Laminine is based on some scientific background, however it is no peer reviewed research on this product, only in its background of ingredients.  We call this borrowed science.  That being said, it might work, we just don’t know.  Some Lifepharm distributors suggest there are clinical trials, this is not true, there are no clinical trials I know of.  You can verify this by simply checking pubmed.gov, the national institute of health’s website for peer reviewed research.  Just type in Laminine, and you will find nothing.  (note: you will find studies that talk about laminine, but this is not the product laminine by LifePharm, but rather a protein based on laminin… this is NOT the same thing.)

Protandim currently has 10 peer reviewed studies, 2 are clinicals, that show it to reduce oxidative stress, reduce inflammation and decrease or eliminate fibrosis.  Protandim is proven scientifically to do what the company LifeVantage claims, and more research is on the way, currently in peer review.  Some of this research is published in the most respectable journals in the world, including the American Heart Association.

There are no problems in taking both, and in some ways it might be good to take both, however one is proven, the other is not.  Protandim is sold by a public trade company, with open and audited fiscal reports.  LifePharm however is privately held and doesn’t report or audit their financials.  I would suggest trying both if you want, but test them individually over a period of a few months., then take both to test.  I would suggest using a C Reactive Protein test to validate Protandim or Lipid Peroxidase Test.  There are no blood tests for Lamanine’s effectiveness I am aware of.

More on Laminine can be found here.

More on Protandim can be found here.

Several juice companies hit the market in the last decade or so.  Xango (2002), Monavie (2005), Tahitian Noni (1996), Zrii (2008) and there are more.  These companies had 1 major obstacle, proving to the world that their juice was somehow better than another companies juice.  Most of these companies simply took 1 or 2 ingredients from nature, and put these ingredients into a secret formula and sold them as a health product.  To some degree, I’m sure these products have health benefits, most fruits and vegetables do to some degree.  However, these juice companies lacked peer reviewed and published research on their products, and the companies were forced to rely on borrowed science about the products ingredients, instead of the product itself.

To make matters worse, the companies products were not patented, and since the formula’s had no significant value (being just a set of certain but not unique ingredients), anybody else could make another juice like it, and before people knew it, the same products were being found in the grocery stores for less.  These companies had little to no regular customer volume, sales volumes were nearly entirely based on product consumption from distributors, who were buying product at high requirements to qualify for bonuses.  As the bottom of these companies have been falling away for stronger science, cheaper and more effective products, distributors at the top have been seeing a collapse of their sales volume as a result.  Many knock off products have hit the markets, some retail, some new MLM companies who also sell another “juice”, where “our berry is better than your berry”.

Because these companies are privately held, their financials are not open to review or audit, so many distributors are left in the dark on the fiscal status, but see their company’s corporate sponsorship of sport arena’s, or public entertainment venue’s go away, a sign the company is scaling back, putting dollars into the pockets of their corporate executives.  Sure, global expansion has kept many distributors afloat, but many are feeling the pressure of “its just another juice” syndrome and have been looking for alternatives such as Protandim from LifeVantage, which is one of today’s fastest (if not the fastest) growing network marketing opportunities.  Other new juice companies have taken a new approach to marketing, but will suffer from the same problems these older companies have, the products are not unique, they have no real product based peer reviewed science, and the companies are fiscally closed that add to the risk of its distributors.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/240257/8/EXTRA-Is-Protandim-worth-it

Time Index :40 – Yes he is a paid spokes person, but he was taking Protandim for a couple years before he was so, and instead of the company coming to him, he came to the company.  He has not endorsed a product for a very long time (20 years?), so his sponsorship is no small thing.

Time Index 1:12 – She lists all the ingredients, but that’s not how protandim works.  Its not what the individual ingredients do, its what they do together. Did she even mention oxidative stress or nrf2 activation?  No.  She completely avoided any discussion about Nrf2 activation, other research.

