Mannatech, The Latest Network Marketing Company To Bite The “Illegal Health Claims” Bullet
In Online Brand Protection | 27 comments | permalink
Download the Mannatech legal complaint
The Texas attorney general, Greg Abbott, has filed a lawsuit against Mannatech Inc. in a state district court located in Travis County. The legal complaint accuses Mannatech of violating state and federal health and safety codes and the state deceptive trade practices, willingly enabling the company’s force of freelance associates to use illegal health claims on their websites.
Specifically, the Mannatech lawsuit cites the defendants for marketing and selling dietary supplements (glyconutrients) as a way to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases, illnesses, or serious conditions. Mannatech earned in excess of $400 million in 2006.
It is illegal for a company to market a product as a treatment for a disease without approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The attorney general seeks a permanent injunction and a fine of $25,000 for each day the company violates state law, as well as unspecified reimbursement for consumers who have bought Mannatech products. The charges may result in $20,000 per violation.
Let’s take a look at the associate websites cited by the legal complaint. The website, www.glycohealthservice.com, which belongs to a Mannatech associate, is used to promote Mannatech products:
The site is full of illegal health claims and insinuates that Mannatech’s products will reverse a terminal condition.
Another Mannatech associate website used to promote products is www.livingsugars.com. This site prominently illustrates illegal claims, gloriously trumpeting the miraculous healing properties of glyconutrients:
The third associate website cited, www.healthtestimonies.com, presents a series of audio recordings with four different marketing products which feature various doctors:
These audio recordings, all of which include multiple illegal claims, contain testimonials for twenty-four conditions which are identified on the website as: Arthritis, Asthma, ADD, Brain Aneurysm, Breast Cancer, Cancer, Cataract, Cerebral Palsy, Diabetes, Diabetic Blind, Fibromyalgia, Golf Ball Brain Tumor, Heart Failure, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Low Back Pain, Micro Valve Prolapse, Muscular Dystrophy, Osteoarthrtis, Peripheral Neuropathy, Progeria, Prostate Cancer, Retinopathy, Rotor Cuff Pain, and Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome.
The last website cited in the complaint is www.glycotools.com. This website is exclusively dedicated to selling Mannatech sales aids, including dozens of CD’s, DVD’s, brochures, and other promotional materials. An example is the screenshot below displaying a CD entitled “How I Conquered Cancer:”
The website is owned and operated by Dupli-Pack, which is also a prominent vendor at Mannatech’s corporate events. Many of the products sold on the website include very specific and illegal health claims.
*****Advertisement*****
Solar Water Heaters in Arizona
*****Advertisement*****
The legal complaint goes on to deride Mannatech’s Compliance enforcement:
“Defendant’s compliance program is also ineffective, in part, because rather than actively monitoring associates, Defendants rely on “self-regulation” (i.e. the reporting of violations by other associates or consumers). Moreover, even when a complaint is reported, Defendants fail to take any reasonableaction to discipline violating associates, especially if the associates are high ranking associates who make a lot of money for Defendants.
On occassion, Defendants take “disciplinary action” against Mannatech associates in the form of a written or verbal warning to stop making illegal disease claims. But such disciplinary action is only illusory, intended to create the impression that Defendants take real enforcement action.
In fact, Defendants fail to follow up on such warnings to ensure that the associate has stopped making illegal claims, or take any further action to deter associates from makingillegal health claims. Some associates have received multiple warning letters from Mannatech, but continue to make illegal claims without repercussion.
Moreover, defendant (and Mannatech CEO) Caster refuses to allow any more serious enforcement action to be taken against high ranking associates. For example, on at least two occasions, Defendants’ Compliance Committee has met and made a recommendation to terminate and/or suspend for a significant period of time a high ranking associate because of egregious illegal disease claims.
In each case, however, becasue the associate was a highly productive associate, Defendant Caster has overruled the Compliance Committee’s recommended punishment and instead given the associate a slap-on-the-wrist.”
In Response to the legal action, Mannatech’s Investor Relations contact was quick to issue a response:
“We are aware of the situation and will be taking appropriate action to address any issues or concerns from the Texas Attorney General’s office,” said Terry Persinger, Mannatech’s President. “We take matters of this nature very seriously and intend to cooperate to reach a resolution.”
A note to network marketing brands: Do not file patents for your health products that claim to cure, mitigate, treat or prevent.
Mannatech filed a patent that listed more than fifty diseases or conditions that can be cured, mitigated, treated, or prevented by using Mannatech’s products.
