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Anti Aging · December 27, 2010

Glucotor v.2 Supplement Review

Deanne, one of the readers of my website recently asked me to take a look at a supplement called Glucotor v.2. After reviewing the ingredients and products website I was intrigued, so this one is for you Deanne 🙂

Glucotor v.2, made by Baseline Nutritionals, is billed as the “ultimate metabolic enhancer”. I'm guessing that the “v.2”. part of the name means that this is the 2nd version of the supplement but I'm not sure. Glucotor is said to “support your body's ability to maintain healthy blood sugar levels and optimize glucose metabolism”.

Ironically, the website also states that Glucotor v.2:

is not a diabetes formula and is not sold as a diabetes supplement.

Swanson Cinnulin PF Cinnamon Extract. — Cinnulin PF Cinnamon Extract. 120 capsules. Quality made supplement

Rather, the supplement is supposed to help people “manage many of the problems associated with a bad diet (particularly high sugars and high glycemic foods)”. I find this interesting because on the product's website I see that Glucotor v.2 might do all of the following:

Enhances the body's ability to metabolize glucose and fats
Smooths sugar spikes from high glycemic meals
Mimics the life-extension potential of calorie-restricted diets
Contains Gymnema Sylvestre to support healthy blood sugar levels
Formulated with Cinnulin PF, a cinnamon extract to improve glucose metabolism
Supports pancreas and liver health

4 out of these 6 claims have to do with regulating blood sugar levels – one of the big issues people with diabetes worry about. But yet, they say it's not a diabetes formula or diabetes supplement. To me, it seems like they want to help diabetics – but don't want to come out and say it's for diabetics.

I understand why they would say this on their website – it's their way of saying don't use this product in place of diabetes medications. I do applaud them for saying this but, I also understand why a diabetic might be interested in this product.

Glucotor Ingredients

Nopal cactus	300 mg
Konjac mannan	233 mg
Gymnema sylvestre (25%)	192 mg
Fenugreek extract (60%-80%)	300 mg
Cinnulin PF (R)	100 mg
Bitter melon extract	67 mg
Corisolic acid banaba leaf extract (1%)	16 mg
Vegicaps

Anti Aging, Super Foods · December 20, 2010

Hawthorn Review

Hawthorn is an herb that's been used for centuries for a variety of health issues, probably the most common of which was heart problems. Other, more scientific names for hawthorn include Crataegus laevigata and Crataegus oxyacantha.

Previously I had written reviews on the Chinese weight loss supplement Zi Xiu Tang. Because ZXT contains hawthorn, people taking this supplement asked if I would review hawthorn.

Hawthorn contains a variety of ingredients including quercetin, rutin and OPCs (oligomeric proanthocyanidins). Many of these ingredients are found in other foods. Hawthorn also appears to have some antioxidant activity due to some of these compounds. This is not surprising given that many herbs (as well as fruits and vegetables) are antioxidants.

There is research that hawthorn can effect how the heart pumps. The problem is that heart disease is a very serious medical disorder.

At least one study showed that hawthorn INCREASED the rate of death from heart disease.

Not all hawthorn supplements are the same. Some hawthorn supplements may have too much (or too little of the herb). Some may use hawthorn from the wrong parts of the plant. Some may use the wrong species of hawthorn (there are over 100 species). Some supplements may not contain any hawthorn at all.
Do NOT use hawthorn to treat yourself for heart disease. Please see your doctor!

Does hawthorn help weight loss?

I could not find any clinical evidence that hawthorn helps weight loss.

Hawthorn side effects

Because hawthorn can effect the way the heart pumps, dizziness can be a side effect of using hawthorn supplements. This effect may be magnified if people are also using medications to treat heart disease or high blood pressure. Other hawthorn side effects range from upset stomach, decreases in blood pressure, to headache and skin reactions.

Hawthorn drug interactions

There is little evidence one way or the other about how hawthorn interacts with medications. That said, in theory, hawthorn may interact with the following classes of drugs:

Heart drugs
Blood pressure drugs
Sex drugs (e.g. Viagra etc.)
Any supplement (herb etc.) that effects blood pressure or heart rate

It is beyond the scope of this review to cover all hawthorn-drug interactions and the list above may be far from complete so it's strongly suggested that people discuss hawthorn with a doctor or pharmacist to get the most up to date information.

