[Editor's Note: Once again Vogel has come through with 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.
This post involves:Protandim Studies
... and focuses on:curcumin, nrf2 activation
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September 9th, 2011 at 1:56 am
Interesting research!
Tumeric, and therefore curcumin, is found in many curries, and a small-scale study showed that cultures that ate lots of curry (like in India and other parts of Asia) tended to live longer.
But it’s entirely possible that there’s an unrelated factor that has nothing to do with curcumin. As for taking it in a pill… well, curry’s just much more yummy =P
September 9th, 2011 at 3:11 am
I didn’t mean to imply that tumeric is bad for you or would shorten your lifespan. I just wanted to make it clear that Protandim isn’t a medical breakthrough. There’s no magic.
I agree that curry is much more yummy.
September 13th, 2011 at 6:46 am
You seem to know very little about what are speaking about. Of coarse any MLM company is in it to make money. You don’t have to tell people that. Anyone can see it.
Your ignorance to the science is appalling. I spent about 5 min searching and found a website listing hundreds of scientific research article promoting turmeric by doctors who have no financial gain.
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/substance/curcumin
September 13th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Thank you chiropractic Travis Sargent.
I think you have misread what I’ve said. I have no problems with any company, MLM or otherwise, in business to make money. That’s the goal of any company. What I pointing out is that LifeVantage is misrepresenting information to the public in order to make claims.
The purpose of this article is not to say that turmeric is unhealthy in any way. It is only to point out that:
1) LifeVantage claims Protandim activates Nrf2 and while that may be true, it is actually the turmeric/curcumin in Protandim that does it – which can be obtained far cheaper and easier.
2) Turmeric activates Nrf2 by stimulating free radical production.
If my ignorance is appalling, please tell me how I am misinterpreting this data or present specific data that proves the above points wrong.
October 27th, 2011 at 8:36 pm
RE: “Curcumin is what activates Nrf2 and doing so actually increases oxidative stress – the exact opposite of what LifeVantage is claiming.”
Lifevantage and those who sell Protandim do not claim curcumin decreases oxidative stress. The synergistic blend of Protandim (which contains more than just curcumin)reduces oxidative stress. Please do not mislead people.
October 27th, 2011 at 9:18 pm
LifeVantage is claiming that by activating Nrf2 the product reduces oxidative stress. They have no independent, unbiased, or reliable scientific evidence of this. What we do have is independent unbiased analysis that curcurmin activates Nrf2 by increasing oxidative stress.
October 28th, 2011 at 3:16 am
Oh jeez Troy. I almost wish for your sake that you didn’t come here to kick the hornet’s nest. I felt obliged to do a little background research on you and your wife (and Protandim distributor-in-arms) Nikki and, as is always the case when I do background research on LFVN and its distributors, I found a stinking $hit stain of deceit and misinformation.
Let’s have a look at some of the claims on your website shall we?
http://www.lvnhealthy.com/
1. “What if a product existed that was virtually unknown to the public, was millions and millions of times more powerful than any direct antioxidant, and if taken daily reduced oxidative stress between 40% and 70% every single time.”
(a) There’s a good reason Protandim is virtually unknown to the public – it’s an inconsequential MLM scam that flies below the radar on purpose.
(b) No data exist showing that Protandim “is millions and millions of times more powerful” than anything — and because your claim is unsupported by evidence, you shouldn’t be making it.
(c) Protandim hasn’t been shown to do anything “every single time” – there’s another unsupported claim that you shouldn’t be making.
2. “What if every human clinical trial for this product showed reduced oxidative stress levels of every person at every age — even an 80 year old down to that of a new born baby.”
By “EVERY human clinical trial” you mean that ONE clinical trial — written and conducted by McCord and a few other LifeVantage insider shareholder/executives (including Paul Myhill, a non-scientist) — in which two-thirds of the subjects dropped out (10 out of 29 remaining) by day 120? The one in which at least one unflattering datapoint was deceptively omitted from the TBAR analysis? The one that included as study participants at least 3 LFVN investors/insider shareholders who raised millions of dollars in capital for the company?
Either (a) you aren’t knowledgeable enough to know what a CLINICAL trial means (i.e., uses humans as subjects) and that LFVN has only conducted one of them (the laughably flawed POS discussed above), or (b) you do know the meaning of the term and were purposely lying to your potential customers. Both of these scenarios reflect horribly on you as a distributor. And the reference to the oxidative stress levels of a “new born baby”??? Are you out of your flippin’ mind? Who came up with that nugget of idiocy? How about, for the sake of decency, if for no other reason, you leave the babies out of your pathetic sales pitches from now on.
3. “Is backed by hundreds of doctors and scientists”
Really? Then surely you can provide a list of these (more than 200) people. No? Then you shouldn’t say it.
4. “Protandim works 100% of the time on everyone who takes it.”
Straight up BS…regardless of what you meant by “works”.
5. “Protandim is used in Olympic athletes for muscle recovery”
Really? If so, name them, and then prove that they take it for muscle recovery. You can’t can you? I have to call BS yet again.
6. “What does Protandim do?…Protandim has been shown to reduce skin cancer spots”.
