LifePharm Global’s Laminine dietary supplement popped onto my consumer advocacy radar back in 2011 when I received a new Twitter follower whose profile referenced some sort of happy pill.
I did a bit of sleuthing which led me to an egg protein pill and, after further investigation, I located what appeared to be ground zero: LifePharm Global.
Laminine is a multi-level marketing (network marketing) product which appears to be sold mainly in the United States, Canada, and the Philippines, but also briefly made the rounds in the Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the United Kingdom, and even Russia and Kazakhstan.
Over the past few years, however, interest in the product has dwindled to a tiny trickle, as indicated by these Google Trends reports for the United States and the Philippines.
* Related article: Debunking Althea Laminine distributor’s attempt to “debunk” this article.
Lofty marketing claims
According to LifePharm’s official website, Laminine is a combined amino acid, vitamin, and mineral dietary supplement which purportedly contains the “life essence of a nine day-old fertilized avian (hen) egg,” apparently important because “all the necessary life-giving ingredients to create life are at their highest levels” on the ninth day.
LifePharm’s website marketing copy claims that Laminine is a “perfect super-supplement” which is “far from a mythical tale.”
The company claims its extraction and freeze drying techniques “rediscovered by Norwegian scientists” are “patented” and the “amount of clinical studies and research…had yielded nothing less than stunning results.”
Unfortunately, much of this appears to be little more than a lot of hot air and egregious marketing embellishment eerily similar to that used to sell Liproxenol.
There have been numerous attempts by product distributors to debunk this article, but unfortunately they are just parroting back much of the same regurgitated sales copy and are unable to provide any hard evidence to support all marketing claims.
On October 22, 2013, the Food and Drug Administration of the Philippines named Laminine in an advisory statement warning the public about deceptive food supplement marketing tactics on television.
On December 14, 2014, TruthInAdvertising.org called out Laminine on its “hatched up health claims.”
Within the Lifepharm organisation, their Research Scientist Dr Edward Andujar has previously had his medical license suspended for two years in 2002 for running an unregistered narcotics treatment program.
In 2004, he was convicted of bankruptcy fraud and 22 counts of failure to file tax returns for which he was sentenced to 18 months in prison (and was upheld on appeal).
Ingredients
Laminine’s ingredient list names the OPT9 Proprietary Blend (620 mg) which is comprised of:
- Fertilized avian egg extract – protein from a hen egg like you’d buy at your local supermarket.
- Marine protein – no mention if this is from marine plant or animal sources. It would be helpful for the company to list a breakdown of the product’s specific nutrient profile.
- Phyto protein – plant protein (phyto means plant). The label provides no further details about which plants or their relative nutritive values.
Other ingredients for product stability and freshness:
- Vegetable gelatin – thickening, stabilizing agent
- Silicon dioxide – anti-caking agent to prevent ingredients from absorbing moisture and clumping together
- Magnesium stearate – often used as a lubricant to prevent supplement contents from sticking to the machinery that processes them.
Without a specific, standardised list of ingredients, it is difficult to know what active ingredients might plausibly be associated with specific health claims.
Inconvenient truths that LifePharm doesn’t want you to know
I’ve been doing consumer health advocacy writing for over two decades and, based on my observations, I think Laminine ranks among some of the most overblown marketing hype I’ve seen for a dietary supplement.
The promotional website is littered with a massive volume of basic nutrition and physiology facts meticulously interwoven with pseudoscientific marketing jargon.
The end result: the company stops short of making any overtly false claims but appears to lead consumers down a path which implies it is a clinically proven product.
Legal yes, but is it ethical?
Brilliant business plan: never let the inconvenient truth get in the way of a good marketing plan.
Therefore, the aim of this article is to provide consumers with the other side of the story, the one that LifePharm Global has not freely disclosed to the public.
After thoroughly evaluating the entire website, my biggest challenge is addressing the sheer number of misleading and confusing statements.
I will therefore try to be as systematic as possible for ease of understanding and focus on the most glaring claims.
But before I do that, I’ll need to preface my comments with the following:
Testimonials and why you can’t trust them
“But Dr. Bill, I TRIED Laminine and it WORKED for me! Are you calling me a liar?”
Actually, no, I don’t think you’re lying at all, but you may very well be mistaken.
I genuinely believe that you believe it worked for you. However, from a scientist’s perspective, personal testimonials are not always trustworthy.
Consider the following (please read carefully):
- Testimonials do not differentiate between cause and effect or coincidence. Because two things happen at the same time (coincide) does not mean one caused the other. For example, let’s say you decided to take Laminine because you’ve been feeling tired and worn out, but at the same time you also started eating better and going out for evening walks. There is a tremendous amount of scientific evidence to support that eating right and exercising will improve health and give you energy. You may be inclined to believe that it was the product that made you feel better, but if you didn’t give ample credit to the healthy food and exercise, then you’re missing the big picture.
- Whether or not you did anything else while taking Laminine, there are other extraneous circumstances which might explain why you feel better. The DESIRE to feel better can be VERY powerful. The INTENTION to feel better can exert a strong mind-body effect. If you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired, then you’re taking Laminine with the INTENTION of feeling better. When I look at the testimonials that litter the internet, most are from people (many selling the product) who tell a similar story – “I was tired, sick, overweight, out of energy, etc but then I started taking Laminine and my depression was cured in three days.” Seriously, I did see a testimonial from someone that said their depression was cured in three days. But true organic depression does not disappear in this short a time frame which clearly made me very suspect.
- When we carry out a scientific study on something like a supplement, we need VERY strict controls to make sure that the effect, if any, is due to the product itself and not other variables such as eating healthy, exercising, becoming more social, etc. Testimonials do not control for all these factors and therefore, from a science-based perspective, are unreliable.
- “But Dr. Bill, have you TRIED Laminine?” Answer: No. “Ah HA! But how can you write a review when you haven’t tried it?” Because I’m human like everyone else and I can’t tell any more than the rest of you if any effect (positive or negative) is due to Laminine, my imagination, my expectations, my hectic work schedule, my diet, my exercise regimen, stress levels, etc. A testimonial is just my opinion, your opinion, or the next guy’s opinion. It is not irrefutable evidence.
- All the above aside, the fact remains that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support all of LifePharm’s marketing claims. If you want to believe in the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny, that is your prerogative, but for me, personally, I like to see a legitimate body of evidence for products.
- If you’re on the sales end of things, maybe you know people like to be misled and that you can make a buck hawking dietary supplements to the weary and unsuspecting. Whether it works or not is irrelevant. There are plenty of sheep out there who will buy it because you say it works, but then it becomes a question of ethics.
Laminine on PBS’ American Health Journal
In July 2012, Laminine was a featured topic on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) show American Health Journal.
This episode has been plastered across the internet by Laminine distributors as evidence that the product works.
As I watched the half-hour segment, I cringed as I realised the episode played out more like a for-profit infomercial than independent scientific reporting.
Many, if not all, of the experts they interviewed appeared to be affiliated with the company which, by default, would constitute a conflict of interest.
There were numerous testimonials, but they did not really give any hard evidence of product efficacy from independent researchers.
Moreover, they had LifePharm company directors telling the camera how great their product was. Well of course. What else are they going to say?
I also noted that a number of the interviewees had a promotional website address listed below their names.
When I went to the site, I found it gave only two options: one icon to click and buy the product and the other to plug in your details so someone could contact you (a salesperson, I’d guess).
Overall, I give the American Health Journal a big thumbs down for overblown and biased “reporting.” This episode is not evidence of efficacy, but appears more like good sales copy.
Physician’s Desk Reference (PDR) listing
Product distributors have been claiming that their listing in the PDR proves the supplement works.
If you are an astute observer with a modicum of science research training, you will see that this listing really isn’t worth much – at all.
There are two main elements to the PDR listing:
- the scientific article reference list at the end; and
- the in text “research articles” on blood sugars and cholesterol
First, I’ll address the scientific articles the company lists “evidence.”
If you actually take the time (as I did) to chase down these articles, you will see for yourself that they are legitimate articles about fibroblast growth factor, but actually have ZERO connection whatsoever to the commercial products being sold to consumers.
It adds fluff to the listing but no substance.
Second, the “research articles” in the listing are flawed and incomplete on a number of levels such that they should not be making any conclusions from these “studies.”
- Both studies had a VERY small number of subjects in each group. In the sugar study, there were 11 subjects in total or 3, 4, and 4 subjects per group. In the cholesterol study, there were 15 subjects or 5 in each group. Both of these studies would likely be very underpowered, meaning the number of subjects were too few and the results could be due to random variation rather than the intervention itself.
- Following on from point 1 above, the authors of the PDR listing even state the limitations in their discussion of the cholesterol study “A study of this size has an estimated margin of error of approximately 30 percent. Therefore, while the results of this study are encouraging, additional tests with a larger sample size are needed to validate the findings.”
- There is no mention of how subjects were allocated to each group (called randomisation in research parlance).
- There was no mention of the analyses and which assays they used, coefficients of variation and all other things expected in a research write up.
- They did not appear to control for other covariates such as diet and exercise. Without fully controlling for all other factors that can affect blood sugar and cholesterol, how do they know the results were due to Laminine and not some other variable, especially in underpowered studies with such few participants in each group?
- In the cholesterol study, they used subjective questions where subjects “were asked to rate improvement in their joints, memory, skin, sexual drive, muscle tone and strength, stress levels, sleep and emotional wellbeing.”
In all, I find the PDR listing to be a lot of hot air and no substance.
If you’re a distributor, please show the PDR to a science research professor at your local university and ask them for their honest opinion about the scientific integrity of the Laminine listing.
I can tell you with reasonable confidence they will agree with my assessment.
Categorical review of marketing claims
Claim
“LAMININE provides the most essential proteins and amino acids our body needs, along with the proper transport mechanisms to direct these nutritional building blocks to where our body needs it the most.”
Analysis
This claim is misleading.
I am not familiar with any objective evidence that nutrients can be “steered” to specific locations in the body via normal digestion.
I would like to see LifePharm’s independent support for this claim.
My search of the biomedical journal databases did not produce a single result for Laminine and/or its ability to “direct” nutrients in the body.
Laminine is comprised of “essential proteins and amino acids,” the same as those found in an ordinary piece of meat, fish, or poultry from your local supermarket.
The “proper transport mechanisms” to direct these nutritional building blocks to “where our bodies need it the most” are already innately built in to our physiology.
In short, if you eat any protein source, your body will digest it down to its component amino acids (protein’s building blocks), absorb them in the intestines, and then shuttle them off normally in the blood stream to areas they’re needed.
No special bioengineering required.
Claim
“Laminine is a natural, synergistic super food… Laminine is nature’s most perfect food and the perfect combination of life-giving sustenance sourced from land, sea and plant.”
Analysis
This is a classic case of “if you can’t convince ‘em, confuse ‘em with meaningless pseudoscientific jargon. The following marketing terms are misleading and have no real qualitative or quantitative value:
1) “Natural” – this term has been used repeatedly over the years (with much success) to spruik dietary supplements. The assumption is that if it’s “natural” then it must be safe and effective.
Unfortunately, lots of “natural” substances can be quite harmful (i.e., rattlesnake venom, hemlock, arsenic, or even water if you drink enough of it!).
Moreover, “natural” does not necessarily translate to efficacious.
2) “Synergistic super food” – this is just ambiguous marketing jargon which has no practical meaning.
What exactly do they mean by “synergistic?”
And how exactly IS a super food quantified? As of this writing, I am unaware of any independent “superfood” classification criteria.
More relevant yet, one single food or supplement is only a minor part of our overall diet, and our overall diet is one piece of the broader lifestyle puzzle.
You can eat all the “super foods” you want, but if you’re smoking, drinking too much, and doing zero physical activity (i.e., desk job), then the possible benefits of a so-called “super food” would likely be negated by the sum of all the bad habits.
3) “Nature’s most perfect food….perfect combination of life-giving sustenance” – This is more marketing puffery. What exactly IS a perfect food anyway? How is this defined and quantified?
Supplement companies are notorious for propping up their marketing campaigns using ambiguous jargon which is difficult to quantify or verify.
This may elevate the product in consumers’ minds but, in reality, it holds little tangible relevance from a scientific perspective.
Claim
“Laminine…contains most known vitamins, important trace minerals, all eight essential amino acids”
Analysis
This claim celebrates the mundane and ordinary.
A varied diet which contains a wide selection of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein sources (meat, fish, poultry) will also give you the exact same vitamins, trace minerals, and amino acids, plus valuable health promoting phytochemicals.
Therefore, a reasonably sensible diet would also classify as “natural synergistic superfoods” – giving you the same results and without the added expense of costly supplements.
Claim
“8 clinical tests have been conducted which showed Laminine’s positive effects on Physical, Mental, Emotional Strengths and Overall Health”
Analysis
I believe this claim to be more marketing hoodwinking because a “clinical test” in advertising parlance is not a well-defined or regulated phrase and can therefore be interpreted to mean anything to anyone.
A search of the scientific journal article databases (PubMed etc) did not produce one single published study on Laminine.
The company claims “8 clinical tests” but we have absolutely no indication if they were conducted by independent scientists, evaluated for methodological rigor (i.e., minimize bias), or that they were even published in a scientific journal for public review.
I challenge LifePharm to provide information on their clinical tests for independent review.
Claim
“So, can your life use a change? Can you use more stamina? How about an incredibly positive outlook on life? A new feeling of wanting to affect every area of your life…you simply have to try Laminine TODAY.”
Analysis
More unquantifiable LifePharm ambiguity. Sure, we could all use a “change.”
Sure we could all use more “stamina.” We’d all love a “positive outlook on life.”
But remember, these terms mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people.
Again, this product contains all the same basic nutrients you can easily get in a normal diet which negates the need for additional supplementation.
Claim
“…partially incubated, fertilized hen eggs contained a special combination of amino acids, peptides, and protein fractions that could help provide an incredible array of health benefits when consumed by humans.”
Analysis
It is true – eating eggs provides nourishment.
However, this claim appears to be celebrating and embellishing the ordinary.
Notice the loose choice of wording, “…protein fractions that ‘could’ help provide an incredible array of health benefits…”
Translation: there is a chance it ‘could’ or it ‘could not’ provide some unspecified ‘health benefits.’
Just more ambiguity. To which specific health benefits is the company referring?
Claim
“In theory, these partially incubated, fertilized eggs – specifically 9-day-old fertilized eggs, contain all the nutrients required to start a new life. This includes vitamins, minerals and proteins, as well as important defense factors, growth factors, hormones and other biologically active components.”
Analysis
Yet again, this is just more celebrating the unremarkable and ordinary (i.e., you’re simply eating a hen’s egg).
More specifically, I am unaware of any peer-reviewed scientific evidence which supports the contention that the most nutritious eggs are specifically 9 days old.
Why not 7, 8 or 10 days? I challenge LifePharm to provide independent evidence in support of this claim.
LifePharm mentions that Laminine contains defense factors, growth factors, hormones and other biologically active components.
While these substances may prove useful for the chicken’s own development during incubation inside the egg, when ingested by humans they would be broken down by stomach acid like any other protein source and would likely have no physiological effect as their original constituents.
Claim
“A patented process extracts the critical nutritional fluid from the white of an egg at the protoembryonic stage, so we called it ProtoEmbryonic Stage Extract (PESE). The extract not only provided a mechanism of rapid transport of very critical nutrients, but also contained Basic Fibroblast Growth Factor, which is most probably responsible for the amino acids and peptides to be utilized in the right manner, by “directing” their correct use by the body.”
Analysis
A search of the medical article databases for Proto-Embryonic Stage Extract (PESE) revealed no search results for these terms.
A search of Google Scholar only produced two results, both of which were just US patent applications.
Unfortunately, a patent application does not provide any scientific validation to justify marketing claims.
If the company can provide independent evidence that PESE has specific actions and benefits within the body, I will happily consider it and publish it here.
The company’s claim that it can direct the use of nutrients in the body does not appear to have been independently verified as of this writing and, as such, appears to be speculation and conjecture.
However, recall above where I mentioned that the body is quite efficient on its own at digesting the nutrients we consume and shuttling them off to where they’re needed.
Claim
Laminine for Mood Enhancement and Reduced Depression?
“Depression is caused by many external factors, including stress. In the brain, the serotonin uptake and release mechanism is affected. Laminine contains the amino acid Lysine; derived from PESE and vegetable proteins. The combination of these two components delivers a higher level of Lysine in the OPT9 than either ingredient would by itself. Lysine is known to regulate serotonin levels in the brain.”
Analysis
This is a case of misleading cause and effect associations.
For example, here the Laminine marketing script says that:
- depression is associated with serotonin levels;
- Laminine contains the amino acid lysine; and 3) lysine is known to regulate serotonin levels in the brain.
All of the above is technically “true,” but it gives me the faulty impression that taking this product will improve depression.
To the best of my knowledge, I have not come across any independent evidence to support the idea that the product has an effect on depression.
LifePharm goes on to state that “clinical studies have shown that Laminine may be beneficial in enhancing libido among those taking anti-depressants” but my search of the clinical trials databases did not reveal a single result to this end.
The company later states that “many people taking Laminine report a pronounced improvement in their mood and an increased ability to manage stress on a daily basis.”
This is more emotive sales copy. It is based on an anecdotal testimonial data and is not part of a tightly controlled scientific experiment.
Amusing, but not independent evidence of efficacy.
Claim
Laminine Enhances Cardiovascular and Libido?
“The PESE and Vegetable proteins provide a very potent dose of Arginine. Arginine is a precursor of nitric oxide and plays a vital role in a variety of biological processes. The inner lining of blood vessels uses nitric oxide to signal the surrounding smooth muscle to relax, thus resulting in increased blood flow. Effects include modulation of the hair cycle, and increased libido. Nitric oxide is also known for growth hormone formation, increasing defense of the organs against effects of aging.”
Analysis
This claim is misleading because it’s not a claim at all.
Rather, it is a statement of two facts which may lead consumers to draw faulty conclusions in their own mind:
- It may be true that PESE and vegetable proteins contain arginine; and
- it is involved in nitric oxide-mediated vasodilation (increasing blood vessel diameter). The assumption here is that because this product contains arginine that it will lead to enhanced libido and cardiovascular function.
To the best of my knowledge, I am unaware of any published independent scientific studies that Laminine can improve libido, cardiovascular function, or defend organs against the effects of aging.
Claim
Laminine Removes Toxins?
“PESE contains Cysteine, which is a precursor to glutathione, a powerful antioxidant, receiving much attention nowadays for healthier looking skin. Antioxidants fight free radicals, harmful compounds in the body that damage cell membranes and DNA. Free radicals occur naturally in the body, but environmental toxins (including ultraviolet light, radiation, cigarette smoking, and air pollution) can increase the number of these damaging particles. Free radicals are believed to play a role in aging as well as the development of a number of health problems, including heart disease and cancer.”
Analysis
It may be technically true that PESE contains cysteine and that this amino acid is involved as a precursor to the antioxidant glutathione.
As with nearly all of the other Laminine claims, this one is another misleading melange of words which lead to faulty extrapolations of efficacy in the minds of consumers.
To the best of my knowledge, I have not seen a single published independent scientific study which shows Laminine can protect against free-radical induced heart disease and cancer.
Does it work?
There are numerous weepy and emphatic testimonials scattered across the internet with people declaring Laminine worked miracles, changed their lives, and helped their dog sleep better, but this must be taken with a grain of salt given that it is a multi-level marketing product heavily promoted by LifePharm distributors.
Anecdotal testimonials may appear truthful and heart-felt and many users may, in fact, believe it helped them, but just the intention to improve can be enough to give the impression it “worked.”
