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Here we have a comparison of two highly popular supplement brands, Relief Factor and Balance of Nature. While Relief Factor is designed to provide anti-inflammatory joint support, Balance of Nature is a combination of 3 different supplements that aim to support your whole-body wellness.
In today’s comparison, we’ll be focusing on which one is better in the context of joint health. We will analyze their ingredients and see what the science says about them. Which one is better for pain, stiffness, and inflammation? We begin with a short summary!
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature Summary
Relief Factor and Balance of Nature are two highly popular supplements with many positive reviews online. Don’t let the marketing hype fool you, though. Both brands have some serious issues.
Relief Factor is the better option as far as joint health is concerned, but it’s also far from the best joint stack on the market right now. Relief Factor contains a few great ingredients that will help reduce your joint pain and improve inflammation response. However, a large part of its formula consists of ineffective, unproven ingredients.
Epimedium (Horny Goat Weed) has no effects on joint health whatsoever, and the same goes for Japanese fleeceflower (knotweed). The ingredients that Relief Factor uses either come in plain, cheap forms, or are underdosed (case in point: turmeric powder). Considering that Relief Factor costs over $95 for a month’s supply, we expected a lot more.
As for Balance of Nature, it is a good general health supplement, but as far as joint health goes, it’s even worse than Relief Factor! Not only did Balance of Nature Supplements omit key ingredients like Glucosamine and Chondroitin, but they also use proprietary blends, so you don’t see the ingredient doses. For the price of $105-$158, this is an absolutely disappointing show by Balance of Nature.
It’s best to do more research before buying either one, as there are better joint supplements available on the market, for a lot less.
What do we recommend?
– Click to See The Current 3 Best-Reviewed Joint Supplements-
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature: Product Overview
Relief Factor
Relief Factor is one of the top-selling joint stacks on the market right now. You’ll see hundreds of positive Relief Factor testimonials online, and there are many websites praising Relief Factor’s ingredients and benefits. But what does it do?
According to Relief Factor’s website, it can:
- Reduce inflammation
- Support long-term joint health
- Alleviate joint discomfort
There’s nothing too exciting or interesting here. Needless to say, Relief Factor is a supplement designed to combat joint pain caused by inflammation and age-related wear and tear.
There’s not much talk about increasing mobility or joint function. The Relief Factor website doesn’t say anything about healing connective tissues and bolstering your joints. The only promises we get are related to reducing joint pain associated with ageing and physical activity.
This begs the question; how will Relief Factor work for you? And how does it compare to its competitor of today, Balance of Nature, in terms of supporting healthy joints?
Let’s have a look.
Balance of Nature
Balance of Nature is a combination of whole food supplements designed to improve your overall health and wellness.
The so-called “Whole Health System” of Balance of Nature is made up of three different supplements: Fruit and Veggies supplements, and a Fiber & Spices powder drink.
You can buy any of these three supplements individually, or you can do what the manufacturer recommends, and take them all together for total body support.
The Balance of Nature fruit supplement contains a blend of 16 whole fruits along with aloe vera. These include apples, cranberries, cherries, lemons, oranges, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and more.
The Balance of Nature veggies blend contains powerful anti-inflammatory ingredients like cabbage, garlic, broccoli, kale, and cayenne pepper among others.
Lastly, we have the Balance of Nature Fiber & Spice drink. As the name suggests, the ingredients we get in this drink include psyllium husk, flax seeds, turmeric, fenugreek, and ginger amongst other spices & sources of fiber.
Essentially, it’s 1 vs 3 in the case of Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature. Relief Factor is a single supplement, and Balance of Nature is a stack of three. But does more equal better when it comes to joint health? Which of these two is more effective.
The ingredients will ultimately tell us the answer.
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature: Comparing the Ingredients
As expected, the ingredient profiles of Relief Factor and Balance of Nature are completely different.
Whereas Relief Factor contains joint-targeted ingredients like turmeric and omega-3 oils for joint pain and inflammation, Balance of Nature’s 3 supplements contain a bit of everything, and are more focused on supporting overall health, rather than specifically helping with joint flexibility, pain, or long-range function.
In addition, Relief Factor’s formula is completely transparent, whereas all three Balance of Nature supplements use proprietary blends, which means we can’t see the doses of their ingredients.
However, Relief Factor is far from a perfect supplement itself – it has some serious issues that we’ll be addressing below.
See for yourself.
Relief Factor Formula
The Ingredients in Relief Factor as as follows:
- EPA – 647mg
- DHA – 253mg
- Turmeric phospholipid (18% curcuminoids) – 667mg
- Epimedium (20% Icariin) – 200mg
- Japanese fleeceflower (96% resveratrol) – 70mg
As the label shows:
We don’t think Relief Factor is a bad joint health supplement, but it’s far from the best either. While Relief Factor has a few good ingredients that will help fight your joint pain and inflammation (mainly, turmeric and omega-3s), the effectiveness of the supplement is far weaker than what the manufacturer promises.
