I wrote about CMX-1152 and Protandim previously. Specifically the point made was that Protandim was originally a product called CMX-1152 that was supposed to reduce oxidative stress. That product was prevented (for some undisclosed reason) from ever reach the market, so LifeVantage was a company, with a debt, and no product to sell. So they decided to invent one.

I found this article from 2005 that gives extensive detail about this time in LifeVantage's history. One of the things that's of interest is this:

For a time, Lifeline continues to use the experimental results from CMX-1152 to tout their new non-CMX-1152 product, which could charitably be described as a potpourri of existing antioxidant supplements. This also is documented in the the Immortality Institute thread on Lifeline.

Originally posted 2012-08-01 15:25:05.

LifeVantage recently demoted Dr. Joe McCord from Chief "Science" Officer and hired Darlene R. Walley to replace him. Like any good public relations team would do, they mentioned that he's still be sticking around to help. That's usually code for "we are phasing you out", which isn't much of a surprise as McCord is at retirement age (67).

This move was hardly surprising. After all this space has exposed a lot of controversy regarding his tenure at LifeVantage:

• LifeVantage and Dr. Joe McCord Lied about the Creation of Protandim!
• Joe McCord Illegally Says that Protandim is about Cancer Prevention
• Dr. Joe McCord’s Role at LifeVantage - He's a spokesman cashing in on his reputation.
• Dr. Joe McCord’s Financial Interest In LifeVantage/Protandim - It looks to be more than 10 million dollars from the SEC filings.

It was really just a matter of time... as long as someone is watching the company for it's bad conduct.

Unfortunately LifeVantage's choice for successor in Darlene Walley doesn't look much better: Darlene Walley the New LifeVantage Chief Science Officer

Originally posted 2012-11-01 07:11:47.

With Joe McCord stripped of his Chief Science Officer title at LifeVantage, it is worth looking at little at his successor.

According to the LifeVantage press release they've hired Darlene R. Walley to fill that role.

What does Darlene Walley bring to the table? One thing that stands out is her history.

She seems to have been President at Unither Pharmaceuticals in 2001. During that time the company developed HeartBar.

The marketing for HeartBar went over the line and the The FTC had to come down on Unither's marketing for being misleading. As part of the agreement with the FTC, Unither dumped the Heartbar and their distributors. It's worth noting that finding that agreement with the FTC is difficult since the agreement itself seems to include a clause to delete the agreement.

It's also worth noting that Unither was an MLM company, much like LifeVantage. Unither dumping HeartBar and their distributors looks to be a great example of foreshadowing considering the LifeVantage Protandim situation.

Now in fairness, Darlene Walley jumped ship before the FTC took action. However, let's not lose sight of the fact that all the things that the FTC took action on appear to have happened on her watch.

Originally posted 2012-11-01 07:44:36.

[The following post is from Vogel. Here he shines a spotlight on LifeVantage's attempt to mislead and lie to consumers once again.]

Just came across a corporate press release from LFVN in which they made the following claim:

“Protandim Is Certified by Banned Substances Control Group (BSCG) as Safe for Consumers and Athletes”

BSCG is a so-called certifying "organization" – but one that seems to serve the MLM industry exclusively (red flag #1).

What's really deceptive about the press release is that the BSCG does not conduct "safety" tests; they only test for the presence of substances banned for competitive athletes. It’s one thing for the company to say that Protandim is certified to be free of substances banned by the IOC, for example, which is relevant only if one is a competitive athlete who doesn’t want to fail a doping test after ingesting a dietary supplement. However, it’s a straight up lie to claim that Protandim "has been certified... as safe for consumers”. The BSCG provided no such certification about safety or anything relevant to non-athletes (i.e. general consumers).

Under US law, supplement manufacturers are not allowed to make unqualified safety claims about their products unless they submit reliable safety data from high-quality studies to the FDA for assessment and approval. LFVN has not done so. In fact, they have no published human safety data at all. When supplement manufacturers use GRAS ("generally recognized as safe") ingredients, there is an inherent assumption that they are “generally” safe, but there are many examples of supplements with GRAS ingredients that can have serious side effects. That’s why the FDA does not allow manufacturers to make unqualified safety claims. Furthermore, if a company uses ingredients in novel combinations, then it can’t be assumed that the safety profile is the same as when the ingredients are taken individually. This is particularly relevant to Protandim, since LFVN claims that the ingredients display unique “synergistic” properties. In that light, the safety of Protandim is even more uncertain. The FDA states:

"Where there is reason to suspect that the combination of multiple ingredients might result in interactions that would alter the effect or safety of the individual ingredients, studies showing the effect of the individual ingredients may be insufficient to substantiate the safety of the multiple ingredient product. A better approach would be to investigate the safety of the specific combination of ingredients contained in the product."

To make matters worse, LFVN even acknowledges in their FAQs that Protandim can cause side effects (allergic responses, stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting, headache, and rash of the hands and feet). Obviously, it’s not entirely safe and they shouldn't be deceiving consumers to the contrary.

Originally posted 2011-09-02 16:38:47.

Somehow, I've been put on a LifeVantage distributor email distribution list. I didn't ask to be, but I guess someone saw that I write about Protandim and put my email on the list and sold it to people. That's the only thing I can think of.

Anyway, I got an interesting email from LifeVantage Distributor Dave Tarr the other day. It said:

"Hello Fellow Life Vantage Distributor,

I hope your your getting younger and feeling great with Protandim and Life Vantage products.

I am a LV distributor in Mexico and though you may find this interesting to help your lifevantage business."

I kept the grammatical error ("your your" instead of just "you're") in there as it is an exact quote. I'm writing about the claim that LifeVantage products play a role in one "getting younger." This is clearly not the case. LifeVantage products do not reverse the aging process like as if the person were Benjamin Button.

At this point, I'm too afraid of further illegal claims to watch the the video his email spam is trying to get people to watch.

Originally posted 2011-08-07 15:41:42.

A lot of people ask this very question. The short answer is that it has never been sufficiently tested and this website has shown that the company in general shouldn't be trusted as they've been caught purposely lying to the public about Protandim as well as breaking FDA and FTC laws in promoting it.

