Organic Reach: How Natural Products Became a Billion-Dollar Industry – Part 3

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Big Bold Health is looking ahead to the future—and so are thought leaders Dr. Jeff Bland and Doug Greene. Listen in as they wrap up an epic discussion about the wellness revolution and its global impact on personal health. What comes next? It’s a question Jeff and Doug already ask themselves, and it’s one they hope you will be inspired to explore in your own life.

James Maskell: 00:06 Hello, and welcome back to the Big Bold Health Podcast, making health personal in a world of disease.

Jeffrey Bland: 00:12 Well, here we are back with the Jeff and Doug journey of the last 40 years, and this is going to be our final episode. And we’ve been talking first about the history, and then talking a little bit about the present, and now we’re going to talk about the future; that’s really the thing that probably is most important to any of us. Where are we going? We can learn from the past, but we chart our way to the future, and we like to think that the future will be as good or better for those that we leave behind then that which we found in our past.

And you know, we said in our conversations earlier today, Doug, something that I thought was really profound that I’d like to throw back to you for your thoughts. And, that is I’ve always observed you to be what I would call a leader by example. There are many ways of differing leadership being seen, some are very emotive, some are very strong personalities, some are quick to volunteer, and others are more individuals who just keep operating under high principles that other individuals see and want to emulate. And in fact, that’s the style that I would say has been your watchword of the 40 years that I’ve had the privilege of knowing you. 

And, when I think about that, you know, you were saying to me when I was talking to you about this, that well you like to be at the back of the room so you can see everybody ahead of you and kind of understand the group. And what I said to you is, it’s interesting because leadership of your type at the back of the room becomes the front of the room. That you have people turning around, and you started in the back, but you end up not by proclamation, but by authenticity, becoming the front of the room. So, tell us a little bit about your view of leadership, and how it’s manifest, and how that plays forward you think into this world that is ahead of us.

Doug Greene: 02:03 Well to me, leadership at the end of the day is about responsibility. And, I always think if I’m going to do something, I don’t think, what am I going to do? I think, what am I going to take responsibility for? And whether you’re in a family, or in a business, or whatever it is, and if you’re going to take responsibility for it, that means really a lot of emotional effort. And I find, we talked earlier about this, the entrepreneurial journey, but the entrepreneurial journey is not just a … it’s definitely a physical journey and it’s definitely a financial journey and it’s definitely a mental journey. But, more than anything, it’s an emotional journey.

As you know, through functional medicine, how you can increase your functionality by various processes and whatnot. The same thing, you’ve always got to be working on your emotional strength because that’s what’s needed more from leaders than anything, I think, is really emotional strength.

And, I was involved in a session once where I didn’t know the people and we were broken up into groups, and they said, “Who want to be leaders of the group?” And I saw four or five people shoot their hands up, and of course, I kind of moved to the back of the room, because if you’re a leader and you’ve served any leadership functions, you know how hard it is. No leadership project happens quickly and it’s a great challenge, and trial, and tribulations, but of course worth it, but it’s not some self-congratulatory thing. And, after this two-day process with people I didn’t know, I realized that every single person that shot their hand up wanting to be the leader were actually naturally the worst people to be the leaders. And that the people that went to the back and were quiet, were really the real potential leaders and true leaders, because they understood what it meant to do it, and they still were pondering whether to do it or not.

And, I’ve always looked at things that … because I also value my personal time, and I value my personal life, and I think that you can’t … you can, at times you have to give your life away for certain phases more than others, but you also got to be careful about it. But I always look at something, is there something in the world needs to happen? And I think, “Okay, I think it really needs to happen.” And I think, “Do I have the skills to contribute to that?” And I think, “Okay, do I have the financial resources to at least get it started?” And then I think, “Well, gee. If I see it’s needed to be done, I have the skills and I have the financial resources, guess what? I have to do it.” That’s my turn to do that thing.

But leadership, as they say, is lonely; leadership where you’ve got to say no a lot more times than you say yes. And that includes not only you’re saying no to loved ones, and friends, and associates, but also to yourself. But where I really learned most of my leadership skills is from observation, and of course, reading everything, participate in everything, always looking for any little kernel of truth you could find. Like Issy Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons, I mean I’ve learned so … I’ve never met the guy, but I’ve read books, I’ve talked to people that know him, and you talk to people who work for him, you mention his name, they light up.

Well, that’s what everybody wants, is when somebody mentions their name that people light up. That means that he’s brought light into their life. And so, we have been fortunate through our lives to have a lot of great leaders. And, I’ll go back to Bill Gore and Jim Autry and others. And also, I found when you find true leaders, they know how difficult it is to be a leader and the challenges—they’re always willing to lend a hand, or a friendly word, and offer some advice. And people ask me once, “Who’s a leader?” I say, “Well, in a certain sense, everybody’s a leader,” you’ve got to lead your own life and in your community. And, I’m always searching for what needs to happen next, what role can I play in that? And then, try to make a cautious entry into that process. Because again, I’m always looking for … it’s like catching a wave in surfing. When you catch a wave, you know you’ve got a wave, and the board starts going and you know that it’s not your arms pushing you forward; you are in union with nature.

And, I think that’s on what leadership is too—it’s choosing a wave and paddling and catching it and realizing that you’ve got to choose your waves carefully and you don’t catch every one. You go back and you keep going. But it’s an important skillset that recently has gotten blurred in some of our world, and I hope we can get back because the world needs leaders more than ever. And we have more leaders than ever in a certain sense, but the more we can work together, and the same way we’ve worked together between the medical community and the natural foods industry, it’s really all this … there’s linkages of working together that are really going to make the world that we all want to leave to our children or grandchildren.

Jeffrey Bland: 07:30 Yeah, you know, when I think of Doug Greene, with epic moments in my life of observing you, there are many that I could call up, but one that I think serves to this specific discussion, which probably for you was just a trivial example of your life as just one of many. But it was a major observation for me, and this was back in the Grenada days of Reagan, in which you …  and I at first thought you were being facetious. And you said, “I got to get to Grenada,” during the middle of the conflagration, “I got to get to Grenada.” And I’m thinking, “Oh, like you’re going to like save our medical students over there at the medical school?” I mean, where were you going? And your thought was, I need to be there where democracy is being born, I need to be in that cauldron where people are having a new sense of reality and they’re willing to be in the flux of change, which is not easy. It may even, in certain cases be life threatening, but I need to be there.

And, I thought that was a measure of you. I mean, that tells so much about the way that you approach your circle of influence, and how you are on a learning curve, and your willingness to put yourself in harm’s way for the spirit of growth and development. And, that lead led me into recognizing that our business models that we use today are really so built around a model of looking backward. We call it the … basically, the audited financial statement.