Over the past 20 years, I’ve seen dozens of network marketing companies just like LifePharm pop up, produce an army of distributors all claiming their product is the best ever, and then once the product runs its life-cycle and goes on the downslide, they pack up shop and move onto the next big thing.e
Side effects: is it safe?
I am unaware of any consumer reports of significant adverse effects from taking Laminine.
Given that it is just an amino acid, vitamin/mineral supplement, I can’t imagine it would have much of a pharmacological effect in the body of a well-nourished individual.
One woman on RipOffReport.com claimed it gave her hot flashes but, in all fairness, this is a testimonial too and there is no way to determine if it was the product or something else that caused this.
Consumer complaints
The bulk of information on the internet and social media appears to be driven by its independent sales distributors which appear to crowd out complaints from the search rankings.
However, the few consumer complaints that have appeared showed up on RipOffReport.com and ComplaintsBoard.com, with the latter referring to possible improprieties regarding cancelling his membership before the 30-day trial.
A number of other comments, good and bad, appear in a bulletin board-style forum.
How much does it cost?
I performed an internet search to find out how much Laminine costs and where consumers can buy it.
I noticed a rather large disparity in prices which might be due to the fact that it’s a multi-level marketing product and perhaps its distributors are able to sell it retail for whatever they want.
One website had a Laminine 3 Pack on offer for $108 plus $8.95 shipping and handling, the Family Pack Plus for $320 plus $21 S&H, and finally the Fast Start Package which also looks to be a business builder package (become a distributor) for $1035 plus $36 shipping and handling.
According to promotional literature on the LifePharm website, the direct wholesale cost if you become a distributor is $33 per box and this can be on-sold via retail for $43.
I won’t say that Laminine is an MLM scam, but I do think you should do your homework before investing in any MLM “business opportunity.”
For more information on whether joining a multi-level marketing company is right for you, visit: https://www.mlmwatch.org
How to get a refund
Consumer reports regarding refunds suggest that in order to get a refund, you must ship back the empty containers to the company at your own expense for $3.31.
There are also reports that a call center is uses to address customer service issues which means they can only follow the protocol they’re given (and probably not offer much else regarding health questions).
Conclusion
Overall, I find Laminine to be nothing more than a simple amino acid, vitamin, and mineral supplement, all of which are readily available in a standard diet.
The carefully orchestrated mix of invented jargon and scientific facts stops short of making overtly false claims, but may lead consumers to make faulty extrapolations of efficacy which are not substantiated by independent scientific evidence.
In conclusion, I would discourage consumers from purchasing Laminine or recommending it to others.
Bill, as i understand it, legend has it that the doctor who ‘invented” the product, eventually died and took the process to the grave. it was “rediscovered ” years later…When I heard this I thought, What kind of scientist doesn’t keep notes?
Who are you people? I had chronic fatigue for over 20 years. Everything I tried did not work until I used Laminine.
I’m glad you all have your attitudes cause that’ll take
the guard down on laminine because I want this to stay
around for the long term cause I was tired of feeling like
that. Keep taking stuff that you believe is so great. I’m taking something that works!
Thank you for expressing your opinion. Please be so kind as to share this article with your friends.
There is insufficient scientific evidence to prove God exists also! I guess you could say whatever works for the individual.
ignorant comment Bill. Of course thier is scientific eveidence of the existance of God!(Hebrews 3:4) Of course, every house is constructed by someone, but he that constructed all things is God. . .
SO then, who made the universe and all the inticate and infinite things in it? Evolution? Mathmatically impossible!Besides. we have the Bible which gives is the truth about God and his plan.
This article is about Laminine and the lack of evidence for all health claims, not God. I am, however, seeing a trend in that the number of people who use and sell Laminine also tend to have religious leanings as well.
Linda, you are hilarious! Thanks for the hit of sarcasm my weekend has just been topped off perfectly. Scientific evidence of the existence of God in the bible! hahahaha. Classic!
We’re trying to prove the existance of God here?! Back to Laminine, it’s a MLM product, nearly always sold by church people obsessed with their God. Totally agree with Rhen.
Autor napísal jednu pravdu a to že sa mu “… zdá…”
Je to v zavere článku
Poznám množstvo ludi, ktorým užívanie Lamininy pomohlo a to nie na zaklade subjektívných nalezov ale na zaklade objedktivnych lekarskych vyšetrení.
Text článku po odbornej stránke je asi taky ako keby som ja písal o astronomii, ktorej vôbec nerozumiem
Ale aj takí ludia sú, žial
Tiann, I’m glad you say Laminine has worked for you. I think you will agree though that the company that makes Lamine would be able to help a lot more people if they funded a study to see if it really works and got it published in a medical journal. This study would not be too expensive to do. Heck Id even accept a study done by a graduate student in college if it was done correctly.
For me, testimonials can’t be all there is. I have to see the research. I’m sure you can accept that point of view.
I wouldn’t wait for a medical journal to take it up as Big Pharma only deals with a sick care model and owns most of these medical journals. If I believed everything my AMA doctors said to me, I would be in my grave right now. They get no or hardly no nutritional courses in their curriculum, they spend 15 minutes or less on you (an integrative medical doc spends 1 hour with you), and they don’t follow through to help their patients out for the most part (there are some good docs but a majority are sucked into a system that is detrimental to both them and their patients). If modern medicine were so good with all these Big Pharma meds, we should all be walking around healthy as can be, but we are sicker and sicker. So in my view, no medical journal is going to take this up because it could hurt their drugs profits. Might as well take it to the people and let them decide one way or the other on it. I don’t think it is a silver bullet but it is something worth trying. What if it were as simply as not getting really good amino acids in a GMO processed world?
Josie, I couldn’t agree with you more. You are perfectly right in what you are saying. The set-up of a clinical trial is very expensive (yes Joe Cannon, very expensive), time consuming, and in the end, the results of a Laminine clinical trial may not even see the light of print in a ‘serious’ medical journal, particularly if it is as effective as many people claim, for the reasons you specified Josie.
However, we must give credit where credit is due. Bill wrote a very solid scientific review of Laminine, and he is right. The company failed to substantiate their claims with any scientific, credible studies. Apart from claims about studies (but with no references) and personal testimonies, the company does not provide any credible information. Bill emphasizes that very well in his review.
On the other hand Bill, doctors don’t know everything (I work in a hospital and see this every day). Oftentimes they cannot explain why something happens to their patients. Not only that, but most of the time they are unwilling to admit or even to look into a natural cure which could be more efficient than an artificially produced drug. This may also be the case due to legal reasons. However, the human body is an enormously complicated machine and modern medicine is nowhere near in fully explaining its workings. Thus personal testimonies may be true, and there may be real, positive effects of Laminine on the human body for which an explanation is not yet available.
In conclusion, it looks like it is up to each individual consumer to make up their mind if Laminine works for them until some unbiased clinical trials are conducted. And even then there may be no clear explanation of why and how it works.
Hi Alex, I could not agree with you more. I never said I had all the answers. I think you rightfully understood my intention of writing the article, which was simply to ensure consumers have both sides of the story. If they want to buy Laminine, that’s fine, just so long as they feel they’ve made an educated decision. Cheers
Joe, you don’t seem to understand how the whole medical world works. You don’t seem to understand how expensive clinical trials are and where funding comes from. Hell, most of the clinical trials done even by big pharma are a joke and I am a pharmacist who reads clinical trials all day. The doctors don’t know much about alternative medicine as someone stated earlier, so they really can’t get away from the traditional medicine. There are many alternative medicine products that I can name from the top of my head that have helped people with arthritis pais, diabetes and many other diseases. Speaking getting things published in a medical journal. I don’t recall a single medical journal that talks about how Vitamine C is used to cure a lot of medical conditions. Not only is it cheap, but also very effective at high doses. The reason why you don’t read about stuff like this is b/c big pharma will never allow medical journals to publish things like this.
DP, appreciate your feedback. I’ve read my share of studies also and while I do agree no study is perfect, getting published is still something they should strive to do.
While I know some publications may indeed by biased in what they allow, not all of them are influenced by big pharma. I do agree pharm should get out advertising etc in journals.
for argument sake even if they are all biased, in this day and age, anybody can do a study and “publish” it via a blog for the world to see. Then other peers could see what was done, try to reproduce the study and comment on what was done.
In today’s world a college student could easy do such a study, get the product for free from the company (or buy it. colleges can afford this) and try to get it published – or if they can’t – publish results on a website. I would accept this as proof of a supplements efficacy if it was full disclosure of all that was done.
I usually have high standards for supplement studies but in this age of information, I will even lower the bar to the scenario I just described.
All I ask is a good study that lets me see everything that was done – stats, materials/ methods etc.
Why has nobody in the supplement industry ever tried to do what I am suggesting? I hear a lot about conspiracies of big pharma etc. but I just cant buy that anymore. It’s just too darn easy to dissimulate facts and truth.
I fully agree with the need to have solid case studies. If so many claims are given there does need to be research with more than one clinical trial. However, I cannot deny the effects it has had on my mother who has faught chronic fatigue and depression since I was 12. 11 years later she starts this laminine. My family has been in the natural healthcare business my entire life and my mother has tried hundreds of remidies all of which helped very little. My mother now sings songs again and helps clean up messes. She says she feels good which I can’t ever remember her saying in my lifetime. I’m not sure why solid research has not been done on this and i hope it will but just seeing my mother happy has been better than I could have ever hoped for.
Hi Dr. Bill,
Have you tried Lamanine? I have and it’s helped me tremendously. I am sleeping through the night all night and deeply after years of insomnia. I had extreme pain from Fibromyalgia in my legs, arms and shoulders and it’s gone. I was suffering from low mood, high cortisol and weight gain. I’m losing weight and am able to deal with stressful situations better . I had inflammation in my joints and the inflammation (and pain associated with it) is gone. When I tried Laminine, I tried it alone, stopping all vitamins and supplements and made sure that I monitored all of my intakes (water, food, food types etc,) and made sure that I wasn’t doing anything different. I was extremely skeptical in the beginning and for months and refused to try the product even after a friend placed me on auto ship 3 months before. The week I tried it, (the week after Thanksgiving) my back went out and I just lost my job. I was laying on the floor, trying to get out of pain, didn’t have the time to even research the product yet and saw the bottle on my table. I said, “I’m going to try this, even if it kills me!” I started taking it and in 4 days, I had no pain, was sleeping better, had better moods and was up painting my apartment. I was truly amazed and spent hours researching the product online. I’m not trying to sell anything or convince anyone, but have shared my testimony with others who are trying the product and getting great results. I respect your opinions as a medical professional and your desire to reveal rip off companies, but have you tried the product?
Whenever I hear the words “my testimony” I think Mormon blind faith. Without solid medical studies conducted by independent laboratories, I cannot believe that any of the claims are valid. My mother is a distributor and we have had more than one argument about the fact that I will not try Laminine because there is no medical proof, only testimonies – not to mention that the processing of 9 day old fertilized eggs just creeps me out.
Don’t tell me how it’s worked for you, any snake oil salesman can present someone who has been cured by his oils. Show me the proof in a real medical journal.
Finally, someone with critical thinking skills! When I see the religious fervor around products like this, it doesn’t even surprise me that people join cults and drink cyanide-laced Kool-Aid. Thanks for your comment Janet.
Thats good to hear Tiann, arent you lucky Bills not your Doctor !
I am really enjoying educating myself through this website. Lets not put others down. We all have a right to speak to our conscience and Dr. Bill is doing that.
Hi Dr. Bill,
I have and still take Laminine? I have been for 4 mostiil cant sleeping through the night, still have pain from Fibromyalgia in my legs, arms and shoulders and it’s not gone. I was suffering from low mood, and weight gain. situations better . I have inflammation in my joints and the inflammation I before. I signed up only to use for myself. I would never ask anyone to try it until I see something..That has not happen yet. I want to know how they r getting this from the egg.. I can’t seem to find out..does anyone know ?
Hi Peggy, thanks for writing. The product itself is made of a hen egg protein like you’d buy at the supermarket which, for the most part, makes it a rather underwhelming and unimpressive. If you read my post again, scroll down to the heading “Laminine Testimonials and Why You Can’t Trust Them.” In it, I talk about the power of suggestion and the intention to improve. In the marketing/advertising of many supplement companies, they ask things like “are you stressed, fatigued, or just not quite feeling 100%? Well we have a pill for you that will fix this up.” The reality is, daily life can sap your energy and not everyone feels 100% all the time, even when you’re totally normal. The suggestion that you can take a pill to feel better can have a very potent psychosomatic (mind over body) effect. The intention of feeling more energetic may be enough to feel better with or without taking a pill. I am currently investigating labs which can do a full chemical analysis on the product to see what its specific constituents are, if it is pure egg protein, or if it is, perhaps, adulterated with something else. I will keep you posted. Thanks for your post.
You may think it is overhyped, but the product definitely works. Sorry to inform you. It even worked for my dog and others’ pets. So the placebo effect cannot be blamed.
Try it before you criticise. I have not come across anyone who has taken it for at least a couple of months, who has not noticed a change in their health status.
Exactly! I’m a big skeptic about MLM and it’s products, but this one is different. It’s proven to be very effective for me and my husband and we’ve only taken it for over a week.
Sorry, nutrition blogger! This thing is even inexpensive in relation to what it can do for you.
Proven by whom? Where can I find this proof in writing – by an external independent source?
Hi,
I am not fun of networking there are lots of people invite me about it I always turn them down. but they introduce Laminine on me as a food supplement and they want to let me try the product to see the effect by my self and decide. when they say about a supplement that has a stem cells well, i really believe in it if the products really have stem cells. because I also heared some experiment or research about stem cells.
Due to my Aunt how really want to try Laminine I decide to get 3 boxes and automatically became a member. I tried it so that I can testify to my friend if it works or not. I tried taking Laminine only 1 capsule that night but automatically after taking it i feel something from my head down to my nose and got a runny nose after 2 days its gone. also i notice on the 3rd day after a shower I normally comb my hair i got less hair fall and less mess at the end of the day. I also notice starting the 3rd day I have a deep sleep. my little baby girl only drunk 150 ml of milk, usually she should drink 450ml due to my deep sleep till now. at 9th days i notice my right eye has a clear vision when I wake up in the morning and use my computer. it seems like a newly cleaned glass so clear. on the 10th day some bump grow on my left superior lacrimal punctum for 2 days. Iam still looking forward for some changes on me while taking Laminine. Laminine works for me.
I also let my son drink laminine. april 24 i let my son drink laminine because he has a cough I thought he will have asthma again because he has swimming lesson this summer after 3 days its gone. usually after swimming every summer his asthma triggered and cant finish his swimming lesson. now Iam looking forward that my sons eye vision will be healed. I am not really after for my commission on networking but eventually if I like it or not It will automatically add to my account. I am after in helping seek people to give them hope while taking laminine.
For those people who is very suspicious about this product. why try it before you say anything.
for me It works but it really depend on the person. every person has a different effect. it sometimes makes you feel tired and sometime hot flashes because the cell is healing you from the stress on that day or what they call detoxifying.
I am happy to share this with all the readers. Hope they learn something about my comments.
I too was cynical. But when I tried the product and saw real changes in my body, I could not doubt its efficacy.
The real test is whether it works on animals too. They are not as suggestible as humans.
The answer is an emphatic YES it works for animals too.
You can criticise all you want. When a product works people reorder regardless of bad press.
I’ve never read anything about Laminine until today but using it for 3 months as all of my family is using it for good health with results nothing short of miricle. I just feel FANTASTIC!! I’m not selling it or promoting it to anybody, however just couldn help myself but leave this comment.
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion but it’s quite interesting to see how can these opinions prevent us from experiencing many truly life changing things & events in life (including Laminine in my opinion) just because…
Hi Nena, Great. Please be specific regarding the health conditions we’re talking about and the results you’ve achieved.
Ohh really? Poor doctor he could be a millionaire right now!
Why don’t you try it yourself?
I have had many of these companies approach me & i’ve tried many other MLM health products & always got my money back when I felt nothing.
Laminine is different, & others I know, are having tremendous results in their lives, from ending depression, to reversing their Parkinsons!
I have not made 1 dime on this product, but I have no problem speaking my truth and helping others and what else is possible?
It’s time to think outside the BOX!
Thanks for your comment Sheila. Most appreciated
I wholeheartedly agree with her post.
This past year 2012, from January thru March I was going through an extremely stressful time. A friend GAVE me 6 bottles of Laminine to see if it would help with my ‘mental muddle’, feeling sick due to the stress & exhaustion. After taking Laminine for about a week or 2 I began noticing a difference. I kept taking it through May & continued to regain my health.
I ran out of what my friend gave me. The stress increased even more due to a cancer diagnosis with a family member in June & I began to crash again by July. I had completely forgotten about Laminine til this week (end of Sept. 2012). I am buying some bottles to get started to regain my health again. There is nothing else I can contribute to very positive changes in those months I was taking it. It’s not the products fault (especially where I stopped taking it) & that I continued to be under a lot of stress & crashed again.
IT DOES WORK EVEN IF YOU DON’T THINK IT DOES. If you haven’t tried it, stop negating that it works!!
I have done my own study because I have learned I can’t believe everything I read and I agree i sientific study would be benificial for the sucess of the produce. My study was I had gone through two surgeries from June 2011 ( 95% blockage in my cardioid artery) and September 2011 ( abdominal hernia) I was fully recovered by early November 2011 but I felt sluggish I was introduced to the product by a family member I was sceptical but after less than a week I went from only being able to work 3 hrs. a day to over 10 hrs. a day ( yes I am self employed that explains the hours) So I was very happy for the energy and sense of well being however I have had an on going problem from a terrible accident 10 years ago that left me in a coma for 7 days after my recovery my only notciable problem I had was scar tissue on my right lung that my doctor said was never going to go away and I would have to live with the flem build up that I would have to cough up every 3-4 days well two weeks into taking the product I noticed I was no longer caughing up. so a few months went by and I ran out of the product and I still felt good but figured maybe it was all in my mind and about two weeks later the flem cam back and I was getting ready to go to my doctor but remembering what he said so I re ordered the product and again about two weeks later the flem and coughing stopped so in July 2012 I ran out again the samy thing happend and I reordered enough to where I just ran out last week and guess what the flem is back. I did a re order today and once and for all after reading your forum I challenge you to try the product and the worse thing that can happen is you get your refund. I make no money from the product. But I will report back in about 2-3 weeks wether my personal study works for me.
Best of luck. Cheers
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the time and effort you took to create this objective review. As you state, it’s nearly impossible to find anything but glowing reports of this miracle ‘happy pill’ when searching online due to the fact that it MLM product and between the distributors and the manufacturer the internet is flooded with marketing hype. Keep up the good work. Thank you again.
It is my understanding that the “director” in Laminine is Fibroblast Growth Factor. There are several studies on this at pubmed.gov and its role in regeneration on a cellular level. The company claims that Laminine is the only known food source for this growth factor. Although there are several personal experiences of users on youtube which may reflect the claim of the placebo effect, Laminine also has 11 Clinical Studies which show what it can do. I do not sell Laminine but I am trying it out and researching its effects. It seems that your article is based more on personal opinion than actual research.
Hi Billie,
1) I would suggest that you go to the following link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Fibroblast%20Growth%20Factor and let me know which specific studies you are referring to which support Laminine’s marketing claims. If you can provide these, then I will happily review and report accordingly. From what I can see, there is not a single relevant study there which lends any credence to LifePharm’s marketing script.
2) You state: “The company claims that Laminine is the only known food source for this growth factor.” Where is the evidence for this? I encourage you to find the support for this and provide me with a link for my review. Thanks.
