About Robert Lees — Why I Do This

“I didn’t come to this work through a degree or a lab. I came through pain — my own, and my daughter’s. That’s what makes everything on this site real.”

My name is Robert Lees. I’m a New Zealand-based health researcher, supplement investigator, and the founder of OrGainIt Health Revelations. I’ve spent the better part of seven years going deep into the science of turmeric and curcumin — testing products personally, interrogating clinical studies, and building what I believe is one of the most honest, evidence-grounded supplement review sites on the internet.

I am not a qualified physician. What I am is someone with powerful personal reasons to get this right.

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The Physical Turning Point

My journey into natural health didn’t begin in a library. It began in a moment of real, physical limitation. Years of working demanding jobs — commercial fishing, structural engineering, the kind of work that builds character but wears out joints — had accumulated in my body in ways I couldn’t ignore. Inflammation became a daily reality. I found myself looking at long-term medication with significant side effects, and asking: is there another way?

That question led me to turmeric. Not the supermarket powder, but the science behind it — the curcuminoids, the bioavailability challenge, the ancient history and the modern research converging on the same compound. I became, in the truest sense, obsessed.

What I found early on changed my trajectory. Not all turmeric supplements are equal. In fact, many of them are deeply, cynically unequal. My first real encounter with supplement adulteration — discovering that products I’d trusted contained fillers, synthetic dyes, or a fraction of the curcuminoids their labels claimed — turned what had been personal interest into something closer to a conviction. Someone needed to hold this industry accountable. Someone needed to do the work properly.

That’s what this site is.

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Makayla — The Deeper Why

If my own health journey started this, my daughter Makayla is what sustains it.

Makayla was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis at just 14 years old — one of the most aggressive relapsing-remitting forms. Watching your child navigate a disease that attacks her own nervous system, watching her go through relapses that are “long and scary” (her words), watching the preventative medication she has to take — medication that essentially suppresses her immune system to slow the disease — is the kind of thing that strips every question of its abstraction.

I don’t review supplements for clicks. I review them because Makayla takes them. Because the difference between a quality curcumin supplement and a fraudulent one is not academic in our house — it matters. Turmeric’s anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective properties, its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in certain formulations, its role in supporting the immune system without suppressing it — these aren’t interesting research topics for me. They are personal.

Everything I publish on this site has to be something I’d stake her wellbeing on. That’s the standard.

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Truth, Trust, Transparency — And Why I Believe in Them

I’ll be honest about something most supplement reviewers won’t say: I approach this work with a spiritual conviction. I’m not a religious man in the institutional sense, but I am a follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ, and I take seriously the instruction to speak truth — especially in spaces where people are vulnerable, confused, and being exploited.

The supplement industry is one of those spaces. Billions of dollars flow through it annually, a significant portion built on exaggerated claims, unverified citations, and the confidence that most consumers don’t have the tools to fact-check. I do. And I consider it a responsibility to use them.

The name OrGainIt carries this in its structure: Organic Gain It — gaining health through natural, organic means. But it’s also a declaration: you can gain it. Real health, real relief, real results — through real products backed by real evidence. That belief is as much spiritual as it is scientific for me, and I make no apology for that.

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The Investigation: Adulteration, Fraud, and the Fight for Honest Labels

One of the most important things I’ve done on this site is document the dark side of the turmeric supplement market. My personal experience with adulterated products — buying something that claimed 95% curcuminoids and receiving something that tested closer to a fraction of that — fundamentally shaped how I approach every review.

The turmeric adulteration problem is real and widespread. Synthetic curcumin analogues. Lead chromate used as a colouring agent. Cassava starch as filler. Products claiming wild-harvested organic turmeric that arrived in bulk from industrial facilities with no traceability. I’ve investigated and documented all of it. If you’re not sure how to protect yourself, start with my guide to turmeric adulteration.

I also hold myself to the same standard. Every recommendation I make comes with a declared affiliate relationship where one exists, a real citation with a real PMID where science is invoked, and a testing protocol that prioritises your health over my commission. See the full testing protocol and disclosure policy.

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Where I Am Now: The Formulation Frontier

Seven years in, I’m more engaged with this field than I’ve ever been. The science has moved dramatically — and so has my understanding of what “best” actually means.

The first generation of turmeric supplements (standardised extract + BioPerine®) served their purpose. But the research frontier has moved to patented delivery technologies — CurcuWIN® (46× bioavailability), Meriva® phytosome, liposomal curcumin, fermented turmeric — and to meaningful combination formulas that pair curcumin with compounds like CBD, Boswellia, and Vitamin D3 for multi-pathway anti-inflammatory action.

I’m also increasingly focused on GEO — how AI systems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s generative answers cite health information. The standards for being cited by an AI are, if anything, higher than traditional SEO: real studies, real PMIDs, real authorship, real transparency. That’s been my standard all along. The algorithm finally caught up.

The journey continues. New formulations, new studies, new products that earn honest assessment — and ongoing advocacy against the ones that don’t. If you want to follow the research beyond this site, you can find more of my work at robertmartinlees.com.

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