Within these walls, some of the world's finest health products are researched, developed, and manufactured. For more than 30 years, USANA Health Sciences has been the world leader in cellular nutrition. Driven by a relentless vision of creating the healthiest family on Earth, one man's unwavering dedication to science paved the way for a new era of health. Standing on the shoulders of giants before him, he devoted a lifetime to unlocking the secrets of cellular health, creating a legacy that continues to inspire and empower millions all over the world. Born in 1940, Myron Wentz was the son of immigrant parents. His father, a farmer and businessman, instilled a spirit of industriousness in Myron at a young age. He grew up very interested in sports. He played most all the sports that he could play in school, but he was also deeply interested in music. When he was just 17 years old, his father tragically passed away from heart disease.
I think when his father passed away, it was definitely a moment that helped him to reflect on what he wanted to focus on in his life, and he chose education versus being a farmer.
And so I knew what I needed to do in life. I needed to use my talents and abilities to make a difference in the health of people in the world.
During high school, Myron discovered the work of Dr. Linus Pauling, a two-time Nobel Prize winner who made groundbreaking discoveries in chemistry, quantum mechanics, and molecular biology. He didn't know then, but these discoveries would be the foundation for his life's work. He began his studies in the premed program at North Central in Illinois, where he cultivated his desire to create the tools and solutions for medicine rather than solely practice as a medical doctor. He took a job for the state health department as a microbiologist studying immunology and infectious diseases. His desire to master the skills of his job led him to the University of Utah where he received his doctorate in microbiology and immunology.
I realized early on that in the laboratory we were handicapped with the unavailability of test systems to identify viral infections. And it was after three years of dealing and being frustrated with this that I decided to try my hand at it.
In 1974, Dr. Wentz sold everything he owned to establish Gull Labs, driven by a singular mission to revolutionize the availability of viral diagnostic kits. At the time, only two such tests existed, leaving a critical gap in medical diagnostics that he was determined to fill. After two and a half years, he was able to get several tests approved by the FDA. The most prominent of which was for the Epstein-Barr virus, which quickly became the gold standard for that test. The magic of Gull Laboratories was their ability to grow healthy cells.
The healthier the cell, the more accurate the diagnostics could become. And so, really what set Gull apart from other laboratories around the world was their ability to take a cell culture and maintain it in a healthy state for decades. And they used those cells for their diagnostics. And they were able to accomplish what other multi-billion multinational corporations were never able to accomplish. And actually today, some of those same diagnostic tests are still utilized in hospitals globally.
Gull Labs went on to develop more than 30 diagnostic tests. The rapid growth and needs of the company began to take a toll on Dr. Wentz's health. In his quest to provide health to others, he had lost sight of his own. He knew he had to make a change. He asked a pharmacist friend of his to recommend a vitamin supplement that he could take to help supplement his own health. And when his friend brought in those supplements, he looked at the label and he said, 'I can't believe this is what they're feeding to humans. If we fed these same nutrients to the cells in our laboratory, we'd be out of business.'
When I think back to all those years in which I was doing cell culture, in which I became so focused on the importance of nutrition, I never connected nutrition of cells in culture with nourishing the whole body. I didn't have a question in my mind as to what I needed to be doing as quickly as I could.
In 1992, he sold Gull Labs to found USANA Health Sciences, now fully dedicated to solving the problems of cellular nutrition by transitioning his efforts from diagnostics to maintaining health.
You know, 30 years ago, we were in Europe with some scientists at a lab where he was helping fund, and they were questioning why would a world-renowned scientist stake his reputation in the nutritional world, because back then nobody believed in it. The American Medical Association took years and years for them to even recognize the need for nutritional supplementation. And for someone like that to switch, to put their reputation on the line, especially financially when they didn't need to, you can always tell when someone's doing something to what end. He didn't need to do this. He didn't need to head in this space, but he knew that he needed to because of the knowledge that he'd been given. And Gull was just a stepping stone to his lifelong goal of making an impact to the health and wellness of mankind.
He was now focused on bridging the gap between optimizing cellular nutrition in the lab and providing that same level of precise essential nourishment to the human body.
Back in the early 90s, I think the supplement market was dominated by the supermarket brands. And Dr. Wentz's vision was to develop the highest quality, science-based nutritional products possible that would move the needle on the supplement industry.
