Founder & Chairman Emeritus, USANA HEALTH SCIENCES INC
Dr Myron Wentz Vision and USANA
"I dream of a world free from pain and suffering. I dream of a world free from disease. The USANA family will be the healthiest ...
About Myron Wentz
Dr. Myron Wentz, founder and chairman emeritus of USANA Health Sciences, delivered a keynote speech at the 2025 USANA Live convention in which he described the cell as "the fundamental unit of life" and stated that health begins at the cellular level. He said that nourishing, protecting, and feeding cells with the right nutrients allows them to repair themselves, providing health and longevity. Wentz criticized most nutritional products available as inadequate for supplying the needs of the cell and protecting against environmental toxins. He introduced Dr. Katherine Armstrong as the company's new Chief Scientific Officer, saying she is there to strengthen USANA's foundation with "science-based evidence, rigor, and integrity." Wentz also said USANA should be "educators, advocates, protectors" and that the company will always be a cellular nutrition company. In a separate biographical video released in 2025, Wentz recounted his early career, including founding Gull Laboratories in 1974 and developing more than 30 FDA-approved diagnostic tests, most prominently the Epstein-Barr virus test. He said that after reading the label of a nutritional supplement, he concluded that the ingredients would not sustain cells in his laboratory, which led him to found USANA in 1992 to produce science-backed nutritional products made in a pharmaceutical-grade facility. Wentz stated that his vision for USANA was to "develop the highest quality science-based nutritional products possible." He also said he believes the role he was given in life "will not and should not end when my life ends" and that the mission must be carried on.
Transcript (20 segments)
✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution
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Narrator0:14
This is the work room of Dr. Myron Wentz. Like any good workman, the internationally recognized microbiologist, immunologist, and founder of USANA Health Sciences surrounds himself with the finest instruments. The most important one, the instrument he's been using for 40 years to help construct his dream of a world free from pain and suffering, one free from disease, is both under his microscope and inside of him. The instrument: the cell.
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Myron Wentz0:54
The cell is the basic unit of life. It's miraculous in all the things that it does. Over the years, to observe microscopically and macroscopically what the cells are able to do, it's a miracle.
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Narrator1:24
The cell wasn't always Dr. Wentz's instrument of choice. Until college, there was music in the trumpet. Had things gone differently, maybe his toolbox would have been stocked with eighth and sixteenth notes, his workbench a music stand.
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Myron Wentz1:38
I had a love and passion for music as well as science. It was a hard decision, but yet I knew that my purpose in life was to use my talents to do what I could do to influence the longevity, the health, and happiness of people. Based on what I saw, degenerative disease due to my family, my parents, my brothers, aunts, I knew what I needed to do in life. There was no question that it was going to be pursuing the course of making a contribution in the life sciences.
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Narrator2:24
He'd always been good at science, but aptitude had found purpose, and out of that union, Dr. Myron Wentz, expert on the cell, was born. The doctor was officially added when Wentz received a PhD in microbiology with a specialty in immunology. After a tenure as the director of microbiology for hospitals in Illinois, Dr. Wentz moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, and founded Gold Labs. For 20 years, he pioneered the development of cutting-edge medical test kits, including the first FDA-approved commercially available test for Epstein-Barr virus.
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Myron Wentz2:59
I think one of the most important discoveries we made in the lab, in the human cell culture, was that if we grew cells in a way in which we provided them with all the essential nutrients in the right form, in the right balance, and protected those cells from toxic substances, that those cells, the very cells that make up our body, they remained healthy and free from degeneration for decades.
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Narrator3:33
This lesson was important for Dr. Wentz, and he pondered how best he could use his expertise in cellular nutrition to promote health.
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Myron Wentz3:42
I remember that fateful day when I became aware of what was available, what was being provided in the form of nutritional supplements for humans to augment nutrition to their body. And when I realized how inadequate it was compared to the kind of nutrition that we were supplying to ourselves in culture in the laboratory, I knew something had to be done, that I needed to do something. And I guess that was the birth of USANA.
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Narrator4:23
Founded in 1992, USANA, which is derived from Greek and Latin and means true health, manufactures state-of-the-art nutritional supplements based on solid science and developed to provide nutrition and protection at the cellular level. Cellular nutrition, Dr. Wentz believes, is the key to health and longevity. Over the next decade, he worked in the lab and in the boardroom to build USANA into an industry leader. Wentz's focus on science begat partnerships with respected research centers around the world. One of the most fruitful relationships is with the acclaimed Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University.