The solution. Here is what Mannatech and many other health-related network marketing brands need to do regarding their web strategy:
1. Identify non-compliant content and continue to monitor the visibility of associate websites in the search engines.
2. Identify non-compliant content and continue to monitor the visibility of associate claims on message boards and social media websites like Myspace.com.
3. Identify non-compliant content and continue to monitor the visibility of associate blogs and press releases online.
4. Create and enforce a comprehensive online compliance policy.
5. Create and enforce a search engine advertising policy.
6. Eliminate/mitigate negative visibility in the search engines, including complaint sites, negative reviews, and disgruntled customer or associate content.
7. Eliminate trademark infringement in the natural and paid results of search engines.
8. Eliminate/mitigate trademark dilution in the paid results of search engines.
Network marketing companies need to take back control of their brands and engage prospects directly online:
9. Create multiple, professionally designed web assets, optimized to rank for the brand’s hundreds/thousands of frequently searched keywords in the search engines. Create high converting leads forms with pull marketing assets and engage consumers and business opportunity prospects directly.
10. Create multiple, professionally designed landing pages to advertise on the search engines and convert highly motivated brand traffic into retail sales and new associates.
11. Implement a lead program where direct retail customers and leads are assigned to participating associates for a monthly fee. Not only will this eliminate the web-savvy associates from trying to one-up each other on the search engines by making false claims or guarantees, but this also serves as a revenue center to fund your entire web strategy, while at the same time, insuring that online prospects are properly followed up with.
12. Create a professionally designed blog to engage the brand’s audience(s) by providing updates on company news, advancements, new products, compliant testimonials, compliant success stories, meetings and events, conference calls, incentive prizes and trips, etc. This is designed to mobilize your force of associates as well as engage and inspire new prospects.
If you are a corporate leader for a network marketing company, you may have questions.
Ayohwahr Interactive is the leading and most experienced brand marketing and brand protection agency for direct selling and network marketing brands in the U.S.
I can address your concerns and further explain the elements of a winning and compliant strategy. Our team can execute a comprehensive brand protection, brand marketing, and lead generation and distribution program, all while generating positive ROI. Contact us to Command your Brand!
Technorati tags: 
Mannatech lawsuit, 
network marketing compliance, 
illegal health claims
email this | tag this | digg this | trackback | comment RSS feed
Greetings Everyone,
I read this post with great interest. I am thinking of becoming a Mannatech distributor and also invest in the stock, which according to the fundamentals show, is a great buy right now.
My friend’s mother took Mannatech products and got rid of her arthritis as well as have more energy, sleep better, and also got rid of some lumps that were causing her some pain. She became a distributor and within 6 months made over $1,000/month consistently and after one year $2,000. She is 200% into this company. Disclaimer: I’m not a distributor for Mannatech and I have not personally verified the above information but the source is reliable. The FDA has not approved this post or the contents therein.
If the testimonials are all true and can be verified, then I say FDA be damned and let this company continue to produce the products that help people improve their lives. I just can’t seem to see curing diseases as being an ‘illegal’ activity. Based on what I’ve heard and seen, the testimonials are true and reliable.
Within the next week I will be ordering some Mannatech products to lose weight and some mulit-vitamins. I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted on the results - yes, even the negatives.
Thank you for reading this comment. Peace to everyone.
Andrew
I have taken Mannatech products for over 7 years. I have been a practicing pharmacist for 29 years and a pharmacy owner for 22 years.
I have been helped by improved nutritional concepts learned from Mannatech associates. I have have attended national conference and continuing medical education programs sponsored by Proevity on glconutients. Mannatech associates are told note to make disease curing claims. I have seen a significant decrease in knee joint pain, better than glucosamine, which is a glconutrient (aminosugar).
I have seen other improvements in my health and many of my patients. The suppliments are safe and do not cause side effect like many drugs do.
Kirk Wentworth. R.Ph.
what a farce of a law suit! seems like drug companies have enough money to ruin anything, even that which is truth and useful to the human frame. There are still a lot of people that will find a way to get these products no matter what court systems and drug companies threaten!!!
We are all getting very tired of the sensationalst one eyed view the media entertains us with.
It’s time that people who know the truth take a stand. We’ve started a website where we can expose the truth without Mannatech being jeopardized.
Let us tell the truth about the dangers of pharmaceutical companies and how wellness is the solution.