OK, now you’re getting to the good stuff — “good” as in it would be good to see LFVN finally put out of business by the FDA because of clown distributors who go around fraudulently claiming that the product makes diseases, like skin cancer, fade away.
7. “Protandim has been evolving for 40 years now by a world-renowned Free Radical expert whose entire life’s work has been dedicated exclusively to the elimination of Free Radicals.”
Horse$hit! Protandim got hastily whipped together, virtually overnight, by a non-scientist bumpkin named Paul Myhill, and it was introduced after the company’s deal to market Ceremedix’s peptide CMX-1152 (the original version of Protandim) fell through. According to the company’s press release on April 24, 2004, the product (Protandim CF — the current version of Protandim) was “the result of MONTHS of extensive research”. Read that again — MONTHS — not 40 years!
8. “Dr. Joe McCord, Protandim’s co-inventor, possesses 4 Nobel Prize nominations”
(a) He’s not a co-inventor. The inventors were Paul Myhill and William Driscoll. Read the patents liar.
(b) The Nobel Foundation does not allow information about nominations to be made public for at least 50 years after a prize has been awarded. McCord cannot possibly “possess” a Nobel Prize nomination.
I couldn’t help but notice that your wife Nikki is an RN who works for a rent-a-nurse homecare outsourcing company. So does she work the Protandim scam by telling her homecare charges the same larcenous BS on your website? Is it safe to assume that what she says in private to her potential victims is at least 10 times worse than the crap that you had the gall to post publicly?
Congratu-freakin-lations to both of you! You’re well on your way to PRO 10. Shucking and jiving every step of the way.
December 29th, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Nice work vogel. Obviously, you simply don’t like some of the lying statements by both LV and some of their distributors. Of course, some distributors love to exaggerate but if protandim works than it’s good enough for me. Regarding the cheap curcumin, I don’t believe that consuming it by itself works the same way as the synergized form of protandim. If someone can direct me some documented data that one can do without protandim and use solely curcumin than let’s see it.
December 29th, 2011 at 7:56 pm
T-Rex,
It is worth noting that there’s no reputable evidence of any synergy happening in Protandim. There was only study conducted by the people at LifeVantage, which full of all sort of bias. As Dr. Harriett Hall put it, “it would be unusual and further studies would need to be done on it.” No further studies have been done to my knowledge.
It is dangerous to take LifeVantage’s word about the synergy. It is even more flawed to ask for proof that curcumin can do something that Portandim hasn’t been proven to do.
The best thing for consumers is to let the scientific literature be for the scientists. When LifeVantage has done the long-term, placebo-controled clinical trials and received FDA approval that Protandim does something for someone then consumers should take notice. LifeVantage seems to have given up on clinical trials. This speaks volumes about their confidence in the product.
February 25th, 2012 at 12:07 am
Natural ingredients in nature can NOT be patented.
so what did they get the patent for. You can not get a patent for combining 6 natural ingredients to make a health supplement????
February 26th, 2012 at 2:07 am
Loy, I guess you can go look up the patents and see what they are for.
April 2nd, 2012 at 10:54 am
I have read that curcumin at toxic levels (that would be somewhere above 12 grams for humans) begins to function as an oxidant. However, there is abundant evidence that curcumin functions as a powerful antioxidant at more normal levels. Curcumin operates as a hormetic so that its positive effects increase gradually with increased dosage, and then increased dosage amounts begin to have lesser effects. It is not unusual to find a research report stating that positive findings were found at lower doses but not at higher. Then as doses increase curcumin becomes toxic.
April 3rd, 2012 at 10:24 pm
Kolenaty, can you show us a link to what you’ve read? I gave a link in my article to my source.
It would be unusual for scientists to study curcumin at levels known to be toxic to humans. What’s the point of looking to see if it is an oxidant if you are dead?
April 27th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
Hi,
Thanks for all the analysis you have put on Protandim. A friend of mine became a distributor and ask me (the scientist – PhD in Molecular Biology) what I thought about Protandim. I started googling Protandim and came up with the Protandimscams and read what you wrote. I became very interested in how in Nrf2 activated by this supplement, read about curcumin and the paper you cite “Curcumin activates the haem oxygenase-1 gene via regulation of Nrf2 and the antioxidant-responsive element.” After reading it, I couldn’t find what you wrote:
“What we do have is independent unbiased analysis that curcurmin activates Nrf2 by increasing oxidative stress.”
My understanding of the paper is that curcumin activates p38 kinase (mechanism not known yet), next Keap1 releases Nrf2 which is then traslocated to the nucleus and activates the ARE responsive genes including HO-1 enzyme. Can you please point me out where you read about curcumin increasing oxidative stress? My question here is totally scientific and by no means support Protandim – I do agree that without clinical trails we can not decide if Protandim has any effect on people’s health.
Thanks again.
April 27th, 2012 at 5:37 pm
Betty Science see the quote about “curcumin treatment results in ROS generation” in my article. I may have simplified things a little too much, but again this is from Vogel’s analysis, who as best I can tell from thousands of his previous comments has a PhD in some kind of molecular biology and/or chemistry.