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Myron Wentz5:01
I'm very excited about this partnership because we're talking the same language. We have the same goals and the same mission. And to help each other achieve that mission, I think is very exciting for all of us. With my belief that nutrition is so important and is the answer to preserving and maintaining health, that nutritional supplements had to be the absolute best that they could be. They had to pass the tests of bioavailability, of purity, of being in the right form, in the right concentration, in ratio. Nothing could be sacrificed in developing and creating, manufacturing these products. And that's been the basis of USANA. We maximize and not diminish the power of the cell.
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Narrator6:03
In 1998, Dr. Wentz founded another means of spreading health to the world: the Sanoviv Medical Institute. This cutting-edge medical facility combines state-of-the-art medicine with a holistic approach to healing which empowers the cell's own healing processes. Experienced, internationally trained physicians, nutritionists, psychologists, and fitness experts are committed to treating the mind, body, and soul. As a young man, Wentz had set out on a mission to improve health through the life sciences. By now, countless people across the globe had felt the lasting benefits of his work. In June 2007, he was presented the Albert Einstein Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Life Sciences.
The Albert Einstein Award was a great honor for a great man. You know, I work with other world-renowned scientists like Dr. Jonas Salk, as well as world-class athletes, Apollo astronauts, and countless Fortune 500 top executives. However, Dr. Myron Wentz may be the most impressive person that I've ever met in my life's journey.
This success in science and business has allowed Dr. Wentz to help people lead healthier lives using another instrument: humanitarian aid. Since 2000, he has been involved with Children's Hunger Fund, traveling to impoverished and war-torn areas in Central America, Eastern Europe, and East Africa, making personal financial contributions and turning USANA into a donation engine generating over nine million dollars to date to help CHF provide meals to malnourished children.
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Myron Wentz7:42
Taste it. The most important thing that I could give to these children is good nutrition.
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Narrator7:54
A 2004 visit to northern Uganda deeply impacted Dr. Wentz. On the trip, he spent time walking through refugee camps and saw firsthand the disease and malnutrition that was a reality for thousands of children in the area.
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Myron Wentz8:08
We flew over these refugee camps and then landed on a makeshift airstrip and was in the midst of this human misery. Seeing the quality of life of those families, of men, women, and children, and what they were being subjected to, I knew I had to do something. However small, I knew I had to do something.
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Narrator8:45
The Wentz Medical Center in Gaba, Uganda, opened its doors in August 2005. The Wentz-funded center serves a community of 300,000 people, using state-of-the-art medical and diagnostic equipment not just paid for but hand-picked by Dr. Wentz himself. The relationship with Dr. Wentz has developed into a very special friendship. I have so grown to appreciate the love and passion that he has. His vision is to eliminate pain and suffering in this world, and it's been such a joy to partner with him. Not only has he engaged his company USANA to work with us, but he's been very involved on a personal level. So his impact has allowed us to do things that we never envisioned. Within a few years, a Wentz Medical Center opened in Cambodia, and as others caught the vision, donations in his honor made the Wentz Medical Center in Malawi a reality. In March 2006, Dr. Wentz was presented with the CHF Children's Champion Award.
Medical centers aren't the only things that bear the Wentz name. His other love, music, and a visit to his undergraduate alma mater, North Central College in Naperville, Illinois, prompted him to provide funds that helped build the Wentz Concert Hall and Fine Arts Center. With philanthropic efforts well underway and USANA now firmly established as a global leader in cellular nutrition, Dr. Wentz was able to shift his role from CEO to Chairman of the Board. The executive team at USANA was hand-picked by Dr. Wentz to carry on his vision. One of those team members is his son Dave, who now serves as USANA's CEO. USANA was started by a scientist, and that scientific culture permeates everything we do. Dr. Wentz is heavily involved in research and development. He makes sure that every product USANA produces makes a true difference in people's health. It's his vision and passion that drives USANA today.
This is the work room of Dr. Myron Wentz. Though he's mastered many instruments in his quest to help make the world a better place, it's here under the microscope that his mission began and continues.
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Myron Wentz11:02
I hope I'm making contributions to allow people to live the way that it was intended to be, in health. There's so much more to do, but with the help now of a large and wonderful USANA family, we will accomplish many more things. Hundreds of thousands of people are sharing the vision and, along with me, making a difference in the world.