3) Personal experiences and testimonials are standard fare for these types of products, particularly when there is scant to nil scientific evidence in support of exaggerated marketing claims. Unfortunately, testimonials do not separate cause and effect from coincidence so there is no way to know if there was any physiological influence. Plus that, when I testimonial provider says they “feel better” or “have more energy” how can this be quantified to know if it’s real or a placebo effect?
4) You mention LifePharm/Laminine claims 11 clinical studies. Please provide me with these studies. In which medical journals are they published? Can you send me a link so I may review and report on them?
5) I appreciate your comments, yet I stand by my article. The reality is, as of this writing, LifePharm still has a lot of evidence to provide to support its lofty marketing claims. I challenge you to take the company to task and make them provide relevant scientific support for their assertions.
Thank you for your comments and please be sure to post a link to my article on your Facebook Laminine pages. I would like more LifePharm distributors to read and distribute my article. Thanks for your support.
Interestingly when growth factors start to get bandied about … FGF-2 is probably not the major GF involved, and moreover, without IGF-1 as a co-factor for FGF-2’s effects, just mentioning FGF-2 only indicates there isn’t really a depth of knowledge or understanding to FGF-2’s diverse applications. Remember too that injesting FGF-2 just makes it another bunch of amino acids to digest unless there is an undisclosed transport mechanism.
Two completely separate issues are involved here and they each need to be considered without intruding into each other’s qualities: product claims and product efficacy. The claims might be unjustified but should in to way detract from what the product has to offer and in view of many users’ claims the pill may have great benefit.
Hello Dr. Bill… I can give you the link to Laminine Clinical Studies…
I am a Laminine User who benefited the amazing results of the product.
What do you think?
Hi John,
Thanks for this link. Most appreciated. I have gone through and clicked on each link. Of 20 links under Laminine Clinical Studies and Medical Research, 16 of them are either 1) advertising materials; 2) dead link; 3) repeat links of other links; or 4) completely irrelevant altogether. In sifting through this mess, there are a couple published studies using Young Tissue Extract which I am evaluating in depth right now for scientific rigor and relevance to the marketing claims. There are some limitations to these studies which have not been made public. More to come. Thanks again. Cheers, Bill
I know that you are more concerned about the money you would spend on wht you claim as a “useless” product… But, have you considered the fact that even alopathic medicines contain ingredients that can be found innn your daily diet..? But why do you still take them when you are sick..?
Furthermore, your “critical analysis” is outdated… research more and please send me your further analysis so we cab help each other out… Thank you!
Hi Arman (real name),
I have removed your Laminine promotional spam link but am still publishing your comment. I know you have a vested interest in selling the product so I cannot expect you to take off your blinders for long enough to see that the company has scant to nil scientific support for its marketing claims. Please read my comments below to Billie which may be of some use to you.
I stand by my contention that Laminine’s marketing claims are not supported by reputable and relevant scientific support. I challenge you to find the independent objective evidence that proves otherwise.
In the meantime, I would appreciate if you can post a link to my article to everyone in your network and on all available Laminine Facebook pages. Thanks.
My mom started taking Laminine a couple of months ago and for some reason has stopped coughing (a dry, frequent cough that she has had for many, many years). I appreciate your research into this product as I was thinking about trying some myself. I have no way of knowing whether my mom’s coughing stopping has anything to do with this product or not, but the doctors have done everything they could think of to stop it without success, so whatever it did, we are all thankful!
Thanks Beth,
Im happy to hear your mother is doing better.
Kind regards,
Bill
Hi Beth,
I am happy to hear that your mother’s problem was solved.
My mother had the same problem. She was coughing non-stop. Same symptoms as your mother for over a year and doctors were running out of treatments. Her cough finally subsided when I read the side effects of cholesterol medication she was taken. I told the doctor is he could change it and he did. A couple of days later, it had stopped.
I do want to say that I tried a bottle of Laminine. I had these sores behind my legs, below the knees, for over a year that would not go away with anything. Even the doctor gave me a cortisol cream and to no avail. 15 days later after trying this product, the sores have dried and disappeared. My wife noticed and asked me what cream I was placing on the sores and I told her none. She did not know I was taking the product. She is a very skeptical woman and she told me that it had to be this product.
I am not promoting this product yet.
I bought the product because of a friend of mine who was excited of the results his wife was experiencing. It was cholesterol related.
I am the type of person that will try things on my own before buying into the hype and tell others. So far, this is the first time I mention it. I will buy another bottle and see how it goes.
The reason for using this product is to see the effects it has on diabetes and HPB (me). There has been no significant changes in my results. But as all nutritional products, they take time before anyone sees any benefits; that’s if this product has any that promotes significant results.
I am very happy to see that your mother is doing great.
Thanks for this article, which confirms my suspicions. Today I saw “American Health Journal” on PBS, on which this product was featured–it really looked more like an infomercial than a real health info show. It is disturbing that this would be featured on PBS as if it were real, again using pseudo-scientific logic and personal testimonials from an actor who suffered an aneurism and several strokes. It implied that brain function, especially after a stroke, could be enhanced and damaged areas in the brain would be repaired.
I have been on the product for about 6 weeks. I first took it with out knowing what it was promoted to do. I have never felt better mentally, have lost 16 pounds without changing diet or physical routine. I gave to 2 other friends, who had suffered as i did from depression, and severe mood swings do to head trauma, they experienced the same result.
some say
Paul says:
July 31, 2012 at 03:38
Please be careful with this product. It can lull you into a false sense of security. It is partly placebo and partly just feeling great for the first few months because, yes, of course it’s healthy… equivalent to eating very well and exercising, so yes, you should feel great. But depression and mood swings will creep right back and you will realize that it is a very healthy supplement but that you were very gullible to believe it was a miracle that would end depression and serious mood swings or change your life
——————
SO HOW WAS IT RIGHT NOW?
My wife used to say that she thought i was bi-polar, i can honestly say that it has changed my life and maybe even saved it!
Maybe you should believe that “if it’s too good to be true, then maybe it’s not true”… wiser men than me have said this.
Please be careful with this product. It can lull you into a false sense of security. It is partly placebo and partly just feeling great for the first few months because, yes, of course it’s healthy… equivalent to eating very well and exercising, so yes, you should feel great. But depression and mood swings will creep right back and you will realize that it is a very healthy supplement but that you were very gullible to believe it was a miracle that would end depression and serious mood swings or change your life.
yes dr bill exercise physiologist,you should try this product before giving us your testimonial.your review is based on nothing more than your opinion.i dont give credence to any testimonials.if i want to try something i try it if i dont feel any positive effects i stop using it or doing it as the case may be.if you havent tried it then your opinion is merely speculation,mundane and ordinary.,not relevant in a court of public opinion.
Thanks for visiting and for your comment, Ray. Please be so kind to spread the word about my article.
I found your analysis to be well thought out. I am not a distributor. I took the product without knowing what it did or what to expect, just that my sister (who is a nurse and thinks it is helping her) recommended I try it. I have only taken it one morning and one evening. I felt a brain “buzz” in a good way — felt like my brain was making more connections and felt clearer headed. It was quite definitive. I have not taken any more since (this was 10 days ago) but will continue with the bottle. The studies that you are expecting to see would not be funded by the large pharmaceutical companies, as studies for drugs are … that is most likely why you are not seeing the studies you expect in the resources you mention. The health benefits of the product out of necessity must be loosely stated because we live in the United States, guys. It is not legal to say that anything cures anything. I suggest you try this product. It really does work. I have nothing to gain by saying this. I don’t like MLMs either.
It flat out works! Whether you believe in it or not. Try it and see.
I love Tupperware, Herbalife, Melaleuca, Amway, Avon, Forever Living, all multi billion MLMs.
You may dislike the methods of some reps, but you cannot deny they are successful companies with products that people love and want. Get over it!
Because of LAMININE i have help many people healed from their pain & desease. Why, don’t you try it first? Before you make any comment…This product has produced many miracle stories in my country, The Philippines. Peace & GOD Bless to you.
Thank you for your kind words and for taking a moment out of your day to leave a comment. Bless your kind soul 🙂
Ma’am good day, I would like to ask if pagmagtitake ako ng Laminine, is it lifetime or it depends? I’m from Philippines ma’am basically here in Negros Occidental. Wishing for your reply. Thanks
Dr. Sukala,
First, I want to be up front and say that I proudly take Laminine everyday and share it with as many people as I can. For me, this has nothing to do with making money as I am retired and don’t need the money. For me it is about the results I see in so many people. Like the 14 year old autistic boy who is now talking and actually joking around with his parents and sleeping soundly for the first time in his life. Like the woman who was diagnosed with numerous degenerative diseases, was on multiple medications and had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying everything the doctors could throw at her and had literally given up on ever feeling joy again. This woman is now healthy and joyful for the first time in over 10 years. Or, man who has regained much of his function after a terrible stroke. Or the man who was close to suicide due to Bi-Polar disease who is now living a happy life. The list, Dr. Sukala, is very long.
Your article was forwarded to me by someone who is considering Laminine to help with a chronic medical condition that the medical profession has been unable to adequately address. Based on your uninformed article, she now doubts the validity of Laminine. So, for her sake, and that of your readers, I want to respond to your laundry list of negative “opinions” about Laminine.
It is interesting to me that your first comment deals with the fact that Laminine is marketed through MLM/Network Marketing. You even provide a link to a website whose only objective is to denigrate nutritional products that are sold through the Network Marketing business model. The owner of the site is Dr. Stephen Barrett who made a career of unjustly attacking legitimate MLM products. He is nothing more than a shill for Big Pharma. So, it is clear that your analysis starts with that bias.
Your point by point criticisms of Laminine, and the “claims” made about it, are very selective and, on their face, would be accurate except that you, unfortunately, do not address the key facts.
First, you will never find research on “Laminine” because the research was done in Norway on Young Tissue Extract (YTE). YTE is the extract in Laminine. Laminine is simply a product name. I will be happy to provide you with the actual studies if you give me an email address where I can send the rather large documents. These studies are very significant in their findings. In fact, I will have a highly regarded research professional contact you directly to discuss these studies and the proven science on Laminine.
Second, you mention Fibroblast Growth Factor (one of the most significant constituents of YTE) but you fail to mention the massive amount of research of FGF available at PubMed.org. As of today, a search on the PubMed website listed 38,894 studies. Some of these studies deal with issues of neuropsychiatric diseases, including autism, depression, bi-polar, etc. The very conditions you say Laminine cannot help.
Dr. Sukala, it appears that you are basing your very “scientific” sounding opinion of Laminine on limited and biased information. Did you call the company to speak with someone who could answer your questions and provide you with research documentation? Have you ever tried Laminine yourself? Have you ever spoken directly with someone who has gotten medically documented results with Laminine or have you simply dismissed everyone’s experience as anecdotal and placebo? In the name of providing a service to your readers, you are doing them a great disservice as Laminine is a great gift to humankind. If you are truly interested in providing accurate, unbiased, objective information to your readers, I hope you will look deeper and share the truth about Laminine. I am happy to help to ascertain the truth.
Thanks,
Pope McElvy
Hi Pope, thank you for taking a moment to leave a comment. I am aware that you are a Laminine distributor, so I’m afraid we may just have to agree to disagree (you call it a “great gift to humankind”). I’ve been in the health field for a very long time now and have seen more MLM products come and go over the years, all making the same lofty promises for products (or the constituents which comprise it) with very scant evidence. Anecdotal testimonials do not separate cause and effect from coincidence and are therefore not reliable from a scientific perspective.
I am aware that weepy testimonials make for a compelling and emotive story, but there are a tremendous number of factors which contribute to either optimal or poor health. To give you an example, in my field, I often see people give up smoking, 2 liter bottles of coke, and cheeseburgers in exchange for salads, exercise, and a dietary supplement (could be Laminine or any other product). Not so surprisingly, they lose weight, feel better, and their overall health profile improves. So you have to ask the question: were the health improvements due to the lifestyle changes (i.e., quit smoking, move more, eat less) or can you narrow it down and pin the success only on the supplement? Again, individual results must be put into context before you can go packaging it as a testimonial and then slap it on a website as sales fodder. You mention a litany of personal stories, but do you personally know each and every one of these people and the specific details of their medical history? If not, then how can you reliably ascertain that the results were due solely to Laminine?
I’m happy for people to take dietary supplements if they feel like they’ve done their due diligence. Doesn’t bother me one bit. You and your followers are free to feed the sales script to potential customers, and I am free to provide an alternative view which has no ulterior motive. I think the company is making lofty claims which are very loosely worded and can be interpreted in many ways by many different people. Again, for those that don’t mind spending the cash and want to experiment on themselves, no big deal. But I leave this information to those who simply want the other side of the story.
Again, I know you are selling the product and are armed with the company-provided sales materials, so we’ll just have to agree to disagree. I do kindly ask that you share this article with others in your circle. Most appreciated. Kind regards.
I’ve recently been introduced to Laminine and haven’t bought or tried it although I have chronic fatigue syndrome. I become worried when products are associated with religion and God.
If most people had access to a product that does all the things Laminine is purported to do, wouldn’t they make it available to anyone and everyone at cost or for a donation, like Rene Caisse did with Essiac? The marketing makes it sound like it could almost heal everyone. But the only person in history that I’ve ever read about who actually did that was a man named Jesus, and he never charged.
I understand that people need to make a living wage, but I implore Life Pharm and it’s distributers, not associate this product with God or imply that it is another version of the Messiah. It isn’t.
Mr Sukala,
Your prejudice is showing!! You say ” I have seen many MLM products come and go” Yes indeed as you will also see with non MLM health products. Just a reminder of the huge MLM companies that continue to thrive over many, many years= Melaleuca, Herballife, Forever Living, Usana, New Skin, Nature’s Sunshine, Shaklee, GNLD to name a few.
Please look at facts and don’t let your prejudice get in the way of giving informed, intelligent information
At the end of the day, a product that even works on animals cannot just be placebo.
Sorry it has taken me so long to respond to your reply, but I am only now seeing this. I am not really invested in convincing you of anything so I did not know about your reply until a friend sent it to me today.
I find it interesting that you completely ignored my offer to send you the research on the extract that is Laminine. Obviously, you are not truly interested in the scientific truth about this product. Your entire reply focused on my acceptance of sales materials provided by the company and your assumption that I do not personally know the people whose testimonials I shared. The fact is that the company makes no claims beyond those established by the research which are as follows:
1. Builds collagen for healthier skin and reduced sighs of aging.
2. Regulates the stress hormone, cortisol.
3. Promotes more restful sleep.
4. Increases post-workout recovery time and muscle tone.
5. Increases libido in both males and females.
6. Improves physical strength, stamina and energy.
7. Reduces physical and mental stress.
8. Improves memory and mental focus.
9. Elevates serotonin which improves mood and feelings of well-being.
No other claims are made for Laminine by the company but there are thousands of personal testimonials that go well beyond these claims. And, yes, every testimonial that I listed in my original post were from people that I know personally.
Dr Sukala, I again offer to provide you with the studies and would like to connect you directly with a PhD in clinical nutrition who will go into depth with you on these studies. If you are truly interested in speaking the truth to your readers, you will contact me so that I can provide you with the information you, obviously, do not have in your possession. You can reach me at [email protected] or call me at 828-505-0421. I sincerely hope to hear from you.
Pope McElvy
Dear Pope,
Thank you for responding. Let me make a number of points as follows:
1) Who is Laminine’s front line of defense and why?
One thing I find a bit disconcerting here. LifePharm should not have to rely on its distributors or, in your case, a member of the LifePharm Global Network Advisory Council, running its defense campaign. All evidence which the company claims supports product efficacy should be on public display in the first place and, preferentially, each claim annotated with a reference so I don’t have to sift through articles and try to figure out what study supports what claim.
2) In your comment dated 27 September, you wrote, “I will be happy to provide you with the actual studies if you give me an email address where I can send the rather large documents.” Pope, you don’t need my permission to send me an email. Why didn’t you just look at the top of my website and hit the contact button. There is, and always has been, an email address there. You have not taken any initiative on your own to send these in nearly four months since your original post.
3) You wrote in your September post, “you mention Fibroblast Growth Factor (one of the most significant constituents of YTE) but you fail to mention the massive amount of research of FGF available at PubMed.org.” I am aware of this research and have, in fact, checked it out. Because the string of words fibroblast growth factor simply appears in the pubmed literature does not in any way make this research relevant to the specific marketing claims made by LifePharm. I challenge you to spend a week sifting through Laminine’s marketing literature and then see if you’re able to match up the claims to the individual research studies in PubMed. Pope, to make this fair and give you a bit of advice, your challenge is going to be finding studies which use FGF in supplement/pill form and in similar dosages to those found in Laminine and then document the results.
4) You wrote in your September post, “These studies are very significant in their findings.”
Pope, I’m not sure how you’re using this word “significant” here. Are you stating this as your opinion or are you referring to something as “statistically significant” within the context of a peer-reviewed scientific article. These are two very different things. In other words, it is possible for something to be “statistically” or “mathematically” significant yet in practical terms the difference between experimental groups may, in fact, be quite small. The next question is, “is it clinically meaningful.” So for example, if someone loses, say, 1 pound (0.5 kg) of weight on the scale, this may be “statistically significant” but in real-life terms, the amount of weight loss may not yield any real improvement in, say, cardiovascular risk. I think you need to better qualify your terminology here.
5) Testimonials
From a scientific perspective, let’s take anecdotal testimonials off the table. They do not constitute scientific evidence. Whether you know the people or not is irrelevant. The bottom line is that they are not scientific in nature. You can see my explanation of this in previous comments.
6) Referring to your earlier post from 27 September, you state: “Stephen Barrett who made a career of unjustly attacking legitimate MLM products. He is nothing more than a shill for Big Pharma.”
Pope, this is your opinion and is not based on fact. What evidence do you have for your assertion that he is a “shill for big pharma?” I have known Stephen Barrett for almost 20 years and, to set the record straight, he is retired and makes no money from his website (https://www.quackwatch.org). I know it’s convenient for you to just condemn him because his views do not align with yours, just take the easy road and do what everyone else in the supplement industry does which is slam any dissenting opinions as just stooges of big pharma. Sorry Pope, you’ll need to stick to the facts on this one.
Closing thoughts: my challenge/homework for Pope McElvy
Pope, I prefer to keep our interaction public and transparent so readers can make up their own minds. You’ve said you’re retired, so I assume this means you have a bottomless pit of free time on your hands. Therefore, your homework is as follows:
1) Send studies to the email address above (click contact on top navigation bar) or perhaps provide the URL links for peer-reviewed studies that you contend support laminine’s claims.
2) I would like for you to categorically address Laminine’s marketing claims as I’ve highlighted in my original article, as well as the 9 points listed above in your recent response (i.e., collagen, stress, sleep, recovery, libido, etc) and then leave in no uncertain terms WHICH articles support WHICH claims. I would indeed like painstaking, excruciating detail here to satisfy my inner geek. You may do so here in this forum for all to see.
3) Regarding Fibroblast Growth Factor, as mentioned above, I would like for you to sift through the “38,894 studies” you claim there are and then categorically match each claim with each specific study which supports the company’s claim of efficacy.
4) I would like for you to expand on your definition of “significant” as detailed above. Do you mean significant as in your personal opinion or are you referring to statistical/mathematical significance?
Bill Sukala’s homework
Pope, let me set the record straight here. I am actually not anti-supplement. Quite the contrary. I am, however, anti no objective, published, independently verifiable scientific evidence supporting lofty marketing claims. So once you have done your homework and provided me with everything you’ve got, then I will compare the marketing claims with the evidence you deem to be scientific support. I will be evaluating your homework based on the following criteria:
1) Where was this research published? I would prefer a scientific journal with independent peer review. Websites, magazines, and newsletters do not count.
