve ever been in my life and I’d really like for you to know the freedom I now have because of this new natural solution that you lead me towards.”

These testimonies are the fuel that keeps us going when things get challenging. Knowing that we are truly helping to make our customer’s lives better propels us to reach others with the many different solutions we offer. The top five best selling Life Choice products of 2023 included:

Our CEO and Formulator, Eldon Dahl, DNM, was very busy this year writing articles and sharing his significant wealth of knowledge with our customers, store partners and distributors. His top five articles (ranked by number of reads) of the year are listed below:

  1. Bill C-47: Weaponizing Vanessa’s Law
  2. Smart 15 Minute Cities: All  Your Daily Needs
  3. After Covid
  4. Connecting the Dots – Sudden Rise in Vertigo
  5. Cholesterol is Our Friend Part 1 (Tied for 5th) and Causal Chain of Disease of the Disease Process – High Blood Pressure (Tied for 5th)

Looking ahead to 2024 our mission hasn’t changed. We will continue to provide high purity, non-GMO natural solutions to health challenges, without compromise – free of side effects and contaminants. We are working on bringing an all-natural anti-fungal cream as well as an extra strength boron product to the marketplace. We are planning clinical trials and will be seeking individuals to participate. We will also continue to engage with our partners and customers, providing training, insight and expertise when ever the need arises.

We have enjoyed serving our customers and partners this year. As mentioned above, our most satisfying moments include hearing from people whom we have led to solutions that have changed their lives. We are aware that without you, Life Choice would not be in business today. We are forever grateful and we wish all of you a Merry Christmas and all the best of health for 2024.

[i] https://dicentra.com/blog/health-canada/bill-c-47-enacted-in-canada-granting-health-canada-increased-regulatory-enforcement-authority-over-natural-health-products

[ii] https://www.lacombeexpress.com/news/red-deer-lacombe-mp-introduces-bill-to-roll-back-new-natural-health-product-regulations-7119894

[iii] https://www.lacombeexpress.com/news/red-deer-lacombe-mp-introduces-bill-to-roll-back-new-natural-health-product-regulations-7119894