Comments on: Mannatech bogus health claims?

By: Julie

Julie — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 10:38:34 +0000

Thank you Kelly for going into detail. I hope you are on the road to recovery now. I really feel for you.

I have not long started on Mannatech products, probably about 4 weeks ago, and I have for the first time in my life, passed a small kindney stone. I was wondering if anyone out there has heard of this as a side effect.

By: kelly

kelly — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 10:41:27 +0000

I took Mannatach and noticed some unusual side effects almost immediately but assumed it was cleansing my system per my upline consultant. I hate to go into the nasty details but it sounds a bit like what happens to people on a newer weight loss product but I learned to deal with some of this but it never went away. I noticed then that when I stopped taking ambrotose the problems went away almost immediately but everytime I turned around, my upline was pushing me to stay on it longer… and to get others on it. I just couldn’t bring myself to do this.. and it’s not in my nature to force others to do something to profit me. But after taking ambrotose religiously for about 4 months I started getting another type of reaction of some kind; I was on no prescription drugs or any other products. I had horrible hives that left scars because many of the hives got infected with numberous tiny boils – some were bigger – and I had them everywhere; it was painful to walk because I had them you know where too. Some of the spots had between 15 to 30 of these tiny boils… it was unbelievable and unsightly and so painful. I can’t describe to you how painful this condition was since anything touching my skin caused horrific pain and seemed to initiate more sores. My upline recommended I take even more ambrotose and it became so much worse when I did and I was swelling. After about 4 weeks of feeling like I was dying I went to my doctor; I now was hemorraging uncontrollably. The doctor did blood work and my thyroid had gone hywire and she could only scratch her head and told me to stop taking the ambrotose. She gave me a lecture about supplements and how the industry isn’t regulated. When I told my upline what my doctor had said, my high-school-drop-out upline ripped my doctor and everyone else in the medical community to shreds. I was checked for staff infection and stds along with about everything else that could have gone wrong but nothing showed up except the thyroid and my blood pressure was elevated. The doctor put me on progesterone for the heavy hemorraging. Within days after quitting I got some relief and within a week most of the hives and boils were completely gone but I had scars. I just felt tons better and stronger. One hive that was on my nose had to be watched afterwards because it looked unusual and started to look more like a blister. It was unbelievable but my thyroid was still a bit off but after about 3 months it went back to normal along with my blood pressure. After about 6 months the hemorraging had completely stopped and my periods were completely normal again so the progesterone was stopped. After detailing my problems to my upline; she went nuts and said I wasn’t a friend or a Christian if I didn’t start back on ambrotose and half a dozen other products that she felt I should be on. I relinquished and took ambrotose and within days was starting up with hives again and I was hemorraging slightly. I immediately stopped and within a days the hives and swelling were gone completely. After watching the spot on my nose for 8 months my doctor sent me to a dermatologist. They also watched it for a number of months but last month it changed and they did a biopsy and it came back cancerous. I am now waiting to see what they will have to do. I have an appointment with a surgeon. This experience was a nightmare and I feel I need to let others know. The other side effect that was embarrassing to talk about is that I had within 2 – 3 days while on ambrotose was leaking from the anus which was unpleasant and I felt limited in my ability to go out in public (much like some users of the new weight loss product Alli). Each time I stopped taking the ambertose this ugly condition went away almost immediately. My upline said that I must be horribly sick to have this happen and I just needed to take more ambertose and more product (she gave me a GI product along with some others) to get better… I was totally healthy when she talked me into starting up this product and I feel robbed of my good health. I look back and can’t figure out what possessed me to start taking this product but she pushed it so hard saying it would prevent and cure cancer, etc, etc. and help with any premenaposal problems and help with weight loss, etc, etc. and she felt it was God’s calling to get everyone on it and had nothing to do with making money. What shook me up right after I decided that this product was the problem I read in the obituaries that a woman had died and she was the one that my upline had worked so hard to get on mannatach more than a year before when she was diagnosed with cancer. When I mentioned this to my upline she blamed the woman for not being on it before she got cancer. I later learned that she was paying almost $600.00 a month for mannatach products but she still died. My upline has so many health and mental problems I later learned that I’m surprised anyone would want her repping their products. I wanted to be open minded and I believe in healthy living but my experience here was horrific. It’s been over eight months since she hung up on me and blessedly she has dropped me as a “friend.”