Index 1:36 – Dr Steven Masley is a very biased source.  He sells products too and he’s not going to tell you that protandim is a better product.

Index 2:10 – The dosage is public in the patent, so yes its available, they could have found it easily.  And if you double the amount of the ingredients, your body may not absorb it, the powerful part of Protandim is that the dosage is small, yet, its effective.

Index 2:31 – He wants to see a study where nobody makes a profit from the outcome of the study.  Guess what, Lifevantage is going to make a profit from every study, because when a peer reviewed study comes out, they sell it, just like if a study on a statin comes out (and is positive) the company that makes it makes money!  He must have missed the part where Protandim was being researched by independent researchers and funded outside lifevantage (with some exception).

They missed this study: http://www.studynrf2.com/Studies/Glutathione%20-%20Dec%202008%20Paper.pdf (see the image at the end, that show that the protandim formula is more powerful than any ingredient alone).  This was peer reviewed and published.

Im sure Dr Masley sells products off his website that were not peer reviewed, yet he trusts them., while Protandim at least has peer review.

But clearly they’re not all going to make it, right?  Of course not.  According to Network Marketing for Dummies, there are over 1000 network marketing companies, and in the first year, most of them fail.  About 200 of these network marketing companies belong to the DSA, leaving hundreds of companies as simple MLM startups with absolutely no future.  So what makes one company work, and another fail?  And what is it that takes a company from a new opportunity into a mature business?  Let me suggest these elements of success:

The Company, must be financially transparent, and be lead by experienced leaders.  There are only a small handful of publicly traded MLM companies, they include: NuSkin, Amway, Usana and a few others, but these are mature big companies, LifeVantage is public traded, but is small, and relatively new, very new if you discount the retail years.  A pubic traded company forces them to spend money that provides transparency.  It isn’t cheap, but it is the behavior that you can trust, where some companies make it up, a public traded company can not. Also look at its leadership.  Are they experienced, and where did this experience come from?

The Timing must be perfect. In real estate, timing is all about location-location-location, in business, particularly in network marketing, its all about timing-timing-timing.  Every company starts slow, and once it takes off, which happens at about $50 million a year in revenue, momentum launches that company through a surge of growth, until it levels out (maturity). If the business opportunity you’re looking at has already gone through that phase, you are not ground floor, not at all.  The DSA, says the first 135,000 people in a network marketing business as distributors or agents, are ground floor, for companies that reach a mature status.  Do NOT dismiss timing so quickly, and do not be fooled that a mature company is best, because they’ve got all the kinks worked out, or because they’re going global, or expanding their products.  You get in late, you won’t grow something huge.  Expanding products only helps existing distributors grow, it doesn’t help you come in and build a new business in a mature company.

The System they have must allow for you to be duplicatable, and allow others to do what you do.  If it does not, your business won’t grow.  They company must have a proven system that everybody is taught, and anybody can plug into.  If this business is based solely off the Internet, it won’t work… because network marketing is a people business.  Use the Internet to support your business, not build it.  The company system must allow for you to do the work, if somebody else is doing the work, somebody else is getting paid, and its no more complex than that.  Also, if you have to create a new system, and not follow an established one, endorsed and trained by the company, you will most likely fail, unless you’re a professional who has done this business before.

If you’re not Compensated for your work, why do it?  The product  must have enough margin built in for you to get paid, and you should be able to get paid quickly, and have a long term value.  The compensation plan must reward all aspects of behavior both for short term and long term, and for the new distributor, and the top level agent.

The Product must be unique.  It must be patented, to prevent others from duplicating your efforts, and taking your market share in the future.  If its a health and wellness product, it must be backed by third party science, preferably peer reviewed and published research.  Is your companies product based on borrowed science?  (they take an ingredient and make a product around that ingredient, or is it a product in and of itself).  If its a technology product, it must be unique and sustainable in the long term, for example, if you invested in a fax machine business, likely today you wouldn’t be growing.  The product must also be consumable., if not, you’ll not create a long term growth and sustain it long term.