I mean, what is the audited financial statement? It’s a historical record of something that happened. It tells you nothing about the vitality of the organization at the moment or its future opportunity to grow and develop and have value propositions that build a new cultural opportunity for other people. It just tells you where you were. It’s the business plan. It’s the person who gets on the plane to go to Grenada in the middle of a conflagration to see if they can buy a restaurant to be part of the community. That’s a different spirit, right?

You said it to me earlier today, you said, “That’s taking away the rear view mirror so you cannot look back.” You can only look forward using the resources of your learnings, but to project them forward into the future. And, that to me is the rugged definition of an entrepreneur.

Doug Greene: 09:51 Well, on Grenada, I just happened to have a friend who had a Grenadian nanny, who he said she was the sweetest woman he’d ever known. And then I thought, “Well, why are we invading Grenada?” And I, for some crazy reason, jumped on a plane and went down there and almost got killed the first night. I mean, literally within a 10th of a second of being killed, they thought I was a Cuban spy. And so, I called my local Congressman, said, “Hey, can I get a letter from you saying that I’m like a decent guy in case I go back?” And he said, “Well, there’s a special office in the White House set up for Grenada, that this is a new thing.” And he said, “Let me get you an appointment.” And, I was going to be in Washington D C anyway, a few days later, so I said, “Great, I’ve liked to go to the White house.”

And so, you know, when you’re around politics you realize that half the people on the staff are like 26 years old. And so, I go there and there’s this Michael Chastain, a 28-year-old guy, and I think at the time I was 33. And, by the time I walked out of the office, I was in charge of Grenada. He says, “You’re the first guy that’s come in here that’s not trying to sell paving equipment or something. You’re the first guy that’s shown up and wants to help, so you go down there and you … and I’m going to write you a letter and see what you can do.” I ended up going there on my own dime, 23 times. I only got this restaurant, not because I wanted a restaurant, because I wanted to show them good management techniques where you treated people fairly. And so, we had this lovely restaurant, Delicious Landing. And, I partnered with Terry Dalton out of Miami who had the number one natural foods restaurant in America for like 20 years, and a fabulous partner, and a fabulous man.

But from all that, I got to reorganize our United Nations office and got to do all these interesting things. Fritz Maytag from Anchor Steam Beer came down and adopted their brewery, and said, “Oh, my God, they’re almost like poisoning everyone, because when the communists were running it, they forgot about sanitation.” And then, Peter Roy from Whole Foods was down there, and we had a variety of people, and we put on a conference about getting … I would go on the radio and give pep talks to the whole country on how to have vision, and hope, and things are going to be better in the future, because they had been through a tough time.

But from that I saw the importance of a community to create jobs, because when you have … a job helps give you meaning in your life, and we’re all in a search for meaning in our lives, as you know so well. And so, I realized that and so I realized … I mean I saw this prime minister really wanting to create some jobs. Herbert Blaize was a really good man, because the last prime minister had been cut up in little pieces and fed to the fish. He would look out his window at these unemployed workers and he would say, “Fish food. Fish food.” He was afraid he was going to become fish food, so I saw how he wanted to create jobs.

I came back to America to see … and we did get some people to do a few … Calvin Klein put a shirt packaging company there, and there’s some nice things and really creative companies were trying to do some things to help, and it was very inspiring in that process. But then I realized that every community, everyone in the world needs to create projects. And, I started this expansion management magazine, that went on to become the number one magazine in the world in economic development with 700 governments advertising in it, that’s now owned by Penton Medium.

And so, I didn’t go down there to start a business and I didn’t go down there that … but I ended up with this multimillion-dollar magazine as a byproduct of just going to help some people that were having a tough time. But I’ve always found that volunteer work, my work in South Africa, my working China, my work in the Philippines, my working in Russia, all these places were not business driven starts, it was all because I was lucky enough to have, as the natural foods business took off, I had a little, a bit of time in my life and I had some resources. And, I think everybody should be doing volunteer work in their life—and I know you’ve done a lot of volunteer work with me and for me—that I thought, “Well, I can go help my school do this or that, my local school,” and I did.

But I thought, “Okay, I live in a global world. How can I go do global volunteer work?” And, that’s been one of the things in my life that has been most satisfying. And strangely enough, one of the things that’s introduced me to some of the best people I’ve ever met, and has also emerged a lot of interesting business ideas and processes, because any world you go into where you’re paying attention, you learn and you glean things. So, I always try to counsel my kids, and my friends, and my friends’ kids that, “Hey, make sure you’re doing some volunteer work. Make sure you’re doing some things that aren’t economically driven, but you’re lifting a hand to help somebody else.” And writing a check is good too, and I believe in that, but I think it’s also important to go physically do the work.

I had the lovely experience of getting to know Robert Mueller, who used to be the head administrative guy at the United Nations for years and ran it. And, I was on a panel with him once, and he wrote a book, Most of All They Taught Me Happiness, who from … was working with all the great leaders. But he would pick up trash every day on his way to the train station and walk a different route—here’s the guy running the United Nations and he’s out picking up trash every morning. And, I thought, “What an amazing guy,” and so, I started looking at that. He really inspired me to get more involved in volunteer work and so on. And he said, “Hey, you need to go do some physical volunteer work doing regular stuff,” and he was a huge inspiration. And so, volunteer work is one of my big messages to everybody.

Jeffrey Bland: 15:29 So let me, if I can, take us back now 25, nearly 25 years ago. I think there’s an interesting shared experience that we have that is instructive about where we’re going and how we might go there using the concepts of high level philanthropy, high level volunteerism, high level mission driven activities. And, this is going to be a reflection with you of the DSHEA, the Dietary Supplement Health Education Act.

So, I want to give my quick vignette, and then I’d like to get yours. So, my quick vignette was that we had in the nutritional products field and the dietary supplement field been through a very interesting period from the ’70s on, with Senator Proxmire working with Bill Thompson at the Thompson Vitamin Company, to fight back against the FDA’s attempt to take over the nutritional supplements as prescription drugs.

Doug Greene: 16:25 And why were they doing that?

Jeffrey Bland: 16:26 Well, I think that they were doing it for two reasons. I’d like to think the laudatory reason was that they were worried about consumer safety and they didn’t know a lot about the safety of these nutrients, and people were now using mega doses of various nutrients that were far beyond that what you’d get it, even in a good diet. And so the FDA, the toxicology branch said, “Gee, we’re venturing out on work areas that we don’t really know much about. Let’s control this until we really have better safety.” That would be my high level thinking.