My thoughts

Because of how hawthorn effects the heart I feel that it should not be in supplements (like zi xiu tang) that are marketed to people who have health problems or who are trying to lose weight. Even healthy people may feel side effects from hawthorn supplements. Side effects are are probably more likely in those who may not be healthy. I was at Vitamin Shoppe recently and found hawthorn supplements sitting on a shelf where anyone could buy it. Just as cigarettes are often placed behind the counter, out of reach of most people, I feel certain supplements – like hawthorn – should likewise be behind the counter as well.

What do you think?

Performance · December 16, 2010

Shakeology Review: Everything: Ingredients + Research

Update 3/10/20. Have you been asked to try Shakeology – or become a Shakeology Beachbody Coach? I have – several times. I've been asked to try this product so many times from so many different people that I decided to write this Shakeology review so you know the facts. Is Shakeology safe? Will Shakeology help weight loss? These are the questions I will address. As always, I'll link to the research so you know I'm not making stuff up. I don't have a dog in this fight. I only want you to have the best information available -free from testimonials, and internet hype – so that you can make the best decision for you. Also, see the review of Ultimate Power Greens as well.

Also see my review of vegan chocolate Shakeology.

Shakeology is one of the products sold by the company, BeachBody. Beachbody markets many health and fitness products, probably the most popular of which the P90X workout by Tony Horton. If you want to know how Shakeology tastes, check out my Shakeology Taste Test.

What Does Shakeology Mean?

The suffix ology means “the study of” so Shakeology literally means “the study of shakes“, In this case, it's a health and weight loss shake that contains various fruits, enzymes, vitamins, protein, etc.

It's a catchy name and gives the impression that there is some science behind Shakeology. But, when I entered “Shakeology” into the National Library of Medicine website, I found no published peer-reviewed studies on this product.

Most health and weight loss shakes don't have any research to back up what they are saying but I wanted to double check just in case because the name of this product stood out to me.

On the Shakeology website, I noticed a reference to a study that drinking Shakeology can lower cholesterol levels but there doesn't appear to be any published studies to back up this claim. At the bottom of the website (Shakeology.com) I see a reference that says :

“In a 90-day study, participants replaced one meal per day with Shakeology, ate a balanced diet, and exercised moderately three times per week. Total cholesterol was reduced on average by 30% and LDL cholesterol was reduced on average by 38%.”

But, this doesn't seem to be a published peer-reviewed study. Questions I asked myself included:

Who were the people in this “study”?

Were they men? Were they women?

Did they have normal cholesterol or high cholesterol?

What was their LDL levels before the study?

Did exercise play any role in the outcomes?

They don't tell us any of this information – and this is important stuff to know if we are to analyze how effective shakeology really was.

Fruits contain soluble fiber and Shakeology has a lot of different fruits, so the study outcomes kind of make sense. But, would the same effect be seen if people just blended up some fruits themselves?

I don't know.

Losing weight can also reduce cholesterol. So, did cholesterol and LDL levels change simply because of weight loss, rather than because of Shakeology? I don't know because it doesn't look like the subjects were compared to those who did not use Shakeology.

Shakeology Ingredients

There are a LOT of ingredients in Shakeology. Below you will see that I copied the ingredients from the Shakeology.com website (I used the chocolate version) and separated them into different sections to make this review easier.

Total Calories	140
Calories from fat	10
Total fat	1 g (2% DV)
Cholesterol	15 mg (5% DV)
Sodium	100 mg (4% DV)
Total carbohydrates	17 g (6% DV)
Dietary fiber	3 g (12% DV)
Sugars	9 g
Protein	17 g (34% DV)

The total calories are based on 1 scoop (48 grams) mixed with water.

This doesn't look too bad to me. In fact, the calories, protein, fat, etc. are similar to other popular protein mixes. A scoop also has 135 mg of the sweetener, stevia.

Super Fruit Blend

Shakeology also has several types of what they call Super Fruits. Here is the list:

Acerola powder (fruit)	Cordyceps
Camu-Camu powder (fruit)	Maitake powder
Pomegranate powder (fruit)	Reishi powder
Bilberry powder (fruit)	Citrus bioflavonoids
Blueberry powder (fruit)	Rose Hips powder (fruit)
Lycium (Goji) powder (berry)	Schisandra
Açai powder (berry)	Suma powder (root)
Acerola powder (fruit)	Gingko powder (leaf) REMOVED

Weight Loss · December 4, 2010

Zylotrim Weight Loss Supplement Review

Have you heard of Zylotrim? It's a weight loss supplement I discovered at about 4 AM somewhere between reruns of Cops and Ice Road Truckers.

Because the Zylotrim claimed that it “was awarded two US patents” and was “clinically proven” to promote weight loss, I was intrigued. What follows is my review Zylotrim, based on what was listed on its website and what I could discover about its reported active ingredients. This is an updated review of Zylotrim with new information.

