Background

“Necessity..” as the saying goes “…is the mother of inventions. “ In our case, it
was more like “a near death experience” on the part of the inventor.

FLORAVITA2000 was originally developed by Henry Y. Lee, Ph. D., a research scientist who worked at one of most prestigious research institutions in the United States. Although he found his work at this “think-tank” very exciting and rewarding, it was nevertheless highly demanding and stressful often requiring extensive travel especially overseas. Upon returning from one of those trips, he came down with what seemed at first to be an ordinary cold or flu. He is no stranger to these maladies from which he usually recovers in a week or two. However, this time, it was quite different. It almost took his life.

Thankfully, he did recover and began research to find a ways to protect the body from wide range pathogens. ABI acquired rights to one of his invention and our expert brew masters crafted it into the delicious and potent beverage which we have proudly labeled OURAVITA2000. The story of how Dr. Lee developed the original formula is the true background of this beverage.

Several years ago, he sat down with ABI and in a rare interview told us this most interesting story behind the development of his beverage.

The progression of the disease was extremely rapid and virulent which almost took his life. During his long recovery, he researched ways to protect himself from Within a few days of the first onset of the symptoms, he was in a critical condition which required surgery.

Interview with Dr. Henry Y. Lee, Consulting Research Scientist and the inventor/ developer of FLORAVITA2000

ABI - “Before we begin, Dr. Lee, we would like to thank you for allowing us to manufacture and market this beverage that you invented. We all are deeply grateful and every day we are receiving accolades from grateful customers. We would also like to thank you for taking the time for this interview. I guess what everyone is interested in is your story in your own words as to how you came up with this beverage. We all heard bits and pieces of it over the past few years but never the whole story. We’re also interested in why? ”
Dr. Lee – “I don’t know how much you know about what I do but I am basically a consultant. I’ve been one since getting my degree from Stanford. During the spring and summer of 1999 I had to travel quite a bit. Upon returning from what turned out to be my last trip for the year, I felt like I might be coming down with another cold or a flu. At first, I thought it was just allergies. However, in addition to sinus conjestion, I developed a sore throat and began coughing. I took my usual over the counter medications but they didn’t seem to help. Next day, the symptoms were worse. I felt very lethagic and ached all over so I stayed in bed most of the day. Over the next couple of days, the symptoms became progressively worse and then on the fourth day, while having a light lunch, I felt a sharp pain in the middle of my chest which went around to my back. I thought I was having a hear attack. So I popped a couple of aspirins and my wife rushed me to the emergency room of a nearest hospital. There a battery of tests was performed. The good news was that I didn’t suffer a heart attack. The bad news was that I had come down with pneumonia. I was then given a shot of antibiotic and released. During the next 12-14 hours, unable to lie down or sleep, I went from bad to worse. The following morning, the symptoms had obviously become quite acute and my wife had to rush me to the hospital again. There, it was determined that a antibiotic was obviously prescribed the day before and they were not able determine which antibiotic would work. Apparently, someone had forgotten to take culture to identify the bacteria. Fortunately, there was a pulmonary specialist making the rounds that morning. He was call to assist. After reading my chart and a brief examination, he immediately had me admitted and within two day of additional tests and trying unsuccessfully to drain fluids out of the affected lung, I was operated on. After almost a week in the hospital, I was released and began a three month convalescence with 24/7 antibiotic therapy.

It was diagnosed as “atypical pneumonia” but the hospital was not able to determine exactly what kind of a virus or bacteria that was involved. One thing for sure, it was very fast acting. I was informed by the nursing staff that during the twelve months pior to my admittance, they had seen three similar cases involving men in their thirties who unfortunately didn’t make it.”

ABI: “How did you feel after hearing that?”
Dr. Lee –“I was shocked. I thought pneumonia affected mainly the elderly and people with compromised immune system, such as those with HIV. It absolutely shocked me to learn that normally healthy young men in their thirties were hit with this type of disease and the best that our medical science could offer was not able to save them. That was frightening and a real eye-opener. I was also told that in some patients who suffered similar type of respiratory diseases that risk seems to be increased for recurrence. I also learned that opportunistic bacterial infections after trauma, surgery and burns are a major cause of death, especially in individuals whose immune systems are compromised. Furthermore, research efforts to find other anti-microbial treatments are lagging far behind the increase in the incidence of new antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria. It was then that I decided to do something about it to minimize that risk.

ABI - “So, what did you do?”
Dr. Lee – “I talked to many doctors, public health specialist and experts in pulmonary diseases and did a lot of reading during my convalescence. My conclusion in a nut shell was really prevention. Now, that may sound obvious but in practice, it’s very difficult. Ideally, we would like to have a “silver-bullet” type of vaccine that protects us from all kinds of existing as well as future infectious diseases. Given the present state of medical science and technology that is impossible, the next best strategy is to find ways to help our body help itself by strengthening the immune system. There was virtually nothing in the mainstream, conventional medical literature that talked about it so I explored alternative medicine - herbal, homeopathic, etc. There, I was almost overwhelmed. There was almost too much information but very little with scientific evidence that demonstrate their efficacy or safety. However, one really stood out. And that was Sambucus Nigra - especially the berries and flowers of the black elder tree. Everything about this plant fascinated me. However, the clincher was the double-blind study that was conducted by Dr. Madeliene Mumcuoglu of Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center, on patients suffering from influenza that gave me the confidence to use this herbal remedy as the primary ingredient for myself.