Where Natural Health Meets Real Science
Clinical trials, research consulting, and evidence-based education for the nutraceutical industry
YOUR CLINICAL RESEARCH PARTNER
Research Services
Build defensible clinical evidence for your products
- Expert methodology consulting
- Retainer packages for ongoing support
- Complete trial execution from protocol to publication
Education
Learn evidence-based integrative health from research experts
Professional programs with CE credits, intensive retreats, research-backed books, and online courses for practitioners and enthusiasts
Research Participants
Advance natural health science through clinical trial participation
- IRB-approved studies
- Compensation provided
- Contributing to evidence-based medicine
The Nutraceutical Methodology Gap
Nutraceutical research fails when methodology doesn't match reality.
Pharmaceutical CROs apply drug assumptions: large effect sizes, easy blinding, controlled compliance. These don't hold for botanicals with distinctive aromas, moderate effects, and real-world use patterns.
Budget nutraceutical CROs prioritize efficiency: decentralized trials, minimal screening, basic statistics. Fast and cheap, but scientifically inadequate for defensible claims.
The solution isn't choosing pharmaceutical rigor OR nutraceutical focus; it's methodology specifically designed for botanical supplements.
That requires: realistic effect size calculations, creative blinding strategies, active compliance monitoring, rigorous participant screening, and appropriate statistical methods.
These approaches come from conducting high quality trials on botanicals for over a decade. Studies that produced publishable results because methodology was built for nutraceutical realities from day one.
The same principle applies across all work: consulting with brands, training practitioners, teaching consumers. Methodology determines whether research produces defensible evidence or wasted investment.
In nutraceutical science, methodology is everything.
Led By Dr. Jessie Hawkins-Cavanaugh
Since 2005, Dr. Cavanaugh has worked to bridge the gap between natural health enthusiasm and scientific rigor, first through education, then through establishing the first authorized natural health college in the Southeast, and now through specialized clinical research.
Education & Training:
- PhD clinical trial on essential oil interventions in children with autism
- Master's from University of Alabama researching antibiotic stewardship
- PgCert Epidemiology from University of London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Harvard Medical School Post-Doctoral Program in clinical research design
Dr. Cavanaugh led the only human study on lavender/tea tree oil and prepubertal gynecomastia, conducted the world's largest elderberry trial, and specializes in research with women and children.
Today's Work:
For supplement brands: Clinical trials and methodology consulting to build defensible evidence.
For practitioners: Training programs teaching critical research evaluation and evidence-based formulation.
For individuals: Books and courses making research-backed botanical medicine accessible.
Twenty years of work, one constant mission: botanical medicine deserves the same scientific rigor as conventional medicine—without losing the practical wisdom that makes it effective.