Zylotrim Ingredients

According to the products website, zylotrim’s active ingredients include “an all-natural compound derived from yam in Latin America”. What that ingredient is was not stated.

Because the TV commercial said that the weight loss effects of Zylotrim were supported by clinical research, I checked the National Library of Medicine. I did a search for Zylotrim (without quotation marks) and again with quotes (“Zylotrim”). In both cases, no peer reviewed studies of the product were discovered.

Some websites state that yams contain the hormone, DHEA. This is not exactly true. Yams don't contain DHEA but rather compounds that might in theory help us make DHEA. There is debate however as to whether the human body can turn these compounds (i.e., diosgenin) into DHEA. I mention DHEA because one study did appear to link DHEA to weight loss.

The problem with this study was that it looked at DHEA use in older adults. What about younger people? In theory it might help younger people too but there is no proof (yet) of this. Also, how much DHEA was used? In this study 50 mg of DHEA was used for 6 months.

If Zylotrim contains compounds derived from yams that – in theory – might raise DHEA levels, how much of these compounds does it have and how much DHEA does this equate to? Nothing is said about this on the Zylotrim website.

The real issue is that even if Zylotrim contained these compounds, where is the proof that you and I can convert them into DHEA? I was unable to locate any clinical studies that taking yam-derived DHEA precursors raised DHEA levels in people.

Yams do contain fiber and a fiber that has often been touted for weight loss is Glucomannan. I reviewed the evidence on glucomannan in my book, Nutritional Supplements: What Works and Why. Could glucomannan be the active ingredient in zylotrim? I dont think so because I don't believe yams contain glucomannan so this is pure speculation on my part.

If you want to know more about glucamannan, read my review on Glucosulin.

Zylotrim Research

I was unable to discover any research on the reputed active ingredient of Zylotrim in the National Library of Medicine. The website for Zylotrim also does not list the “clinical studies” it claims support the product’s weight loss effects.

My Thoughts

Personally, I'm skeptical about Zylotrim because I couldn’t find any peer reviewed research on its website or elsewhere to support what the TV commercial said about the product.

When viewing ads for health and fitness products, don’t be swayed by fancy words and phrases like :

Clinically proven
All natural
Safe and effective

These words are vague and hold little weight to the scientific community. They are little more than marketing words to get you to buy something.

Instead, look for this phrase: “published peer reviewed research” This is a much more focused statement and means that the research was reviewed by other competent scientists before it was published in a medical or health journal. Read the Page Supplement Questions at the top of this website for more info on peer reviewed research and other topics about supplements.

Update: 12/4/10. If you go to the Zylotrim website, you may see that it is not working. When I checked the website, all I saw was “We are no longer accepting new orders for Zylotrim”. Current customers using Zylotrim were told to call a 888 number to get more information. As of 6/12/12 a sign on the Zylotrim website says “Zylotrim is no longer is business.”

what do you think?

Anti Aging · November 27, 2010

MonaVie Essental Review

MonaVie is a popular health supplement but what people may not know is that there are 7 different types of MonaVie. In this review, I want to focus specifically on MonaVie Essential because that's likely to be a person's first introduction to this supplement.

MonaVie Ingredients

According to the MonaVie website, MonaVie is said to be composed of “19 body-beneficial fruits and AçaVie™—the purest, most potent form of açai available”

The 19 fruits in MonaVie Essential are as follows:

Açai, apple, grape, pear, Aronia, prune, kiwi, cranberry, black currant, blueberry, pomegranate, wolfberry, camu camu, maqui, acerola, banana, cupuaçu, bilberry, jabuticaba.

Update. See the review of camu camu research.

The main ingredient in all MonaVie products is acai berry so let's review it and see what we can discover.

What Is Acai Berry Used For?

Acai berry rocketed to fame after Oprah and Doctor Oz spoke of this fruit as a “super food”. Acai does have some protein, vitamins and minerals and monounsaturated fats which are all good. It also has anthocyanins, proanthocyanidins and other related compounds which are types of phytonutrients (plant-nutrients).

It’s the anthocyanins that are responsible for the purple color of acai berry. These anthocyanins do act as antioxidants and this is good. Antioxidants have the potential to neutralize potentially damaging compounds called free radicals.

Many fruits also have anthocyanins although research suggests the antioxidant power of acai berry maybe higher than those of other fruits like strawberries and blueberries. This does not mean acai is better than other fruits, but that it is different.

