One of our customers asked me my professional opinion on a dietary product called Protandim.
Protandim is a patented dietary supplement marketed by LifeVantage Corporation, a Utah-based multilevel marketing company. I’ve been in the health “business” for about four decades and I have lerned that nothing good ever comes from a multi-level marketing company. A few people in at the beginning make huge amounts of money and encourage other suckers to join their downline. Everyone in the chains gets a piece of the action and that makes any MLM product unnecessarily costly.

Usually I find that the MLM company takes a relatively benign product line, packages it extremely well, and begins selling with a lot of hype and glitz. The actual products are usually harmless, and sometimes they can offer benefits. Never, however, are the benefits any greater than a person could get buying the ingredients from other sources (in this instance: milk thistle, bacopa, ashwaganda, green tea, and turmeric).

In the case of Protandim, the sellers include some warnings about side effects when using their product. The side effects of Protandim may include allergic responses, gastrointestinal disturbances (stomach ache, diarrhea, vomiting), headache, and rash of the hands and feet.

Protandim was actually studied for a whole 7 days and it failed to demonstrate any beneficial effects over a placebo. The sample size was tiny. The time frame was insignificant. They discovered nothing.

In a nutshell, I do not recommend Protandim;

  • It is sold via MLM.
  • It is comprised of readily available herbs.
  • It is highly costly.
  • There are side effects.
  • Studies demonstrate it isn’t any better than a placebo.