Partners in progress,
Mike Klingler
http://glyconutrients-mannatech.squarespace.com/
It’s not the pharmaceutical companies making trouble for Mannatech, it’s the attorney general of the state of Texas, who says it’s illegal to market and sell dietary supplements (glyconutrients) as a way to cure, mitigate, treat, or prevent diseases, illnesses, or serious conditions. This refers to existing law, and actually targets Mannatech’s many protestations that they’re not treating, mitigating, etc.
I’m familiar with the company and the products. I know several people who are distributors, but none have made anything approaching a living wage selling this stuff.
Mannatech’s management is disingenuous in saying that they’re not touting the products’ health claims. The whole point of the products is precisely that they purport to cure, mitigate, treat, etc., any number of very serious conditions. Just look at the testimonials in the company’s literature, even the testimonials posted on this blog. “The medical establishment couldn’t do anything for my flat feet, and after six weeks on Mannatech products I’m planning my second trip up Mount Everest.”
Mannatech’s problem is not to clean up its act and get its associates and their literature and web-based info into compliance. The company needs to run clinical trials to determine if its *very* expensive products actually do anything at all.
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof, and Mannatech has not provided any proof at all. Before-and-after pictures demonstrate exactly nothing.
Sure, pharmaceutical companies are in it to make a profit. And Mannatech is not? Of course Mannatech is in it for the money, every bit as much as the pharmaceuticals.
The claim is simple. Mannatech products do not treat, cure or mitigate disease. The body does. Instead of toxic drugs, most of which control body function to mask the problem, certain nutrients give the body the building blocks it needs to do it’s miracles for itself. When hundreds of thousand of people starting saying, “I had an illness that the pharmaceutical company calls [arthritis, fibromyalgia, cancer, etc] and then I took these nutrients and those symptoms went away, they were not saying that Mannatech’s products cured their disease. They were saying that there body did. There are a few that are not educated on the difference but Mannatech has done an excellent job of making sure people have every opportunity to realize the difference.
It IS the pharmaceutical company’s who have created an environment where the Texas AG would challenge Mannatech. Pharmaceutical companies spend hundreds of millions per year lobbying congress to write legislation to the favor of treating disease with toxic drugs, getting R & D funding to prove efficacy, while distancing discoveries like Mannatech’s glyconutrients from ever getting the funding needed to validate their efficacy. Then, when Manntech uses millions of its own dollars to do the research, they are accused of being biased studies! They have no choice to be the ones to prove efficacy becuase the pharmaceutical indusry owns the system right now.
There are so many other issues here. For example, since it is the body healing the disease, not Mannatech’s products, it’s challenging to prove that there is a benefit associated with the nutrient as there are many variable involved in body function. That is why it’s so important to allow a mom to tell her son how it helped her–that it may not help him the same way but it indeed helped her! The Texas AG, because of pharmaceutical pressure, has now stopped a mom from being able to tell her son that her body’s arthritis symptoms got much better after taking these nutrients. It’s insane.
If you know the truth, please contribute at www. glyconutrients-mannatech.com
Health care is failing. This issue and conroversy highlights why.
~mike klingler
Three months ago, I was an arthritic midget with a flatulence problem. Then, I started taking Manatech’s supplements.
After two weeks, I could fly! Every morning I take a Manatech pill and flap my arms and fly to work.
A week later, I started getting taller. I grew from 4 feet to 7 feet tall in a matter of days. I rubbed Manatech’s pills on my clothes and they grew with me. I’ll be starting with the LA Lakers in the fall.
Manatech was so good for my body, I had to see what it would do for my finances. I took a double dose of supplements and then started thinking REALLY HARD about the winning lottery numbers. Whaddaya know? I won.
Oh, and my penis is bigger too.
The comment from Manny Tek (October 1st) does not contribute at all to this adult discussion.
It shows that there’s people out there either trying to waste other’s time or have a strong inclination to harm others for the fun of it or worst, have a special interest on taking a company down.
Poor Manny, do you think readers are that dumb?