I want to share a few words from Chris Redmond that may help you see it clearly:

"Let’s look at Protandim, and create two simple models or theories.

Theory one is that Protandim works as LifeVantage claims. Now, if this were the case we could reasonably expect and predict the following:

1. Anecdotal accounts of all round improvements in health, exactly as described in LifeVantage literature.
2. Serious debate about Protandim in the media as the anecdotal evidence is subsequently supported by General Practitioners and health professionals who are able to corroborate these anecdotal accounts
3. LifeVantage to start multiple human trials of Protandim, confident that any cost will be an investment as the science behind their product is solid, and the results being experienced by customers confirms Protandim’s effectiveness.
4. Results from the trials show beyond a reasonable doubt that Protandim works as described.
5. Medical professionals across the globe have instant access to the results of these studies, and en masse begin to endorse Protandim, with the proviso it is not a medication.
6. Demand for Protandim increases dramatically, production struggles to keep up with demand, and as more results from trials are published LifeVantage’s stock is exploding.

If this model is the one anyone recognizes I’d be interested to know.

The second theory is that Protandim does not work, and if this was the case we’d could reasonably expect to see:

1. Anecdotal accounts of all round improvements in health, exactly as described in LifeVantage literature.
2. A lack of serious debate about Protandim in the media as the anecdotal evidence is not subsequently supported by General Practitioners and health professionals who are able to corroborate these anecdotal accounts.
3. LifeVantage to avoid using multiple human trials of Protandim, as the science behind their product is not solid and the results being experienced by customers is only anecdotal and can be explained perfectly by placebo.
4. Results from any human trials that are carried out show that Protandim does not work, or that placebo is more effective.
5. LifeVantage do not carry out further human trials, preferring to cherry pick any positive results of trials involving ingredients of Protandim.
6. Medical professionals across the globe do not take Protandim seriously because it has no trails or evidence to support the claims of it’s manufacturer.
7. Demand for Protandim decreases, LifeVantage’s stock is imploding, it is decided to sell Protandim via the tried and tested avenue of pyramid marketing.

I could go on, anybody could, but basically Protandim fits the model of an over-hyped product with zero hard evidence of any health benefit perfectly, and LifeVantage perfectly fit the model of a company who realize this.

(I've taken the liberty to "Americanize" some of the British English. Hopefully Chris forgives me.)

Originally posted 2013-02-07 18:39:05.

One of the most common things a potential LifeVantage distributor will hear is the background of a Dr. Joe McCord. Dr. Joe McCord and LifeVantage Protandim are almost synonymous at this point. LifeVantage would like for potential distributors to believe they are synonymous because it gives the impression that Protandim was developed by a doctor. However we know that Protandim was invented by Paul Myhill who has no medical background.

Since this fact seems to be public knowledge it was quite puzzling to find the following on LifeVantage.com

[Click to see the larger, more readable view...]

Here's a quote:

"Our breakthrough product, Protandim, was created by Dr. Joe McCord, a world-renowned scientist, pioneer of Free Radical Biology, and discoverer of the anti-aging enzyme Superoxide Dismutase in 1969. He received the Elliot Cresson Medal from The Franklin Institute—awarded to distinguished inventors and scientists, putting Dr. McCord in the same company as Pierre and Marie Curie, Alexander Graham Bell, Orville Wright, and Henry Ford."

I added a little bolding for emphasis on the company claiming that Protandim was created by Dr. Joe McCord. This seems to be the lie the company is still telling as I write this on May 14th, 2011.

The rest of the quote is also noteworthy. They mention a lot of prestigious people. If you didn't know that it was a lie about Dr. Joe McCord creating Protandim you might judge Protandim to be the "breakthrough product" the page touts. However, we know better. We know the truth because Protandim inventor Paul Myhill spilled the beans in an interview with Blogtalk radio. He specifically states:

Because the core composition came from a very unlikely source – me – we initially decided to hide that fact for marketing purposes and instead rely on the impeccable background of Dr. McCord.

It sounds like Paul Myhill was wrong about one thing... the word "initially." Years after he admitted to the deceit the company continued to hide the fact that Dr. McCord didn't create Protandim. In the previous quote we also see how the company is relying on his impeccable background. As of the original publishing of his article, the company continued to mislead consumers by giving them the impression Dr. McCord was prominently involved when in fact his name isn't on the patent. The page gives no mention to Paul Myhill as the inventor at all.

Update 1:

The original article above exposed LifeVantage's lie about McCord inventing Protandim. This caused McCord and LifeVantage to change their story. At the 2011 Protandim conference for distributors, McCord gives another version about the invention of Protandim, one that gives the impression he had a significant role in creating Protandim.

"What I was presented with was a list of 41 potential ingredients for a product [Myhill and Driscoll] wanted to call Protandim. And I went through the list and penciled out rapidly about 36 of those ingredients because they were either not of interest or not likely to be effective. What I was left was 5 botanicals..."

As we'd soon find out from an official letter from McCord himself in 2005, clearly this story is another lie intended to cover up the first lie.

Update 2:

Paul Myhill has supplied irrefutable documentation from McCord himself that his contributions do not qualify him as inventor of Protandim. McCord says specifically, "Again, I must congratulate you and Paul for having framed the concept of Protandim so close to its final embodiment, prior to the beginnings of our association.":

Joe McCord Didn't Invent Protandim

This makes it clear that McCord and LifeVantage not only lied once about him inventing Protandim, but multiple times. It's just another reason why you shouldn't trust anything LifeVantage says.

Update 3: As of September 9th, 2011, LifeVantage has updated the language on the page to read, "Dr. Joe McCord is the scientist behind our breakthrough product, Protandim." This replaces the text of "Our breakthrough product, Protandim, was created by Dr. Joe McCord."

Update 4: This article shows that McCord was passing himself off as the inventor early on in LifeVantage's history.

Originally posted 2011-05-14 21:26:18.