2) What is the impact factor of the journal? In the scientific world, we like to see research studies published in reputable, high quality journals with a high ranking. Something published in the Journal of Bangladeshi Cow Manure isn’t going to bode well for your cause.
3) Subjects included in the study. How many subjects, human or animal, their age, health conditions (i.e., obesity, diabetes,etc) and relevance to how the product is being marketed.
4) Experimental conditions. Were the experimental conditions in the studies similar to those we might find in the real world? An example of this might be an experiment carried out for 30 days in a metabolic ward where study participants are fed strict diets and every bit of activity is accounted for. That is very different than the conditions for a free-living human who can eat whenever they want.
5) Results and statistical significance. Here is where I’ll be looking at mathematical significance relative to practical significance.
6) Study interpretation. Here is where I’d like to see the authors’ interpretation of their study results and how they move our understanding of this topic area forward. What were their acknowledged limitations and how do these results apply to real world, free-living humans.
Ok Pope, I await your response.
Kind regards,
Bill Sukala
Hi Pope,
I was wondering if you could send me articles, case studies or information that you have on laminine since you told Dr. Bill that you could send them. My email address is [email protected] mom is currently in ICu for Two months already for stroke and stage 4 undifferentiated cancer. We had her start on laminine last Saturday with a very high dosage of 12 capsules per day by a Dr. Who is highly knowledgeable on alternative medicine. The first rffect i saw was she was sleeping the whole time and her skin became clear. She hasnt slept well for long due to turning sides because of bed sores. Also she was perspiring so much and got fever. But the fever is gone now. The reason why we are pursuing for her to take laminine is because my cousin who had lupus is lypus free now and her doctors started to stop her meds…and she now just taking laminine. She even went to a one week beach vacation in Boracay just last December and went out partying in the sun!
So, let’s be clear about this offer. This person has offered to provide you with the “clinical studies” referenced in the company’s literature that you have stated you couldn’t find. You are refusing to accept his offer because he is a distributor of the product.
You responses are beginning to sound petulant. You asked for “proof” of the existence of the clinical studies. Put your big boy pants on and accept and evaluate them. Surely you have been wrong before.
Hi Sandra,
Please take the time to read my comments to Pope McElvy. I clearly accepted his offer for providing clinical studies (which he has yet to do). His being a Laminine distributor certainly gives him bias in favor of the product, but I can overlook that provided he abides by the terms I have set forth for him. Namely, provide specific studies to support Laminine’s specific health claims (and there are many). The onus is on the company and its distributors to provide proper evidence for each of their claims. To date, no one has been able to provide me with categorical evidence (independent peer-reviewed journal articles) which supports Laminine’s many lofty claims. I don’t know of your interest or affiliation with this product but, if you are currently selling or considering selling Laminine, you should be very interested as to whether or not the product can stand up to scientific scrutiny (and not claim only weepy-eyed testimonials as proof).
Hi Pope,
I’m looking into Laminine to cure my depression and sore back.. I’m curious to know if you’re still taking it every day now 5 years later and what results you’re having with it?
sounds like someone figured out a way to charge more for eggs. In the Phillipines they have a delicacy called balut – 9 day old fertalized duck eggs. This sounds pretty close nutritionally speaking and it only costs a 5 pesos an egg…
Very true…. its just like a balut.. this company is full of hype…
And what so funny they are associating Stem cell technology to a single capsule that will work the same… what a bogus hype?
I’m pretty much a skeptic when it comes to things like this, but I have to admit, I’ve been amazed at the difference I’ve felt. Why, I don’t know. But I was feeling exhausted on multiple levels, my body was changing in ways I wasn’t happy with, I wasn’t getting the exercise I wanted. Then I was given a month supply of Laminine. It took me a while to take it, and I couldn’t tell much difference at first. And then, slowly, I started feeling like my old self, my self of about ten years ago. I started looking better, I looked like I lost weight (not sure if I did, but I looked like it), I had lots more energy, I was calmer, sex was fun again. Then about two weeks ago I thought “this is crazy, I’m not going to take something every day. It must be all in my imagination. I just feel better because I am better.” And so I stopped taking it. After three days I was back to feeling ten years older, I wasn’t thinking as clearly, I started drinking cup after cup of coffee in search of energy, but all that did is give me energy but not the same calm, fun “I’m myself” energy that I’d had for the month I was taking laminine. So, now I’m back trying it again. And today, I felt better than I’d felt all last week. I don’t know why it works, as you’ve pointed out Dr Bill, maybe there’s not the research that needs to be in place, but all I can say is I feel ten years younger, tons happier, much more relaxed and all kinds of subtle changes that I don’t think are due to some kind of placebo effect — I’m actually a little grumpy that it proved to be so great. I’m grateful, but I’m not excited about taking something every day. But gee whiz, it sure is a small trade off for starting to feel good again.
Thank you Dr. Sukala for your clarification of the claims that is made about Laminine. It is nice to see through the hype. I am thinking about trying Laminine as I have a friend that reports that it helped her with one spot of psorisis and she says she feels more calm. Another friend says she sleeps a little better. I have hypothyroidism and metabolic syndrome that come with a list of symptoms the worst of which is headaches. I am just too curious about Laminine to not give it a try since it has a 30-day MBG. There is also another immune egg product called Immune 26 or i26 made by Lagacy for Life that a good friend reports has significantly helped her with a severe skin problem. That product talks about using the egg from chickens that have been immunized repeated for various bacteria which causes them to produce antibodies that show up in their eggs. I was trying to decide which of the products to try? I am very caution about MLM hype and the high cost of the products is unfortunate. I’ll report back with my personal results if they last over time. Thanks again for your objectivity. Have you thought about trying it yourself to see if you notice any benefit? If you are already healthy, I guess there would be no reason or result that you would notice. I appreciate all the great information here.
I haven’t tried this product but someone I know is pushing it. I’d like to see your response to what follows (part of Pope’s letter to you) Thanks you for your research.
“First, you will never find research on “Laminine” because the research was done in Norway on Young Tissue Extract (YTE). YTE is the extract in Laminine. Laminine is simply a product name. I will be happy to provide you with the actual studies if you give me an email address where I can send the rather large documents. These studies are very significant in their findings. In fact, I will have a highly regarded research professional contact you directly to discuss these studies and the proven science on Laminine.
Second, you mention Fibroblast Growth Factor (one of the most significant constituents of YTE) but you fail to mention the massive amount of research of FGF available at PubMed.org. As of today, a search on the PubMed website listed 38,894 studies. Some of these studies deal with issues of neuropsychiatric diseases, including autism, depression, bi-polar, etc. The very conditions you say Laminine cannot help.”
Hi Judy,
Thanks for your comment. Regarding Pope’s comments:
1) The reason we like to see rigorously-controlled scientific studies is to determine if the effect is, in fact, due to the intervention (in this case a dietary supplement). While anecdotal testimonials are interesting and can give a nudge to researchers to conduct studies, they do not constitute rigorous testing. I am not trying to discount individual experiences, rather even my own experiences with a supplement “could” be due to the product, OR could be due to a whole host of other lifestyle, dietary, exercise, metabolic factors that cannot be accounted for. To say that something is “significant” as Pope says is a bit misleading. This term means two entirely different things to the scientist and the layperson. The scientist is looking at statistical (mathematical) probability that the difference is due to to the intervention. The layperson uses significant only in the context of their personal interpretation of events.
2) If you go online, you will find scientific articles on FGF, however, these are not studies which are specifically relevant to Young Tissue Extract. Just because studies “exist” does not prove anything. They need to be interpreted and put into context. If FGF is implicated in all the conditions mentioned above, then the issue is, are these results relevant to FGF supplementation.
My aim is not to pee on the parade, rather it is simply to point out that we have a product or product line that is being sold with very scant independent scientific evidence. And even then, in my view, it appears to be a stretch to wrap it around marketing claims. Hope this helps.
The main thing that gives me pause is that while there is obviously a case for FGF being a potential aid, medically, in regrowing bits of the body that are damaged, there is also the potential for it to regrow or encourage growth of bits that are not wanted such as tumours and other cancer adjuncts. This has not yet been mentioned here.
Mooball
Thank you for your comment. I think what is most relevant is that consumers expect that because a dietary supplement is sold over the counter that it “must” be safe and effective. This may or may not be the case, but without more rigorous testing before going to market, then consumers are the guinea pigs.
My father called me this week to tell me about Laminine, he said his severe back pain is gone after three weeks on the product. He told me I should try it for my cronic foot pain, Im scheduled to have surgery on it in two weeks. It will cost fifteen thousand dollars. He said I should try it for three weeks and see if it heals before I let them cut my foot. Well Im always a skeptic so I stated doing research and saw the hype and articles like yours, so decided not to try it. Then My mom called me later and said she was just going to buy it for me to try and see if it works. So Im going to see. Im doubtful. I will write again in three weeks and tell you if it was able to heal me or if Im going to get my foot cut open instead.
I suffered from chronic depression and anxiety. I’ve taken antidepressants and suffered more with their side effects. I eat well, avoid sugar and caffeine and exercise. The ONLY product that has helped me is Laminine. …and it HAS no side effects. Now, I’m off all of my antidepressants, side effects gone by the wayside. Laminine gave me a new lease on life. I’m getting things done. I have drive. I have passion. I have my life back. So, I understand your cause; however, your cause no doubt has and will continue to deter people from even trying Laminine and they will continue to suffer, because of you. You may perceive yourself as putting light into the world but there is a darkness to the text and tone of your work here. From my perspective, you are doing more harm than good. I was suicidal. I wonder how many others will actually pull the trigger having been steered away from Laminine after reading your review.
Sir,
Actually, your review shows you know nothing about what you are speaking and would prevent me from ever trusting
anything you ever reviewed. I would presume that you get paid for writing. Since you seem to think it a crime for anyone to make money, maybe you should not write. Why do you hate and critize with such vengance about some thing you do not even know?
Thank you for taking time out of your schedule to visit my site and leave a comment. Please be sure to share with all your friends. Kind regards
Insightful article…..seems/appears to be fairly balanced, but vibes of underlying “tones of bias” …just saying ! !
We must be careful…calling the kettle black-no racial issues here- the use of the terms of endearment by ALL parties marketing health type products—-Dr. S “Analysis
I believe this claim to be more marketing hoodwinking because a “clinical test” in advertising parlance is not a well-defined or regulated phrase and can therefore be interpreted to mean anything to anyone”….. natural…etc
Another thought….regulations..far too many….not always for my own good or everyone elses for that matter…most of us grownups would rather go through our lives having some control in the day to day decision making process ….guidance and a little help along the way if asked for is always a considerate gesture…and I quote “for better or worse” however few of us regardless of your stature like someone looking over our shoulder irrespective of the intent..Once again, just my thoughts…Robert Daisley
Thanks for your comment Robert. Points well taken. If you’d like to address a bias, I would suggest a closer look at the marketing claims. It could be said my review is biased, but is actually just righting the tables of inequality. Im just calling it as I see it, my observations. Every visitor to this page is free to accept or refute it as is. Kind regards
At the end of the day it matters not what is written or what is said….it only matters or has any significant relevance if the product, service, or process in question does in fact work, function, cure, extend life to the satisfaction based on the personal perception of the end user and that user only. There are many ways in this world of ours to cure every illness or disease known to mankind; of this I have no doubt. There is no one cure-all for everyone. Each individual will respond differently to the plethora of curative devices/medicines/protocols. Even then not all will work or succeed and yes a few will succumb no matter what is done. The real issue then is what cures or fixes ( not covers up symptoms and then creates additional issues with continued usage)a disease and which methodology has the most positive cost effective impact on the patient. Making people healthy and curing disease should be the only priority in the medical industry not profits and need not be decided in the boardrooms or on senate committees. I have been unable to find any significant cure since polio was eradicated earlier last century. Its my guess they lost so much money they decided they’d never manufacture another cure just temporary fixes, in reality just keep the people sick or sicker thus continuing to perpetuate endless profits. So yes, at the end of the day the marketing battles continue……but once again it doesn’t really matter what’s written or spoken but are your customers/clients/patients healthy, happy and most important of all-alive ? ? ?
Thanks for your comment Robert. I’m not a medical doctor so I have no vested interest in keeping the pharmaceutical industry afloat. Of course big pharma is an out of control monster, but I would also say that it’s less to do with a conspiracy to keep everyone sick and rather more to do with it being a self-perpetuating money machine. At the end of the day, if more people would get off the couch, take up exercise, eat less refined fatty foods, and quit smoking, we’d see a huge improvement in global health (without pills).
As a health advocate and wellness store owner I meet a lot of people and learn about many different health issues. I have found that there are quite a few MLM products out there that are really worth their weight in gold. Laminine has been circling the block now for a few months and one of our business associates had been talking about it with us this morning.
I normally am the skeptic. I will not try a product unless I know somebody who has been taking it with great results. We will not put a product on our shelves unless we have given it a 3 month trial on a few of our clients that have shown interest.
Still, I sometimes wonder why we doubt the results of so many other individuals simply because it is an MLM product. Does the sales method have anything to do with the efficacy of the product?
In my experience over the last several years, when it comes to health and wellness there are many MLM products that make sense and work better than the prescriptions our Dr’s hand out like candy.
Did you know that less than 25 hours of study in nutrition is the norm for the medical establishment?
Thanks for your comment Christopher. The issue is not about this being an MLM product, rather what I consider to be over the top and misleading marketing. I’ve been called biased in my review, but I think in order to level the playing field, the advertising is also very biased and does not give a fair shake to the other side of the story (which I provide).
You should note that I am NOT anti dietary supplement. I am anti dietary supplements with nil to minimal independent scientific evidence. And when I see a company storm onto the scene claiming to have the greatest pill in the world and using all kinds of lofty claims, then you can bet I am going to have something to say about it. It oversimplifies human health to the point of absurdity.
As for doctors handing out meds like they’re candy, we wholeheartedly agree with each other. I hold a PhD, not a medical degree, so I cannot legally prescribe medications anyway.
As for nutrition education, I hold an undergraduate degree in nutrition which included several years worth of hardcore sciences (chem, organic chem, biochem, advanced biochem, nutritional biochem, exercise biochem, biology, anatomy, physiology, medical nutrition therapy, food chemistry, etc). This is much more than 25 hours of study.
You do raise an interesting point though. While medical doctors may have little formal training in nutrition, it never ceases to fascinate me how many people run out to buy a book written by a medical doctor. Why is Dr. Oz so popular when, as per your logic, he really knows nothing at all about nutrition.
In an effort to be “right,” many people willingly gulp down the gospel of whoever tells them what they want to hear. In this case, it’s a supplement company. You are free to act upon your own accord, but I offer my information to those who choose to think about issues a bit more critically.
It’s obvious you haven’t tried it. Why don’t you try it and then write the article versus simply going through paragraphs you claim they have on their website or brochures (which you got wrong partially too by the way cause it has 22 amino acids not 8 like you say in one of your paragraphs). You have to do a better job of editing. I decided to try it so I have just ordered it. I will tell you what I think afterwards. If you look up FGF (Fibroblast Growth Factor) in youtube, you will find an interesting presentation from an HHMI cardiologist
The thing is most people eat GMO products. These are known to damage our DNA. Check out Dr. Mercola’s website and also watch the film called Genetic Roulette. Even cows fed GMO crops have severe health issues and there are really bad infertility issues with GMO crops. People are not getting fed as well as you think; they are getting messed up proteins so your premise that people get enough amino acids in their diet is not the full picture of what is happening on an DNA level to our bodies.
I recently heard about Laminine and am now checking out the reviews. Dr.Bill has made good observations about the product and has allowed people to comment freely. But there is one thing that really sticks out . Pope says “I will be happy to provide you with the actual studies if you give me an email address where I can send the rather large documents.” Dr. Bill does not say he will provide an e-mail address to Pope so he can receive and look at the documents. Is Dr. Bill willing to look at the documentation provided by the company? The company claims 11 clinical trials. Dr. Bill can’t find them in pub med. So do they exist or not? Is Dr. Bill willing to look at those clinical trials if they are sent to him? If they are not good quality clinical trials then Dr. Bill could comment on that.
I’m wondering if Dr. Bill, who sounds open minded in his comments, is unwilling to look at all the available information about this product. If it’s lousy science then lets have a discussion about the studies the company has available to send to experts like Dr. Bill. If Dr. Bill is unwilling to look at the science provided by the company that raises questions about Dr. Bill and this review.
Dear Doug,
Thank you for your comment and level-headed approach in the delivery. Addressing your points below:
1) You are correct. I have not censored reader comments (even if I disagreed) unless they were particularly abusive (nutrition is also a religion don’t you know!). I have allowed a number of borderline hasty comments, but often choose not to debate with a polarized reader that is not clearly not open to any other point of view than their own (or rational discussion).
2) Pope only had to go to my contact page for my email address. To date, I have not received an email from him with any links to independent studies on this product or its constituents. I am happy to look at such research if it exists and am willing to change my views if a substantive body of evidence should come to light to the contrary. This is healthy/responsible science at its best. I have changed my views over the years on different nutrition/exercise concepts. Science is dynamic and changing all the time, so as a health professional it is my duty to be aware of these changes as they arrive on the scene.
3) 11 clinical trials? If they exist, I would like to have all the references so I can track them down through the university no problem.
4) You make a good point regarding quality. Simply because a study exists does not make it good science. For example, a preliminary pilot study with only 6 volunteers is hardly conclusive evidence, but if the results are favorable they may prompt further, more comprehensive, research with larger numbers of subjects, better experimental methods, and consequently better statistical power, all of which may help provide more understanding of the physiological mechanisms by which a product, food, exercise routine exerts its influence.
5) I’ve been saying this all along and will say it again, I am open to a discussion on the evidence but, to date, I have not seen any independent evidence published in a medical journal which validates all of Laminine’s marketing claims.
6) Another comment on testimonials. I can certainly appreciate individual comments stating that “it worked for me, therefore it’s good for everyone.” I am not insensitive to personal experience. However, a testimonial does not separate cause and effect from coincidence. In other words, you may wholeheartedly believe something worked for you (and in all fairness it “could” have), but the human body is perpetually affected by both environmental and genetic influences. If you made other changes in your life while simultaneously taking a supplement (i.e., healthy eating and exercise), then it is very possible that the results were more to do with healthy eating and exercise than a diet pill alone. Moreover, there is no question that the mind and body are intimately linked. If you’ve been feeling down and tired, then you take a food or pill with the express INTENTION of getting better.
I know everyone loves to assume I am pro-prescription meds, but I am not. I am going to take a pot-shot at meds here. For depressed individuals, anti-depressant meds will work in about 28% of cases, exercise will work in 24% of cases, and a placebo will work in 26% of cases. Clearly you can see the difference is purely academic. Not everyone responds to prescription anti-depressants, but it’s amazing to note that in nearly 1/3rd of all cases of depression, people will respond well to a placebo. There is ample evidence that a sustained positive outlook can favorably influence brain structures associated with depression and, in fact, help improve depressive symptoms! In other words, the INTENTION of getting better can be very powerful.
Humans, by nature, are pleasure seekers and pain avoiders and are very susceptible to the power of suggestion. We instinctively move towards what we think will help us and away from what we think will inflict harm. The desire to believe in something (be it religion, supplements, a specific exercise regimen) can be so powerful as to cloud the judgment of even the most rational of rational people. Anything that challenges this is deemed blasphemy, almost to the point where people WANT to be mislead. The point is, testimonials are indeed compelling and can prompt proper research but alone do not constitute firm evidence of efficacy, and this applies to Laminine as well.
Thanks for your post Doug. I await those studies so we can discuss them.