Good Afteroon fellow associates of Mannatech and any skeptics out there E space. I am a new asscociate here in Savannah,ga.; the hostess city of the south and the home of the Paula Dean and the city of the second largest St.Patrick Day parade in America,south of New York City. I wanted to let you know and others, that yes, these products work. I personally have been taking them for 3 months now and I have noticed that my pain and tension in my back have gone away. Thanks to these wonderfull products,I back feels stonger and I have more energy ,especially in the afternoon. I drive a delivery truck for automobile company,Napa, and I realy and truely feel that the pain in my lower back has been reduced and I dont think about as much. Also, I have not been to my local Chiropracter in 3 months. Praise the Lord. It was such a great feeling to get a bill with no NEW charges. I want to thank my sponsors Linda and john Looten here in Savannah for all there love and support and ecouragement.My girlfriend,Debbie, has been on them too for a month and has noticed feeling better each day. She is a Type 2 diabetic. So, to all you naysayers out there, Please by all means, give these supplements a sincere try . your life and health depend on it. Remember too, that we are only educating those that need our help the most. These products are made from the plants of the earth*,and God made the heavens and the earth. Praise God. Pass it on. My hat is off to this great and caring company ,Mannatech, for sharing all this medical information with all America. More should be done to let the general public learn about these fasnicating sugars that heal. Now is the time to get on board and get back with your sponsors. Do it today. Don’t wait any longer. Every human with cells needs it for proper health and restoration of your body. Thank you for your time and may our loving God nourish and sustain you during your trials and temptation. hope to see all of you at the next convention, which shopuld be here in Savannah, ga. Agreat place to visit and see the history of this growing city on the coast of Tybee Island. Savannah loves visitors. Thank you . John (Shagman) Ewaldsen
October 24,2007,
Hi Folks,
I am writing from Halifax Nova Scotia and I have recently had a health issue as it relates to the chest. I have recently started a heavy duty glyco sugar intake program (a teaspoon every 3 hours drinking lots of liguids)along with the rest of the daily maintenance plan. I am awaiting the courier now for the cardiac supliments to which I will take daily.
I have changed my diet, eliminated all sweets, white sugars and when I feel like eating something sweet - I eat grapes, bannas, raisins or peanut butter and bananna on flax bread.
I am normally a skeptic as it relates to some things as they normally have to be proven to me, however when I reviewed the “cell to cell communication conceipt”, eliminating all pharmacueticals,I felt that if this is true - it all makes sense! I bought into the program and committed to 6 months first. I DO NOT INTEND on selling anyone on the idea till I personally know it works for me.
My resutls todate considering I first started September 26,2007 and today its October 24,2007, I have lost 15 pounds so far and everything else is going well except for the chest issue. I hope to start the cardio suppliment today when the courier gets here and would love to see great results from that within 30 says also!
Again, I am excited to see the results in 2 months, 3 months and so on for the 6 months. If all goes well folks, I would sugest that my word is honourable and I shoot from the hip - hense you can take my word if I say it works!
I anticipate trying these products for 6 months religiously and will report back with my personal findings. I am of the belief that one need a positive attitude with anything we do if we want it to be a sucess!
If anyone has any comments or advice, please add it here and I will check in daily!
Stay tuned!
This is all driven by monetary gain. Its amazing what people will believe when they are making money on the weaknesses of others. It is also amazing what people will believe when they want to make it true.
Why isn’t Texas doing something? This happened in July. Many people have been hurt by this since this time.
Monetary gain? Well it hasn’t happened for me yet! But I still tell folk.
Why?
Because of what it did for me… long-standing diagnosed arthritis in my foot giving pain with every step was gone in a matter of days - and hasn’t been back; chalky fingernails so I had no effective nails for years (do you realise how often we need fingernails?) for which specialists had given me pharmaceuticals to no avail, grew again within a few months - and are not chalky; overwork related depression lifted and I felt as though I was soaring ever higher for 18 months, so I was able to keep teaching…
So I can tell you what happened to me - did Mannatech products heal me? No - but they apparently did give my body something that was lacking so it could grow fingernails, remove the cause of foot pain, and help me cope with stress.
Will you be cured if you use the products? No. Might it possible for your body to do some things if supplied with better nutrition that pharmaceuticals can’t do? Certainly. Can I guarantee that it will happen for you? No. Is it worth the risk? I believe so, as the company takes all the financial risk - with a 180 day 100% satisfaction money-back guarantee! So the risk is on the company and me for telling you!
And if your body is enabled to do what it couldn’t before, then that is enough reward for me!
Its nice to see there are actually intelligent people responding to this article.
It’s funny how every one of the negative comments I’ve seen on the internet about Mannatech are from people who haven’t tried the products! Anyone else noticing this trend?
All of these people would stop whining and probably start sharing this gift with everyone if they would just TRY it.
I feel sorry for them that their closeminded stupidity will probably cause them to die sooner than necessary.