I think the other thinking, however, is that because there was some sense that where people were taking control of their health, and they were using dietary supplements and foods and so forth, and moving away from the belief of the primacy of the medical model as being the solution to all health problems, that it was causing some rumbles of, “Hey, this is like a revolution in the streets that we need to be very mindful of because we might lose the power structure, which is a major portion of our economy is these growth industries called the drug and pharmaceutical houses.”

So, I think there were probably multiple forces at play. But what happened, ultimately, coming out of Proxmire then as we know into the ’80s, was that the FDA kind of got its wind again with what was called the Showa Denko disaster, which was tainted tryptophan that was produced by the Showa Denko company in Japan, that was causing a disorder called eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome in which there were 2,470 people in the United States, seriously injured, of which I think my last recall was something like 17 deaths from taking tryptophan as a supplement that was tainted. And at the time, it was not known to be tainted, at the time, it was thought to be a result of a dietary supplement.

So, this emboldened the FDA to say, “See, I told you so, and we need to step in, and we need to control these things like they’re drugs, and enact higher standards and rigors with drug approval processes for these supplements.” If it were not for one of our friends, Michael Leiner—who at the time was the CEO and founder of his company, Leiner Health Products, with his partner David Brubaker—who knows what the nutritional supplement company would have … where it would be today, because Michael Leiner was involved because his company was the largest distributor of tryptophan, most of it coming from the Showa Denko company in Japan. And so, they had huge consumer liability. This was potentially billions of dollars of consumer liability with the deaths and the injuries to individuals.

And so, Michael—who is a chemical engineer by training, not a nutrition guy, but very smart guy and also a MBA from Harvard—he went over to Japan to negotiate and discuss with the Showa Denko Company culpability for this problem. And of course, Showa Denko was offshore, far in Japan and was pushing back and saying, “No, we have no responsibility. That’s your product and if you had a problem with it, shame on you, not us.” And Michael, is a very sharp attention to detail guy, to say the least, and he had noticed in some of the chromatograms from the chemical evaluation of the Showa Denko material, that there was a peak in the chromatograms that was way out on the tracing, that was way beyond what people were looking at when they went to the court and had these battles as to the safety and purity of the Showa Denko material.

And finally, one day in this meeting in Japan, this kind of come to reality meeting with the 16 attorneys for Showa Denko corporation and the Leiner people, he asked the question, “Well, what about this peaked E? Peak letter E?” And they said, “Well, what about Peak E?” He said, “Well that’s a peak that’s been identified, it’s way out here. What is that?” They said, “Oh, that’s irrelevant. That’s just like a trace thing.” And he said, “Well, how do we know that trace thing is not really … because that peak E is only found in the Showa Denko material. We’ve tried many other sources of tryptophan; we don’t find that peak E.” Well, to make a long story a little bit longer, it was found that that peak E was an indolamine crosslinked byproduct that was an immune toxin. And, at very, very low levels would create, in genetically susceptible people, a very serious autoimmune reaction, that is called EMS, the eosinophilia-myalgia syndrome. And, it not tryptophan in and of itself, nor the nutritional supplement, it was the impurity. And then, it was found out that—low and behold, Showa Denko then finally did disclose—well they had changed the production process to a genetically modified organism, and they weren’t changing the filters appropriately to get these trace contaminants out of the material. So, they eventually took on the responsibility for the several billion-dollar liability.

So, it was that phase then, the fighting back against that, what was the attempt of the FDA once again to completely regulate dietary supplements, that led into then, with a variety of very active people through Orrin Hatch, senator in Utah, the development of the language for the Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act; to put suitable claims and controls under the quality and claim support for authentic dietary supplements, leading to the structure function claims of today, in 1995. And of course, Loren Israelsen—our good friend and colleague, being the former legal aid to Orrin Hatch, and then later the president of one of the major herbal product companies, and then now the Natural Products Association founder and president—he was actively involved with his group in working with Congress and Senator Hatch in drafting the legislation.

At that time, we in Gig Harbor, set up the Natural Products Quality Assurance Alliance, which I had a hundred member organizations in our field that all signed up voluntarily to meet once a month—the CEOs or their senior people, in Gig Harbor, in our little company in Gig Harbor—to draft our own internal documents of quality assurance. It had never existed before in our industry, and we said, “Let’s beat the FDA and be the first to the mark so we can show responsibility.” Which then, Senator Hatch did read into the congressional record, and we were told that that was one of the important things that, then Senator Kennedy, Ted Kennedy, used to justify his being the late person that voted in favor of DESHA to get it passed. Without his vote, it would not have passed the midnight vote.

And, all of that process then, is one of a great story of vision, and commitment, and people volunteering their time, because there was no compensation for anyone. In fact, we got … Let’s just say there was no compensation for anyone that was involved with this process. And, there were many debates and you’ve held forums—I recall several really interesting meetings in Boulder, Colorado that you sponsored with members of the industries; some were a little bit more firebrands than others.

Doug Greene: 23:21 Yes, yes. I remember them very well.

Jeffrey Bland: 23:23 And eventually, the DESHA was passed against all odds, because no one ever thought … In fact, it burned out many, literally burned out many fax machines, in the days of faxes of congressional individuals with their machines being … I think there were the more citizens response than of any other previous thing in the history of-

Doug Greene: 23:41 With exception of the Vietnam War.

Jeffrey Bland: 23:42 Was it? Okay. So, number two. So now, this is a long winded warm up to what I want to get to, and I apologize for being belabored on this, but it leads me then to a point for me of some disappointment. And, I’ve learned from my disappointment now over the years to what it all meant, but my disappointment was when DESHA was finally passed and there was a very large meeting of celebration in Las Vegas for the natural foods industry, and I was thinking this was going to be a great moment of celebration, which people would say, “Now we can responsibly conduct our business going forward. There’s a huge opportunity. We have these structure function claims, we’re bringing in these authentic herbal products from Europe that can be used in our marketplace now, where they help with individuals, and we’re going to, as an industry, step up and be responsible.” And what did I hear in the cocktail hour before? I heard a lot of conversation about now we can exploit, now we can take advantage, now we have taken the controls off, now we can do whatever we want.

It reminded me that we, as human beings, are driven by different things, right? It wasn’t everybody, so I don’t want to give a blanket a smudge to the … but there were those who were exploiters and they were opportunists and this was now a chance to abuse. And for me, that was the moment where I decided I need to put my energy in the health professional side. Because, if I can raise the health professional side, maybe I can pull forward the quality in the consumer side.

So, how does this, all this story which has been long winded, how would you relate to it in terms of your vision and your perspective about the best of human beings and how we see light from dark?

