About Us at Essential-Vitamins.com™
Who we are and what we’re about
Essential-Vitamins.com™ is a sole proprietor company, founded in August 2000 under the umbrella of Anson Digital Concerns™. It is a small, home-based business, operated mostly online, dealing in the retail sales of different nutritional supplements, homeopathics, essential oils and related items for your health.
We offer a selection of products for your health on a straight retail basis. These are products we use ourselves, and can recommend to you on the basis of their quality and the results we’ve seen with them in our own lives.
Although we are knowledgeable about the products we sell, and would be glad to assist you in choosing products appropriate for you, we are not trained or licensed healthcare professionals. We are merchants. By law, we cannot diagnose or prescribe anything for your healthcare needs.
In Memorial
Early in 2020, Linda was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer. By the time we had a diagnosis, it was clear that there was very little that could be done, and on December 21, 2020, Linda passed into the presence of the Lord she had loved so much in this life. It was 34 years, almost to the minute, of when we first saw each other face-to-face.
Linda was sweetness personified. She was loved by nearly everyone she met. She could light up a room with her presence. Even in her struggles with the cancer, those who assisted in her care were encouraged by her great, loving heart.
Linda, you were all the world to me. I love you and miss you more than words can say.
But really, just who are we, anyway?
Beyond the dry company info above, it seems only fair that, if we ask you to invest your money in our products, you should have some idea of who we are. So, allow us to introduce ourselves.
My name is Tom Anson. I’m kind of the head of this equal partnership, since I’m the one responsible for this website and much of the day-to-day routine of this business. I’ve been married since 1987 to a wonderful lady named Linda. We have no children, but we did have a very large dog. He was a Great Pyrenees that we got through the Pyrenees Rescue of Nebraska. His name was Xanti (a Basque name I found on the internet).
Throughout the years of our marriage, our hearts have been set on ministry. It’s very literally the why of our decision to get married. This business fits well into that desire.
A note about Better Business Bureau status:
From February 2002 through August 2007, Anson Digital Concerns™, the parent company of Essential-Vitamins.com™, was a member in good standing with the Better Business Bureau Online. But, in 2007, the BBB significantly raised its membership fees, and we could no longer justify the expense; however, you can be assured that we will continue to conduct business with the same high ethical standards as before.
Where our hearts are
Linda has always had a heart for helping others in very practical ways. She worked as a home health aide some years, and then spent the better part of a few others assisting in the care of a terminally ill brother. More recently, she (along with me) has been quite involved in supporting a person involved in church-planting in Asia. She feels like this is an important part of her calling, and is excited for the opportunity.
I was training for the ministry when my health finally gave out completely (in 1977) and forced me out of school. I’ve been disabled ever since (only the Internet provides me the opportunity to support us). But, while in school, I played guitar and sang semi-professionally in Christian coffee houses in the Minneapolis area. I was on the verge of entering the professional circuit when my health gave out.
In college, I met another love: writing. And during the years of my disability, I researched and wrote a book on the church life of the first generation of believers, tracing the decline of the church since then, focusing on key eras in that sad history. It has been an exhilarating project; but the need to dig a little deeper into a few key subjects dealt with there has kept me from finishing the work. I’m hoping to put it on-line at some time.
I’ve found it refreshing to work with our brother in Asia, seeing some of the things I’ve known in theory worked out in practice.
Despite the fact that we have not been able to work in a full-time ministry, as opportunity allowed over the years, we’ve given ourselves to ministering to others in whatever ways we could. In heart-to-heart talks with others and letters, we’ve encouraged those with whom we’ve come into contact. It seems like a small thing; but those are the best of times for us.
And in a way, this business is an extension of that, giving us the opportunity to minister in another way. That is, after all, where our hearts are.
But this business is something else, as well. It’s what might be referred to as “tent-making” (with reference to Paul, the apostle — along with Priscilla and Aquila — who supported their ministry in the gospel by making tents).
But why THIS business?
How any of the above applies here has to do with the needs created by my health problems, and the things I’ve discovered and learned as a result.
I’ve been disabled since 1970 (my sophomore year of high school), after struggling for over eight years with failing health. By 1977, I had to drop out of college (my academic load of six hours was just too much to handle); and by the spring of 1978, I was severely disabled. The FDA won’t allow me to tell you what was wrong, but it all started with the Sabin oral polio vaccine, and has a clinical presentation indistinguishable from post-polio syndrome. (I didn’t have any paralysis, then; though I do have occasional muscle weakness. The problem seems to be centered mostly in the thalamus, which pretty well messes up everything in the body.)
But, being a man ahead of my times, it took more than 15 years for the medical community to put a name to my condition, and another seven to find a doctor who could diagnose it. (Even then, there was nothing — medically — that could be done.)
Consequently, over those years, I searched out a lot of alternatives in healthcare. Linda and I both had our amalgam fillings removed, and replaced with bio-compatible composites. This has helped a lot, in more ways than I can go into here. We’ve also learned a lot about nutrition and supplementation. We’ve worked with therapeutic magnets, acupressure and Touch for Health (meridian therapy), and now, with therapeutic-grade essential oils (since the FDA will not allow a link to the site, you can contact me for information about them). The results we’ve had with these have been truly amazing. Along with nutritional supplementation, the essential oils have taken me from severe disability to being able to start my own business.
Although (as the FDA would require that I assure you) none of this has had any genuine impact on my overall health, in my muddled condition, I feel a sense of excitement about these products, and would like to share them with you. I feel that all the pain and frustration and loneliness I’ve endured for so long have some meaning (beyond what they have worked in my heart, by the grace of the Lord), because they gave impetus to my search for answers, which I’m delighted to be able to share with you.
These products have been very literally life-changing; “a mystery … which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed.” That’s why we’re in this business.
Update, November 2019:
To bring this up-to-date, I should mention that in January 2018, I suffered a stroke in the right side of the Corona radiata. It left me paralyzed on the left side. But it left my mind pretty much intact. I’m making progress, but will likely never play guitar again.
Still, I thank God for His faithfulness through it all.
Why These Products?
The products we offer on this website have been of great benefit to us. Sixteen years ago, I was so severely disabled, any though of doing what I’m doing right now would have been a very wild dream. In terms of work, I was functional for only a few days a year. Now, with the support of these products, I am able to start this business. I did more in the first two years of our start-up date (August 22, 2000) than I had in the previous 25 years. (The FDA will not allow me to tell you about any of this.)
A Happy Coincidence:
While, in compliance with FDA regulations, I must state that these products really are intended for entertainment purposes only, I am intrigued by the coincidental spontaneous remission of my disabling condition when I began using therapeutic-grade essential oils and the nutritional supplements on this website. While it would not in any way offer any scientific proof of the benefits of these products, I would still be very interested in seeing the statistical probability of the coincidental experiences of spontaneous remissions noted in the lives of myself and so many others, relative to their use.