If you want to be a victim of the fda and pharmaceutical drugs you are free to do so, but crying about Mannatech because you aren’t smart enough to do thorough research and try the products with no financial risk to yourself, just shows me that you really aren’t capable of making an intelligient decision. I’m sorry for you but I don’t think even glyconutrients can fix that problem.
–
“To condemn something without investigation is the height of stupidity”
Folks, this is all about consumer confidence. To all you members of the Public out there bemused by the debate, seeing passionate (occasionally non-compliant, over enthusiastic but generally well meaning) Mannatech Associates on one side and bloody minded cynics on the other who are not necessarily agents of the drug industry, just people who don’t like emotional marketing, I have a suggestion.
Why don’t we agree to try to establish if there can be any trusting in this company, its product line and it’s associates in a low risk, low investment, non-medical way - with NO illegitimate claims? Radical but this could just work!
The answer I suggest is SPORT. Last time I looked sport was not something that had to be prescribed or patented, nor are the benefits of sport (good health and fitness) subject to exclusivity agreements of the drug industry. In fact the one part of our populations most likely to be NOT associated with or using the products of our pharmacutical friends are our active people, including walkers, joggers, regular gardeners as well as athletes. In fact I think we would all agree that anything that helps us exercise more or assist us in recovering from beneficial exercise would be 100% a good thing; (obviously non-athletes should engage with their healthcare professionals before embarking upon an exercise regime).
Some of those in the above comments crying out for double blind studies can relax. One was recently announced on PubMed, although it was completed nearly 2 years ago. Now its no good saying “Oh there’s only one”. Sports products (which are generally without medical claims) do not have huge marketing budgets nless you are a world wide brand. Does this mean only world wide brands have the best techniocal products? No. They just have more sales of their product. 22 nutrients are lost through sweat. The major sports drinks companies know this but only put about 6 of these back into the body and sugar (sucrose) water. Some drinks are so high in carbs (>8g/100ml) that they are more likely to dehydrate an athlete during sporting activity; (you should have a rehydrate DURING sport of c. 4g/100ml only). A supplement company will never be able to compete with the big boys on an R&D budget. So we are left with one double blind study on a Mannatech sports prouct. However, a double blind study it is, showing an increase in VO2Max (oxygen uptake and utilisation) of 15.5% and increase in time to exhaustion of 8%.
This data alone, on athletes who had taken the products just once, without any other glyconutrient regimen, would ratify the decision of any athlete to try these products further to establish the effect on their performance. Due to the phenomenon of biochemical individuality, we just don’t know how each one of us will be affected but on the SPORT front it all looks very positive.
Let’s stop focusing on sickness and concentrate on Wellness and Quality of Life.
I’d be interested to hear what, if anything, came from this lawsuit.
My sister lived with ovarian cancer for 7 years and lived a productive and had a quality of life. She took the mannatech products to support her body by feeding her cells while going through 5 surgeries and a clinical trial. She worked fulltime in a corporate position until the last year. Most of the members of our family take the products. Today’s diet cannot provide all the nutrition we need. Mannatech products feed the cells of our body so our body can heal itself. Drugs for everything is not the answer.
I can certainly understand why folks are wary of the claims made by folks flogging products. In my opinion, all I could see was that they wanted to get my money into their pocket. I have heard it all, “Use these products and you will become a new person” “Use these products and all your health problems will be fixed” and so on and so on. In Aus, the down under country it is no different to any other place. There have always been the snake oil salesmen who promise the world in crows, but one is lucky if they even get a feather.
This was my attitude when I was first told about this Mannatech stuff. When I was told that it worked through a network marketing program, I “knew” for sure that it had to be a rip off. I respected the person who was telling me about it but I sure was not going to have anything to do with it in any shape or form. I felt that this company was making fraudulent claims so I just told Allen that I personally was not interested. By the way, I had called him, he did not call me. During the conversation about the products (I try to keep an open mind during conversations) he mentioned that this “stuff” had helped folks he knew personally who had the big C.
I had a friend of many years who had just that, so I contacted him and asked if he would be interested in using these products IF I bought them for him and provided them to him free of charge. I had no intention of using them myself but was prepared to buy them for my friend. He agreed and so I got some products for him.
It took about 10 days for the products to arrive and in the meantime Doug had been in for tests and was told that he was now in remission. The products arrived and I rang to let them know I was bringing them to Doug. I was informed of the tests and that he no longer needed anything like that now. He died seven months later and I was sad because if he had used these products, I never would have.