The following is a closely paraphrased version of the comment and research by Vogel:

The latest jerk who’s illegally promoting Protandim as a disease cure is Pro 6 LifeVantage distributor Stephen West. This [jerk] is particularly dangerous because not only is he fraudulently promoting Protandim as a disease cure but he’s also fraudulently promoting himself as a "doctor" and a "healer". He illegally uses "Dr." in front of his name and claims to have a doctorate in "lymphology" – however no such degree exists and "lymphology" is nothing more than pseudoscientific BS.

Here is his disclaimer regarding the BS mail order degrees he professes to hold. Legit degrees don't require lengthy disclaimers.

Here is one of West’s Protandim promo pages. This page contains some whopping lies about Protandim, such as the following:

“Dr Joe McCord also discovered the Protandim formula and has been nominated for 4 Nobel Prizes in Medicine.”
“It can take six to seven months or longer for some people to really begin to see some of the long term positive effects of Protandim.”

Side note: You don't "discover" a proprietary mixture of ingredients. Also McCord didn't contribute significantly to Protandim by his own admission. Finally Nobel Prize nominations are anonymous and any of thousands of people can nominate any thousands of people.

This comment from West was gobsmacking too; amazingly, West waxes enthusiastically about how it caused loss of appetite…hardly a good thing:

“The first 3 months of being on the product... Missing a meal two or three times a week (or more) went almost un-noticed as I was traveling and very busy. During a lunch break in the middle of a Saturday workshop in Huntington Beach, CA, someone asked me if I was hungry and I said, ‘Not really’ — and it was then that I realized it had been 24 hours since I had eaten anything.”

West then goes on to illegally promote Protandim as a treatment for diabetes:

“One of the new success stories that has come up was someone with Diabetes who noticed a real measurable improvement after 7 months of consistent Protandim use.”

Then he tacitly acknowledges that distributors (like him) are not allowed to promote the product for the treatment of diseases (which he already did) and then tells people to just go ahead and do it anyway using PubMed as the vehicle (promotion using PubMed in this manner is still illegal).

“23 different independent studies by different independent universities began over 5 years ago and now some of them have been published, all on different diseases which names we’ve been told not to disclose on our websites, but we can point you to them so you can discover them for yourself.”

Then the moron basically suggested that people should skip meals and use their food money to buy Protandim instead:

“How much money do you spend each month on food? (After 3 months Dr West noticed that this was paying for Protandim alone.)”

For more insight into the dangerous quack-antics of this piece of human excrement, check out the following pages; be prepared to laugh, and cry.
Page 1
Page 2
Page 3

Originally posted 2013-05-09 00:36:38.

In an April 12, 2004 press release Lifeline Nutraceuticals issued a press release about enlisting Chemins as the manufacturer of Protandim CF (what is known as Protandim today):

"Lifeline has established a key partnership in order to expedite the production and delivery of Protandim CF.

Lifeline has enlisted The Chemins Company (Chemins) of Colorado Springs, CO to produce the product under a contract manufacturing agreement. Chemins was founded in 1974 by James Cameron, an industry visionary determined to bring high-quality nutritional products to consumers. The 200-employee work-force operates in a 300,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility producing specialty formulas for a wide range of dietary supplements. Chemins was chosen because of its unparalleled formulary expertise, dedication to quality assurance, and high-volume manufacturing capabilities."

It is worth noting that the company was chosen due to its "dedication to quality assurance." More likely it was due was to the geographic location of Lifeline's home base in Colorado.

Chemins' "Dedication to Quality"

[Editor's Note: The following comes courtesy of Vogel. It is a summary of information that can be found here as well as numerous other places.]

"The back story, in a nutshell, is that in the late 90s Chemins manufactured a supplement product (Formula One) that was falsely claimed to be 'all natural' when in fact Chemins was secretly (and illegally) spiking the products with ephedrine and caffeine. The product was linked to several cases of death and injury.

James Cameron, CEO and founder of Chemins, obstructed a followup criminal investigation by the FDA, falsified records, lied, and had employees hide the illicit ingredients to avoid prosecution. The scam eventually got busted when some meth dealers were caught transporting barrels full of ephedrine (which is an ingredient that is also to manufacture methamphetamine) that were obtained from Chemins.

The final outcome is that in 2000, Cameron was convicted of fraud, sentenced to serve 21 months in prison, and fined $2.3 (one FDA source said that it was $4.7 million). Not long after Cameron’s sentence was complete, LFVN announced that Chemins would be the manufacturer of Protandim.

So instead of [LifeVantage] developing their original much ballyhooed peptide formulation from Ceremedix, they turned around and used Myhill’s recipe for the mundane version of Protandim as we now know it (containing common ingredients found in most household cupboards, such as tea and turmeric), and, amazingly, selected Chemins, as the manufacturer -- a disgraced and disreputable company whose CEO (a blatant liar and felon) added prohibited ingredients to the supplements his company manufactured, was responsible for the death and injury of consumers, and was convicted of fraud and sent to jail."

If LifeVantage considers such history a sign of "dedication to quality assurance" one can only imagine the standards they hold for their own company.

Originally posted 2011-05-21 19:12:02.

[Editor's Note: Once again Vogel has come through with a key Protandim finding. This article is based on that research.]

LifeVantage has been fairly vocal about Protandim being an Nrf2 activator. The theory is that this is a good thing as it helps to reduce oxidative stress, the biggest claim that LifeVantage makes of it's product. What Vogel has found is that curcumin, which is the active ingredient in turmeric, an ingredient in Protandim, was shown to activate Nrf2 back in May of 2003 - a full two years before inventor Paul Myhill put it in Protandim. Read the research abstract about curcumin here: Curcumin activates the haem oxygenase-1 gene via regulation of Nrf2 and the antioxidant-responsive element.

If you are interested in Nrf2 activation, you can buy 100 Caps of turmeric 720mg for $4.99 on Amazon. Protandim only contains 75mg of turmeric at a cost of around $1.70 a pill. For less than 5 cents a pill, you'll get nearly 10 times the amount Nrf2 activation that the turmeric in Protandim provides.