Kind regards,
Bill
I read this because I am trying out and researching laminine. It’s interesting to me that “anecdotal testimonials” are always discounted. I know there’s always danger of them being fabricated, but many if not most sound like sincere people reporting their experiences. If someone testifies that something works, that’s discounted unless it’s part of some scientific study. Clinical trials are very expensive, so I understand, and it’s unlikely that any independent researcher will pick it up. If the company paid for it, of course it would be discounted.
I have started taking laminine and immediately noticed results. I slept better, and my skin cleared up in two days. (I’ve had acne for decades.) I ran out, and so got to experience the difference with and without it It was noticeable. I am back on it.
I too am very skeptical of claims, but this product does seem different. Since they have a money-back guarantee, I didn’t think I had anything to lose.
I’ve found one can miss out on a LOT in life if you’re overly cautious. The most important things in my life now have come about because I was willing to try something new, take a calculated risk. I’ve had an amazing career because I’ve been willing to “think outside the box” and take such calculated risks. There is very little risk here, and I’m finding it was well worth it.
Thanks for your comment Diane. As I have said on a number of occasions in the comments section of this post and others, the objective is not to completely discount anecdotal testimonials. Rather, if we’re to evaluate any product, it would be most helpful to have some objective evidence rather than speculation and conjecture. Sure, testimonials can give rise to research, but in and of themselves must be taken with a grain of salt due to the multitude of factors which affect our physical and mental health.
Lifting content from a physiology book and weaving a marketing spin around it does not constitute proof of efficacy. Whether the company paid for the research or not, those results should be published and available in scientific journals for other scientists to evaluate the experimental methodology for its scientific rigor. While I do not have any connection to the pharmaceutical industry and, if anything, am mostly anti-medication unless it’s urgently warranted, you will frequently see peer-reviewed journal articles pertaining to prescription meds and their impact on health. This is how we move science forward, by experimenting, putting it out in the public domain, receiving criticism or praise, and then coming up with solutions to do it better.
Mention of a money back guarantee is nice, though I don’t think this should be enough to sway consumers into saying it works. But in reality, most of these companies know that even if a money back guarantee is offered, most people do not bother wasting their time, energy, or money in postage to follow through.
I’m not necessarily convinced that Laminine poses any harmful risk, so as far as I’m concerned, if someone wants to try it, then by all means, go for it. My article is simply provided to point out, in my professional opinion, how ridiculous and overblown the claims for laminine really are. It really is tiring and is the same hype that’s been used by many companies over the years which have come and gone.
Hi Diane,
I’m looking into Laminine now at this late date in time and would like to know if you’re still taking it for your sleeping and skin problems. How is it working out for you? Are you still cured?
The proof is in the pudding as they say… or is it? I’ve been taking Laminine since March of this year. On August 24th I upped the dosage to 8 pills a day which I’m still taking and that is a bit expensive, going through a $30 bottle every 4 days. After 2 months at this dosage I went and had blood drawn and then saw my endocrinologist the following week. I have Hasimoto’s Disease, Vitiligo and an inner ear issue, all of which are autoimmune problems that the regular medical establishment doesn’t seem to have a handle on what the cause is… or if they do they ain’t saying 😉 . My numbers had not improved, in fact my Synthroid medication had to be increased because of my TSH level being off even further, the first increase in over a year and a half, and my Testosterone was so low that my doctor asked if I wanted something for it which has never happened before. Even more telling perhaps, my glucose and cholesterol levels had not improved or changed one iota. So, out the window went any real world results from taking the Laminine all that time, as far as the numbers show anyway. I have to say it was a big disappointment for I had been feeling pretty good overall. I’m still taking 6 to 8 pills everyday at least till this batch runs out. It may sound foolish given the above but I think there is a benefit. I felt an effect from the very first pill I took, increased energy and alertness, and then nothing much afterwards until one day I did notice the ‘libido’ kicking in out of the blue and it took me a minute to remember that was also supposed to be a side effect of the Laminine as well… only thing that could explain it to my mind! At any rate, I should know more when I quit taking the capsules, if there is any difference at all. If not, que sera as they say. 😉
..I was told by an acquaintence to read this site before wasting my money on Laminine. HA I have no need to read it if it says negative!!!…the proof is in the pudding!!!! i have been on it since November 26-today is Dec 27. After the 3rd day my depression was gone and has not returned even with storms and full moon. My pain has decreased significantly so much that my kids are asking what? mom we have never seen you like this?? i have increased stamina, no daily acid reflux, no frequent anxiety or panic attacks, less brain fog, less food cravings SO YOU SEE I AM SOLD I WILL NEVER BE WITHOUT IT. plus everyone that I have shared it with and is using it correctly is feeling improvements. 19 people so far!
I should back up and say I have been in natural health care for over 27 years with chronic fatigue and chronic pain going on 32 years now. I have fought Autoimmune Disorders, anxiety, allergies (milk, wheat, odors, chemicals), adrenal exhaustion, Barretts syndrom, brain fog, blood sugar imbalance (son is diabetic), constipation, chronic fatigue, digestion difficulties, depression, hiata hernia, hormone imbalance (low estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, infertility with 2/5 kids), hypothyroid ( 175 mg just recently 100 mg levothyroxine), chronic pain in low back down legs, heart pain, chest, arm shoulder pain (this year), Sjogrens Syndrom, Ebstein Bar, MTHFR (Idon’t produce the enzyme to make folic acid work so I don’t get my B vit.). I have a long road to go but NOW I HAVE HOPE. I have tried hundreds of herbs, medications, several dozen therapies to little or no avail. I AM HAPPY GOD HAS LED ME LAMININE. 🙂
Dear Shari, You have not fully disclosed in your post that you are also a Laminine distributor with a vested interest in selling the product. I think this adds an element of bias to your post. It is also noteworthy to point out that clinical depression (that has actually been properly diagnosed) is highly unlikely to dissipate after three days irrespective of what you’re taking. You appear to be very open to the power of suggestion on a number of fronts. I would recommend that you have a look into the placebo effect.
Regarding the sheer volume of disorders you claim to have, this is particularly disconcerting given many of these are ambiguous and ill-defined (i.e., brain fog). However, this does not mean they are not real to you and, in fact, may provoke physical symptoms. I would suggest having a further read of the following which might offer some insight into your symptoms:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0005789410000717
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0887618510001453
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9886-illness-anxiety-disorder-beyond-hypochondriasis
I do genuinely believe that you believe you have all these illnesses, so I assure you I am on your side here. I saw this quite frequently in my work at the hospital and it can be serious. With professional help you have a reasonably good shot at overcoming this.
In closing, I should add that nutrition is a science and not a religion. It is important that marketing be based on a sound foundation of scientific support and not hearsay and testimonials.
Best wishes to you in your quest for health,
Bill
Hi Bill. I feel the need to point out that I am quite impressed by all of the very positive replys in favor of Laminine. I wanted to mention that many of the people that are considered “distributors” of Laminine are indeed “distributors” but more than likely have decided to join up in order to get their supply of the Laminine wholesale and to save money opted to go that route. That is why I signed up and yes, I can order my own wholesale because of that but don’t look at it that way. If I end of making some money from it, that was not my intention but I won’t refuse it. My intention was to give it a good try and since I was going to try it for a good 3 to 6 months I decided that to save money on my supply it was a no brainer to just join as there is no fee to do so.
Thank you for your comment Joyce. Without realizing it, you have fallen into one of MLM’s oldest marketing traps. The objective was always to get you to sign up as a distributor for a reduced rate. This is not limited to only this product but is par for the course across the board with MLMs. You are sold on the benefits by the marketing and then enticed to give it a try at a reduced rate (which is actually the rate they wanted to sell it at in the first place).
Oh I know what you are saying for sure Bill but you see, I wanted to try the product based on my research into what I believe is the repair and restorative aspects of what it can possibly do. Of course I am hoping that this is the case but of course there is only one way for me to determine that and that is to try it for about 6 months. I am committed to doing that so therefore, whatever I have to do to buy it less expensively is what appealed to me. This is no different than any other thing that I have decided to try if it reasonates with me. I do appreciate all of your comments and am very thankful that there are those out there that are ever vigilant in watching and investigating so don’t think that we don’t appreciate all of your comments and research. I just wanted to point out that, yes, we are classified as distributors but that is probably more the result of fact that we are simply trying to purchase it cheaper rather then to make a living off of selling it. This was my only intent in posting, to point that out. 🙂
Bill,
Thank you so much for being a voice or reason. I have a good friend who recently became a distributor and tried to get me to try Laminine. I was very skeptical and read your post and decided against trying it. When my friend approached me again I said I think it’s a scam and he became verbally abusive. I’m so relieved to have somewhere to go where there in and unbiased, educated voice of reason agreeing that it’s not a good idea to drink the cool aid…
Hi Shari,
I’m looking into Laminine to cure me of my depression I’ve had for 20 years. I’m impressed you had such great results in a short time. I’m wondering if you’re still taking Laminine today and if you’re still cured of your depression, anxiety and other health issues too. Are you still working for Laminine too? Thanks and God bless your beautiful spirit. Keep on fighting
I heard of Laminine only this morning and began researching. This is one of the more interesting sites. Dr. Bill gave honest advice. He has not downgraded the product anywhere in his article or in his comments which followed. I am a *huge* believer in the power of the mind to heal and Dr. Bill supports this, too.
What he is disputing is the all too typical MLM hype which makes essentially unprovable claims. He should not have to ask the company to reveal their studies. They should all be linked to the basic webpage, for all to study and, if they wish, delve deep into the results and claims. That’s called HONEST advertising which this company apparently doesn’t recognize.
Dr. Bill also does not disparage personal claims. But he points out a truth: they are NOT scientific, provable, repeatable facts. They are the individual opinions and perceptions of people who *may* have a financial interest in their results. (Several of the posters here failed to state they were distributors, and that’s a no-no, no less dishonest than the company appears to be being.
One poster offered to send the 11 tests and results to Dr. Bill and never bothered to do so. Do those 11 tests actually exist? Darned if I know. And no one else on this posting list appears to know either.
If you don’t know and understand the intrinsic power of the placebo effect (once scoffed at by the medical field but now much more scientifically tested), I can recommend a wonderful book on the subject by Dr. Bruce Lipton called “The Biology of Belief”. It’s a real mind bender.
I personally don’t care much for MLM products since they are, by definition, overpriced in order to be able to pay all the uplines and downlines. (Laminine is not different in this respect.) I’ve found it interesting that all these wondrous products all seem to cost around $30/mo. Given all the other nutrients I take for health, that’s not a small amount of money. And the ones I take have been proven out for decades!
So let’s give Dr. Bill a break here. Repeating: He’s not disparaging the product, he’s pointing out that the claims have no scientific backing that the company is willing to offer. That’s TRUE.
I have read all the above with interest. I have to say that when I discover that a product is only available through multi level marketing, I groan from the centre of my being and I’m sure others agree. It does smack of a huge commercialism.
However, I would be more impressed if Doc Bill would actually at least try it.
I think homeopathy is a good way of seeing how susceptible one is to the placebo effect. I have taken homeopathy with sometimes great results and sometimes none at all. My conclusion would be that it has only worked when the remedy is right, and in homeopathy there are thousands to choose from. So I can’t say that because of my belief in homeopathy it always works. Therefore, if I splash out on Laminine (still difficult to even sample in UK), I would hope that I would get some kind of reasonable objective idea as to whether it was truly working for me. I am tempted, but as it apparently only works as long as you are taking it, it involves a big yearly investment.
Hi Fraser,
Hear me out on this. On one hand, I know what you mean about “trying it to see if it works for me.” Seriously, I get it. But I also know how susceptible I, along with everyone else, can be to the placebo effect. If I’m feeling a certain way I don’t want to feel and a pill promises to take away that bad feeling, then I already have an EXPECTATION that I will feel better. I take the pill and, whether it does anything or not, I can will myself to feel better. There is no doubt that the human mind is a VERY powerful thing. It can make us feel really bad or really good, just by the thoughts that go through our heads.
So in order to save me from myself, I like to see more objective scientific evidence that at least minimises confounding variables and tells me with some sort of reasonable confidence that any measurable improvements are likely related to taking the pill on trial.
In the case of MLM, I know all about the big pep rallies and group think. This is how people get riled up and go out to round up new distributors. I get it. People feel great leaving those things. And rightfully so, they should. Humans are social creatures by design and we like to be liked. So when the MLM gods are there preaching the gospel and telling you that you can make a million while helping people improve their health, then that’s an attractive proposition. It feels good. Whether or not the product does much or not is irrelevant and becomes subsumed under the excitement of being involved with the MLM family, part of the tribe, a sense of belonging. Next thing you know, this product makes you walk on water.
Fraser, I absolutely DO get where you’re coming from. I say this with all sincerity. I could try lots of pills and potions out there, but I don’t trust myself any more than I trust the next person who is equally as influenced by suggestion as I am. But the main overriding theme of my original article is simply this: this company, in my professional opinion, appears to be making lofty claims and I simply would like to see the independent evidence (not testimonials) that supports these claims. If I’m really blunt here, I’m quite shocked at how many people are so willing to just take the company’s word at face value without demanding more detailed and rigorous support.
And this is the point where people start calling me a “big pharma sell out.” But actually, that cannot be true because I am a PhD not a Medical Doctor and I get no funding from them. Truth be known, I’m more anti-big-pharma than most. Fraser this is not directed at you, but just in general, if anyone does slander my name as a big pharma sell out, I’ll be happy to take legal action to defend my name. That is how vehemently opposed I am to the pharma cartels (just setting the record straight).
Fraser, Have a look at my challenge to Pope McElvy above (from today). I think you will find this interesting and I hope you will continue to follow my quest for independent evidence to support claims.
Kind regards,
Bill
Fraser, if Bill tried the product and said that “it worked” or “it didn’t work” then that would just be another testimonial. Testimonials can be the beginning of evidence but they should not take the place for good science.
The same thing goes for books written about a topic since books -esp those written for the general public – are usually not peer reviewed.
For me, my litmus test is published peer reviewed research. I think Bill is doing a a good service when he looks at the facts and logic with an unbiased, dispassionate eye. Its a mark of a true scientist who goes where the research takes him (or her).
Debate is good about these products because he helps shed light on things and gets people interested to really test these things, scientifically.
Dr. Bill,
Thank you so much for taking the time and care to write such a simple yet informative and objective article on this product. No one can deny the outrageous amount of misinformation about Laminine that is currently available on the web. It’s important that people see the facts, and specifically the facts that are missing and only alluded to by LifePharm and its independent sellers.
When I first heard about this product I was honestly outraged at the amount of scientific information that was missing from the public domain…that is to say, there is none!
Your article is very useful and I’m sure helpful to the level headed people who are trying to do some of their own research on the product.
Thanks again,
All my best,
Kimmi
Dr Sukala,
I don’t know how you do it. Are you taking something special to increase your patience and diplomacy?
I’ve seen dozens of these miracle pills come and go over the years but the dialogue is always the same. Hundreds, if not thousands, of testimonials, no scientific research, the use of made-up pseudo-scientific words, a general distrust of “established medicine” and an almost hatred for anyone that questions their super elixir.
Bottom line is that taking a supplement probably won’t hurt anyone; neither would eating healthier meals and getting a little exercise. As far as I’m concerned, they can sell this product to each other all they want.
Hi Steve,
Point taken and, to be honest, I agree. If people want to believe in the Tooth Fairy and Easter Bunny, who am I to disagree? I don’t care that LifePharm and their sister company Pendura are raking in the big bucks on not much more than hype and puffery. I don’t lose sleep over it. I also agree that Laminine is unlikely to cause any harm being not much more than an expensive protein pill, but I think what I do take issue with is that this kind of nonsense undermines responsible healthy lifestyle messages. It provides people with hope which is a good thing initially, but in the long-run it’s just perpetuating a “health in a pill” mentality. Much more I could write but, again, point taken. Thanks for the comment. Cheers, Bill
i wonder if these people having this great experience with laminine are real people with real problems. most of them are just talking about pains in their bodies and depression. won’t pain killers and exercise solve those?
i know there is not much science in my post but what if this is just a pill to make you feel better and feel less pain?
one side effect i could think of is that if you stop using this product, you’ll feel “shitty” again. that means, you’re stuck to buying this all your life.
Just for the purposes of debate and assuming some validity to the anecdotes, has this product been properly analyzed as to its ingredients? The reported “benefits” also sound like stimulant rather than antidepressant effects.
Mike, you raise an important point. I would be curious to see an analysis report on Laminine’s ingredients.
Hi, Dr. Sukala!
I have a relative who has been suffering from end-stage renal disease. When I first learned about laminine, I must admit that I was truly amazed as I thought it could be a big help to my relative who has been on dialysis for almost a year. With stories coming from people who were supposed to be “healed” by this food SUPPLEMENT, I wanted to try it myself; and then, possibly give some to my family and to my sick relative. I do not have much knowledge on medicine but I do understand the dynamics of quantitative research. If there is no empirical evidence that can “significantly” support the claims of the company producing it, it would not be totally advisable to take it. And by “significantly,” I mean statistical significance aiming to provide concrete figures on the causal relationship between being healed and taking laminine on a regular basis.
My point is, if the company had enough funds to market the pill, why would they not have ample resources to conduct a quite simple research study to prove the effectiveness of the pill based on scientifically accepted methods?
As someone coming from the positivist tradition, I do know how important empirical research is in this issue (just like in any field of study, may it be in the social sciences or in the hard sciences). Only by doing that that can we safely assume that the pill is really effective. Although there are testimonies claiming its efficacy (and I honestly believe these stories), a solid scientific proof solely based on research employing scientifically accepted methods will certainly do no harm.
In the end, I would like to commend you for being objective and for supporting your claims with logical analyses. I hope when you find something about this pill, you would publish it here and keep us all more aware.
Thanks.
And one more thing, unless tests are done to scientifically eliminate all the possible intervening variables that could have affected or contributed to the healing of those who were sick, only then, could we say that all the improvements on their health condition may be attributed to laminine.
Excellent job picking apart the language used to sell the product. It’s not always easy for consumers to see through the smoke and mirrors. So, thank you for that.
However, for my purposes, I feel as though this article is as hollow as the marketing it dissects.
What about some information about what’s actually in the product? How it could help, or how it is supposed to work and to what extent this is even possible. I am not a Laminine user. I would like to find literature with information as to how the product works and what its capabilities are, from a source not related to the company.
Hi Brent,
I could not agree with you more. I would certainly like more detailed information about what’s in the product. The onus is on the COMPANY, not me, to provide this information to the public in an honest and transparent form. There are many lofty marketing claims but, to date, neither the company nor its legions of distributors have been able to provide independent evidence to support these claims (not testimonials).
I thank you for your kind words, but I do not feel my “article is as hollow as the marketing it dissects.” It merely points out the limitations and the ambiguity of the materials they’re using to sell the product. If the company cared, they would follow up and answer these questions/provide evidence. But from a business standpoint, the old adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” rings true. They have a business model that works. They’re raking in plenty of $$ from the army of people who’ve bought into it. They don’t need to provide anything else. If anything, I’ve been doing them a favor by giving them heaps of free publicity.
Hi Bill,
I understand & appreciate your skepticism. I myself am more than a little skeptical of any product that makes incredibly over zealous claims about their products. And quite frankly, I do not know whether or not this product is good or not. I haven’t tried it so, why would I automatically form an opinion of it? (Though, just out of curiosity, I am going to do so soon)
So, I have one question for you.
Did YOU yourself even TRY the product?
It seems only common sense that if you are going to write an “unbiased” opinion about something that one SHOULD at least give the product a fair shake and USE IT. Rather than simply just ripping apart the claims made on it’s website.
