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A Pharmanex representative told me that Pharmanex has more than 75 Ph.D.'s working to develop their supplements.
The representative also claimed that their product (called LifePak) is the best, most complete, well-researched and bioavailable supplement currently on the market and is backed by double-blind studies to boot. Yet I read on your home page the following quote by Warren J. Matthews: "Before we develop a new product we search out the best supplement of its type in the world. Unless we are confident that we can produce a significantly superior product and give better value for money to our customers we do not begin the development of it..." Please comment.
Answer: From Warren.
We certainly do stand by and can support the statement that we make on our home page, so I can happily comment.
As you may know Pharmanex is a large multi-national multi level marketing company owned by Nu-Skin Corporation.
If they do indeed have 75 Ph D's working to develop their supplements, I would if I was Chairman of their Board of Directors be asking what they are doing? Even substantial pharmaceutical companies don't have that many!
What counts is quality of personnel, not quantity. I have seen articles and research from literally dozens, if not hundreds of Ph D's and very few of them understand the very complex interaction and synergy of various ingredients and sub categories of ingredients at molecular levels. And... further understand the implication of these components on the various metabolic pathways.
The important thing is Justin, that the scientist who signs off on each product really knows their 'stuff'. I am sure that Pharmanex have someone who does, but we remain confident that they would not have someone at the level of Prof. Dr. A. MunemDaoud who is a world leader in this field. So, numbers of Ph D's employed really has no impact on the efficacy or otherwise of a product.
With regard to Life Pak, it is a good product and superior to most other products on the market, but in our opinion grossly overpriced and very basic compared to our Total Balance. The problem (for them) is that because of their size and business plan it is not possible for them to produce a professional product such as Total Balance and get it to the market at a reasonable price.
For example, if they tried to duplicate our Total Balance I would expect that their retail price would be out of the reach of most people and as such they would not be able to survive. To get a better appreciation of this look at the comparison of the two products!
In this comparison you will see that Life Pak only has a fraction of the active ingredients that are present in Total Balance. In addition they do not have a special delivery system such as enteric coating which is essential for this type of product. However, that is understandable because it is a very expensive system. For more details on this please
With regard to 'double blind' placebo trials I can't comment. There are none that we can find on Medline which is considered the 'bible' for clinical studies, so I suspect that if they exist they have not been published.
Question: From Delores. (Subject: Glyconutrients...)
I am taking all of your products except the Cholesterol formula and feeling great. Now I have learned of Glyconutrients and would like to know how Warren feels about these and if they would be necessary or harmful to take along with Xtend Life products? I really don't want to overload my system with something that is not needed.
I will certainly appreciate his advice.
Answer: From Warren.
The short answer Delores is that the term Glyconutrients is primarily a marketing one. The popularity of 'glyconutrients' can be credited to Mannatech which is a large US multi level marketing company (MLM) who produce a couple of products containing special sugars known as polysaccharides. These sugars can be extracted from a number of different sources, aloe vera being one of them. Mannatechs 'claim to fame' is that they hold worldwide patents on a specific extraction method of these sugars and therefore that they are the only ones that have access to these special sugars for use in supplements.
Whereas I can't comment on the extent of their patents I can say that there are several manufacturers of these 'glyconutrients' or polysaccarides which is the correct term. The extraction process may vary but the end result of the polysaccharide 'fraction' is similar. In fact, we use one of the special fractions of aloe vera polysaccharides within the immunity blend component of Total Balance. These are very good for building up immunity.
impact on the efficacy or otherwise of a product.
With regard to Life Pak, it is a good product and superior to most other products on the market, but in our opinion grossly overpriced and very basic compared to our Total Balance. The problem (for them) is that because of their size and business plan it is not possible for them to produce a professional product such as Total Balance and get it to the market at a reasonable price.
For example, if they tried to duplicate our Total Balance I would expect that their retail price would be out of the reach of most people and as such they would not be able to survive. To get a better appreciation of this look at the comparison of the two products!
In this comparison you will see that Life Pak only has a fraction of the active ingredients that are present in Total Balance. In addition they do not have a special delivery system such as enteric coating which is essential for this type of product. However, that is understandable because it is a very expensive system. For more details on this please
With regard to 'double blind' placebo trials I can't comment. There are none that we can find on Medline which is considered the 'bible' for clinical studies, so I suspect that if they exist they have not been published.
Question: From Delores. (Subject: Glyconutrients...)
I am taking all of your products except the Cholesterol formula and feeling great. Now I have learned of Glyconutrients and would like to know how Warren feels about these and if they would be necessary or harmful to take along with Xtend Life products? I really don't want to overload my system with something that is not needed.
I will certainly appreciate his advice.
Answer: From Warren.
The short answer Delores is that the term Glyconutrients is primarily a marketing one. The popularity of 'glyconutrients' can be credited to Mannatech which is a large US multi level marketing company (MLM) who produce a couple of products containing special sugars known as polysaccharides. These sugars can be extracted from a number of different sources, aloe vera being one of them. Mannatechs 'claim to fame' is that they hold worldwide patents on a specific extraction method of these sugars and therefore that they are the only ones that have access to these special sugars for use in supplements.
Whereas I can't comment on the extent of their patents I can say that there are several manufacturers of these 'glyconutrients' or polysaccarides which is the correct term. The extraction process may vary but the end result of the polysaccharide 'fraction' is similar. In fact, we use one of the special fractions of aloe vera polysaccharides within the immunity blend component of Total Balance. These are very good for building up immunity.
In so far as the need to take extra glyconutrients/polysaccarides, I honestly would not go to the expense because you are already getting the benefits of these through the Xtend-Life products that you are taking. I am not sure what dose rate you are on with the Total Balance, but if you are not on the full rate I would suggest that you would get more benefit by raising your daily dose to the maximum, than what you would get by adding additional glyconutrients.
However, if you were prepared to invest the extra money, you would not be doing your body any harm by taking extra polysaccharides, although it is not really needed if you are in reasonable health. Are you taking the Neurological formula? A half dose of that would be beneficial to your overall nervous system and would probably be a better option.
Question: From Alex. (Subject: Prices...)q3
Warren, delighted to hear you're working on an even better TB, but just a couple of requests, please, from a humble subscriber:
Please don't get sucked into marketing razzmatazz, you seem to be doing phenomenally well without it, and are all the better for it, it seems to me. Please don't hike up the price. Here in the UK we're not used (or able) to pay the high prices that our US cousins pay for competing products. Accepting fully that current TB is indeed excellent value for money, it is nevertheless a whole lot more expensive than pretty well all supplements available in the UK where a low-cost, mass direct-mailing market has mushroomed in the last few years.
I'm sure UK subscribers are prepared to pay a premium for such a superior product, but nevertheless price does also remain an issue for most of us.
Answer: From Warren.
I concur with everything that you say. I certainly don't like all the marketing nonsense that we are all subject to these days.
With regard to the price, this is being a real challenge for us. As a New Zealand manufacturer the declining US dollar is "killing us", but we have been absorbing it. From a purely business standpoint we should have had several price increases over the last 6 months because of the exchange rates but we have been resisting it.
However, it is looking like we are going to be forced to make an increase of about a $1 a bottle in the foreseeable future. We don't like the idea of this but we may not have a choice. We will give our customers plenty of notice.
If we didn't supply direct to customers the selling price would be a lot higher than what it is because of the high cost of manufacturing the products.