However, before you buy that turmeric, you might want to read this other piece of research: Curcumin induces heme oxygenase 1 through generation of reactive oxygen species, p38 activation and phosphatase inhibition. This research essentially says that curcumin stimulates free radical production. The body, in response to this, activates nrf2 to protect itself.

Here is the conclusion of the research abstract:

"In conclusion, curcumin treatment results in ROS generation, activation of Nrf2 and MAP kinases and the inhibition of phosphatase activity in hepatocytes, and when curcumin is not administered in toxic doses, these multiple pathways converge to induce HO-1."

It may be helpful to brush up on Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and note the use of "generation" in that quote.

Just to sum up everything and make it clear... Curcumin is what activates Nrf2 and doing so actually increases oxidative stress - the exact opposite of what LifeVantage is claiming.

Originally posted 2011-09-08 02:53:16.

Protandim distributors are intent on spreading a rumor that the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH) have supplied funding for research on Protandim. It turns out that neither organization approved any funds to be used to research Protandim. Today, I'd like to address about how such a rumor got started and finally put it to bed.

As best I can tell, it started on January 4th, 2011 in a press release from LifeVantage:

LifeVantage Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: LFVN), the maker of science-based solutions to oxidative stress, announced today that a new peer-reviewed study involving its flagship product, Protandim®, sponsored by the American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health, was published in the scientific journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

On the surface it sure looks like the AHA and the NIH gave money for the purpose of researching Protandim, right? That's what LifeVantage wants you to think. It turns out that this is once again an example of how they mislead distributors, customers, and investors.

That's a bold claim I know. Bold claims require lots of evidence. Here goes...

The study is question is the one titled: "Protandim attenuates intimal hyperplasia in human saphenous veins cultured ex vivo via a catalase-dependent pathway." This is commonly referred to as the Ohio State study, yet such language is a misnomer since it is just a few people associated with the university. There is never a university decree to study such things.

On Page 17 of the accepted manuscript for this research discloses the sources of funding:

Sources of Funding: This work was supported by AHA 0555538U and 0655323B to K.J.G and HL63744, HL65608 and HL38324 to J.L.Z.

When you search Google for the grant numbers, you'll see that the grants were used for other projects - completely unrelated to Protandim. However, I'll bring that research to you:

There were two grants were listed for Keith Gooch (AHA 0555538U and AHA 0655323B). Both of these grants were received by Gooch to fund research unrelated to Protandim. He merely chose of his own accord to divert those funds for the Protandim study. The evidence is in this 2010 paper, "Arterial pO2 stimulates intimal hyperplasia and serum stimulates inward eutrophic remodeling in porcine saphenous veins cultured ex vivo." Gooch listed the identical grant numbers for research that was completely unrelated to Protandim.

There were three grants were listed for Jay Zwier (HL63744, HL65608 and HL38324). All 3 of these are old grants that Zwier received to fund research unrelated to Protandim. Like Keith Gooch, he merely chose of his own accord to divert those funds for the Protandim study. The evidence can be found in this 2009 JBC paper in which Zwier listed the identical grant numbers for research that was completely unrelated to Protandim.

It is worth noting that the National Institute of Health gives us details on what the grants were intended to be used for.

• 5P01HL065608-10: OXIDANTS AND NITRIC OXIDE IN POST-ISCHEMIC HEART INJURY

  You can easily the associate the grant numbers and the product numbers together:
  Grant: HL65608
  Protject: 5P01HL065608-10

  The description asking for money has no mention of Protanim. This proves that the grants were not intended for the study of Protandim.

  A click on the RESULTS tab on this grant shows 25 studies that this money was used for. One of the 25 makes mention of Protandim.

• 1R29HL038324-01: MEASUREMENT OF FREE RADICAL GENERATION IN THE HEART

  You can easily the associate the grant numbers and the product numbers together:
  Grant: HL38324
  Project: 5R01HL038324-20

  A click on the RESULTS tab on this grant shows 13 studies that this money was used for. None of them makes any mention of Protandim. One has to wonder why this grant was listed when it seems like it wasn't used. It seems to be either an error.

• 5R01HL063744-09: OXYGEN RADICALS AND NITRIC OXIDE IN POSTISCHEMIC INJURY

  You can easily the associate the grant numbers and the product numbers together:
  Grant: HL63744:
  Project: 5R01HL063744-09

  A click on the RESULTS tab on this grant shows 25 studies that this money was used for. One of the 25 makes mention of Protandim.

What can we conclude from the above? We can conclude that AHA and the NIH are not funding studies on Protandim. They are funding studies on the things in the grant titles and descriptions - none of which include a word about Protandim. The researchers are the ones who use the grant money as they see fit.

Paul Myhill, inventor of Protandim, said:

"I believe LifeVantage’s current science program to encourage or promote issue-specific studies is a sound strategy indeed. Since Big Pharma (through its proxy, the FDA) doesn’t allow supplements to make any disease claims, I think it’s important for the scientific literature to make those claims for us."

The question the consumer should be asking here is, "How is LifeVantage 'encouraging' researchers like Jay Zwier to use their product?" It isn't like Jay Zwier is a fan of Protandim using it in any of his other research. Protandim's been around for more than 5 years, clearly Jay Zwier could have used it in all of his studies if his intent was to study Protandim. Or he could have applied for a grant to actually study Protandim.

The key point is that LifeVantage and its distributors are trying to make it seem like reputable organizations like the AHA and the NIH actually care about Protandim... and care enough to put their funding dollars into it. It seems true on the surface, but you dig underneath and find out that it is all meant to mislead distributors, customers, and investors.

The other key point is that neither the American Heart Association (AHA) nor the National Institute of Health (NIH) are directing any their funding dollars towards Protandim.

Originally posted 2011-05-29 02:03:58.

This website and the extensive proof on this Protandim article shows that Protandim is a scam. LifeVantage, as they usually do, has provided even more evidence.

This time, LifeVantage has asked people to believe that for the third time (remember CMX-1152) that they've come up with a product that is a revolutionary breakthrough in helping with oxidative stress. A couple of the problems with that is that they A) provide no clinical studies (that aren't fudged), hence asking us to to take their word on it B) have lied about the creation of Protandim attributing it to Joe McCord instead of Paul Myhill who has no medical background (i.e. the truth).