Doug Greene: 25:20 Well, first, let me say that I remember when you stepped into that void, because it was … you are very humble in your comments about what you did and that, but if it wasn’t for you, that wouldn’t have happened, because it needed a … we needed to come from science to have credibility in Washington and we needed a leader. And, there was only you. I mean you stood head and shoulders above. And, I always look at it as you and Loren Israelsen are the two that really made that whole thing happen. And, we did have a series of meetings trying to bring the leaders of the business and … because you recall, there was a lot of people going off the ranch with their own axes to grind and coming from really strange point of views.

And, we had to get everybody together. And Washington, they kept telling us, “Hey, don’t come here with five different groups trying to make this happen because nothing’s going to happen. You guys have to get unified and do that.” I don’t think it could’ve happened without you, honestly, but you stepped into that. I remember when you stepped in there because we were all worried about it, and the whole industry was worried about it; and there were people worried and there were people overreacting. And it was, I’d have to say, the most emotional time in the industry to date at that point, and maybe since, even.

And so, that was really appreciated, and it was hard work, and it was a lot of work. And then, at the same time in which you also helped on tremendously, is then we at New Hope set our whole standards program up to be able to exhibit at expo, which still runs today, and it’s still funded. It has a huge staff and we’re one of the few trade shows in the world that do that, and the FTC used us as an example of self, of industry regulation. But how were we able to do it? You.

We would’ve never been able to put that program together without you. And, you were in all the meetings, and you were the organizing force, and your name just lended credibility to what we were trying to do, and it still goes on today. We still have, New Hope still has auditors that come in, and nobody knows who they are, looking for health claims that are ridiculous and whatnot. And, it’s a process.

But as you say, I remember after it passed, and I remember that meeting, and I remember the cocktail hour beforehand, and so you’re just always reminded that there are … there’s always everything in the room. You know? And so, the good people have to work together more and you have to … We need regulation. I mean, it’s a world that … You know, we don’t need overregulation, but we need regulation. And, we’ve just gone through a process of doing something in Boulder, a very intense regulatory process. At the end of the day, we agreed with every decision they made; our whole thing was, why did it take us 12 months to do this? This is so expensive. How can we do this in three months? And so it’s, how can we do it faster? But we weren’t against regulation, we just said, “Let’s have a more-timely processing of this regulation.”

But I think we’ll always, you’re always going to have players coming in from all angles, and you always have a responsibility, if you’re community, to police your community and at the same time be open. Because as you know, the future always comes from the fringes; the future doesn’t ever come from the center. The future always comes from something like, “Oh, I remember when somebody told me in 1978 that probiotics was going to be larger than PCs.” Well, today it is. And, I was like, “What? Probiotics are going to be bigger?” It’s 1978, and of course it is.

And, there were so many things that we would hear about and then you know, 15 years later it’s mainstream. And, I think that’s really part of our job and what we do is to respect the fringes, at the same time police them and monitor them, but be open. And, that’s a very difficult place to be because you’re not knowing … It’s not black and white. And, to be open to that, and then our job is to help sort through that—find out what’s real, find out what has science or how can we get science, and then take that and then pull it bit by bit into the mainstream knowing that … Now the big term is influencers, and there’s nobody more important than influencers in the medical community, in the healing community.

So, I think that’s our role now, and I think that’s always going to be our role in the future, is to be looking at the fringes as what’s emerging. You know, I remember the first time I heard you talk about Omega-3s in 1982, I still have the tape, and I go, “Omega-3s. I got to look that up. See what that is.” You know? It’s people like yourself that have the credibility, that spot things in the …. on the, what they call fringe that … but of course, with your educated background, your awareness, you realize it’s not the fringe, you realize it’s the future. And that part of our job, and the especially important work that you’re doing, is to help spot that and bring it into the future, and, you continue to do that. And, your Institute for Personalized Medicine, I think is fantastic, and that really is the future.

I’m so glad that you’ve chosen to focus on that at this stage in your career. It’s a great task. Also, I think it will create one more great legacy for you.

Jeffrey Bland: 30:55 Well, Doug, I can’t tell you what this journey, this Dialogues with Jeff and Doug has meant for me, personally. I hope those of you who have taken part of our series here will have some takeaway things that might enrich your life, help in your charting path forward, knowing that no one life is completely super imposable on anyone else’s life, but there are certain things that you can use as guideposts. And this is a man of wisdom, Doug Greene, as you can see from his experience. And, you know, there’s a few pounds of flesh that have come off his body over the years with the … without there as the … You know, I always say there’s a difference between an explorer and a scout. A scout still maintains contact with the wagon train, so they see them periodically. An explorer, they might be lost for years until they come back, and you never know if they did do it or not. Doug is an explorer.

He’s bringing the rest of the scouts, of which I’m one, up with the wagon train to explore new territory and to settle into places that are going to make differences in people’s lives. So Doug, thanks. What a fun, fun episode and event this has been for me. Any things you wanted to add as we close our four-part dialogue?

Doug Greene: 32:00 I love you. It’s great to have you as a friend, as an associate, and you have been … knowing you has been a joy in my life. And it’s just, I feel incredibly lucky to have met you and Susan, and I appreciate it so much. Thank you so much.

Jeffrey Bland: 32:00 Thank all of you.

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WITH REGARDS TO CONTENT RELATING TO HEALTH & WELLNESS ON THE SITE:

 

THIS SITE OFFERS HEALTH, WELLNESS, FITNESS AND NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION AND IS DESIGNED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. YOU SHOULD NOT RELY ON THIS INFORMATION AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR, NOR DOES IT REPLACE, PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, DIAGNOSIS, OR TREATMENT. IF YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH A PHYSICIAN OR OTHER HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONAL. DO NOT DISREGARD, AVOID OR DELAY OBTAINING MEDICAL OR HEALTH RELATED ADVICE FROM YOUR HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONAL BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU MAY HAVE READ ON THIS SITE. THE USE OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

NOTHING STATED OR POSTED ON THIS SITE OR AVAILABLE THROUGH ANY SERVICES ARE INTENDED TO BE, AND MUST NOT BE TAKEN TO BE, THE PRACTICE OF MEDICAL OR COUNSELING CARE. FOR PURPOSES OF THIS AGREEMENT, THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND COUNSELING INCLUDES, WITHOUT LIMITATION, PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOTHERAPY, OR PROVIDING HEALTH CARE TREATMENT, INSTRUCTIONS, DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS OR ADVICE.

Terms of Service

Date Effective: March 2019

 

General

 

This website (the “Site”) is owned and operated by BIG BOLD HEALTH LLC(“COMPANY” “we” or “us”). By using the Site, you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service and to use the Site in accordance with these Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, our Shipping Policy, our Return Policy and any additional terms and conditions that may apply to specific sections of the Site or to products and services available through the Site or from COMPANY. Accessing the Site, in any manner, whether automated or otherwise, constitutes use of the Site and your agreement to be bound by these Terms of Service.