To say that I was upset at my stupidity is an understatement. I was very upset to the point of anger. I had put myself out on a limb to the tune of some hundreds of dollars and now I was stuck with this “stuff”. (I don’t think there was this money back guarantee in 1999) The “stuff” sat on our bench for a couple of weeks as a grim reminder of my idiocity. I eventually decided to use it up to get rid of it as every time I looked at it I was angry. I just “knew” it had nothing in it for me as I was pretty healthy for my age (almost 60).
Ten days after starting to use the stuff up, my urine turned black and then a week or so later I had incredible low back pain which caused me to go to my chiropractor. This severe condition lasted for almost two weeks and then just went away. I continued using the stuff until it was all gone, which took a couple of months, actually some ten weeks. I was glad to be rid of it as I now knew it was just like everything else that makes all these wonderful claims but gives NO results. Well I should stop right there and not mention anything more BUT, I would be like anyone else who did not give the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
I had been waring glasses for ten years because I could not function without them. I had dermatitis for forty five years, My doctor had shown me on an Xray that I had a growing kidney problem, I had been going to a chiropractor for sixteen years with a bad back, I could not remember that I had a poor memory problem, I just accepted that as one gets older, all these things happen and I had swallowed that one just like every one else does.
I happened to take my glasses off one day and a few minutes later I picked up a container on which was written WARNING and then the warning was in such small letters that there was no way in the world that I could have read it, but I was able to read it quite clearly. It was a shock. Maybe, just maybe I could be wrong about that Mannatech stuff.
When I looked further to see if there was anything else that had improved, I was totally astonished. My dermo was gone, my glasses have not been used for over nine years, my back eventually improved to the point that I only visit my chiro every three months for a checkup. The kidney problem does not exist anymore, I am able to remember telephone numbers so I can read the number then dial it into the phone without having to keep checking on the numbers, and after three years on the program, colds and flu did not give me anymore problems.
Does this Mannatech program heal anything? Did it fix all my problems? Is it a cureall? Will it work the same for everyone else? The answer is NO and a thousand times NO NO NO. All it does is give the body the nutrition it needs to to fix itself properly. I went from being angry to being a convert. Does all this crapp against Mannatech phase me? I have been told many times that there is NO evidence that the Mannatech stuff heals anything and I can say, You are SOOO right. It does not heal anything at all, it is NOT a drug, but it does provide the missing nutrition that the body needs to be able to operate correctly and the BODY HEALS ITSELF. It just needs the correct ingredients.
So, all those who would pile up crap against Mannatech, I say to you, Get a life! I did and I share with everyone I meet and I have seen fantastic changes in so many other people’s lives. They did not have all the same results as I did, but they are also very positive about their lives and there is no way that they will accept this crap spread about Mannatech either
If other folks are like me, they wont make much out of Mannatech financially because it seems that once we have these positive results, we want everyone to have them too and we just give the products away at “OUR” expense.
Just as a point of interest. We need food every day to sustain our bodies, Mannatech products are only food and nothing more, they have NO magical properties, they just supply more than we are able to get in our normal food intake. Our body does the rest. All the stories that people tell will be their own experience, yours may be quite different. You have nothing to lose, or maybe you do, like me, I lost a stupid notion plus most of my troublesome physical problems.AND my stinkin thinkin.
Yours for the Best of Health.
The bottom-line is that there are no peer reviewed, scientific articles on so-called “glyconutrients” to prove or disprove its efficacy. I am a professor in chemistry specialising in human nutrition and could not find anything on search engines like pubmed to get information on these “nutrients”. I wouldn’t drink it.
I am a Mannatech Associate. Mannatech has been very clear with associates about their policies and procedures and most specifically instructs associates to NOT say “cure disease” in relation to their products and company. Additionally you cannot relate other peoples product experiences (although they can relate their own). My experience is that associates do not want to “scam” anyone. The confusion for most is mixing up “scientific” information with company name and product information. You need to separate the two. You can talk about the substances IN the product and scientific studies in relation to specific diseases. You cannot mention the company name or product. So it is not that the products are a scam, it is the way associates are presenting information that is the challenge. If there has been an intent to “lie, it is an exception with an individual, not the company or their practices. Many associates are not health care practitioners and do not fully understand FDA regulations and laws. People generally do not understand what “cure” legally means. Drugs don’t “cure” either. I found these associates have experienced dramatic results in themselves and others and are very passionate about sharing the gift. Looking at health products and even cereal ads, I see illegal claims being made all the time. As the FDA seeks to upgrade the standards of the nutraceutical industry, there will no doubt be more and more lawsuits aimed at ensuring everyone presents their products in compliance with the law. When in doubt - do your due diligence. I trust that anyone that investigates Mannatech enough will be very impressed with this company, their values and mission and their scientific standards and standards of ethics.