Like all fruits acai is likely something that’s healthy but I have not seen any peer reviewed studies that show it is superior to other fruits.

Is Acai a Super Food?

Most websites for acai berry call it a “super food”, a reference to Oprah and Dr. Oz and others who have talked about it on TV. The term superfood however is marketing hype. There are acai berry lawsuits that Dr. Oz and Oprah have filed against various acai supplement makers too.Neither Oprah or Dr. Oz endorses acai berry supplements.

For more info about acai berry here is my acai berry review

Remember there is no single “super food”. All food –acai included – works best when used in combination with other foods. This is the reason why MonaVie includes 18 other fruits in addition to acai.

Acai Berry Research

There is research on acai berry. For example, some studies suggest this fruit inhibits growth of cancer cells in a test tube

Another study noted that acai may have some anti-inflammatory properties. Specifically, Acai appears to inhibit COX 1 and COX 2 enzymes. As such ,you may see acai supplements marked as “natural COX inhibitors”.

Because of this acai berry or acai fruit may be found in supplements marketed to people who have arthritis, despite any firm proof that they help arthritis.

MonaVie And Weight Loss?

MonaVie does have a version that has fewer calories than other MonaVie products but to their credit, the company that makes MonaVie does not make any specific claims that the MonaVie will help you lose weight.

MonaVie is marketed for its health promoting effects, not for weight loss. There are other acai weight loss products out there but people should be skeptical of these.

Here is the review of the Acai Diet.

MonaVie Side Effects

Because MonaVie contains just fruits and a few other relatively harmless ingredients (i.e. glucosamine HCL is included in one of the MonaVie supplements) it is expected to be safe in most people. In fact, a recent study has tested this and found the MonaV ie is safe in healthy people. That said, depending on your unique health needs, here is a short list of things to consider. This list is not complete.

Glucosamine can act as a blood thinner. Glucosamine HCL is also found in the MonaVie product MonaVie Acive. Because of this, it’s possible that MonaVie may interact with blood thinner medications like Warafarin (Coumadin). Check with your doctor if you also take blood thinners.

See my write up, Glucosamine 4 Facts You Don't Know for more information on glucosamine HCL. I feel that glucosamine sulfate is superior to glucosamine HCL at helping arthritis pain.

Who Makes MonaVie?

MonaVie supplements are a product of MonaVie LLC. They are located at 10855 River Front Pkwy Ste 100, South Jordan, UT 84095. When this review was created, the Better Business Bureau gave MonaVie a rating of “A-.”

As of 3/15/15, I learned that the MonaVie company had been acquired by a skincare company called Jeunesse.

Does MonaVie Work?

People have told me some interesting and good things that occurred after they started taking MonaVie. Currently I am on the fence about this product. I do like that its been tested as safe in healthy people. If MonaVie really works, I feel it might take about a 6-8 weeks before people notice a benefit.

Here's MonaVie on Amazon

What do you think?

Weight Loss · November 23, 2010

Tainted Weight Loss Supplements

I know that the most popular reviews on my website have to do with weight loss supplements. People are interested in weight loss products and that's why I review them -to help people. Because of this I wanted to mention that some weight loss supplements may not be supplements at all – but rather weight loss drugs masquerading as supplements.

On December 22 2008 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a list of 69 weight loss dietary supplements that it said contained pharmaceutical drugs not mentioned on the supplements ingredients list (mentioned or not, drugs should not be found in supplements).

Some weight loss supplements contained the weight loss prescription drug, sibutramine, also known as Meridia. Other drugs the FDA found were those prescribed to treat seizures. One of the drugs (Rimonabant) has been linked to increased suicidal thoughts and depression.

In America, current laws prohibit the use of prescription drugs in dietary supplements. Supplements are regulated as food and drugs are regulated as drugs.

In theory, the use of such drug-laced supplements might ramp up side effects and/or interact with other medications you may be taking.

Just a few of the products highlighted by the FDA include:

7 Day Herbal Slim	3 Day Diet
999 Fitness Essence	Royal Slimming Formula
Slim Express 360	Fasting Diet
Slim Burn	3 Days Fit
7 Days Diet	Sliminate
2 Day Diet	JM Fat Reducer
TripleSlim	Miaozi MeiMiaoQianZiJiaoNang

Here is the full list of 69 weight loss supplements the FDA highlighted in 2008.

Let me be clear: most supplement companies do not do put prescription drugs or drug like compounds in their dietary supplements. Reputable companies are very careful about quality control and what gets added into their products.

This is another reason to deal only with supplement companies that have a good reputation.

What do you think of this?

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