HALO

Q: Why do the HALO capsules look different than the previous version?

A: The new capsules are clear instead of yellow. That’s why you can see the contents inside now.

Q: What is HALO?

A: HALO is a patent-pending formulation that naturally reduces exercise-induced inflammation and joint stiffness and stimulates repair in connective tissue to elicit a lasting healing effect.

When inflammation is out of balance, your body feels achy and sluggish. HALO delivers a precise combination of curcuminoids (a more accurate descriptor for supplementary curcumin), and Superba2® (a proprietary krill oil formulation rich in omega-3s) to address the imbalance quickly and effectively.

Q: How does it work?

A: HALO affects your body’s signaling to regulate exercise-induced inflammation or soft-tissue and overuse injuries, expediting recovery and limiting downtime. Human studies on each of the two major components of HALO (curcuminoids and omega-3s) show benefits for speeding recovery from delayed-onset muscle soreness, exercise-induced muscle damage, soft-tissue injuries from falls, and lingering pain from chronic issues.

Isn’t inflammation a natural (and even desirable) part of the recovery process?
We’ve gotten this question from more than one of you, so we’ll address it with a high-level answer here. HALO doesn’t negatively impact recovery for endurance athletes; in fact, it supports and enhances the recovery work that inflammation does. That’s the short answer.

…And here’s the slightly longer (but still not comprehensive) answer. Inflammation is absolutely normal and desirable – especially for strenuous exercise – but not always to the extent that our bodies naturally produce.

Inflammation occurs when tissues are damaged and signals are sent to the immune system to respond with oxidative methods to remove potential sources of additional damage. After that, the same signaling mechanisms initiate a switch from inflammatory immune defense to repair.

HALO promotes a more effective balance between those two phases by moderating the inflammatory phase while introducing repair-signaling molecules to kickstart the recovery phase, helping to ensure the two phases complement rather than impede each other. A more efficient inflammation period, a more efficient repair period, and a more efficient transition between the two – HALO rebalances the whole process, nudging it towards resolution.

That’s a radically simplified version of a much (much!) longer and more complex response, but we’ll dive into the biological and chemical processes at play in much greater depth in a later blog post.

Q: What’s the difference between HALO and CBD?

A: This is another common question we’ve gotten. We’re well aware of the claims made about CBD’s benefits, and – if those claims were supported by research evidence – then we’d absolutely incorporate it in the First Endurance system. The evidence doesn’t support the claims about CBD, but it does support curcuminoids and omega-3s for the same effect.

In designing HALO, we simply followed where the science led, and it led us to the conclusion that the patent-pending blend of curcuminoids and omega-3s actually does what CBD is supposed to do.

Q: Can I take HALO if I have a shellfish allergy?

A: If you have a shellfish allergy, you should not take HALO.

Q: Why are the HALO liquid capsules only 50% full?

A: Filling hard capsules with an oily liquid that has phospholipids (a universal solvent and lubricating agent) requires filling at 50% in order to prevent leakage.

Q: What does it do for endurance athletes? 

A: HALO accelerates muscle and joint recovery while reducing exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness, and reduces down-time following overuse injuries. HALO provides comfort to muscles and joints that are sore and aching so nothing derails your training and racing program.
✓ Increases joint health & comfort
✓ Reduces exercise-induced inflammation
✓ Accelerates joint & muscle repair

Q: What is Superba2®?

A: Superba2® is uniquely compatible with cell membranes, so it reduces the process for membrane uptake from around 20 steps to 3-4 steps, getting curcumin and omega-3s where they need to be more efficiently.

Q: What are curcuminoids?

A: Curcumin is one of three closely-related compounds collectively called curcuminoids: curcumin, demethoxycurcumin (DMC) and bisdemethoxycurcumin (BDMC). They’re naturally found in turmeric (Curcuma longa) roots and rhizomes. Rather than simply using curcumin itself, HALO includes a proprietary blend of multiple curcuminoids that optimally balance bioavailability – hence our use of “curcuminoids” instead of the more colloquial “curcumin.”

Curcuminoids have powerful anti-inflammatory effects and are very strong antioxidants; however, due to specific issues with human biology, those anti-inflammatory and antioxidant benefits haven’t been fully realized in humans.

Q: What are the issues with curcuminoids and human biology?

A: Even though research showed great promise – and despite a recent glut of curcuminoid supplements on the whole health market – the benefits of curcumin have only been documented in carefully controlled and manipulated lab conditions. They haven’t transitioned over to humans in real-life situations. There are a couple reasons for this.

First, curcumin is incredibly unstable. It spontaneously breaks down in the body, way before it gets to the cells where it can have an effect. Studies and research have gotten around this by essentially cheating, staging conditions that skip the steps where human bodies deactivate curcuminoids in order to test the effects of active curcuminoids on cells, eliding the fact that those curcuminoids would never actually get there when administered to an actual human.

The second big reason is that, even if it isn’t deactivated, it doesn’t get absorbed well in the human body. What little that is absorbed gets deactivated immediately. We’ve long known of the effects that curcuminoids can have, but how to make those effects work in human bodies has always stumped scientists.

Q: What makes HALO special?

A: The technology that makes HALO special wasn’t available, so we had to develop it over a decade researching and conducting human studies on curcuminoids, focusing specifically on why the data looked so good in the lab (with artificial conditions or in animals) but could never be replicated in humans.

That research period produced five papers on human curcumin bioavailability (three literature reviews and two human studies). HALO’s delivery mechanism is special – so special that it’s the first unique technology that we’ve applied for a patent on. The proprietary phospholipid formula protects and stabilizes the curcuminoids so they can be delivered – fully active – to cell membranes and actually produce those anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects everyone is looking for.

Q: Why are the liquid capsules banded?

A: Banding each capsule is a necessity to keep the oily liquid from seeping out of a finished capsule.