Like I said, I myself am just as skeptical as you. And I DESPISE a lot of the unethical advertising tactics that companies use. There is just no real good reason for a company to make false claims if they do indeed have a good product. But, a lot of them do so anyways because that is simply the nature of the beast for a lot of marketing people. But, just because the marketing arm of some companies are a bunch of idiots? Doesn’t necessarily mean that the product it’self is with out at least some merit.
So, for better or worse, I have learned over the years that it is best in all cases to evaluate where “The rubber meets the road” to sort of speak. NEVER MIND what the company say’s. USE IT … And THEN make your own assumptions … Good OR Bad. And if it is “bad” then you have legitimate experience as to back up your own claims.
Anybody can rip apart some companies “claims” without ever using a product. But excuse me for saying though. When you do that you give yourself just as little credence to your own credibility as you are giving to the company you are criticizing. Just sayin … Yah know?
Hi Stu,Thanks for your message. Please read my post again and note the recent edits.
note: the following was received from Marie by email, but I have posted it here because she raises a number of points worthy of discussion
Hello Dr. Bill,
My name is Marie from Upstate N.Y. I just happened to see your site as I was trying to find the utube video for Laminine for my friend and I have to say I was so disappointed to see what you have written without you trying the product yourself. I have a passion for nutrition and had some health issues of my own that started me researching many products.
Laminine is one amazing product that is having just miraculous changes in the body for many people. Tons of people are taking it and not marketing it.
What you may not understand in this day of government regulations is that unless you are a drug you can not state that you cure anything so companies have to be very careful what is said, especially if you have a product that truly helps the body to heal itself.
I have a Bio Chemist who also has a Nutrition degree that has a Clinic in Oregan that treats people from around the world. She studies live blood and can tell you first hand what she has experienced with her patients. If you would like to learn more feel free to contact me and I can set up an appointment with her for you.
(spam link removed) by the way is a team website. There is an actor Kevin Sorbo who played Hercules who had a massive stroke and was told he would not work again. He credits this product for helping his body bounce back and he is once again working, this is the kind of testimony you hear everyday. I have a friend who was depressed all the time and I kept telling him he had to try Laminine. Someone had told him about it last year so he ordered from them. I did not care as I knew it would help him. He calls me every week to tell me the product has changed his life, that since childhood he has never been so positive…..how cool is that!
I saw on your site that you are interested in the area of obesity, there is a year old company that has 2 excellent weight loss products as well as I have several people newly on the burn and are having great results and is helping to lower his sugar. They are at a price people can afford, especially since they can buy in bulk (6) and get it at half price.
(spam link removed)
Be Blessed
Marie
Hi Marie,
Thank you for your message. I really should not have posted it at all given that you are a Laminine distributor and have been swept up in the marketing hysteria. But you raise a few things worth making public. Regarding testimonials, I suggest re-reading my article again since I edited in a discussion on why testimonials are unreliable. I do genuinely believe you believe it works, but there are many other extraneous factors involved which could explain why a supplement “works.” Kevin Sorbo is an actor, not a scientist. His opinion should not be weighted any more than yours or the next person. I cannot tell you people are lying because I think they believe it themselves. But if I tell you I’m a deity and that when you say your prayers at night it’s me listening on the other end, go ahead and prove me wrong. What evidence do you have that I’m lying? If I believe it myself, then am I lying?
You mention your belief in live blood analysis. Unfortunately, this is a fringe analysis with no scientific basis in fact – and further, does not bode well as support for your credibility. I call your attention to: https://www.choice.com.au/health-and-body/health-practitioners/doctors/articles/alternative-diagnostics. Hematologist Professor Hatem Salem says: “The notion that one can diagnose all sorts of ailments by examining a drop of blood on a video screen is both ridiculous and plain stupid.”
The religious overtone of your message is also a bit disconcerting. You should be aware that nutrition is a science, not a religion or cult. The fact remains that there is insufficient evidence to support all of Laminine’s marketing claims. The onus is on the company to provide legitimate evidence to this effect, but to date this has not been furnished by LifePharm or its legions of sales reps (see comment above from Pope McElvy and my challenge to him).
I do appreciate you bringing the other company to my attention. I may review their company as well and evaluate their marketing claims for truthfulness. Kind regards
Dr. Bill, Have you tried Lamanine? If so, what happened. Any feedback?
I had no expectations when I tried it. I do not give credence to marketing hype, but I do listen to personal friends who have found it beneficial. And if it helps people in any way, even for a short time. This is a good thing. Mental /physical / emotional stability is hard to sustain in our current society.
Hi Carol,
Thank you for your comment. Please read my article in its entirety. Kind regards 🙂
I was really bothered by this article. Words, and wording do they really matter? My meaning by that is – what matters is if the product works.
What bothered me was your statement at the end ^In conclusion, I would discourage consumers from purchasing Laminine or recommending it to others.^ If it is simply vitamins and nutrients would that not be a good thing TO recommend? In your research you said you did not come across any negative side effects (even in anecdotal form), so what is the harm in trying it? Or recommending it?
Hi Kae, If people want to spend their money on it, then no problem. For those who want to exercise a bit of critical thinking and just eat healthy food instead, they’ll have a bit more in their wallet. I would suggest reading my article again, particularly the bit about testimonials and why you can’t trust them. Did you read that part?
Just keep looking from a distance and you will never know if Laminine works for you! That’s all I can say to the talk talk talk show on here.
Theodore, please read my article again but perhaps a bit slower the second time around to take in the main points.
Do you know if laminine is kosher? What kind of marine life is it? I could not find a place on their web site to ask. Thanks.
Hi Laura, if they don’t state it then it may not be. As for the specific marine life type, they should disclose this but I have yet to find any information on it. let me know what you uncover. Thanks
The marine protein is shark cartilage.
I found this on several sites that are clearly promoting Laminine, although it took some digging since most of them gloss over the actual ingredients.
Nutrition adviser is one place that talks about the shark cartilage. It makes basically the same vague miraculous health claims as the main promotional website (with mostly the same logical fallacies and testimonials to back it up) but it at least goes into more detail about the specific ingredients and why they make certain claims.
It also names the Canadian scientist who supposedly discovered the miracle egg extract, so I was able to look up his published studies. He did a bunch trials with rats and mice, basically concluding that giving them high doses of vitamins (A, B, E) reduced incidence of cancer from tar exposure. In later studies, he did a few human trials, giving cancer patients balanced healthy diets, high doses of vitamins, and in some cases the “young tissue extract”–actually tissue from baby mice bred in his other experiments. In one case he finally ran out of mice to use and turned to fertilized eggs for a substitute extract. He doesn’t seem to mention it in any other studies, but perhaps I just haven’t looked long enough? He certainly makes a good argument for high-vitamin diets though!
I appreciate your detailed analysis of the claims for this “supplement.”
Quite frankly, even if I saw people who took this stuff walk on water, I would never use it. One of my dearest friend’s mom is in mid-stage Alzheimer’s, and she is noticeably not making sense, at least half the time.
She was recruited into the organization of some Laminine distributors, spent money she could ill afford to spend to be whatever $1000+ gets you, and is convinced that she could tie down her “legacy” to her grandchildren, if only my friend, her brother and her grandkids would all start using Laminine and selling it.
Any company that rewards distributors for preying on those with diminished ability to reason does not deserve to be in business. I know from where I speak: I have been in network marketing for nearly 12 years, and the company with which I align myself would yank the license of a distributor who did what my friend’s mom’s sponsors did.
In fact, they have.
Shame on the company, shame on the distributors, and shame on all of you who have been fooled into buying a $40 bottle of vitamins, thinking that you will simultaneously get healthy and rich.
Thanks for your comment Mickisue. Most appreciated. I find this story to be quite disturbing and it only goes to show the lengths some people will go to in order to turn a buck. While the company in question in this case was LifePharm Global, I have heard of this sort of thing happening with other MLM companies too. It is particularly insidious when you have people whose eyes glaze over with dollars signs and then justify it with “well at least I’m helping people get healthy.” Sure, sounds noble. I get it. But given that the marketing for the product is meant to sell product not only to the end users but also for roping in new distributors, well, you can see how muddled the picture gets.
Some may think I don’t like any MLM companies, but this is entirely untrue. I don’t think MLM in and of itself is a problem. I believe that when health companies use it as a marketing vehicle on half-baked products, then their only option for turning a buck is to use deceptive/misleading tactics (i.e., only feed them half the story). One of my colleagues once said that MLM is without a doubt, unequivocally, THE most effective way to turn ordinary well-intentioned people into raving quacks. I can’t say I disagree.
To put it into perspective, I am not a stock broker or investment advisor, so why would I give professional advice on where to grow your money? However, astonishingly, I have seen MLM companies in years past offering financial services which entails taking average people off the street with no qualification whatsoever, making them buy into the company as a distributor, and then training them as “financial consultants” to get others on board as financial consultants, etc.
By the same token, why would anyone just blindly accept nutrition advice from someone with absolutely zero formal education in the hard sciences? It boggles my mind that companies come along and brainwash people with a script which, to the untrained observer, may “seem” logical, but in reality is only just misguided marketing gone off the rails. In the case of Laminine, it has bred an army of distributors with little to nil education in the health sciences promoting something which they don’t fully understand. When you add in stories like yours above, then it takes a very sad turn for the worst.
Thanks again for your post.
Kind regards,
Bill
Dr. Bill: I agree with you when examining advertising claims. But the PRODUCT works! There is a 30-day money back guarantte if you don’t like it. When I started it I could feel a difference right away. I know that you may think that “it works because you think it works.” But this product works and I won’t be without it. You can analysis the advertising aspect. But there is medical studies that support the product. Sure you are not into your point of view for the money?
eva
Hi Eva, thanks for your comment.
First, I do not receive any payments for my points of view. I am 100% independent and my views are all my own.
Second, please provide me with a categorical list of medical studies which support each Laminine claim. Good luck with that. I’ve posed the question to many other Laminine distributors who, it’s become evident to me, know nothing about what constitutes legitimate scientific research and, as of this writing, have yet to provide mew with such evidence. Moreover, it is clear that, even if there was a mountain of evidence to show it didn’t work, you would still carry on believing what you want to believe. MLM supplement companies build fortunes on the suggestible minds of sheeple with religious overtones to their personal convictions.
I found this site when I did a search for Laminine; and all I can say, is that I will continue till a find a site where I can order this. Peoples testimonials are enough for me to try a jar or bottle it; and I have no intention to sell it and I think that there may be a lot of users who speak highly of it who do no sell it. It seems closed minded to knock something you have not tried, and suggest all these people are somehow deluding themselves. You could use that same false argument about another big pharm medications. The close mindedness and anger of some of the posters towards something they have no experience with is puzzling. It makes me suspect that perhaps they have other agendas, because is makes no sense berate a product and users when you aren’t even curious enough to try it.
If it works for me or not, I’ll be back to report on my experience.
You’re free to act upon your own freewill. Thanks for visiting. Have a nice day.
Hi Bill,
I can see that you have lots of questions about the product I think its better for you to try some so that all this questions will be answered. If you do some research I think taking this product also considered as a research. How will you know if this Laminine work or not if your not taking it. I can assure you that It will work on you. even doctors are amaze with the product and decided to take and recommend it to their friends. Me Im sharing Laminine to my friends to give them hope on their sickness specially those who have lost hope.
Dear Bill,
I stumbled upon this site while doing some research on Laminine, I have known Laminine almost 2 years ago, I have been hospitalized due to high blood pressure, I have a friend who brought me a bottle in the hospital and asked me to take it, for more than a week it stayed in the side table, I was almost 2 weeks in the hospital and could not be released because my BP won’t level down, until finally I took some capsules that on the second day of taking it my BP went down that I finally was able to go home.
My thinking was almost like yours, yes, I had that strong will to get well and get home after 2 weeks of boredom, I never cared about laminine, I reason, it might just have been a coincidence, or my will power that brought my BP down, but being a good friend, I paid the bottle and she enrolled me into the business. as I am a busy person, I forgot all about laminine, in short I did not share the product and did not do the business. I am also skeptical, all the things you were looking for , I was looking for it too, the exact contents, as the “marine protein” labels, it scared me. I am very meticulous in what I eat or take in,so many allergy, I go for organic and natural food, I don’t eat sausages nor burgers at I don’t know what it is that had been grounded, it is in our family, we don’t eat food with artificial flavoring and coloring. I don’t take prescription drugs unless it is necessary, when I have flu, I take plenty of rest and take in plenty of water, till it just go away.
I understand the criteria of clinical study, but having my friend in this MLM business of Laminine, I can’t help but drop by at their office from time to time and sometimes I would be around when someone who have been using laminine would just pop up in the office and start sharing her or his amazing stories, like this girl with lukemia with only a platlette count and after taking laminine it dramatically increase, like day 1 she gets 2 counts, then 4 counts and so on, a man whose mother was in death bed for months, regain back her life, the man being a hard core networker, tried every products he could lay his hands on his mother and it was on laminine he found his answer, a lady whose sister lost her hearing due to side effect of prescription drug when she got ill in childhood, for 45 years she could not hear but now regain her hearing, all these made me wonder, what is in this product that gives these results.
I have aunts and uncles who are dear to me, and they have health concerns, one undergoing dialysis, and I hear a lot of people had been improved, in 2 years times there had been an overwhelming of testimonies, and these are real people, the reason they get into the business because their health had improved and their friends, relatives, neighbors had witness it, and so they join.
So now I have that urge to share this product to my aunt who is having dialysis, an uncle with prostrate concern, a friend with breast cancer, not to earn money but to help them ease their pain if not totally healed,I wish I have extra money so I can just give it to them free, but as it is expensive as others say and it is true, I still have a daughter that go to school, I was thinking of giving to them at cost,
as I am as skeptical as some in the post I read, thus I stumble on this site in search for assurance that I am indeed will be helping my relatives rather than add up to their torments, and it was your first post that I read first naturally, I was shocked to read the last conclusion, advising not to take nor recommend the product, so I painstakingly read all post very carefully and read some positive feedback as well, so it took me a whole night reading analyzing, debating to myself if I should take this product in my hand to my dearly beloved aunt. and I come up with my very own conclusion that I will take the risk, after it is only egg extract, some amino acids, protein that we intake almost everyday, if it helps her Thanks be to God. if it will not help her improve, well, at least I tried, I will not live with “WHAT IF” or ” WISH I TRIED” for the rest of my life.
But I do thank you for all the questions you pointed out, you made me feel normal, at least I am not the only one who thinks too much.
Best Regards,
Josie
Hi Josie,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. Most appreciated. I think the main point of my article is around the lack of research and what appear to be overblown marketing hype surrounding Laminine. I know that all makes for a good business model and helps with profits. I’d simply like a bit more straightforward honesty in their approach without all the pseudoscientific jargon. But as you pointed out, and I believe I also did in my article, I don’t think there is any real health risk associated with Laminine and, if people want to try it for themselves, who am I to tell them how to live their lives. Thanks again and best wishes to you and your family in the Philippines.
kind regards
Bill
Hi Steph,
Thanks for your comment. None of the fibroblast growth factor 1 journal articles apply to Laminine. This company uses a lot of scientific jargon but much of it is irrelevant and has no bearing on the efficacy of its products within a dietary supplement context. However, if you come across something that you think does have relevance, I’ll happily consider it. To date, every challenge I’ve made to Laminine distributors to provide independent scientific evidence has been met with silence. Kind regards.
Is Laminine already in Europe to buy it?
With any luck, it probably won’t make it to Zurich.
but is it to buy somewhere else in europe? and if not where can I buy it…on wich website?thanks for an answer…..
Michael, please read my article.
I guess you haven’t tried the product, this product is truly amazing. My Mother is 71yrs age had a lump in her hairline for 10years, something we did not expect but after being on Laminine for 2 mths the lump as now gone, her husband who was aggressive, moody and had pain in his joint. The pain has gone altogether, is no longer aggressive and my Mum got home 1 days and he was cleaning the house and making dinner for the both of them she was stunned, has saved their marriage, he’s also stopped snoring and as me my skin’s looking different, I sleep better, more energy, as far as I’m concerned this is the best product ever
Hello Dr. Sukala,
Excellent independent review, this is exactly what I was searching for while sorting through the marketing claims present around the Web. You made some great points which I’m inclined to agree with. However, I did encounter two medical studies published by the NIH which claimed that YTE supplementation produced significant results, one for countering depression, and another for reducing chronic stress. While the second link did not provide the complete study, is from a source reputable enough to warrant further personal research. As a man who seems to be one of the few reviewers who isn’t trying to push this under a business enterprise, what are your thoughts on these trials?
Regards,
M. Harris
I feel that Dr. Sukala makes an excellent and valid argument regarding Laminine. I am on a mission to find out more about this product, locate clinical research and to understand why this product has had such a profound effect on my own health. As a certified nutritionist, it is extremely important for me to acquire a database of scientific information regarding any product that I take or would recommend to my patients. Due to extreme stress and other factors, my own health deteriorated to the point where I could no longer work, interact with people or conduct my life on any way considered normal or functional. I worked with top doctors and took many tests and health supplements with no change in my condition whatsoever. A relative gave me one bottle of Laminine to try. By this time I was so skeptical of supplements that I had no hope that it would help. Within one bottle this product completely gave me back my sanity, health and passion for life. Laminine has done the same for my ailing mother and my cousin that has hemophilia and hepatitis. I feel that this product saved my life and have just begun to research why it could have such an impact. Dr. Sukala’s statements here will assist me in this quest. Thank you.
Dr. Bill.
I got my first lot of capsules today and will be taking them because after nearly 30 years of traditional medicine and consulting with specialists my condition (psoriatic arthritis) has continued to deteriorate. The long term effects of my prescribed medication raised my BP to 175/135 recently and there is absolutely no family history of it. My BP has always been excellent at 130/70 so this sudden spike was a big scare.
A heart attack and death I can handle, a stroke and paralysis I cannot.
So here is the thing I am desperate and will take it. If it works, for whatever reason, I will not only be happy but better off than I currently am.
In all of the 30 years of prescribed medicine and doctors visits I have never been offered any sort of refund for a tablet that hash’t worked. Any tablet prescribed by a doctor is always followed by: “Try these and if you don’t feel better in the morning, come back and see me.”
You should know better than to slate something without listening to the patients. But then most doctors only give their patients 5 minutes so I guess it is in your training.
Hi Lawrence,
Please keep us posted on how you progress.
Bill and all readers.
I’ve read all the opinions posted here and found that there is one big gap between Bill and those who are in favor of Laminine.
Bill seeks for a scientific evidence for him to say it is good or not to take. But in fact Laminine is not approved as a drug by FDA and it did not go thru all the medical test that could have generated scientific evidences.
People saying it is good based on there experience will not satisfy Bill to say it is good or not because it it not what Bill is looking for.
FDA labeled this as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) product. So I believe Laminine is at least safe to take so it is really up to your judgment based on all the information listed here.
Let’s do not take this as a drug and ask Bill say it it worth trying. He can’t do this.
I bought this product for my wife and it works as describe better than I expected. That is good enough for me.
Well Bill Sukala PhD, I just stumbled across this page whilst looking for info on lamanine and I have spent the last hour reading this page.
Like any good novel I read right to the end in the hope that the writer might overcome his overblown ego and actually TRY THE PRODUCT. Sadly it appears at this point that the ego has won out. But
I guess it’s not the end yet. I find it utterly incredible that you consider yourself qualified to do a review on a product you have not even tried. It’s a bit like a movie critic not even watching the movie he is reviewing.
All in all I have read nothing to dissuede me from trying the product. After all it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee if I don’t like it, so why wouldn’t I try it. I don’t recall any medically prescribed drugs offering a guarantee like that. But then again I guess the doctors are only “practicing” so there are no guarantees…. and guess who they’re practicing on? I’ve always thought that their immunisations should come with a money back guarantee also, but I guess that’s not going to happen either.