seems to me like we have our hands tied by the government. We can’t make any claim proving a product or products can “prevent” something when we know that if we take a good nutritional product or food it definitely will help give us a better shot at a healthy future. My friends the AG sees money here and that is what they are after. If the improvements in health conditions are true as posted on these Mannatech sites then doesn’t that make the FDA a liar when it makes nutritional product providers qualify their product with their claim when it actually does help to prevent conditions. I hope Mannatech wins this and I am sick of the government telling us what we can or can’t do.
I just want to say, thank God, for people that had the iniciative, to heal the sick!!! And not to do it in a leathal chemical way!!!! every time you take a perscribe drug, you can feel that something in your body starts shutting off, because of all the chemicals thats being pushed through your system.. So GO MANNATECH!!! You’ve attacked the beast!!!
My mother recently started using this product (ambrotose) because she was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer. She, Like many others is desperate to find a cure for her physical health.
BUT THIS IS NOT A TESTIMONIAL SAYING THAT IT “CURED MY MOM OF CANCER”
It may help, it may not. The outcome of her health should not conclude that the product works or does not. There are many factors at work…. As in all cases. It just seems absurd that everyone(Mostly Mannatech Associates if you haven’t noticed already) is claiming that it creates miracles. IT SEEMS LIKE THESE ASSOCIATES WERE TOLD TO CONTINUE THE EXAGGERATED ADVERTISING ON EVERY WEBPAGE THAT ALLOWED COMMENTS.
Really guys… It is just sad to watch a company lie time and time again. Prove it in a clinical study and provide some evidence…
J.H.
Well, I’ve read a few comments stating that mannatech’s products have no peer-review or clinical studies. That’s far from the truth. I recommend that person and anyone else interested in seeing the reviews and studies to go to Mannatechscience.org. You’ll see for yourselves truth with how many peer-reviews and clinical trials are out there on these fabulous life changing products!
My husband bought hundreds of dollars worth of Ambrotose AO, manufactured by Mannatech. He has since had a stroke. Our whole family has been taking it daily (on and off). We have not noticed much of a difference in energy, but my daughter(Katy) has recently suffered a very itchy rash on her legs between her ankle and knee every time she takes it. She will not longer take it until she hears otherwise from you - that it does not cause any skin irritations. Thank you for your response. Is there any way to still add our name to the law suit? My husbands stroke has made it difficult for me to respond to anything other than his treatment. Thank you.
Patricia Devine
I am not a proponent of Mannatech products. I have never personally taken them. But I do have a friend whose doctor (also my doctor - who tried to get me involved in the company) advised her to take one of the products to help with her diabetes. Her blood sugar levels kept climbing. Eventually she stopped taking the product and her blood sugar dropped dramatically. To me this is proof that the product aggravated her diabetes. I have another friend (also diabetic) who has the same doctor and she told me that she cannot take some of the Mannataech products though she does take one or two of them. I’m not saying all Mannatech products will harm everyone who takes them, just that there needs to be caution in taking any supplement.
I am an avid believer in natural supplements. As one poster remarked, nature was created by God and natural products, on the whole, are not harmful but beneficial to the body. I believe God provided a natural solution to every problem we can encounter in our bodies. But everone’s body is different. I need different nutritional additions than any of you. I have different reactions to different things in my body. And therefore what I take may not affect me in the same way it does you.
I have taken a supplement from another company that has helped many people with pain. I have seen no effects so far - after over 6 months. Does that mean the company isn’t ethical, that it doesn’t deliver what it claims? Absolutely not. It just isn’t the nutrient that I need in that area. Has it helped me in other areas of my body? Though I cannot prove it, I believe it has. Are there other nutrients out there that can help with my pain? Absolutely.
Also, concerning the rash on Patricia’s daughter’s leg, that could be part of detoxing. Many products help to remove toxins from the body and you often feel much worse for a few weeks after beginning to take them. This should level out after about two weeks. And you cannot prove that the Mannatech products caused your husband’s stroke, Patricia. He may have had it even if he had never heard of Mannatech. And it could also have been much more severe, even fatal, if he hadn’t had some of the product in his system. That can never be proved.