 

We reserve the right to change these Terms of Service or to impose new conditions on use of the Site, from time to time, in which case we will post the revised Terms of Service on this website. By continuing to use the Site after we post any such changes, you accept the Terms of Service, as modified.

 

Intellectual Property Rights

 

Our Limited License to You. This Site and all the materials available on the Site are the property of us and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Site is provided solely for your personal noncommercial use. You may not use the Site or the materials available on the Site in a manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights or that has not been authorized by us. More specifically, unless explicitly authorized in these Terms of Service or by the owner of the materials, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Site. You may, however, from time to time, download and/or print one copy of individual pages of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices.

 

Your License to Us. By posting or submitting any material (including, without limitation, comments, blog entries, Facebook postings, photos and videos) to us via the Site, internet groups, social media venues, or to any of our staff via email, text or otherwise, you are representing: (i) that you are the owner of the material, or are making your posting or submission with the express consent of the owner of the material; and (ii) that you are thirteen years of age or older. In addition, when you submit, email, text or deliver or post any material, you are granting us, and anyone authorized by us, a royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, unrestricted, worldwide license to use, copy, modify, transmit, sell, exploit, create derivative works from, distribute, and/or publicly perform or display such material, in whole or in part, in any manner or medium, now known or hereafter developed, for any purpose. The foregoing grant shall include the right to exploit any proprietary rights in such posting or submission, including, but not limited to, rights under copyright, trademark, service mark or patent laws under any relevant jurisdiction. Also, in connection with the exercise of such rights, you grant us, and anyone authorized by us, the right to identify you as the author of any of your postings or submissions by name, email address or screen name, as we deem appropriate.

 

You acknowledge and agree that any contributions originally created by you for  us shall be deemed a “work made for hire” when the work performed is within the scope of the definition of a work made for hire in Section 101 of the United States Copyright Law, as amended.  As such, the copyrights in those works shall belong to COMPANY from their creation.  Thus, COMPANY shall be deemed the author and exclusive owner thereof and shall have the right to exploit any or all of the results and proceeds in any and all media, now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity, in all languages, as COMPANY determines.  In the event that any of the results and proceeds of your submissions hereunder are not deemed a “work made for hire” under Section 101 of the Copyright Act, as amended, you hereby, without additional compensation, irrevocably assign, convey and transfer to COMPANY all proprietary rights, including without limitation, all copyrights and trademarks throughout the universe, in perpetuity in every medium, whether now known or hereafter devised, to such material and any and all right, title and interest in and to all such proprietary rights in every medium, whether now known or hereafter devised, throughout the universe, in perpetuity. Any posted material which are reproductions of prior works by you shall be co-owned by us. 

 

You acknowledge that COMPANY has the right but not the obligation to use and display any postings or contributions of any kind and that COMPANY may elect to cease the use and display of any such materials (or any portion thereof), at any time for any reason whatsoever.

 

Limitations on Linking and Framing. You may establish a hypertext link to the Site so long as the link does not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by us or by the Site. However, you may not, without our prior written permission, frame or inline link any of the content of the Site, or incorporate into another website or other service any of our material, content or intellectual property.

 

Disclaimers

 

Throughout the Site, we may provide links and pointers to Internet sites maintained by third parties. Our linking to such third-party sites does not imply an endorsement or sponsorship of such sites, or the information, products or services offered on or through the sites. In addition, neither we nor affiliates operate or control in any respect any information, products or services that third parties may provide on or through the Site or on websites linked to by us on the Site.

 

If applicable, any opinions, advice, statements, services, offers, or other information or content expressed or made available by third parties, including information providers, are those of the respective authors or distributors, and not COMPANY. Neither COMPANY nor any third-party provider of information guarantees the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any content. Furthermore, COMPANY neither endorses nor is responsible for the accuracy and reliability of any opinion, advice, or statement made on any of the Sites by anyone other than an authorized COMPANY representative while acting in his/her official capacity.

 

THE INFORMATION, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES OFFERED ON OR THROUGH THE SITE AND BY COMPANY AND ANY THIRD-PARTY SITES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WE DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE SITE OR ANY OF ITS FUNCTIONS WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT DEFECTS WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT ANY PART OF THIS SITE, INCLUDING BULLETIN BOARDS, OR THE SERVERS THAT MAKE IT AVAILABLE, ARE FREE OF VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS.

 

WE DO NOT WARRANT OR MAKE ANY REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING THE USE OR THE RESULTS OF THE USE OF THE SITE OR MATERIALS ON THIS SITE OR ON THIRD-PARTY SITES IN TERMS OF THEIR CORRECTNESS, ACCURACY, TIMELINESS, RELIABILITY OR OTHERWISE.

 

You agree at all times to defend, indemnify and hold harmless COMPANY its affiliates, their successors, transferees, assignees and licensees and their respective parent and subsidiary companies, agents, associates, officers, directors, shareholders and employees of each from and against any and all claims, causes of action, damages, liabilities, costs and expenses, including legal fees and expenses, arising out of or related to your breach of any obligation, warranty, representation or covenant  set forth herein.

 

Online Commerce

 

Certain sections of the Site may allow you to purchase many different types of products and services online that are provided by third parties. We are not responsible for the quality, accuracy, timeliness, reliability or any other aspect of these products and services. If you make a purchase from a merchant on the Site or on a site linked to by the Site, the information obtained during your visit to that merchant’s online store or site, and the information that you give as part of the transaction, such as your credit card number and contact information, may be collected by both the merchant and us. A merchant may have privacy and data collection practices that are different from ours. We have no responsibility or liability for these independent policies. In addition, when you purchase products or services on or through the Site, you may be subject to additional terms and conditions that specifically apply to your purchase or use of such products or services. For more information regarding a merchant, its online store, its privacy policies, and/or any additional terms and conditions that may apply, visit that merchant’s website and click on its information links or contact the merchant directly. You release us and our affiliates from any damages that you incur, and agree not to assert any claims against us or them, arising from your purchase or use of any products or services made available by third parties through the Site.

 

Your participation, correspondence or business dealings with any third party found on or through our Site, regarding payment and delivery of specific goods and services, and any other terms, conditions, representations or warranties associated with such dealings, are solely between you and such third party. You agree that COMPANY shall not be responsible or liable for any loss, damage, or other matters of any sort incurred as the result of such dealings.

 

You agree to be financially responsible for all purchases made by you or someone acting on your behalf through the Site. You agree to use the Site and to purchase services or products through the Site for legitimate, non-commercial purposes only. You also agree not to make any purchases for speculative, false or fraudulent purposes or for the purpose of anticipating demand for a particular product or service. You agree to only purchase goods or services for yourself or for another person for whom you are legally permitted to do so. When making a purchase for a third party that requires you to submit the third party’s personal information to us or a merchant, you represent that you have obtained the express consent of such third party to provide such third party’s personal information.