At the end of the day I would choose personal testimony over any scientific research.
Call me naive, which I’m sure you will, but I like to think that we are heading towards a time where we will be free of illness and disease on this planet. Sadly I don’t see that coming from the greedy, self serving, big pharma who have no conscience and a massive vested interest.
I would prefer the recommendation of a friend or distributor of Laminine even if they do have a vested interest, whether it be in the health of their fellow man or earning a couple of dollars for referring the product or both. At the end of the day I have nothing to lose with a 30 day money back guarantee.
Just my 2 bob’s worth.
Blessings to you all.
Kathy
Hi Kathy, Thank you for leaving a comment. I’m not crucifying you for your views. Quite the contrary, you need to read my article in its entirety and make sure you’ve received the main take home message which is that this is a product being sold without any substantive body of evidence to demonstrate it actually does what is claimed. Regarding testimonials, I discuss this in details in the first part of the article. I believe that anecdotal testimonials can give impetus to research and help guide the research questions and protocols, but, at face value, there are any number of extraneous confounding variables which may influence individual results. I am, however, investigating labs now that can do an independent analysis of the products to ensure the ingredients listed on the label are, in fact, what’s in the product. More to come on this. Kind regards.
Hi Dr. Bill, what happened to the emails sent by Pope regarding those studies that he mentioned?
No emails were ever sent by Pope to this effect, but I am happy to receive them.
Doctors, (MD’s) kill more people with prescription drugs than do guns. We should stop all prescriptions.
Yes Thomas, you make a compelling argument. We should ban all prescriptions and go back to a Darwinian model for society.
You article is correct, at least from scientific point of view.
Anyway, there is another point to consider, that today science is not enough to comprehend lot of things.
Take example the method to diagnose illness by “sensing body aura” (corona discharge emitted by our body). Until Kirlian invented his camera, scientist simply mock the (thousands years proven and used) method of aura detection in same tone as your “scientific opinion” about this product.
But again, I agree, this is not your fault. It’s Lifepharm fault by not taking proper scientific method in exposing their product to general scientific audience. Perhaps it’s because the decision maker (director board) feel it’s unnecessary to convince other scientist about their product effectiveness. Or perhaps because they worry their secret formula / technique (if any) would be revealed, so they “keep the kitchen closed”. Who knows. At the end, the product will speak itself. You don’t have to know the chemical structure of sugar, you know it’s sweet once you taste it.
And no, I won’t take “coincidence” for explanation of why this product (or any other product) works. Coincidence has probability, probability has number, and the number is statistically unfit. Too much “coincidence”.
It’s true that personal testimonial means nothing for scientific evaluation. But bunch of same success testimonial is non-negligible, it has statistical weight to consider. Also, apart from quantitative value, you should consider qualitative aspect. For example, one testimonial above (12 years without progress, once using this product, the result is dramatically seen). Intangible, maybe. But certainly significant.
Note that I’m not Laminine distributor. This is my opinion concerning fairness in judging things. And in my humble opinion, your review is OK as long as it’s just opinion, but to write conclusion in such manner is simply unfair.
It’s better to write conclusion like this:
1. Beware of Laminine marketing jargon. It’s unscientific, it doesn’t using proper medical/pharmaceutical term.
2. For today generally known medical science, Laminine is none than common protein, mineral, and vitamin supplements.
3. It’s expensive, but “expensive” is actually a relative term and can be perceived differently by different people.
4. There’re some people reported good effect after consuming this product. Their testimonial can’t be taken as scientific proof without proper scientific methodology conducted in fully controlled manner.
5. So, if scientifically proven is important for you, this product is not for you. On the other hand, if you really want to try it, despite of it’s high price (maybe because you heard amazing testimonial from someone you know/trust), it’s up to you.
6. It’s better for LifePharm to conduct proper clinical test (or perhaps further research) to shed doubtness about this product effectiveness, and in doing so will enrich our medical knowledge to built better world. If later benefit doesn’t counted (LifePharm is a profit-seeking company, not a foundation), at least the result will increase sales, which means higher profit for the company.
Hi Dewantara, you make a number of very good points with which I happen to agree. Perhaps I will incorporate this into a modified conclusion. Kind regards
Hello, Dr. Bill why wont you conduct your own study on the efficacy of laminine. Thats something I am very interested to read.
Thanks for your comment Richard. I am currently in talks with labs to conduct chemical analyses on the product first to ensure that it does, in fact, have in it what the label claims. Then we can look into clinical trials. Kind regards
I see. How long does it normally take? The whole process upto conclusion.
This was the first day that I have heard of this product, but I find it repulsive that the reason scientific studies are not performed on most alternative treatments is because the drug companies can’t make money on them.
So we are left with prescription meds and more meds to counteract the effects of each other. Why don’t you talk about the failure of the American Medical system to heal anyone of anything, despite double blind studies. All you do is treat the symptoms. At best a patient gets 15 minutes with a doctor and takes home drugs that if they are lucky won’t kill them.
If you are so set on scientific testing as the ultimate authority, then explain how the placebo effect, the very basis of studies, works in a large number of patients.
Thanks for your comment Paul. Let me be clear about a couple things: 1) I have no love affair with big pharma; and 2) I have no love affair with the AMA. You seem to be under the impression that pharmaceutical companies are the only entities who can run scientific studies. However, this is incorrect. There are plenty of universities which would be interested in this type of research, however funding this research can be problematic. Just like nobody will shower you with money without a compelling reason, neither do funding agencies throw money out to researchers.
With regards to your comment, you appear to subscribe to the conspiracy theory that “they” are out to get us. While I concede there are sinister forces that lurk in the shadows of big pharma and the AMA, I think it’s more fair to say that these institutions operate under their own inertia rather than by the actions of a few well-intentioned people (much like the US government). If you have a car wreck and need a trauma surgeon, you’ll be screaming for modern medicine rather than a product with no testing whatsoever. Many of the arguments provided by the supplement industry are as simplistic, weak, and biased as those of big pharma and the AMA. Sweeping generalisations really don’t tend to address the finer minutiae of the arguments. This is very much a case of keep an open mind, but not so open that your brain falls out.
Hi Bill,
Just would like to say that your independent review and objective article just saved me from being hoodwinked into buying this product.
Many thanks, and keep up the good work!
What happened to Tiffany’s foot? Wish I knew.
I think that overall its less whether the sold product Laminine works or not but whether the reasons it works could be dangerous for some who take it believing its like any other supplement. As I mentioned above as a comment, using FGF is not something to be undertaken lightly. It might work for some people but everyone’s response to and experience of drugs/supplements is different, and cancer patients might have good reason to stay away from it. Thats what is missing from any trials of this ‘supplement’
Bill,
Not impressed, especially when you use this forum to refute the existence of GOD. your understanding of things is limited to the books and articles you read. Are you not interested in anything beyond what you can physically see? And let’s be honest, doc. All research can be skewed. It all depends on the results you are looking for. I get the “fluff” in advertising, but how many adverse testimonials have you seen about the product? Outside of the MLM, looks like its made a Lot of people happy. How can you ignore that? Have you yourself ever given a “testimonial” about an experience you had with a restaurant, a teacher, a course of study. If everyone thought like you, asking a person for advice would be useless.
Additionally, prescription drugs approved by the FDA are toxic and only treat symptoms, not the root cause. Most of them cause other symptoms and side effects that cn only be controlled by more drugs. Who in their right mind would trust that?
Bottom line, a person could do worse than Laminine. At least it doesn’t eat your liver or cause your joints to deteriorate like prescription drugs can. It’s all natural and it just might be a miracle pill!
P.S. Still waiting on the information you
You have confused me with another person who commented that also had the name Bill. Bless your kind soul for noticing.
Thank you Bill for your informative site. I am in the process of considering whether to take Laminine and came upon your site during my research process. I am in no way affiliated with the company and have never taken this product.
I do have a question though: you say that the egg ingredient in the product is no different than an egg you buy at the grocery store. My reaction is that this can’t be true because a store-bought egg is unfertilized and what is used in the product is fertilized and whatever is harvested from it happens at 9 days into the gestation cycle…..
I’ll just apologize up-front if I am in error here — I was just told about this product yesterday and I’m in the middle of my own research on it — I know I don’t have all the facts yet.
Appreciate your input. Thanks
Nice article. Somebody sent me some information on this product and it sounded too good to be true. I do support using certain targeted supplements when there is some science behind doing so, Unfortunately this product does seem to make the grade.
Dr. Bill,
I am really happy that you did some homework on Laminine.
I was introduced to it a few weeks ago (I am an American expat living in the Philippines)
I am taking it right now. I am also still extremely wary because of the lack of academic material related to Laminine on the internet, and I am always wary of MLM companies.
Of course Lifepharm Global wouldn’t sell their product short and it seems they are about the only ones out there with any info on the subject. A search doesn’t even bring up a Wikipedia page which would normally pop up on page one of a search.
I do feel a difference since I started taking it two weeks ago,I have been sleeping better, feeling less anxiety than before and a bit more energy, but I know this could be because I wasn’t taking any vitamins or supplements prior to my introduction to Laminine, and my diet and exercise routine was not so good, or it could just be a placebo effect.
I will finish what I bought and I won’t buy any more, it’s way too expensive.
There is only one product / person I would trust when it comes to healing. That would be MMS 1 & 2 (Sodium Chlorite, Calcium Hypochlorite) and Jim Humble who is credited with discovering it and doing the clinical research trials to prove his claims.
It truly works and it’s cheap and it’s not an MLM company.
My wife and I have the same two bottles we purchased over four years ago and will only take it when we are not feeling well.
Thank you for sharing… it’s so easy to be sucked in to something by people making spectacular claims. I believe a good nutritional diet, exercise and sleep are the key components to healthy living.
Hi Philip, Thank you very much for taking the time to leave a comment. I think you make some very good observations and it is nice to see that you’re taking a level-headed approach to this.
I think to be clear, I am not particularly bothered by people taking Laminine so much as I am by the sheer volume of marketing claims made without anything substantial to back it up. This is not limited only to Laminine, but many other companies do the exact same thing by only giving a tiny bit of information and then letting consumers make assumptions that it will treat or cure whatever ailment is bothering them.
I am aware that many of the Laminine distributors want to believe the company’s promotional materials since that is part of the sales process. To not believe it would only make it harder to sell product. But then if a distributor was to acknowledge there was no significant body of independent corroborating evidence behind it, then to continue selling Laminine might present an ethical dilemma.
Thanks again for visiting the site. Wishing you all the best.
Kind regards
Bill
hello do you have laminine here in israel? if so where can i buy? thank you
Last I was walking the streets of Tel Aviv, I did not see any Laminine signs anywhere. Keep me posted if you do. Thanks
I believe that we all hype about a product whether it is mlm or not. It is human nature. From my experience, the
product is great for Pain, hay fever, energy levels. But the company needs to be more local to build that trust and keep fees down. PLus experience definitely counts!
Everyone is entitled to their own view and it is proven over and over that if two people look at the same picture they will describe it in such a way that it is hard to believe they both looked at the same picture. It seems that this discussion about Laminine is similar. The problems I have with Dr. Bill is that, as several people pointed out, he has not even bothered to try the supplement – if he truly wanted to prove it he could have tried it. Then he could report whether it worked or not, taking in to account that if it didn’t work it was probably because he was/is so skeptical, but if it did work and he did sleep better or eat better because his body, now ‘balanced’ was indicating to him what foods it required, his negative mood would certainly improve. The pain he had in his hands from all the typing he did to make that negative report, would disappear in a few days – but of course this would all have been due to ‘between the ears’ and not anything to do with the ingredients of that little “Happy Pill’. I have been taking it for 14 months and it has changed my life and my husband’s life too……….. for many of the reasons mentioned in earlier posts. We have tried lots of other ‘natural’ products through out the past 20 years, and none of them made one whit of difference. But along came Laminine and within the first week and then the second week, we got better and better. Now, if you are talking about the Placebo affect…………….. how come none of the others worked?
As I said in the beginning, everyone is free to make their own comments – but Dr. Bill I regret one thing about you, and that is the number of people who could have been helped by taking Laminine, such as Eric for one, who were turned off after reading your report and seeing the product as a scam. I am 67 I don’t ‘do’ Laminine as a business, I pass on the good news of what it has done for me, my family and friends who have tried it and 100% of the people who have tried it are still taking it and still experiencing a better quality of life.
It amazes me that people have to have ‘clinical’ reports to prove that something is beneficial. Pfizer were selling drugs for years that were FDA approved and were KILLING people in their thousands. They were fined, after several years when it was unavoidable. Their fine was paid quickly and then they continued selling similar drugs – the fine would have been considerable to me or you, but to Pfizer it was the equivalent of a couple of days of profits – so why should they worry! We are all responsible for our own care, we should not expect a Dr. who is so overworked and no time to keep informed, to diagnose and prescribe for us. My husband was on the verge of death when I drove him at 6 am to the emergency of Sarasota Memorial Hospital in 2009. In the previous 10 days he had had FOUR consultations with Doctors (?). Not one suggested or agreed to my request of doing a blood, urine or stool test. But rather they prescribed antibiotics that cost hundreds of dollars and only made him worse, a CT Scan that cost $6,000 and told us nothing, and finally a Sigmoidoscopy ! The latter was not carried out because by that time both my husband and I felt that if given an anesthetic in the state he had become, he would not wake up! These were DOCTORS! He spent 8 days in hospital and did not see any sign of recovery until the 5th day. In 2013 he was still not 100% recovered – we tried a lot of remedies – but a week on Laminine and he physically felt better.
I must finish here but just want to also mention the fact that someone else made – when I go to the supermarket I don’t buy 9 day old fertilized hens eggs, as are used for Laminine. I am wondering what supermarket you shop in?
Have you got the chemical analyses yet and how are the clinical trials going as per your reply……….
“Bill Sukala,PhD June 19, 2013 at 3:21 pm – Reply
Thanks for your comment Richard. I am currently in talks with labs to conduct chemical analyses on the product first to ensure that it does, in fact, have in it what the label claims. Then we can look into clinical trials. Kind regards”
Pamela Cherry, You are free to leave comments on my website so long as you are willing to own up to them and provide full disclosure of your interest in Laminine. After reviewing your Centre of the Universe website, which I deleted due to my policy of not giving back links to questionable websites, I feel your comment must be taken with a grain of salt given that you are actively selling Laminine. I understand you have bought into the marketing hype and I don’t begrudge you for this, but this represents a conflict of interest.
Thanks for your reply –
Everyone is entitled to their own view and it is proven over and over that if two people look at the same picture they will describe it in such a way that it is hard to believe they both looked at the same picture. It seems that this discussion about Laminine is similar. The problems […]
Pamela Cherry, You are free to leave comments on my website so long as you are willing to own up to them and provide full disclosure of your interest in Laminine. After reviewing your Centre of the Universe website, which I deleted due to my policy of not giving back links to questionable websites, I feel your comment must be taken with a grain of salt given that you are actively selling Laminine. I understand you have bought into the marketing hype and I don’t begrudge you for this, but this represents a conflict of interest.
I have not filled in my web site address above in accordance with your policy – sorry didn’t want to offend.
Regarding your last few sentences – I am most certainly not ‘actively’ selling’ Laminine. I am not making any commission or dealing with the business side of the program. All I am doing is telling people about it, considering the extraordinary affect it has had for me and my husband and other members of my family and friends. People can buy it where ever is convenient for them. I noted my Laminine website purely because it holds comprehensive information all in one place rather than someone having to search the Net. I have been taking Lamine (as has my husband) for the past 15 months and we have benefitted more than I would have believed. We have tried all the other ‘hype’ products that come along and they did absolutely nothign for us! If we were being affected by some ‘plaecibo’ subliminal thoughts, the other products would have done somethign for us too, but they didn’t ! Laminine has changed our lives – there are no detremental affects from it, therefore what is wrong with people trying to and if it works for them that is great – if not they have only lost a few dollars (and by the way there is a money back guarantee too) and at least they have tried something rather than sitting and doing nothing.
In 2015 laminine will be in the Physician’s Desk Reference. There is full disclosure about Laminine listed in the book.
I also note that I have not had any follow up from you regarding the ccomment you made in June ” I am currently in talks with labs to conduct chemical analyses on the product first to ensure that it does, in fact, have in it what the label claims. Then we can look into clinical trials. ” How are these trials and analyses coming along or have you started yet?
Well thank you, I have been using Laminine for about 3 months and it appears that now I do not have to have my knees replaced I am walking without a walking stick, If it is not what they say it is tell me something that will deffinately rebuild the Cartlige in my joints. Robert
Thank you for your comment, Robert.
I tried Laminine for a few months, felt good but I stopped to see how I would feel and the result is, I still feel good. I take barley and curcumin, whey protein plus fiber daily and watch what I eat. My experience with the product is this… I am not sure if it is the “placebo” effect, but I feel them same even though I stopped taking it more than a month ago. It’s expensive and the thing I truly don’t like is… it is next to impossible to contact the company. I was able to contact some distributors here in the Philippines, but they could not answer my questions about the product and referred me to the Lifepharm website, which in itself is lacking the contact with a real human. There is no access to where this product is made, the name of the production facility and the production facilitie’s website. So in essence, there is no information available (at least not here in the Philippines) on where this product is made, who makes it, where is the factory located and who are the suppliers of the nine day egg protein. Not good. If the company and product are legit, this information and / or customer service should be readily available and it is not. This is my opinion. I will stick with products that are for real, like Jim Humble’s MMS. Thank you Dr. Bill!
And Jim Humble’s MMS info is free. You can learn how to make it and take it… for free. He relies on donations and some direct selling, but Jim is not out to make a profit or to entice people to get rich, he is a healer and his sole intention is to heal, and tens of thousand have been healed with Jim Humbles “easy to make and cheap to buy” MMS1 and MMS2. It’s not about making money, it’s about healing…
HOLY MOLEY!!! Looks like the first rule of being a LifePharm rep is to have Google alerts for Laminine set up, and an endorsing and sometimes aggressive script at the ready to troll any comments section with!
This has been highly entertaining and amusing experience – it’s quite reminiscent of a combination of that (Tommy Davis) Scientology guy infamous for his continual harassment of people opposed to his organisation’s practices, and robots (more specifically the ones in the original Total Recall).
I’m glad to hear that the product is heavily affiliated with religion – that assures me that these cunning reps believe in the hell that they will surely burn in AD for conning victims out of their hard earned cash, especially in this economic climate.
Great article by the way, Doc – keep up the honest work. Haters gon’ hate 😉
Hannah
Just thought you might like an update on Laminie . It is scientifically backed and in the Physicians Desk in the USA . For 2015 . Im a nutritionist and have had a lot of success with the lifepharm Global products with my clients . LifePharm has been very well received by the medical and alternaTive community and many doctors are now prescribing it to their patients . I suggest you review your overview as its embarrasing to see a collegue who is educated and presenting information as an authority make as many mistakes as you have made .
Why dont you call the scientists they on staff get the facts like most practioners have and then write a proper science based review that is accurate and not pushing your personal agenda. Being financilly invested in bringing good products down and releasing very novice reporting for your own financial gain is very dishonest . I have a practice and use these products as a practtioner …….I dont have to run an MLM business it just so happens the products have good science and good results . The product sells itself after people use it .
Hi Susie Pitt,
Thank you for your comment. I find it laughable that you would accuse me of profiting from my review of Laminine when you yourself are a Laminine distributor and stand to profit from your biased comments. I receive no financial remuneration for the information I provide to the public.
You wrote: “Being financially invested in bringing good products down and releasing very novice reporting for your own financial gain is very dishonest.”