So when LifeVantage releases a new formulation of Protandim in Japan, one has to wonder how gullible it thinks its customers can be. The press release cites:

"'As part of our ongoing Global R&D program at LifeVantage we conducted a proprietary cell bioassay test that allowed us to identify an ideal formula for Japan that causes significant Nrf2 activation,' said LifeVantage Chief Science Officer Dr. Darlene Walley."

LifeVantage's filed reports with the SEC shows that their R&D was less than 3 million dollars from June 2008 to September 2012 (the most recent quarter's financials)... a miniscule amount for a company based on science spend over 4+ years. In comparison, Pfizer spends an average of 8 billion in one year; which is over 2500 times what LifeVantage has spent over that time. Not only is that a significant red flag, but the fact that they ignored all the available bioassay tests that have been independently scientifically tested and instead used their own test makes it meaningless.

Originally posted 2013-01-23 02:50:52.

Update: According to the June 30, 2011 LifeVantage 10-K filing, McCord now gets a majority of his money not from salary or by stock performance (since that has been poor), but based on sales of the product:

"Monthly Compensation. Dr. McCord’s monthly compensation for his services under his employment agreement is $10,000 per month. In addition, Dr. McCord is eligible to receive a monthly commission equal to the product of fifty cents multiplied by the total net bottles sales of Protandim® (or substantially equivalent new products) during the preceding month. Dr. McCord was not awarded any additional stock options in fiscal year 2011 in connection with his hire."

He gets 50 cents for every bottle sold. According to the latest quarterly numbers, LifeVantage's revenue (product sold) is $10 Million dollars. At $50 a bottle he gets roughly 1 percent of that. Quick math shows that to be $100,000 for the quarter - or $400,000 for the year. For a guy that perpetuated the lie that he invented Protandim for years, a wise consumer should be very skeptical of anything he says - Joe McCord's compensation is directly tied to his role of marketing the product.

Now back to the original article about the millions he has in stock options.

A commenter here named Fred tried to make a claim that there was no way that chance that Dr. Joe McCord "sold his soul for the almighty dollar." The crux of his argument was this page on Forbes that shows Dr. Joe McCord's compensation A review of this information shows that Dr. Joe McCord had earned a total of $115,766 in the four years from 2007-2010. All but $12,000 of that was in the form of stock options. The argument was made that this compensation is modest especially over a four year period.

It would be a fair argument if it was the full story.

This is a case where a LifeVantage supporter is only giving a small part of the story. The Forbes data doesn't tell the complete story of Dr. Joe McCord's financial interest in LifeVantage. It is much more than it appears here.

The most important thing to note is that McCord's history with LifeVantage goes back to when the company was still called Lifeline. According to SEC filings on 10/26/2004 he declared he was a 10% owner with 1,928,160 shares of stock. He later amended this 1,606,800 shares. At the time he declared it 10/26/2004, LifeVantage was trading around $3.60 a share. That amended amount is worth $5.75 million dollars. However, the interesting thing is that it using today stock price and market capitalization, it appears that LifeVantage at the time had a value of around $285 million dollars. A 10% owner would therefore have a vested interest worth $28.5 Million.

Either of those numbers may be enough for for Joe McCord to let LifeVantage lie about the creation of Protandim. That's quite a good sum for using McCord as marketing as the company admits.

However, there's a lot more McCord's compensation. Here are the SEC filings of stock options that Joe McCord have been granted from 2007-2011

1/16/2007 - 20,408 shares - $0.49 strike price
1/18/2007 - 240,000 shares - $0.49 strike price
11/13/2007 - 120,000 shares - $0.21 strike price
1/7/2009 - 120,000 shares - $0.21 strike price
11/30/2009 - 120,000 shares - $0.25 strike price
1/20/2011 - 120,000 shares - $0.80 strike price
5/25/2011 - 374,625 shares - $0.20 strike price

The last of these is probably the most interesting. On May 25, 2011, LifeVantage was trading at $1.66, so being issued shares at a $0.20 equates to a instant profit of $1.46 a share multiplied by 374,625 shares. This was instantly worth seeming worth $546,952.50.

With LifeVantage's stock price at $1.39 as of this writing, McCord's stock options are worth $1.1 Million (this is in addition to the other stock he was given that was discussed above). If he can manipulate the stock to $2.50 those options become worth $2.4 million.

As for McCord's financial motivation, there can be little doubt that he's paid well for being a spokesman.

It is up to the reader to decide how much integrity millions of dollars can buy. I presume it varies from person to person.

Originally posted 2011-08-13 23:07:18.

[Editor's Note: The following is 99% the work of Vogel in a comment that you can read at the main Protandim Scams article. I've done a little clean up and fit the links in to flow like a traditional article on the web.]

The ability of curcumin to stimulate NRF2 (aka NFE2L2) has been known since at least as far back as 2003, when this property was reported by two different groups -- i.e., Dickinson et al. in FASEB Journal (see section entitled "Exposure to curcumin results in translocation of Nrf2 to the nucleus") and Balogun et al. in Biochemical Journal.

PubMed shows that between 2003 and 2008 there were 20 research articles published in which the effect of curcumin on NRF2 was described, and in that same timeframe, many articles have been published on the activation of NRF2 by a variety of other common compounds aside from curcumin, such as green tea polyphenols (such as this one and this one.

Curcumin and green tea extract (75 mg each) are 2 of the 5 ingredients in Protandim.

The effect of Protandim on NRF2 was first described in an article published in 2009 by Velmurugan et al. in Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

Joe McCord, a longstanding editorial board member for Free Radical Biology and Medicine, a non-physician journal, was one of the authors.

McCord is also an insider shareholder of LifeVantage, owning (or having owned) a 10% share of the company, and he receives a substantial amount of money (50 cents) from every bottle of Protandim sold. Here are details on his financial interest.

One of the other authors of the 2003 article on curcumin and NRF2 published in Biochemical Journal (Balogun et al. 2003) was Jawed Alam, PhD (from the Department of Molecular Genetics at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans), was also an author on the 2009 LifeVantage study on Protandim and NRF2 by Velmurugan and McCord et al.