 

Interactive Features

 

This Site may include a variety of features, such as bulletin boards, web logs, chat rooms, and email services, which allow feedback to us and real-time interaction between users, and other features which allow users to communicate with others. Responsibility for what is posted on bulletin boards, web logs, chat rooms, and other public posting areas on the Site, or sent via any email services on the Site, lies with each user – you alone are responsible for the material you post or send. We do not control the messages, information or files that you or others may provide through the Site. It is a condition of your use of the Site that you do not:

  • Restrict or inhibit any other user from using and enjoying the Site.
  • Use the Site to impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or entity.
  • Interfere with or disrupt any servers or networks used to provide the Site or its features, or disobey any requirements, procedures, policies or regulations of the networks we use to provide the Site.
  • Use the Site to instigate or encourage others to commit illegal activities or cause injury or property damage to any person.
  • Gain unauthorized access to the Site, or any account, computer system, or network connected to this Site, by means such as hacking, password mining or other illicit means.
  • Obtain or attempt to obtain any materials or information through any means not intentionally made available through this Site.
  • Use the Site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law.
  • Use the Site to post or transmit any information, software or other material that violates or infringes upon the rights of others, including material that is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights or that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or derivative works with respect thereto, without first obtaining permission from the owner or rights holder.
  • Use the Site to post or transmit any information, software or other material that contains a virus or other harmful component.
  • Use the Site to post, transmit or in any way exploit any information, software or other material for commercial purposes, or that contains advertising.
  • Use the Site to advertise or solicit to anyone to buy or sell products or services, or to make donations of any kind, without our express written approval.
  • Gather for marketing purposes any email addresses or other personal information that has been posted by other users of the Site.

COMPANY may host message boards, chats and other private/public forums on its Sites and on other platforms. Any user failing to comply with the terms and conditions of this Agreement may be expelled from and refused continued access to, the message boards, groups, chats or other such forums in the future. COMPANY or its designated agents may remove or alter any user-created content at any time for any reason. Message boards, chats and other public forums are intended to serve as discussion centers for users and subscribers. Information and content posted within these public forums may be provided by COMPANY staff, COMPANY’s outside contributors, or by users not connected with COMPANY, some of whom may employ anonymous user names. COMPANY expressly disclaims all responsibility and endorsement and makes no representation as to the validity of any opinion, advice, information or statement made or displayed in these forums by third parties, nor are we responsible for any errors or omissions in such postings, or for hyperlinks embedded in any messages. Under no circumstances will we, our affiliates, suppliers or agents be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on information obtained through these forums. The opinions expressed in these forums are solely the opinions of the participants, and do not reflect the opinions of COMPANY or any of its subsidiaries or affiliates.

 

COMPANY has no obligation whatsoever to monitor any of the content or postings on the message boards, chat rooms or other public forums on the Sites. However, you acknowledge and agree that we have the absolute right to monitor the same at our sole discretion. In addition, we reserve the right to alter, edit, refuse to post or remove any postings or content, in whole or in part, for any reason and to disclose such materials and the circumstances surrounding their transmission to any third party in order to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request and to protect ourselves, our clients, sponsors, users and visitors.

 

Registration

 

To access certain features of the Site, we may ask you to provide certain demographic information including your gender, year of birth, zip code and country. In addition, if you elect to sign-up for a particular feature of the Site, such as chat rooms, web logs, or bulletin boards, you may also be asked to register with us on the form provided and such registration may require you to provide personally identifiable information such as your name and email address. You agree to provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself as prompted by the Site’s registration form. If we have reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, we have the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Site (or any portion thereof). Our use of any personally identifiable information you provide to us as part of the registration process is governed by the terms of our Privacy Policy.

 

Passwords

 

To use certain features of the Site, you will need a username and password, which you will receive through the Site’s registration process. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of the password and account, and are responsible for all activities (whether by you or by others) that occur under your password or account. You agree to notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security, and to ensure that you exit from your account at the end of each session. We cannot and will not be liable for any loss or damage arising from your failure to protect your password or account information.

 

Limitation of Liability

 

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, NEGLIGENCE, SHALL WE, OUR SUBSIDIARY AND PARENT COMPANIES OR AFFILIATES BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT RESULT FROM THE USE OF, OR THE INABILITY TO USE, THE SITE, INCLUDING OUR MESSAGING, BLOGS, COMMENTS OF OTHERS, BOOKS, EMAILS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES, OR THIRD-PARTY MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES MADE AVAILABLE THROUGH THE SITE OR BY US IN ANY WAY, EVEN IF WE ARE ADVISED BEFOREHAND OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. (BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN CATEGORIES OF DAMAGES, THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. IN SUCH STATES, OUR LIABILITY AND THE LIABILITY OF OUR SUBSIDIARY AND PARENT COMPANIES OR AFFILIATES IS LIMITED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY SUCH STATE LAW.) YOU SPECIFICALLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DEFAMATORY, OFFENSIVE OR ILLEGAL CONDUCT OF ANY USER. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH THE SITE, ANY MATERIALS, PRODUCTS, OR SERVICES ON THE SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THE SITE’S TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE AND THE PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND/OR MATERIALS.

 

THIS SITE IS CONTINUALLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT AND COMPANY MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, IMPLIED OR EXPRESS, AS TO ITS ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS OR APPROPRIATENESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.

 

WITH REGARDS TO CONTENT RELATING TO HEALTH & WELLNESS ON THE SITE:

THIS SITE OFFERS HEALTH, WELLNESS, FITNESS AND NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION AND IS DESIGNED FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. YOU SHOULD NOT RELY ON THIS INFORMATION AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR, NOR DOES IT REPLACE, PROFESSIONAL MEDICAL ADVICE, DIAGNOSIS, OR TREATMENT. IF YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS OR QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR HEALTH, YOU SHOULD ALWAYS CONSULT WITH A PHYSICIAN OR OTHER HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONAL. DO NOT DISREGARD, AVOID OR DELAY OBTAINING MEDICAL OR HEALTH RELATED ADVICE FROM YOUR HEALTH-CARE PROFESSIONAL BECAUSE OF SOMETHING YOU MAY HAVE READ ON THIS SITE. THE USE OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED ON THIS SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.