There are several reasons why Relief Factor doesn’t seem capable of improving joint function significantly, if at all.
The main one is the use of completely untested, scientifically unproven ingredients. Japanese fleeceflower, aka, knotweed, is not thought to have any benefit at all. As far as we’re aware, it has never been shown in studies as a potential joint health enhancer, or any kind of enhancer for that matter.
We cannot find any robust clinical trials showing this ingredient is beneficial for your joint flexibility or comfort.
The same thing is with Epimedium, aka, Horny Goat Weed. There is no reason to think that Horny Goat Weed can reduce joint pain. There’s a reason why you’ll never see this ingredient in the best joint supplements. Instead, it’s more often found in men’s health enhancers and libido formulas. There is no clinical evidence to back Horny Goat Weed up!
A concerningly large portion of Relief Factor is made up of totally unproven, ineffective ingredients.
Even where it uses well-studied, effective joint pain relievers, there are issues.
For example, the turmeric Relief Factor uses is just plain turmeric powder. The same one you’ll find at your local grocery store. It’s much cheaper to just buy a bag of turmeric powder if you want to use it for inflammation and pain relief.
The omega-3s in Relief Factor are not a bad choice, but they are not optimally dosed for joint health. Studies have used at least 2,000mg of EPA+DHA per day to improve joint function and comfort.
Simply put, Relief Factor is a very expensive supplement that mostly contains cheap and ineffective ingredients. As such, it doesn’t look like the best of joint supplements to us. There are better options out there, for sure.
But is Relief Factor better than Balance of Nature? Let’s find out!
Balance of Nature Formula
Let’s start by checking the ingredient labels of Balance of Nature Supplements.
Afterwards, we will go into more detail explaining what we think about the ingredients, and if they can give us the benefits that the manufacturer claims. Please post any questions you might have in the comments down below.
Here are the ingredients in the Balance of Nature Fiber & Spices supplement:
Here are the ingredients in the Balance of Nature fruit & veggies supplements:
As you’ll notice right off the bat, the ingredients in all three Balance of Nature supplements are contained inside proprietary blends, which makes it impossible to see if they’re properly dosed. This allows the manufacturer to get away with underdosed ingredients, without us knowing.
The Balance of Nature website doesn’t really show us much in terms of ingredient information. We also couldn’t find any ingredient label facts on the official website, but instead, had to look on Amazon to find it.
Having to look around for Supplement Facts should be a red flag for a potential customer.
The Veggies supplement consists of three proprietary blends:
- Maintain blend – 720mg
- Protect blend – 713mg
- Repair blend – 576mg
The Fruits supplement consists of three proprietary blends as well:
- Maintain blend – 731mg
- Protect blend – 719mg
- Repair blend -561mg
Fiber & Spice contains two proprietary blends:
- Balanced Whole Fiber Blend – 10g
- Protect & Repair Whole Spice Blend – 3g
The sheer number of ingredients found between these three Balance of Nature Supplements can induce a headache for the layperson.
However, the truth is, the ingredients in Balance of Nature products are mostly compounds that you will find in everyday foods; from broccoli, to spinach, to blueberries, and spices like chili pepper.
Fruit and vegetable ingredients are generally seen as healthy and can support your immune function, as well as reduce oxidative stress from exercise. Some of these food ingredients are potent antioxidants, which can help lower systemic inflammation, including that of your joints.
As for the Balance of Nature fiber & spices supplement, it consists of fiber and pectin as prebiotics that can improve the health of your gut bacteria. It also contains ingredients like cardamon and ginger which are great for your digestion.
However, the big issue that remains is the hidden ingredient doses. There is no way for us to know if the manufacturer has put less than effective amounts of ingredients, or perhaps if some of the ingredients are over-served, leading to side effects.
On the whole, the Balance of Nature formulas looks like a definition of a mixed bag. It contains a bunch of different ingredients thrown together. There is nothing “balanced,” nor “natural” about that!
Although some of Balance of Nature’s ingredients are shown in clinical research to be effective for promoting overall health and longevity, it’s far from the best formula for joint pain, flexibility, or long-term function.
As disappointing as Relief Factor is, we would still pick its formula over Balance of Nature’s any day.
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature: Safety Analysis
On the whole, both Relief Factor and Balance of nature look like safe supplements to us. The ingredients they use are all commonly seen in supplements, and are heavily studied for their safety. Especially in the case of Relief Factor, where the doses are really light.
That said, it’s important to remember that we don’t see the doses of ingredients in Balance of Nature supplements. Some of them could be dosed too high, resulting in negative side effects in some people.