Patricia, you say you have taken the products daily, yet add the comment, on and off. If you don’t take a product faithfully for at least 6 months, whatever the product or the company that produces it, you cannot prove that it doesn’t work. It has taken our bodies 20, 30, 50 years to get into the condition they are in, so it stands to reason that in a few weeks, taking anything haphazardly, nothing will be proved. What would happen if you took food off and on for only a couple of weeks, then, deciding it wasn’t giving you more energy, etc., you quit? I think you know the answer to that.
I’m just sorry our governments are so tied to the pharmaceutical companies and so directly influenced by them. Because these companies supply the bulk of advertising to medical journals, no studies done on nutritional products will be allowed in those journals. They cannot patent natural substances so they don’t want any part of them themselves, but also don’t want the competition from companies selling those nutritional supplements. They want all the business and much would be lost to them if more people were helped by nutritional means to healthier life styles.
We need to stand up for our right to choose whether we want to treat ourselves with natural products or to ingest drugs that make our bodies toxic and produce so many side effects that you need to take a handful of other drugs to overcome them.
Go Mannatach.. I love the real food technology and science.
This is now 2010. Over the time since I last commented on this site, much has changed. Double blind studies have been done on some of the Mannatech products at great expense to Mannatech themselves. To say that these studies are biased is probably very correct. The reason for this is that the tests came out very very positive so what other comment could be made? Tested correctly, they WORKED.
With natural products it is very difficult to say that a particular nutrient has ANY effect on any particular dis-ease simply because in the natural state there are a periferral of enzymes etc which are required to be effective in rebuilding the body or any other function that the body performs.
It is almost impossible for any product which is stripped of its periferral functionaries to be anything more than be recognised by the body as being a toxin, even if it is in its purest form and non toxic full stop. With out everything else required to make it work, it CAN NOT work effectively or efficiently. Nutrition can NOT be tested in the same way as drugs are. Therefor demanding all these spurious calls for double blind studies is just so much stupid hot wind. Nutrition needs to be tested with ALL the factors in place.
Mannatech supply a number of supplements which NEED to be used in conjunction with each other so that the body has everything it needs for its proper operational function. The supplements by themselves are NOT a complete food. They are specifically supplementation and do not take the place of a properly balanced food intake of normal meals.
Most people do NOT eat properly in the first place. There are food combinations which we all eat without a thought. Different types of foods need different situations in the stomach for proper digestion.
For starters, most fresh fruits, if eaten only with fruit will tend to pass through the stomach in as quick as 20 minutes while some like babanas will take up to 45 minutes. Should one eat any other type of food inside that period of time this will keep the fruit in the stomach for up to 4 or five hours. This causes the fruit to ferment and then produce toxins in the system. When considered, most folks will eat their fruit AFTER their main meal. The only result from this will be fermentation in the stomach. It can do no other.
The same situation happens when we mix starchy foods with proteins. Starchy foods take about 4 hours to digest but they do need a somewhat alkaline digestive situation for them to be processed properly. Proteins take about four and a half to five hours to go through the stomach. Mix the two and we have an Alkalne and an acid base digestion trying to operate at the same time. They neutralise each other and then can take up to 13 hours for them to pass through the stomach. This also causes a toxic mess in the stomach and results in many medical problems which can falsely be blamed onto Mannatech products which are in fact trying to offset the toxic problems. This is also why many folks will not get fast results from using Mannatech Products. They have set their system up to create a massive fight instead of being kind to their gut.
I have seen folks who have used Mannatech Products for a year and got NO results. I have also eaten meals with these folks and once I understood the proper combinations of foods, I immediately recognised where their non performance was coming from. They were trying to use expensive products to offset problems that should NOT have been there in the first place. So, now I will not allow folks to go onto Mannatech Products if they do not make an effort to get their food combinations correct first.
I have proved this correct in my own life and have seen it in others so my suggestion is that this is the greatest block against the Glyconutrient programme. Get that right first and then there will be dramatic changes when the Glyconutrients do not have to fight the toxic problem first before they can provide the additional benefits that they are provided for.
And YES, Glyconutrients DO NOT HEAL ANYTHING, Your BODY does WHEN it has all the ingredients it requires for its proper function.
When used in this way, Glyconutrients suddenly become very economical and effective for the body system.
We all have a choice to make. We can keep on doing things as we have always done them and always getting the same results OR we can get some education and do things differently, only then will we have a different and very beneficial result.