 

NOTHING STATED OR POSTED ON THIS SITE OR AVAILABLE THROUGH ANY SERVICES ARE INTENDED TO BE, AND MUST NOT BE TAKEN TO BE, THE PRACTICE OF MEDICAL OR COUNSELING CARE. FOR PURPOSES OF THIS AGREEMENT, THE PRACTICE OF MEDICINE AND COUNSELING INCLUDES, WITHOUT LIMITATION, PSYCHIATRY, PSYCHOLOGY, PSYCHOTHERAPY, OR PROVIDING HEALTH CARE TREATMENT, INSTRUCTIONS, DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS OR ADVICE.

 

Termination

 

We may cancel or terminate your right to use the Site or any part of the Site at any time without notice. In the event of cancellation or termination, you are no longer authorized to access the part of the Site affected by such cancellation or termination. The restrictions imposed on you with respect to material downloaded from the Site, and the disclaimers and limitations of liabilities set forth in these Terms of Service, shall survive.

 

Refund Policy

 

Your purchase of a product or service or ticket to an event may or may not provide for any refund.  Each specific product, service, event or course will specify its own refund policy.

 

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

 

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (the “DMCA”) provides recourse for copyright owners who believe that material appearing on the Internet infringes their rights under the U.S. copyright law. If you believe in good faith that materials hosted by COMPANY infringe your copyright, you, or your agent may send to COMPANY a notice requesting that the material be removed or access to it be blocked. Any notification by a copyright owner or a person authorized to act on its behalf that fails to comply with requirements of the DMCA shall not be considered sufficient notice and shall not be deemed to confer upon COMPANY actual knowledge of facts or circumstances from which infringing material or acts are evident. If you believe in good faith that a notice of copyright infringement has been wrongly filed against you, the DMCA permits you to send to COMPANY a counter-notice. All notices and counter notices must meet the then current statutory requirements imposed by the DMCA; see http://www.loc.gov/copyright for details. COMPANY’s Copyright Agent for notice shall be annettegiarde@pro.bigboldhealth.com.

 

Assignment

 

This Agreement shall be binding upon and inure to the benefit of COMPANY and our respective assigns, successors, heirs, and legal representatives. Neither this Agreement nor any rights hereunder may be assigned without the prior written consent of COMPANY Notwithstanding the foregoing, all rights and obligations under this Agreement may be freely assigned by COMPANY to any affiliated entity or any of its wholly owned subsidiaries.

 

Dispute Resolution

These Terms of Use shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Washington and any dispute shall be subject to binding arbitration in Bainbridge Island, Washington. If any provision of this agreement shall be unlawful, void or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from this agreement and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

 

Class Action Waiver

 

You may only resolve disputes with us on an individual basis, and may not bring a claim as a plaintiff or a class member in a class, consolidated, or representative action. Class arbitrations, class actions, private attorney general actions, and consolidation with other arbitrations aren’t allowed.

 

The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims, and may not otherwise preside over any form of a class or representative proceeding or claims (such as a class action, consolidated action or private attorney general action) unless all relevant parties specifically agree to do so following initiation of the arbitration.

 

Severability

 

If any clause within these Terms of Service (other than the Class Action Waiver clause above) is found to be illegal or unenforceable, that clause will be severed from these Terms of Service, and the remainder of these Terms of Service will be given full force and effect. If the Class Action Waiver clause is found to be illegal or unenforceable, this entire Provision will be unenforceable and the dispute will be decided by a court.

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 2019

 

The following Privacy Policy governs the online information collection practices of BIG BOLD HEALTH LLC (“COMPANY,” “we” or “us”). Specifically, it outlines the types of information that we gather about you while you are using the www.bigboldhealth.com website (the “Site”), and the ways in which we use this information. This Privacy Policy, including our children’s privacy statement, does not apply to any information you may provide to us or that we may collect offline and/or through other means (for example, at a live event, via telephone, or through the mail).

 

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. By visiting and using the Site, you agree that your use of our Site, and any dispute over privacy, is governed by this Privacy Policy. Because the Web is an evolving medium, we may need to change our Privacy Policy at some point in the future, in which case we’ll post the changes to this Privacy Policy on this website and update the Effective Date of the policy to reflect the date of the changes. By continuing to use the Site after we post any such changes, you accept the Privacy Policy as modified.

 

How We Collect and Use Information

 

We may collect and store personal or other information that you voluntarily supply to us online while using the Site (e.g., while on the Site or in responding via email to a feature provided on the Site). The Site only contacts individuals who specifically request that we do so or in the event that they have signed up to receive our messaging, attended one of our events, or have purchased one of our products. The Site collects personally identifying information from our users during online registration and online purchasing. Generally, this information includes name and e-mail address for registration or opt-in purposes and name, postal address, and credit card information when registering for our events or purchasing our products. All of this information is provided to us by you.

 

We also collect and store information that is generated automatically as you navigate online through the Site. For example, we may collect information about your computer’s connection to the Internet, which allows us, among other things, to improve the delivery of our web pages to you and to measure traffic on the Site. We also may use a standard feature found in browser software called a “cookie” to enhance your experience with the Site. Cookies are small files that your web browser places on your hard drive for record-keeping purposes. By showing how and when visitors use the Site, cookies help us deliver advertisements, identify how many unique users visit us, and track user trends and patterns. They also prevent you from having to re-enter your preferences on certain areas of the Site where you may have entered preference information before. The Site also may use web beacons (single-pixel graphic files also known as “transparent GIFs”) to access cookies and to count users who visit the Site or open HTML-formatted email messages.

 

We use the information we collect from you while you are using the Site in a variety of ways, including using the information to customize features; advertising that appear on the Site; and, making other offers available to you via email, direct mail or otherwise. We also may provide your information to third parties, such as service providers, contractors and third-party publishers and advertisers for a variety of purposes. Unless you inform us in accordance with the process described below, we reserve the right to use, and to disclose to third parties, all of the information collected from and about you while you are using the Site in any way and for any purpose, such as to enable us or a third party to provide you with information about products and services. If you do not wish your information to be used for these purposes, you must send a letter to the Online Privacy Coordinator whose address is listed at the end of this Privacy Policy requesting to be taken off any lists of information that may be used for these purposes or that may be given or sold to third-parties.

 

Please keep in mind that whenever you voluntarily make your personal information available for viewing by third parties online – for example on message boards, web logs, through email, or in chat areas – that information can be seen, collected and used by others besides us. We cannot be responsible for any unauthorized third-party use of such information.

 

Some of our third-party advertisers and ad servers that place and present advertising on the Site also may collect information from you via cookies, web beacons or similar technologies. These third-party advertisers and ad servers may use the information they collect to help present their advertisements, to help measure and research the advertisements’ effectiveness, or for other purposes. The use and collection of your information by these third-party advertisers and ad servers is governed by the relevant third-party’s privacy policy and is not covered by our Privacy Policy. Indeed, the privacy policies of these third-party advertisers and ad servers may be different from ours. If you have any concerns about a third party’s use of cookies or web beacons or use of your information, you should visit that party’s website and review its privacy policy.

