Huge milestone: Our gold standard clinical study is officially published. Get the full update in our Q&A with Ritual’s VP of Scientific Affairs, Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, PhD, RD.

Our standard from the very beginning has been to create a multivitamin we ourselves would be proud to take—even if the road to meet that standard would be far from easy.

That’s why completing our first clinical trial was such a big deal: While we have always used evidence-based research to feel confident in our formulas, being able to quantify the impact of Essential for Women 18+ takes us a step further. Completing clinical trials is not always a required industry standard, and demands a significant capital investment that is not always easy for a relatively new business to make. But at Ritual, setting an exceedingly high bar for ourselves is our M.O.—all in the name of helping to make an impact on our customers’ health.*

And it paid off: The results from our 12-week clinical trial—conducted as a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in a partnership with Auburn University, on 94 women ages 21 through 40—were significant, with Essential for Women 18+ increasing vitamin D3 levels by 43% and omega-3 DHA levels by 41%.*

Even better? That gold standard clinical study has officially been published in Frontiers in Nutrition—a leading, internationally recognized, peer-reviewed scientific journal. To be clear, earning this achievement was no easy feat—in order to be accepted by reviewers, our study was put through the quality control ringer; everything from the design and implementation to the analysis and accuracy of our results was carefully evaluated. Getting to this point was a long time coming, but for us, well worth the wait. (Good things take time, and striving for high-quality research that will help advance science is a journey we’re in for the long haul.)

Let’s dig into the data.

Essential for Women 18+ was shown to increase vitamin D levels by 43%, significantly greater than placebo.*

Grey = placebo; Yellow = Essential for Women

That’s according to blood plasma levels of vitamin D, measured after 12 weeks. On average, this put the Ritual group’s vitamin D levels in the “sufficient” range: that is, above 40 ng/mL as recommended by vitamin D council guidelines. This is significant, because we formulated Essential for Women with the knowledge that the majority of women do not consume optimal levels of vitamin D due to a variety of factors (urban living, time spent outside, and even SPF can all play a role). Given that vitamin D helps play a supporting role in normal immune function, muscle function, and bone maintenance, this is an important call-out.*

That’s why these results were particularly exciting for our Senior Director of Scientific Affairs, Dr. Mastaneh Sharafi, PhD, RD. As a dietitian and nutrition researcher, she knows better than most that vitamin D levels are commonly low for most Americans, regardless of diet. (Even those who follow the Mediterranean diet—which is seen as a kind of gold standard for nutrition—still may not be getting sufficient vitamin D from their diet, as a rule.)*

“I believe to get the most health benefits, we should follow healthy nutrient-rich diets but make sure to supplement when it comes to limited nutrients,” she says. That’s why it’s so key that the results showed that Essential for Women helped fill vitamin D gaps.*

Essential for Women was shown to increase omega-3 DHA levels by 41%, significantly greater than placebo.*

Grey = placebo; Yellow = Essential for Women

As with vitamin D, most Americans commonly fall below recommended intakes for omega-3 DHA—so it was exciting to see omega-3 DHA levels increase after 12 weeks on Essential for Women. As a reminder, omega-3 DHA helps support brain health, eye health, and heart health. We source our omega-3 DHA from microalgae, which means it’s vegan-friendly.*

Why vitamin D and omega-3 DHA?

For us, these nutrients were especially noteworthy. “Our main goal with our products is to help fill gaps in the diet,” says Dr. Mastaneh. “The amounts of vitamin D and omega-3 DHA Americans are getting from their diet are commonly below the recommended levels which makes these two nutrients particularly noteworthy.” It’s also worth mentioning that on average, the participants in our clinical trial started at lower levels for both of these nutrients—so the fact that they were able to reach significantly higher levels for both after 12 weeks is all the more noteworthy.*

What does this all mean?

Ritual was created for vitamin skeptics, by vitamin skeptics—it’s why we’ve always chosen to go above and beyond, and now, that includes conducting a clinical trial. And it means a lot to us that we can go one step further in showing how our product worked in a clinical trial. “These results confirmed that forms and dosages of Essential for Women key nutrients were efficacious to help our participants to achieve increased nutrient levels,” says Dr. Mastaneh.*

It’s exciting stuff, for sure—but it’s also important to remember that while we’re happy to see results that quantified the impact of Essential for Women, we still stand by our food-first philosophy. “Foods aren't just comprised of vitamins and minerals,” she says. “They also provide beneficial phytochemicals and components, some that we may not even be aware of that can help support our well-being.”*

As for us? We’re now more confident than ever that we formulated a product designed to help fill gaps in the diet—and this is just the first step of a clinical-backed future.*