[The following is a guest post from Vogel...]
Another knee-slapper regarding Protandim’s laughable research. Watch as the story unfolds…
Three of the published articles on Protandim (2 studies on skin cancer in mice, and one review article on the same topic) featured someone named Delira Robbins as an author.
- Robbins D, Zhao Y. The role of manganese superoxide dismutase in skin cancer. Enzyme Res. 2011;2011:409295. Epub 2011 Mar 23.
- 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. PLoS One. 2010 Jul 30;5(7):e11902.
- Liu J, Gu X, Robbins D, Li G, Shi R, McCord JM, Zhao Y. Protandim, a fundamentally new antioxidant approach in chemoprevention using mouse two-stage skin carcinogenesis as a model. PLoS One. 2009;4(4):e5284.
[Note: Here’s a video of McCord hyping up 2 of these studies at a Protandim distributor meeting.]
The most recent Protandim publication, featuring Robbins as primary author, was a review article (not actual research) on skin cancer, in which the product was hyped as a potential remedy. This study was leveraged by LFVN, who used it as PR fodder, blasting the news about the study in a corporate press release earlier this year.
In September 2010, LFVN also sent out a corporate PR blast about one of Robbins’ other studies (the one published in the crap online pseudo-journal PLoSOne), in which the company claimed that the study was funded by Louisiana State University.
Now here’s the punch-line. Delira Robbins is a grad student whose highest degree certification to date is a Bachelors of Science.
So in other words, this so-called expert who wrote this allegedly epic review article on Protandim and skin cancer, and authored/executed those 2 allegedly earth-shattering studies in mice, is a non-expert; she’s a simple science grad student at Louisiana State U with no legitimate expert credentials.
My strong hunch is that Delira Robbins' doctoral research, which appears to be focused solely on Protandim, is being funded by LFVN, either directly from a stipend or indirectly through funds paid to her supervisor Yunfeng Zhao.
Interestingly, I saw a couple of job ads that Zhao had recently posted for postdoctoral research fellows. (Notice how poor the salary is - sad.)
I checked the NIH grant database and it shows that no grants were awarded to Zhao, so I wonder where he’s getting the money to hire a post-doc, and whether that post-doc will be relegated to conjuring up more BS to feed LFVN’s PR spin doctors.
[Editor's Conclusion: This seems to be sound research and backs up what Protandim Inventor Paul Myhill said about encouraging research]
Originally posted 2011-08-23 04:32:00.
This post involves:LiveVantage Lies, Protandim Studies
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September 28th, 2011 at 2:53 pm
Dr Louis Pasteur was a grad student once. Every scientist and researcher was a grad student before they became doctors.
September 28th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
If one is to take the study seriously it is worth knowing the experience-level of the person implementing the study.
Let’s say your favorite basketball team needed to depend on a player for the championship game. Would you pick the high school version of Brian Scalabrine or would you pick Michael Jordan in his prime? You could say that both were high school students, but they aren’t comparable athletes with comparable skills or experience at all.
This is the comparison you are making when comparing Delira Robbins and Dr. Louis Pasteur. We can’t presume that because both were grad students at one point, they are equivalent doctors with equivalent experience.
Furthermore, grad students also tend to live poorly – since they typically can’t support a full-time job in addition to their studies. This would make them more likely to be influenced by under the counter payments. The NCAA has seen quite a lot of that in sports. I’m not making the claim that it happened here, because proving such things are impossible without access to a full financial audit, but it is certainly plausible. A wise consumer would ask, “If the product has real potential, why do they have to resort to grad students to create these studies? Why aren’t these being published in New England Journal of Medicine by reputable researchers?”
September 30th, 2011 at 7:42 pm
“Dr Louis Pasteur was a grad student once. Every scientist and researcher was a grad student before they became doctors.”
Very poor logic. Pasteur and every scientist/researcher was 12 years old once too. Does that mean it’s OK to have a 12 year-old running your research program?
BTW, Pasteur is a particularly poor example to have chosen for this analogy. He was in his 60s when his first vaccine was administered.