I’d sure like to know what I reacted to… the rice filler or some sugar or the aloe vera abstract… I don’t know. I took an allergy test but nothing other than the usual environmental allergens came up.

By: ben

ben — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:29:16 +0000

when big pharma does an RCT and it doesnt help with sales, it is conveniently left in the back of a dusty cupboard in the abandoned section of their old nasty smells research facility.
This is patently obvious with Mannatech. an RCT could be done cheaply, and if it proved their claims would catapault the company to being the worlds richest company. No doubt they have conducted trials, and these are long forgotten, and prove nothing.
Mannatech is explioting the poor and sick. The financial structure of the company turns every salesperson into an advertiser, as can be seen with the stereotypical saccharin of the fake testimonials littering the web.
No sensible person would buy this exorbitantly priced product until this wealthy company can do a small RCT to show some benefit. In reality, the government should do a larger RCT on it, and if no benefit is found the company should have all resources siezed, and closed down, with appropriate treatment of the owners.

As they claim they are being guided by god, they have nothing to fear…

By: April

April — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:15:47 +0000

My dad also had cancer, grade IV Glioblastoma Multiforme and as soon as we found out we started him on Mannatech products, which at the time we new very little about. Becuase of the nature of this cancer, which doubles it’s size every 7-10 days we also chose to treat him with chemo, radiation and surgery. It was a tough decision but I was amazed at the stamina that he showed through it all. After each brain surgery (removal of some of the tumor) he was able to eat solid foods the next day and except for a nasty headache he was talking and joking and teasing the nurses, wanting to go for walks around the hospital and simply shocking the doctors to heck! I firmly believe( mainly by observation and watching all the other cancer patients) that if my dad had not been on mannatech he would have not been as active and quickly recovered as he did. His cancer went into remission and I can honestly tell you that I am a firm supporter of Mannatech. Had it not been for the cemotherapy that he was also taking that caused blood clots in him, he would still be alive today. It was the results of cemo – a blood clot that moved to his heart – that he died on April 26 2006.
Alot of you posted comments based on your “opinion” and that is fine, it is your opinion, but I have fact behind me and I stand by this product. My husband and I have been taking Mannatech now since my dad got cancer in 2004 and we hardly ever get a cold anymore much less any other sickness and I am around ALOT of people that get sick regularly. So, all I can say is, you can stand strong on your opinion if you want to but remember that roughly 50% of us are going to get cancer and the odds of surviving it are not in your favor ( I am a statistics major so I KNOW the real stats behind the “new” you hear on T.V.). Every individual gets to choose how they want to go out and I choose to be healthy, take mannatech and not get sick….and I must say it is working nicely!!!

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 16:14:57 +0000

Well Linda, I can just see you floating there, in euphoric bliss, eyelids batting, at having discovered the wonders of Ambrotose…
I read your thoughts in a Mannatech sales brochure.
It is so simple to you because that is your nature.
I am happy for the fellow’s improved health; have you heard of the placebo effect? Perhaps a diet that is very poor in nutrition may actually benefit from the ingestion of simple sugars.
In all this time that Mannatech has been plugging these products and implicitly counting on their ‘associates’ to hype their benefits beyond those permitted by law, or reason,
why has Mannatech chosen not to perform some proper double blind trials with submission of the experimental results to a peer-reviewed process?
I suspect that it would be bad for business, and that no amount of evidence, or lack thereof, would change your mind.

By: Purple

Purple — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:11:11 +0000

And Tracy, one day they will understand that it’s ok for people with intelligence to question and ask information. To skirt around the issue provokes the thought that I’m not going to have an answer to any of my questions. I’ll just continue to say “NO” to MLM’s.