Balance of Nature also contains a good amount of fiber; if you have a sensitive gut, it may cause stomach upset, diarrhea, or constipation.
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature: User Reviews
It is worth checking some Relief Factor and Balance of Nature reviews before you go ahead and pick your supplement.
While we can never know 100-percent that an anonymous Relief Factor or Balance of Nature testimonial is legit (and we can never really be sure if it was written by a real person), the feedback can be useful in telling us some general things about the supplement, like whether we’re dealing with a total scam!
Luckily, that doesn’t appear to be the case with Relief Factor nor Balance of Nature.
Relief Factor vs Balance of Nature: Pricing & Value
Relief Factor Pricing
Relief Factor will set you back by $93.95 for a month’s supply + shipping and handling. Not only is Relief Factor outrageously expensive, it also has headache-inducing pricing structure.
The price for new customers is $19.95 – and only if you subscribe to automatic shipments from there on. In other words, you will be charged automatically in regular periods if you subscribe to Relief Factor’s plan.
After 2 weeks of making your first order, Relief Factor will charge you an extra $99.95 for another 2-month supply and send it to you. This will be a continual subscription. From what we’ve seen, this is the main complaint that customers have about this supplement.
Relief Factor doesn’t have a clear return policy. It appears that they have some kind of a money-back program, but only lasting 30 days and if you return the product unused.
Balance of Nature Pricing
The price of Balance of Nature supplements depends on how many of them you want to use.
You can buy the Fruits & Veggies supplements for $89.95. The Fiber & Spice powder drink will cost you $69.95. Or you can “save” some money by buying all three as a part of the Whole Health System – costing $159.95.
There is also an option to become a Preferred Customer, where you pay for a monthly subscription to Balance of Nature supplements, which can save you $20 per product. For example, if you subscribe to Balance of Nature, you can get the Whole Health System (Fruits & Veggies + Fiber & Spices) for $109.95 per month.
In either case the price is extremely high. If your goal is to improve joint health and reduce pain, there are definitely far better options available on the market, for far less.
Even if you just want a general health product or a multivitamin, you can find better value elsewhere. There’s no way we will recommend paying this amount of money for a product that doesn’t even show us what we’re paying for.
The Bottom Line
In our eyes, Relief Factor and Balance of Nature are both pretty terrible supplements.
Not only are they overpriced, but their formulas are also weak, unproven, and in some cases, underdosed. In the case of Balance of Nature Supplements, you can’t even see the amounts of ingredients in them.
As far as joint health goes, we’ll give the edge to Relief Factor, simply because it contains that are more focused for that purpose. Turmeric and some DHA and EPA should help you a bit with joint pain. But the turmeric and omega-3 oils that Relief Factor uses come in cheap and poorly bioavailable forms, so you’re better off just buying some fish oil capsules and a bag of turmeric from your nearest supermarket.
Any of the current market-leading joint stacks or multivitamins would blow Relief Factor and Balance of Nature Supplements out of the water.
Not What You Were Looking For?
– Click to See The Current 3 Best-Reviewed Joint Supplements-
Further Reading:
You never answered which is better! If you have the facts, present them straight up!!!!!!!!!!!
Phillip,
It seems that you either don’t know how to read properly, or you are too lazy to read through the article. Right at the beginning of the article, we clearly said that Relief Factor is the better option as far as joint health is concerned, even though neither one is the best on the market. We explained our reasoning in detail throughout the article, including in the ingredients section.
Wow. I read some bias in this. Was searching out info on Relief factor- got it . Yet have been taking Balance of Nature for 6 months and love it. Significant changes to how I feel…even hip and knee issues gone. Never started it for joint pain, just wanted to enhance my eating habits. Am happy with the results and will continue. ” Proprietary blends” ha. Next time I’ll remember to ask Jamba juice the same thing when I get my morning vegetable, fruit, spiralina cocktail.
Hey laura gay,
Awesome to hear Balance of Nature worked for you. Proprietary blends, however, are a real issue in the supplement industry and can often hide insufficient dosages, making a customer waste their money on an ineffective product. This is why we’re calling out these proprietary blends every time we see them.
CC Staff
We see many like this article. You methodically show how bad a product is (in this case two products), then end the aritcle by giving a link to who you think is better. Just what kind of a relationship do you have with any of the conpany’s you list or refer to at the end of you article?
Hey Robert,
You’re correct, we do have our recommended “best joint supplements”. We recommend products that actually work and give results to real people. We are affiliated with these companies in the sense that we reached out to them and told them that we’re going to promote their products in exchange for a commission whenever you buy from them through our links. This is at no additional cost to you, the customer, and it helps us produce new content. We are transparent about our affiliate partnerships and we only recommend products that we trust in. You can read our affiliate disclosure for more info on this.