The Site also includes links to other websites and provides access to products and services offered by third parties, whose privacy policies we do not control. When you access another website or purchase third-party products or services through the Site, use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the site you are visiting or the provider of such products or services.

 

We may also make some content, products and services available through our Site or by emailing messages to you through cooperative relationships with third-party providers, where the brands of our provider partner appear on the Site in connection with such content, products and/or services. We may share with our provider partner any information you provide, or that is collected, in the course of visiting any pages that are made available in cooperation with our provider partner. In some cases, the provider partner may collect information from you directly, in which cases the privacy policy of our provider partner may apply to the provider partner’s use of your information. The privacy policy of our provider partners may differ from ours. If you have any questions regarding the privacy policy of one of our provider partners, you should contact the provider partner directly for more information.

 

Be aware that we may occasionally release information about our visitors when release is appropriate to comply with law or to protect the rights, property or safety of users of the Site or the public.

 

Please also note that as our business grows, we may buy or sell various assets. In the unlikely event that we sell some or all of our assets, or one or more of our websites is acquired by another company, information about our users may be among the transferred assets.

 

Google Analytics

 

We also use Google Analytics Advertiser Features to optimize our business. Advertiser features include:

  • Remarketing with Google Analytics
  • Google Display Network Impression Reporting
  • DoubleClick Platform integrations
  • Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting

By enabling these Google Analytics Display features, we are required to notify our visitors by disclosing the use of these features and that we and third-party vendors use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) or other first-party identifiers, and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) or other third-party identifiers together to gather data about your activities on our Site.  Among other uses, this allows us to contact you if you begin to fill out our check-out form but abandon it before completion with an email reminding you to complete your order.  The “Remarketing” feature allows us to reach people who previously visited our Site, and match the right audience with the right advertising message.

You can opt out of Google’s use of cookies by visiting Google’s ad settings and/or you may opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.

 

Facebook

 

As advertisers on Facebook and through our Facebook page, we, (not Facebook) may collect content or information from a Facebook user and such information may be used in the same manner specified in this Privacy Policy. You consent to our collection of such information.

 

We abide by Facebook’s Data Use Restrictions.

  • Any ad data collected, received or derived from our Facebook ad (“Facebook advertising data”) is only shared with someone acting on our behalf, such as our service provider. We are responsible for ensuring that our service providers protect any Facebook advertising data or any other information obtained from us, limit our use of all of that information, and keep it confidential and secure.
  • We do not use Facebook advertising data for any purpose (including retargeting, commingling data across multiple advertisers’ campaigns, or allowing piggybacking or redirecting with tags), except on an aggregate and anonymous basis (unless authorized by Facebook) and only to assess the performance and effectiveness of our Facebook advertising campaigns.
  • We do not use Facebook advertising data, including the targeting criteria for a Facebook ad, to build, append to, edit, influence, or augment user profiles, including profiles associated with any mobile device identifier or other unique identifier that identifies any particular user, browser, computer or device.
  • We do not transfer any Facebook advertising data (including anonymous, aggregate, or derived data) to any ad network, ad exchange, data broker or other advertising or monetization related service.

 

General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR)

 

The GDPR took effect on May 25, 2018, and is intended to protect the data of European Union (EU) citizens. 

 

As a company that markets its site, content, products and/or services online we do not specifically target our marketing to the EU or conduct business in or to the EU in any meaningful way. If the data that you provide to us in the course of your use of our site, content, products and/or services is governed by GDPR, we will abide by the relevant portions of the Regulation.

 

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA), or are accessing this site from within the EEA, you may have the right to request: access to, correction of, deletion of; portability of; and restriction or objection to processing, of your personal data, from us. This includes the “right to be forgotten.”

 

To make any of these requests, please contact our GDPR contact at annettegiarde@pro.bigboldhealth.com

 

Children’s Privacy Statement

 

This children’s privacy statement explains our practices with respect to the online collection and use of personal information from children under the age of thirteen, and provides important information regarding their rights under federal law with respect to such information.

  • This Site is not directed to children under the age of thirteen and we do NOT knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen as part of the Site. We screen users who wish to provide personal information in order to prevent users under the age of thirteen from providing such information. If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personally identifiable information from a user under the age of thirteen as part of the Site, we will delete such information from our records. If we change our practices in the future, we will obtain prior, verifiable parental consent before collecting any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen as part of the Site.
  • Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen as part of the Site, we also do NOT knowingly distribute such information to third parties.
  • We do NOT knowingly allow children under the age of thirteen to publicly post or otherwise distribute personally identifiable contact information through the Site.
  • Because we do not collect any personally identifiable information from children under the age of thirteen as part of the Site, we do NOT condition the participation of a child under thirteen in the Site’s online activities on providing personally identifiable information.

The HIPAA Privacy Rule

 

The US Department of Health and Human Services provides:  “The HIPAA Privacy Rule establishes national standards to protect individuals’ medical records and other personal health information and applies to health plans, health care clearinghouses, and those health care providers that conduct certain health care transactions electronically.  The Rule requires appropriate safeguards to protect the privacy of personal health information, and sets limits and conditions on the uses and disclosures that may be made of such information without patient authorization. The Rule also gives patients rights over their health information, including rights to examine and obtain a copy of their health records, and to request corrections.”

 

You acknowledge that our operation of the Site does not constitute the practice of medicine, and specifically does not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and Dr. Jeffrey Bland, PhD (the “Doctor”).  The information provided on the Site is for educational purposes only. 

 

Notwithstanding the fact that the Site does not create a doctor-patient relationship between you and DOCTOR, our preservation of your personal health information shall be HIPAA compliant.

 

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “patients” are those individuals who have secured the in-person services DOCTOR.  If you are a patient of DOCTOR, you will be provided with a copy of DOCTOR’s HIPAA Privacy Statement, which governs the information collection practices of patients’ personal information by DOCTOR.

 

How do we store your information?

 

Your information is stored at the list server that delivers the Site content and messaging. Your information can only be accessed by those who help manage those lists in order to deliver e-mail to those who would like to receive the Site material.

 

All of the messaging or emails that are sent to you by the Site include an unsubscribe link in them. You can remove yourself at any time from our mailing list by clicking on the unsubscribe link that can be found in every communicaiton that we send you.

 

Changes to this Policy

 

This policy may be changed at any time at our discretion. If we should update this policy, we will post the updates to this page on our Website.

 

Questions About this Policy

 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy policy please direct them to:

annettegiarde@pro.bigboldhealth.com