Reclaim Your Original Self
That's what RYOS stands for — and it's more than a name. It's the reason this company exists.
Three out of four adults in the U.S. are managing a chronic condition. Most take prescription medications to stay healthy. And many of those same people also take supplements because they want to feel better, fill nutritional gaps, or get back to feeling like themselves again.
That desire to reclaim your health, your energy, your original self, it's universal. But the supplement industry has never made it easy for people on medications. No one tells you how your supplement ingredients interact with the prescriptions you depend on. No pharmacist is involved. No transparency. You're left to figure it out on your own, or just hope for the best.
We started RYOS to change that.
Our Story
How RYOS Came to Be
RYOS was co-founded by Nancy Chan, a consumer brand leader, and Sunny Chow, RPh, a registered pharmacist with over 20 years of clinical experience. Their story started with a simple observation and a long overdue conversation.
Nancy had spent over six years in the dietary supplement industry and more than 30 years building consumer brands. She understood how supplements were formulated, marketed, and sold, and she also understood what was missing. The industry focused relentlessly on benefits and ingredients but almost never addressed a basic question: are these supplements safe to take alongside prescription medications?
It wasn't an abstract concern. As Nancy watched friends and family navigate chronic conditions from managing blood pressure with daily medications, taking statins for cholesterol, to starting hormone therapy during menopause, she saw the same pattern again and again. Someone would consider adding a supplement to their routine and do the right thing: call their doctor. But primary care physicians are busy. Appointments aren't always immediate. And even the most attentive doctor may not have time to research every ingredient in a supplement against a patient's full medication profile on the spot. People weren't being careless, they were following the right steps and still waiting for answers, or making decisions without complete information simply because the timing didn't line up.
So Nancy brought the problem to Sunny, a registered pharmacist who had spent over 20 years doing exactly what the supplement industry wasn't. In her work across hospital, retail, and independent pharmacy settings, Sunny didn't wait for problems to surface. When she saw a patient picking up a prescription in one hand and a supplement in the other, she'd flag potential interactions before they walked out the door. Blood thinners with fish oil. Antidepressants with St. John's wort. Thyroid medications with calcium. The kind of combinations that can change how a medication works, caught in a two-minute conversation at the counter.
"I can only help the people coming into my store but there are millions of people buying supplements who may not have a pharmacist checking for them." That was the gap, and it was exactly the kind of problem worth building a brand around.
The conversation was straightforward. There should be a supplement brand that starts with the question most brands ignore: what medications is our customer already taking? A brand that brings pharmacy expertise in from the beginning, not as a marketing afterthought. So that when a customer is standing in the aisle or browsing online and wondering whether a supplement is compatible with their medications, they shouldn't have to wait for an appointment to get a starting point. And a brand that gives people real interaction information upfront, so that when they do talk to their doctor, they're arriving with better questions and a clearer picture, not starting from zero.
That's how RYOS was created. A brand and product strategist who knew the supplement industry needed to do better. A pharmacist who had the clinical expertise to make it happen. And a shared belief that people trying to reclaim their health deserve supplements designed to work with their medications, not against them.
What Makes RYOS Different
RYOS isn't a wellness brand that added a pharmacist review as a feature. Medication awareness is the reason we exist.
Every RYOS formula is evaluated by a licensed pharmacist for potential drug-nutrient interactions. Each ingredient is reviewed individually against commonly prescribed medications for the most prevalent chronic conditions tracked by the CDC, including blood pressure medications, statins, diabetes treatments, GLP-1 receptor agonists, antidepressants, hormone therapies, and digestive medications.
Then we do something almost no other supplement brand does: we publish the results. Every product has a full interaction table showing which medication categories are generally well tolerated, which warrant a physician conversation, and which should be avoided. We believe you deserve that information before you buy not after.
The RYOS Pharmacist Review Process
Ingredient-Level Evaluation
Each ingredient in every RYOS formula is reviewed individually by a registered pharmacist for known drug-nutrient interaction considerations. This isn't a surface-level label check, it's an evaluation informed by over 20 years of pharmacy practice in medication management.
Condition-Based Medication Mapping
Ingredients are evaluated against the most commonly prescribed medications for chronic conditions monitored by the CDC. We focus on the medication categories that affect the largest number of adults: cardiovascular drugs, metabolic treatments, psychiatric medications, hormonal therapies, and gastrointestinal prescriptions.
Clear, Published Results
After evaluation, each product-medication pairing is classified into one of three categories:
Generally well received — No widely reported interactions at typical supplement doses.
Consult your physician — Potential considerations exist; discuss with your healthcare provider.
Avoid — Known interaction risks that warrant avoiding this combination.
These results are published in full on our Medication Safety page.
How RYOS Supplements Are Made
Pharmacist review is one layer of our quality commitment. Here's what else goes into every RYOS product:
Manufactured in the USA — All RYOS supplements are produced in domestically operated facilities that hold both GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) and NSF certifications, meeting strict standards for safety, consistency, and quality control.
Independent Third-Party Lab Testing — After manufacturing, every batch is tested by an independent third-party laboratory to verify that the product meets our formula specifications for purity, safety, and potency. Certificates of Analysis (COAs) are available upon request at hello@ryosvitamins.com.
Clean Ingredient Standards — Every RYOS formula is non-GMO, gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian-friendly, with no artificial flavors or colors.
Meet our Founders
Sunny Chow, RPh — Co-Founder
Sunny is a registered pharmacist with over 20 years of experience spanning hospital pharmacy, retail pharmacy, independent practice, and long-term care. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from St. John's University and holds active immunization certification.
At RYOS, Sunny leads the pharmacist review process, evaluating every formula ingredient-by-ingredient for potential interactions with commonly prescribed medications. Her expertise covers drug-nutrient interactions, medication management, and patient education.
Throughout her career, Sunny has counseled thousands of patients navigating complex medication regimens and seen too many cases where a simple supplement interaction could have been caught earlier with better information.
Nancy Chan, MBA — Co-Founder
Nancy brings 30 years of experience in consumer brand strategy and more than six years in the dietary supplement industry. Before co-founding RYOS, she served as CEO of a nationally distributed supplement brand, where she led a new brand launch in a competitive category.
At RYOS, Nancy leads brand development, product positioning, and consumer experience. Her focus is making medication-aware supplement information clear and accessible, because understanding drug-nutrient interactions shouldn't require a pharmacy degree.
RYOS grew out of Nancy's experience on both sides of the equation: years inside the supplement industry understanding how products are made and marketed, and years watching the people closest to her try to navigate medications and supplements without the information they needed. That gap between what the industry could tell consumers and what it actually told them is what RYOS was built to close.
Who Benefits Most From Medication-Aware Supplements
RYOS was built for people who take prescription medications and want supplements they can feel confident about. People managing blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, depression, menopause, or digestive condition who want to feel better but don't want to guess whether their supplement is working with their medications or against them.
If you've ever searched "can I take [supplement] with [medication]" and found vague, conflicting, or nonexistent answers, RYOS exists because of that moment. You shouldn't need a pharmacist in the family to make an informed supplement decision. You just need a brand that's already done the work.