In a nutshell, that's a smoking gun. LifeVantage’s 2009 report about Protandim simulating NRF2 in vitro was totally predictable, given that the product contains curcumin and green tea extract. They merely piggybacked on a pre-existing line of research, which presumably they had to have been aware of for years (prior to the creation of Protandim). It is also presumably no mere coincidence that the genesis of the Protandim/NRF2 article took place right around the time that the company announced the hiring of David Brown (former CEO of infamous Metabolife) as their new President/CEO – i.e., LifeVantage announced Brown’s hiring in a January 2008 press release and the Protandim/NRF2 manuscript (which included only in vitro experiments, which can be performed fairly quickly) was first submitted to the journal on July 8, 2008 (according to the publication details in the article).

LifeVantage’s first promotional claims about Protandim stimulating NRF2 didn’t appear until sometime around late 2010/early 2011. An archived version of the company’s FAQ from September 2010 mentions nothing about NRF2, but beginning around January 2011, a new section entitled “Is Protandim a Nrf2 Activator?” was added to the FAQ page. One of the statements in the new FAQ at that time was the following: “Protandim’s actions result from its ability to activate the transcription factor known as Nrf2. Protandim contains 5 ingredients that are known to scientists as Nrf2 activators.”

Also around that time, the company gave the Protandim bottle label an overhaul and added the tag line "The NRF2 Synergizer" to the bottle label. Notice that in December 2011, they were still showing the old bottle design on the website but by January 2012 the new bottle design was being featured.

LifeVantage's sleight of hand trick with respect to NRF2 reminds me of how other MLM supplement companies (e.g., Monavie, Juice Plus etc.) spike their products with vitamin C and then publish worthless studies showing that the products have antioxidant effects, which in reality is attributable simply to the added vitamin C (a cheap commonplace ingredient).

Originally posted 2013-06-10 16:26:29.

Use the comments below to address anything related to LifeVantage and Protandim that isn't focused on other articles.

Originally posted 2011-06-04 17:33:09.

A lot of the Protandim distributors have been making conflicting claims about the US Navy and or the Navy Seals allegedly studying Protandim for some purpose. I spent a lot of time performing what I believe to be an exhaustive search to find out if this indeed true or if this another one of those false rumors that get passed along the MLM industry like the lie that Harvard Business School teaches MLM. My research didn't come up with any official company press releases, SEC filings, or anything from the Navy substantiating any connection between LifeVantage Protandim and the Navy.

It seems like there's a video in a recent "Science Update" from LifeVantage that explains the Protandim-Navy rumor:

At the 2:44 mark, the video splices in a segment from McCord from back in April 2011 about the US Navy and a study they are conducting:

"There’s a human exercise trial funded by the US Navy underway, and the Armed Forces of course are very interested in performance of soldiers under battle conditions, and recovery times, and, you know, how much damage is done if you have to just exert yourself over the top for, let’s say, 15 minutes of intense exercise. So they’re interested not only in recovery to damage but this one is looking at mitochodriogenesis. So there are things you can do to help yourselves build more mitochondria, which means they can perform aerobically for longer period of time. So that’s an interesting study."

[Note that this video also appears on LFVNs official website, but we've used the easier to embed version on YouTube.]

Look at what the video is saying closely. Notice that McCord merely says that "a" trial is being "funded" by the "US Navy" (not Navy Seals as some distributors have claimed) and, more importantly, he didn’t say that Protandim was involved in the study at all. In the context of the video, the person watching it make infer that, but the company is clearly making the claim. This the companies way of dropping bait for the distributor to pick up and run with. And the distributors have picked it up and ran! What are they saying about this alleged study funded by the Navy; the one that McCord didn’t say had anything to do with Protandim or with him? The answer should disappoint anyone who is affiliated with this company. These quote are from the top Google hits for ‘Protandim + Navy’.

"The U. S. Navy is studying the effects of Protandim on endurance. Are we talking Navy Seals here? Maybe!"

"US Navy Seals are currently studying the effects of Protandim to reduce recovery time for their sailors."

"Protandim has the support of the AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION, The Navy Seals, Louisiana State University, Vanderbilt University, Ohio State University, and 20 other medical universities and hospitals worldwide."

"It is now being used by The United States Navy Seal Team and Our Marines are now using Protandim for altitude sickness in Afghanistan."

"I've heard company executives talk about 2 studies. One is the US Navy Seals, doing a human double blind placebo with Protandim on altitude sickness, and another special forces on physical recovery and Protandim."

"David (Perlmutter) also stated the US Navy has recently commissioned Dr. Joe McCord to study the effect of Protandim’s ability to reduce the recovery time of exercise bouts on its sailors."

"The elite US Navy Seals and the US Department of Defense also currently are using Portandim (sic) for combat fatigue and altitude sickness."

"The US Government is studying Protandim for the Navy Seals" (these sites even quote McCord’s April 2011 talk verbatim, and the words "Navy Seals" and "Protandim" don't appear anywhere in the quote)

This is an amazing example of the Telephone Game:

McCord's seemingly innocent and innocuous discussion about a single study that he:
(1) said was merely funded by (not conducted by) the Navy (not the Navy Seals)
(2) said the "Armed Forces" would probably be interested in
(3) did not say he involved Protandim
(3) did not say involved him in any way...

…suddenly becomes, essentially, this:

"Not only is Protandim being tested in two human double blind placebo trials by the US government, elite Navy Seals, Department of Defense, Marines, and special forces, in a study they commissioned Joe McCord to conduct, it is now also being used by the Seals and Marines in Afghanistan to cure altitude sickness, and the Seals support the product — and I know that all of this is true because Joe McCord and David Perlmutter said so (and it’s unthinkable that they would lie or distort the truth)."

This is exactly the same thing that happens when McCord lectures about Protandim and cancer; never actually saying that Protandim has any real therapeutic effect on cancer, but making every effort, indirectly, to make the distributor think that it does. And that's the message they all walk away with and relay to the public - "Protandim cures cancer... Joe McCord said so, and he won an Eliot Cresson medal for co-discovering superoxide dismutase 45 years ago, so it must be true."

