In the early 70s, Gene Hughes, a Utah school teacher, began experiencing a nagging stomach condition. He took the advice of a neighbor who suggested cayenne pepper for his discomfort. It worked! Soon Gene began feeling much better, but swallowing a spoonful of cayenne pepper was awful. That’s when his wife, Kristine, suggested putting the powder into easy-to-swallow gelatin capsules. It was revolutionary! Gene and Kristine soon enlisted the support of family—Dick and Pauline Hughes and Jay and Arva Hughes—to begin a small family business, selling encapsulated cayenne and other herbs and supplements to health food stores.

The family soon realized they wanted to touch more lives with their products, and they found the perfect vehicle for making this happen—direct marketing. This business model allowed them to educate consumers about the vitamin supplement products and provided their sales force an opportunity to share in the success of the company. Today Nature’s Sunshine Products (NSP) can be found in 30 countries, represented by nearly 600,000 distributors.