By: Tracy

Tracy — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:38:23 +0000

That’s it. Where do I get some sugar pills???? Just kidding. I don’t do cults or phony science.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:01:29 +0000

Dear Familypaladin: Wow what a wonderful return to wellness for you. I find that many people are so ‘confused’ about what is actually happening when you ‘add Vital Missing Nutrients’ BACK into the body. It’s so simple to us now, because we understand it’s ‘the Body’ that can ‘Heals & Repairs itself’ IF given the needed Vital nutrition and healthy lifestyle.

We had been ‘advertised’ into thinking that ‘drugs’ cure us, BUT we now realize the primary role of a Synthetic Drug is to simply ‘mask the symptoms’! It’s like thinking we have taken care of the problem by taking the battery out of the ‘ringing smoke alarm’ [the ‘symptom’ is no longer ‘noisy’] and going back to ‘sleep’. We need to deal with the FIRE – we need to deal with the ROOT of WHY we are in pain etc!!!

Drugs INTERFERE with the normal physiology of the body and are TOXIC!!!

High quality ‘food nutrient supplements’ work WITH the body, giving the body the ‘tools and supplies’ it needs to ‘fix’ – ‘heal & repair’ its –self. The consumer must be sure to get High Quality ‘food’ supplements, because ‘synthetic [man-made] vitamins’ do NOT work the same. Many of the ‘studies’ slamming ‘vitamins’ claiming they harm the body are using ‘Synthetic’ forms of Supplements in their testing. So again this is VERY confusing to the Public. For example ‘Man-made Synthetic vitamin C [ascorbic acid]’ does NOT CURE Scurvy!! But add back into the diet, vine ripened limes and lemons – and the body CAN reverse the Symptoms of Scurvy – IF the Scurvy sufferer has enough TIME for the BODY to recover.

So a Company who offers ‘Scientifically Validated, Standardized [if it says it has 100g of active ingredient IT DOES have 100g], Stabilized [the ‘active ingredient is STILL active – this is VITALLY important], Efficacious products – should be encouraged – because they really are trying to HELP people with HONEST good MISSING ‘food nutrients’ that are VITAL to Optimal Health.

One day they will comprehend this paradigm shift in what is HEALTH!

By: Purple

Purple — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:51:43 +0000

“If you haven’t been there, seen it, or done an open minded investigation, you have no clue. that goes for bloggers, 20/20, doctors … anyone. Have the intellectual integrety to do an open minded investigation then the honesty to report what you find and not what you wanted to find.”

So you have been cured of your rheumatoid arthritis? No changes to diet other than taking these Mannatech pills? Since you are asking us to have “intellectual integrity” and have asked us to do an “open minded investigation”, it would be helpful to have the names of your doctors and the “internationally known medical facility” so that your claims can be substantiated.

By: Familypaladin

Familypaladin — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:19:13 +0000

Interesting times. I wish 20/20 would talk to me. I invite them to, please. I suffered from rheumatoid arthritis and was on a full spectrum of meds, including Remicid and eventually Humera while being treated at an internatinoally known medical facility. Starting in October 2002, when my liver reacted to the meds, I have not taken any – by the doctors’ orders. I have, however, taken Mannatech products. At first the doctors were reluctant, but now they accept it. I visit the rheumatology department quarterly where they are befuddled. In their words they have never had a case whre the joints have regenerated, the nodules have disappeared, the pain has gone, and the medications are no longer taken. Nearly five years now, pain, discomfort, AND medication free! I have the lab reports and X-rays to document this. Does Mannatech cure anything? Absolutely not! Does Mannatech provide the body with the nutritional support it needs to care for itself? Check my X-rays and lab work. If you haven’t been there, seen it, or done an open minded investigation, you have no clue. that goes for bloggers, 20/20, doctors … anyone. Have the intellectual integrety to do an open minded investigation then the honesty to report what you find and not what you wanted to find.