It's true enough to satisfy someone blinded by gullibility and/or greed anyway. Fortunately if you are reading this, you likely already know Dr. Joe McCord's Role at LifeVantage.

[Notes:
1. I want to thank Vogel for much of this find.
2. I'm categorizing this under "LifeVantage Lies" until we have official announcement from both sides LifeVantage and Navy confirming the research being done.]

Originally posted 2011-09-29 01:19:27.

A couple of the Protandim studies have been published by Public Library of Science (PLoS). Since we know that all journals are not created equal, it is worth looking into value of PLoS (we will look at other journals in future articles).

Nature provides us with an informative article about PLoS. In it, it explains:

"Public Library of Science (PLoS), the poster child of the open-access publishing movement, is following an haute couture model of science publishing — relying on bulk, cheap publishing of lower quality papers to subsidize its handful of high-quality flagship journals."

"An analysis by Nature of the company's accounts shows that PLoS still relies heavily on charity funding, and falls far short of its stated goal of quickly breaking even through its business model of charging authors a fee to publish in its journals. In the past financial year, ending 30 September 2007, its $6.68-million spending outstripped its revenue of $2.86 million, according to the publicly available accounts."

It gets worse for PLoS (note the emphasis below is mine):

"But its financial future is looking brighter thanks to a cash cow in the form of PLoS One, an online database that PLoS launched in December 2006. PLoS One uses a system of 'light' peer-review to publish any article considered methodologically sound. In its first full year of operation in 2007, PLoS One published 1,230 articles, which would have generated an estimated $1.54 million in author fees, around half of PLoS's total income that year. By comparison, the 321 articles published in PLoS Biology in 2007 brought in less than half this amount."

Pubmed, as of this writing (June 27, 2011), lists two articles on Pubmed that were published on Plos One - which is not to be confused with the more reputable journals that make PLoS main journals:

• "Protandim, a fundamentally new antioxidant approach in chemoprevention using mouse two-stage skin carcinogenesis as a model." - Robbins D, Gu X, Shi R, Liu J, Wang F, Ponville J, McCord JM, Zhao Y.
• "The chemopreventive effects of Protandim: modulation of p53 mitochondrial translocation and apoptosis during skin carcinogenesis." - Liu J, Gu X, Robbins D, Li G, Shi R, McCord JM, Zhao Y.

(It should be noted that these articles are very similar in nature and share 6 of the same authors.)

Here are a couple of other prime quotes from the Nature article about PLoS One:

"PLoS One has published 1,158 papers since the beginning of this year, which is almost as many as it published during the whole of 2007. Another factor is that it costs authors only $1,250 to publish in PLoS One."

"'There's so much in PLoS One that it is difficult to judge the overall quality and, simply because of this volume, it's going to be considered a dumping ground, justified or not,' says John Hawley, executive director of the free-access Journal of Clinical Investigation. 'But nonetheless, it introduces a sub-standard journal to their mix.'"

A wise consumer should question the value of research that that was published in a repository "considered a dumping ground." Then again, since Paul Myhill, Inventor of Protandim, Admits Science is for Marketing it makes sense that they'd go with a cheap, easy path to publishing.

By the way, as of this writing (June 27, 2011), Nature has the highest Impact Factor, meaning that its own reputation as a journal is

Originally posted 2011-06-28 00:53:06.

[Yet another amazing piece of research from Vogel. The article is a mixture of some of his words and some of mine...]

Here's a video from a LifeVantage distributor meeting in Baton Rouge, LA. LiveVantage's Chief Operations Officer, Kirby Zenger, makes some atrociously false and misleading claims about the company and its products.

Here are key excerpts of Zenger's presentation.

At the 3:42 mark:

"We will be different and here's why…First, of all, our science. Go to PubMed; do whatever you need to; don't oversell it. The most beautiful thing you guys have right here is LSU confirmed EVERYTHING. And it confirmed that Protandim works against the what? [Audience member replies: 'cancer']. The BIG C! Who gets that anywhere in the world, including Pharma companies? If we ONLY had that, you guys, we will WIN. We got 8 others so far; 20 others in the works. No one can touch us; they won't touch us for YEARS. Is that cool? Is the science backed up by our own lab? No. It’s backed up by independent third-party research. It’s done in context with an Elliott Cresson Award medal winner. Why didn't he sell out for a big check years ago? Why? Because he's the right-minded people like all of us are; we want something different for everybody, not just ourselves. That’s why none of us took big checks in a [inaudible]; that's why he hasn't taken a big check in a [inaudible]. It's more important to make a bigger larger contribution. OK. That science will be unparalleled for a long time."

"What’s the second point that that does that differentiates? The regulators LOVE US! You guys might be thinking 'oh the FDA's gonna shut these guys down’. And from my perspective and our experience the FDA is gonna love us; point to us. 'Be like LifeVantage'! 'Go get this kind of science and then we'll allow you to do some of the things that we think that this industry should do with supplements'...My point is, the FDA is gonna say what? 'Cool company, cool science'."

"What's the FTC going to say? The other regulatory body that watches our industry. Are we up here going, 'He makes 10 grand a month, he makes 40 grand a month, here's my check.' Do we do that? [Audience member answers No]."

The above quote is clear evidence that LifeVantage implies and intends its supplement Protandim to treat cancer. As we found out in the article, LifeVantage President Encourages Distributors to Break FDA and FTC Laws, this is illegal. Protandim has not undergone the necessary clinical trials or even attempted to get approval from the FDA for this claim.

Here are some more points on that chunk:

• Zenger also lies and says that says that the science is backed up by independent third-party research. This is false. You can see LifeVantage Officer Joe McCord's name on the "research."
• The Elliott Cresson Award is more window-dressing. No one has even heard of such a thing, and it hasn't been awarded for years. In addition, the award was for work that is completely unrelated to Protandim. McCord is a highly paid company spokesman, nothing more.
• Why didn't Joe McCord sell out for a big check? He did! Dr. Joe McCord’s Financial Interest In LifeVantage/ProtandimMcCord's got millions from LifeVantage.
• Zenger seems to have a poor understanding of what the FTC does. The income claims are just a small part of it. The FTC also sets guidelines about endorsements to make sure they are truthful and not misleading. This website has shown untruthful and misleading endorsements from the company itself as well as its distributors.