The trends of the market must dovetail with the story of your company.  Who are your customers, and is your product in that demographic, and is it trendy?  Do people want it?  If not, good luck.

Peter Drucker a world renown economist, says if you are missing 1 of the items above, your chance of success are reduced to about 80%, if you’re missing 2, its reduced to about 40%, and if you’re missing 3, you simply will not succeed.  Plug in  your company into that formula and I can tell you why it will or will not work.  Its that simple, no more.

Please feel to reply with any corrections.

http://www.theprovenplan.com/training

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http://www.pro10training.com/

Don’t for get http://bigbluecalendar.mhsoftware.com/

Please feel to reply with any corrections.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17143561

So this is when PubMed.gov becomes powerful to this unknown blogger, when it adds to his hidden agenda?  But lets move on…

The study does show that Curcumin alone is a Nrf2 suppressant because it inhibited protein phosphatase activity, in toxic dosages.  However it says: “and when curcumin is not administered in toxic doses, these multiple pathways converge to induce HO-1″, meaning when its at non-toxic dosages, it works as the other 50 peer reviewed studies suggest.. it stimulates antioxidant production.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Curcumin%20Nrf2

More important however, McCord has said, each indvidiual ingredient alone, doesn’t do much to stimulate Nrf2, and it was important to have a low dosage of each.  But when combined, they’re 18 times more powerful than any taken alone, including Curcumin.

ASEA is made from salt and water, that goes through a patented refinement process to create these Redox molecules.  Protandim is made from 5 herbs, that are patented in this blend, and the formula is published with the patent.  Are there any other differences?

Both claim to be backed by science, however compare this.  I sseached pubmed.gov for reserach on ASEA, and I found nothing.  I found no peer reviewed research on ASEA’s patented process whatsoever.  I did find science about Redox Molecules, but there is no proof that is peer reviewed science that the ASEA product addresses this.   I’m also concerned that they say, their bottles are designed so even saliva doesn’t get into the bottle, because it will destroy the molecules… if that’s the case, what happens when it gets into my stomach with the acid?  Human clinical trial is in order I think.

In stark contrast, Protandim has 10 peer reviewed studies, two are human clinicals, that show Protandim actually does what it claims.  See the difference?  Peer reviewed science and published science is what Protandim has, ASEA has… none.

The ASEA company is a privately held company, allowed to make up whatever financial data they choose, LifeVantage (Protandim) is publicly traded with open financials, and they cannot make up their financials.

Protandim is being researched by many universities, ASEA so far as I know is not being studied by anybody but those labs or scientists hired by the ASEA company.

So in summary, maybe the ASEA product does works, but its a hard sell when there is no peer reviewed science on their product (not its ingredients or science behind the product).  Borrowed science isn’t effective.  I also think that Sea water is a hard sale, and being a private company has its challenges.  But they’ll get some traction, especially if the product works.  I also wonder what the patent is really for?  Is it for their manufacturing process, if so what are the barriers to market for the next Redox molecule product.

Feedback welcome.

Another flaw is that top gainers might be brand new companies.  Going from 10 pages to a 100 doesn’t mean its really growing, statistically speaking it might still be brand new.  While other companies that have been around for decades and show a 10% growth, really have not grown at all, its just some new news or search might have kicked up a spike in interest.

Its important to note, that MLM companies on MLMRankings.com are simply not gathering data from sales, or really new enrollments, but from general news and interest from Internet queries.  A good example, is One24, a business that is nearly entirely Internet marketed, isn’t really growing at all, but people are simply putting up more content to try to grab the last few people to get into their downline.

This is one reason I really like LiveVantage.  Since the company is public traded, they report their numbers on the Internet as a part of their SIC filing requirements.  These revenues can be used to measure real growth.  It would really be nice if the other 99% of MLM companies would report their numbers.

See: http://www.mlmrankings.com/faq.asp