On to the 6:53 mark:

"Normally, everybody's in the game to what? Get the check! I buy 200 to 5000 dollars worth a product a month and stash it in my garage so I can get that check. Here they don't. Nine out of ten people you talk to will want the product. They may want to join you in the business – YET – but they'll want the product. Unusual! FTC loves us! It's not a house of cards. Wall Street loves it because you have predictable forecast-able (sic) income on those monthly authorships of all these consumers who are merely enjoying the byproducts of health. Killer! Killer for you."

Telling distributors that 9 out of 10 people they talk to will want the product is one of the worst LFVN lies ever told. I can't imagine that it's even as good as 1 in 50.

08:35 --

"Nine out of ten (MLM companies) fail for what reasons? Undercapitalized, bad business plan, bad product, and the worst component in my mind – bad people."

Well Kirby Zenger certainly has the "bad people" covered part of LifeVantage. This website has shown many other bad people lying and misleading others as well. So I guess we can expect LifeVantage to fail.

10:05 –

"You get to see our misfires as well as our successes in a public company -- it is transparent as a protection for you. We've beaten off most of the naysayers and the bad plays, and now every quarter you can see whether we’re smart or we’re goofy, and you can get as a shareholder base new people in place if you wanted to. Powerful protection!”

They haven't "beaten off" any naysayers that I've seen. This website now has dozens of articles and LifeVantage hasn't responded to a single one. The company is pumping and selling LFVN stock to their own distributors, just like they do with the products. This is yet another pyramid scheme within a pyramid scheme.

Furthermore, it's a horrible idea to invest in your own company's stock. We saw what happened when Enron employees lost their whole financial future - there job was taken away and the company stock that they invested in because worthless.

In the video, Zenger repeatedly referred to other presentations that were to be given by someone named Ryan, who I presume is LFVN’s VP of sales and marketing, Ryan Thompson. Just a few years ago, Zenger and Thompson were doing the same traveling medicine show BS with Zrii...

...until Zrii sued Zenger in 2009 and fired both of them, along with several other people who immediately were given top level distributor positions and sales tools franchises with LFVN.

For what it's worth, Zenger also made a couple of indirect comments in the video about "ministries" and military service (14:55) indicting that his audience members were former military and involved in some kind of church ministry. I mention that only because it adds to the image of exploitation. Our servicemen certainly deserve better than to be robbed by some smooth talking reptile in a cheap suit.

Originally posted 2011-12-12 23:53:34.

When reviewing a journal article it always worth looking at the quality of the journal publishing the article. Not all journals are considered equal. In the journal industry they are a couple of ranking systems. One of the most popular one is Impact Factor. According to Wikipedia, "[Impact Factor] is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field, with journals with higher impact factors deemed to be more important than those with lower ones."

I've had a number of Protandim distributors suggest that one should simply search Pubmed. If one is going to take the time to look for the journal articles, they should take the extra step and look at the importance of the journal that is accepting the articles for publication.

In future articles, specific Impact Factors for the published journal articles will be discussed.

Originally posted 2011-06-27 22:08:09.

[Editor's Note: More thanks to Vogel for this find...]

A LifeVantage distributor may make the claim that Protandim has been studied at Harvard. They often refer to it, saying something to the effect of "Why is Harvard studying Protandim if it's a scam?" Turns out that Harvard isn't studying Protandim. You can search Harvard's website for Protandim and you'll find there are no results.

This is another one of those stories that start out as a lie from LifeVantage and get passed around by distributors like it's one of those high school rumors.

According to page 9 of the company’s SEC form 10-K from September 2011:

"Since the initial clinical studies completed in 2004 and 2005, Protandim has been, currently is or is planned to be the subject of approximately 25 studies at academic medical centers. Seven of the pre-clinical studies have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, including: a study that we funded which explored the mechanism of action of Protandim®; an animal study using mice to examine the tumor prevention capabilities of Protandim® conducted at Louisiana State University; an animal study exploring pulmonary hypertension and subsequent right heart failure conducted at Virginia Commonwealth University; an animal study examining the effects of Protandim® in mice with induced Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and at the University of Colorado..."

The DMD study they were referring to was this one, coauthored by McCord and supported in part by LFVN:

Qureshi et al. The dietary supplement Protandim decreases plasma osteopontin and improves markers of oxidative stress in muscular dystrophy mdx mice. J Diet Suppl. 2010;7(2):159-178.

Now look at the first page of the published study — the authors clearly state where the work was really conducted:

"This work was conducted at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center."

In contrast with what LFVN stated in their 10-K, the DMD study was not conducted at either Massachusetts General Hospital or Harvard Medical School, but at McCord’s institution in Denver.

One of the authors, Brian Tseng, is affiliated with Harvard. Another, Qursehi, was formerly affiliated with Harvard but transferred to Texas Tech University. Now let’s look at the rest of the people on the study’s author list, all affiliated with UCDHSC.

Joe McCord, PhD – LFVN executive and insider shareholder
Warren C. McClure, MS
Nicole L. Arevalo, MA
Rick E. Rabon, BA
Benjamin Mohr
Swapan K. Bose, BS, BPharm

Notice that aside from McCord, there’s not a PhD among them — and they were the ones that did the work at the University of Colorado Denver Health Sciences Center.

Bottom Line: Instead of a study conducted at Harvard, as LifeVantage stated, we have a study conducted by McCord’s grad students in his Denver lab. LFVN is lying to the SEC, lying to investors, and lying to consumers.

Update: LifeVantage doesn't limit the lie to the 10-K filing, but it is also in LifeVantage's Protandim FAQ to consumers:

"It also concluded that Protandim improves markers of fibrosis in a model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The study was performed by Dr. Brian Tseng and his colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Colorado Denver."

Originally posted 2011-12-16 21:57:50.