Please be specific as to how you think I financially gain from my views. You won’t be able to find any evidence to this effect because it does not exist. If you can find it, please respond to this and post the evidence which support your contentions. Good luck.
I should also point out that Laminine’s listing in the Physician’s Desk Reference is not really much of an honour nor is it proof that a product “works.” It is merely information supplied by the manufacturer and made available to physicians. You can access Laminine’s online PDR listing here: https://www.pdr.net/full-prescribing-information/laminine?druglabelid=3591
I note that the references listed at the bottom merely talk about the physiological effects of FGF in the development of a chicken egg, but do not provide any evidence of efficacy for Laminine as a dietary supplement. Moreover, the newest reference dates all the way back to 1998.
The studies in context are listed in abstract form and have not been vetted by legitimate scientific peer-review. They look amusing, but I would like to see them undergo a proper review by independent scientists and see if they can cut the mustard.
I also call your attention to another supplement named Eniva, which has used the PDR ploy as a marketing “stamp of approval.”
https://www.mlmwatch.org/04C/Eniva/pdr.html You will notice that LifePharm is using the same ploy as Eniva.
Wow! Lots of comments on this. I just linked your fine article to a kid who felt God told him to buy this product — Laminine — for his parents NOW so that his parents could get better. This kind of crap really torques me off. He wanted to wait for his paycheck, but “God told him to buy it NOW.”
You know, people read something like this and it gives them (false) hope and they sacrifice to buy it for someone they love. Of course when they pray they “hear God say” “Do it!” That’s what they want to hear. They want to be able to help their loved one. God couldn’t get through to them at that moment with the whole high school percussion section. People who sell garbage like this (knowingly) ought to be ashamed. I realize that the sellers are typically convinced themselves. Otherwise no one would believe them. But the company itself . . . seriously! How can these people sleep?
Anyway, thanks for your very thorough article. I hope it helps my young friend.
Blessings, Cindy
Cindy – I query why anyone would believe someone who has not even tried the product in question. Bill announced back in June that he was going to conduct research and trials on Laminine and tell everyone just how useless it is and how right he has been in his negative comments – but he has not even been able to do this. Instead of listening to this one negative voice – how is it ‘Cindy’ that you don’t believe the hundreds of thousands of people who have tried Laminine and for whom it has proved to improve their lives beyond their hopes. Medical proffessions, and natural healers all using and recommending Laminine. I come from the point of view of having used Laminine for the past 17 months, it changed my life and that of my husband when NOTHING else worked, regardless of cost. I suggest that you try Laminine and when you see the difference it makes to your life (and it will) then come back here and tell everyone.
That was me. I was told by God to buy for my mom and it appeared to be helping her, but she told me she didn’t feel any different. However, I can tell that she was doing more things without pain in the house and she only tried it for one week and then ran out of one bottle. She didn’t even believe that God was doing this. Well, I hope she will change her mind and try the second bottle, but it’s expensive.
hi, I am a published physicist, a sceptic by nature, but open minded about the limitations of traditional western profit driven medicine which has corrupted the scientific basis of much medical research. I often try natural supplements, with no side effects, before resorting to more unnatural refined and strongly interacting commercial medications, often with good results, sometimes without. I have to say, that thou I was sceptical about the numerous benefits of Laminine given its simplistic nutrient origins, I was simply amazed how it virtually eliminated my Rhematoid arthritis within two weeks, and has also helped heal other long term injuries over a 6 month period (i.e decade old injuries, like rotator cuff injuries, knee problems, old broken bone aches etc.) My friends can’t believe the difference in my sporting revival. I went from nearly giving up tennis to pulling up without soreness, and am back to running and weights. I am a convert, this stuff just works, and is starting to work for friends I have now recommended try it as well.
Ralph (Feb 6 – 2015) I guess Dr Bill’s comment strand is still open although you’re the last one on my line. And the type is getting fainter by the word. Maybe I need LAM to upgrade my eyesight! You know, I’ve skimmed over the comments (time is precious at my age) and, aside from their literary skills some of which could do with some brushing up, there seems to be an even split between those who like LAM and those, for one reason or another, do not. Whether LAM is a placebo or not is of no interest to me. What I’d like to know is how many of those who swallow the pills are part of the pyramid and how much cash they have made since joining. Are you making money from selling the stuff Ralph?
Ralph – I read with interest that you ‘skimmed’ over the posts and then formed an opinion – maybe if you actually ‘read ‘ the posts you would realise that there are many more people for Laminine than against – in fact the ‘againsts’ are relatively few. I see that you say you are aging…. do you realise that Laminine – taking 2 per day instead of 1 can assist in the aging pattern? To the money subject – isn’t it funny how now one ever seems to mind ‘Amazon’, Wal*Mart and other conglomerates making money – but when it comes to an individual, forging a business for themselves and, by the way, helping numerous people as they do so, it seems to get up people’s noses! I wonder are those people just too darned jealous and lazy to make something of themselves? I have been taking Laminine for 19 months now (only one a day) and feel great – better than when I was younger. Aches and pains have gone away – my arthritic thumb joints have NO pain in them now and I can open any kind of a jar or tub, no matter how tight. I sleep 7 good hours every night which I appreciate seeing as I was an insomniac before I started taking Laminine. Furthermore, in the first year that I took Laminine, and the 7th year of visiting my Cardiologist for a complete scan and check up of my heart (which had been enlarged, to the best of my knowledge for at least the past 27 years), he was ‘gobsmacked’ (hate that word but it is the best description for his reaction). “Your heart is now NORMAL ” He told me. I could see from his face that he couldn’t understand how this could be. My heart had been pumping up to 150 ml per second and was now down to 80ml per second, was normal size and functioning as a normal heart. I have been taking the same minimal low dose meds for the 7 years with no difference each year. In the last year the only difference was that I was taking Laminine. I tell EVERYONE about Laminine and yes I sell my own supply to others (at NO profit) if they want to try it. Laminine is sold over the Net and the price is affordable. If it was sold in stores, involving lots of ‘middle men’ the cost would be much more. I recently visited a SPA in a well known town in Florida – having heard them on the local radio boasting about how much they liked to help people. I went to visit them and to tell them about Laminine. They were quite arrogant when explained what I was there about – ‘Is this one of those MLM things?” he asked disdainfully. I discovered during my visit that they were ripping people off with that scam where people sit for 20 minutes with their feet in some water with electrodes, the water turns dark brown, supposedly from the toxins coming out of the body . They had various different ‘tools’ for reading the body and showing what the body was deficient in – and of course supplying the vitamins and minerals at an exorbitant price to the people who supposedly believed what these tools were telling them! They wouldn’t put Laminine on their shelf because, he told me ‘ I will only sell what I can mark up by 100%’ That would make Laminine $72 per tub and out of many people’s reach. I also discovered that in several areas, these people were also involved with MLM and paying a monthly fee to the company for the benefit of being a member……………. People tend to believe what they want and they are educated and brainwashed to believe professionalism, suits, appearances, a show of wealth etc. when they should be looking deeper and looking for the real truth.
The comment above should have been to ‘Giles’ – not Ralph
Hi Pamela, You summed it up perfectly in your comment. “People tend to believe what they want”, and this applies to you as well. I won’t debate with someone like you who is obviously polarised to the extreme and unwavering in your views.
Pamela, the water ion foot detox DOES work. You are either alternative minded or you aren’t. The ion foot bath detox which I have done numerous times and do NOT promote is wonderful and has no less evidence than Laminine. And btw i like Laminine too. Just saying you would benefit from more open mindedness and patience.
I don’t have a conflict of interest- you do, and treading more softly would help your image.
I wonder what supplements Dr Bill takes?
It’s easy to poke at advertising.
But he doesn’t talk about the history of laminine
How about some positive information and why it might help others?
You’re an advocate for health, so prove it……
That’s what I thought!
Sharing is caring 🙂
Well said Kal – Bill never even tried Laminine – I query why anyone would believe someone who has not even tried the product in question. Bill announced back in June that he was going to conduct research and trials on Laminine and tell everyone just how useless it is and how right he has been in his negative comments – but he has not even been able to do this. See my post reply to Giles
Thank you, Dr. Bill Sukala, for using your time and training to add some balance to the Laminine hype. I read through your article and the entire forum. It took a few research hours on two occasions to find an objective article on this product. I became wary simply because I couldn’t find ANY negative research article OR testimonial on the internet even after the 11th google page but eventually came to this site. Again, many thanks for doing the homework, both clinical and in the area of propaganda/marketing methods and taking the time to make your analysis available to the public.
Hi Christine,
Thank you very much for taking the time to leave a comment. I am quite happy to see that you appreciate what I was trying to accomplish by adding balance to the marketing hype. I really don’t care if people buy Laminine or not, just that they do their due diligence with getting all perspectives before shelling out their money. Kind regards, Bill
Christine: You didn’t find any ‘negative’ comments because 99% of people who try Laminine have only positive results and comments to make about it. It is amazing that there is actually an all natural product that does what it says it will do. It is sad however, that people are so brainwashed that they can’t make up their own minds instead of believing what others say – you had to go to the 11th Google page (who bothers to go that far down in to the bowels of Google) to find Bill’s negative review – and who do you believe – reads like you were relieved to find a negative so that you didn’t feel that you might be missing out on something good. Shame – the ‘Proof is in the Pudding’ is what they say – its a no brainer – try it – when it works for you, you will know how wonderful it is – if you are one of the people in thousands that it doesn’t help – so what have you lost? Hardly as many $$s as most people seem to spend on their cups of coffee or cigarettes each day!!!I have been taking Laminine for 19 months now (only one a day) and feel great – better than when I was younger. Aches and pains have gone away – my arthritic thumb joints have NO pain in them now and I can open any kind of a jar or tub, no matter how tight. I sleep 7 good hours every night which I appreciate seeing as I was an insomniac before I started taking Laminine. Furthermore, in the first year that I took Laminine, and the 7th year of visiting my Cardiologist for a complete scan and check up of my heart (which had been enlarged, to the best of my knowledge for at least the past 27 years), he was ‘gobsmacked’ (hate that word but it is the best description for his reaction). “Your heart is now NORMAL ” He told me. I could see from his face that he couldn’t understand how this could be. My heart had been pumping up to 150 ml per second and was now down to 80ml per second, was normal size and functioning as a normal heart. I have been taking the same minimal low dose meds for the 7 years with no difference each year. In the last year the only difference was that I was taking Laminine. I tell EVERYONE about Laminine and yes I sell my own supply to others (at NO profit) if they want to try it. Laminine is sold over the Net and the price is affordable. If it was sold in stores, involving lots of ‘middle men’ the cost would be much more. I recently visited a Decongesting Spa in a well known town in Florida – having heard them on the local radio boasting about how much they liked to help people. I went to visit them and to tell them about Laminine. They were quite arrogant when I explained what I was there about – ‘Is this one of those MLM things?” he asked disdainfully. I discovered during my visit that they were ripping people off with that scam where people sit for 20 minutes with their feet in some water with electrodes, the water turns dark brown, supposedly from the toxins coming out of the body . They had various different ‘tools’ for reading the body and showing what the body was deficient in – and of course supplying the vitamins and minerals at an exorbitant price to the people who supposedly believed what these tools were telling them! They wouldn’t put Laminine on their shelf because, he told me ‘ I will only sell what I can mark up by 100%’ That would make Laminine $72 per tub and out of many people’s reach. I also discovered that in several areas, these people were also involved with MLM and paying a monthly fee to the company for the benefit of being a member……………. People tend to believe what they want and they are educated and brainwashed to believe professionalism, suits, appearances, a show of wealth etc. when they should be looking deeper and looking for the real truth.
Hi Bill, If you are a medical doctor, have you looked inside the latest Physicians Desk Reference? Under Laminine there is an article that is worth reading. Yes it is a grand idea to peruse what some of those multi-level marketers do, and I have had some experiences with a number, both good and bad. As for this company, I actually don’t mind what they do or do not do in the way of marketing their product. I do not concern myself with what claims they do, or do not make.
I have had half a century of searching for relief from a range of symptoms from which nobody could get long term relief for me. I was desperate when I found Laminine. I don’t need to prove to anyone that this product works. I know it does, and it is the first one that has. I have been taking this product for almost 18months. The research which got my attention included the statement that there were no known negative side effects, I could hardly believe that, and so I continued my research, and yes it is true, and that is a claim which is rare indeed in our current world of frequent side effects from medications.
I actually find it of interest to ask you if you have personally tried this product for at least six months? When you can answer yes to that question, then we can take your evaluations seriously from an educated perspective.
Hi Winafred,
Thank you for your comment. Please see my comment to a different poster about the Physician’s Desk Reference. I’ve cut and pasted it below for your review:
I should also point out that Laminine’s listing in the Physician’s Desk Reference is not really much of an honour nor is it proof that a product “works.” It is merely information supplied by the manufacturer and made available to physicians. You can access Laminine’s online PDR listing here: https://www.pdr.net/full-prescribing-information/laminine?druglabelid=3591 I note that the references listed at the bottom merely talk about the physiological effects of FGF in the development of a chicken egg, but do not provide any evidence of efficacy for Laminine as a dietary supplement. Moreover, the newest reference dates all the way back to 1998. The studies in context are listed in abstract form and have not been vetted by legitimate scientific peer-review. They look amusing, but I would like to see them undergo a proper review by independent scientists and see if they can cut the mustard. I also call your attention to another supplement named Eniva, which has used the PDR ploy as a marketing “stamp of approval.” https://www.mlmwatch.org/04C/Eniva/pdr.html You will notice that LifePharm is using the same ploy as Eniva.
Kind regards
Bill: You are just baffling people with your mumbo jumbo – WHERE is the report you said last June that you were going to bring out? Bottom line is ‘Laminine works’. It does what it says it does. It is affordable – people pay thousands of dollars to be relieved of pain and they could just buy a tub of Laminine for $36 and feel better with in a few weeks. Anyone who has a brain would try it and see if it works – rather than sit back and see how many stones they can throw at it to sink it – I actually think you this is only a ploy of yours to get people going, wasting time posting comments – it amuses you to get the reaction you do, especially from people like me who are appalled at your negative attitude – you are a Dr. (????) and therefore should be helping people by showing positivity and empathy.
Hi Pamela,
Could you please control the tone of your posts. It is unproductive for this forum.
Kind regards
Dear Pamela, Firstly, I am very glad for your positive results. I also would sell a product that seemed to work so well for me. Secondly, I have been using Laminine since February 2014. I did ‘feel’ energetic and happy. But my liver enzymes did not go down, they increased some more. I have liver disease and was hoping Laminine would help. I never had arthritic pain but in late December I began with a burning pain in my left bicep and elbow and forearm. I searched the internet, not for something ‘negative’ but for some scientific studies, for some further information, that might explain why I was having this new problem which was contrary to what I had read from many anecdotals that Laminine users posted. Because there were no studies to read, and because I know research engines can be manipulated to ‘force’ a product, article, site, to the top of the search, I continued my search, yes, to the 11th page of Google. I did not feel that Bill Sukala’s article was actually negative. Rather, it was expressing a balanced view of the need of scientific study and review in addition to testimonials. He researched more than I could have to find studies. And it was helpful to me also because the article gave a surprising statistic on the placebo effect. Now if Laminine or the placebo effect of it had brought my liver enzymes down, hallelujah, I wouldn’t care about the science. But I have LAB TESTS that got worse and an arm that hurts now. Did Laminine just not work or is it actually causing these new problems? I stopped taking my Laminine three days ago. Let’s see. I rejoice with all those who may have excellent results in having their health improve. All the best to you.
Hi Bill,
I apologize if the ‘tone’ of my comments are not in keeping with what you prefer for your forum…. I don’t mean to be rude or disrespectful, maybe I just state too plainly exactly how I see it. I don’t beat about the bush, I like to be straight and honest and believe it or not I do temper what I would like to write with as much diplomacy as I can muster. Anyway life is very busy for me at this time and I will not be making any more comments on this forum, no matter how tempted. Laminine is spreading its way worldwide and helping millions of people and I am delighted to be one of them. If you are as wise as you profess to be, it would do you no harm to try Laminine…………… other than of course then you would have to come back here and admit how wrong you have been. Enjoy life, look for something positive to put your efforts in to like assisting in freeing the bile bears in Asia – that’s a real worthy cause – ‘Animal Asia’ – so I bid thee farewell and good tidings.
Dear Pamela,
I appreciate your cooling your jets a bit. To be honest, I find your behaviour disturbingly militant and the religious fervour with which you promote Laminine across the internet is also unsettling. When I Google “Pamela Cherry Laminine,” I am able to find numerous websites filled with your rants.
In many ways, I see that your behaviour is consistent with the Dunning-Kruger effect whereby your self-perceived level of understanding of the sciences is far higher than in actual fact. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning–Kruger_effect I can appreciate your excitement about wanting to promote and sell your product line, but I am not so certain that you fully understand the science, or lack thereof, behind the product. For this reason, it is nothing more than a futile endeavour trying to have any relevant discussion with you on this topic. So it’s just easier for us to agree to disagree.
I find it unsettling that the word on laminine is not at least out for everybody to make an informed decision as opposed to just writing it off as mumbo jumbo!
Hi all,
I did a 3 month trial on Laminine and I had no improvement in my health and well being. I have now ceased ordering as I can not justify spending significant amounts of money on a product that has done nothing for me. A friend recommended the product and I had high hopes. I am baffled by all the rave reviews.
Dr Bill your writing is concise, organised and well thought out. My one minor variance with your review is that an organic egg, fertilised and 9 days developed may be much different than a sterile egg. As a comparison, a sprouted lentil contains a fair amount of vitamn C whereas a dried lentil pre-sprouted has none at all. Germination of a seed and the early growth of an embryonic chick may have some parallels.
Someone commented on vitamin C being miraculous – and indeed it is, for many conditions – and in spite of big bad pharma, there is a lot of excellent research on it. Especially if one goes back to the 1960’s and earlier.
For the record, i am superbly healthy and don’t feel many supplements but in my experience, Laminine was very positively noticeable.
You are bang on, in that someone needs to do a study and it can certainly be low cost and published at least somewhere. That lack does give me pause.
All the same, I took a year off and am probably going to grab some more and go on again based on my (subjective) fond memories of better energy and sleep.
by the way Dr Bill I have to add you are very patient and tactful : )
and a good writer
Thanks for the kind words Anthony. Most appreciated. Cheers
Dr. Bill, thank you so much for the review and for allowing us to comments. I have bought Laminine for my mom to try out for the first time. She has type 2 diabetes and also several inflammation and she is in her 70s. She also have some sign of memory loss and she doesn’t do things around the house like she used to. Anyway, I was able to convince my mom to try laminine for about a week. She took two in the morning and two at night. Within about a week, I asked her if she felt any difference and she said she didn’t. However, I have been seeing her on her feet most of the day preparing dinner for her birthday as my brother brought some food over and after we all ate, she got busy, cleaning up dishes. She also went to the back room for something and was still trying to do handcrafted bracelets. One night, she came back and put the flowers and everything in place on the necklace and showed me how easy it was and the next day, she started to cook fries and black eyes peas. I asked her if her feet, hips or back hurt and I kept asking her many times and she doesn’t mind me keep asking her. She said no, or very little sometimes, but she was doing much. Then I asked her if she felt a different? It’s all because of laminine? She still say no, she couldn’t feel any different. She told me she feel great. Then as she’s running out of 30 pills, she told me she doesn’t want to take too many pills because she’s taking medication and she doesn’t want me to spend too much money on Laminine. Then after she finished the bottle and just this week, she has leg and foot pains sometimes throughout the day. She’s tired since she was going to places and walking too much. And sometimes, she messed up the foods and can’t always cook. But I know she will be better when she gets up in the morning and she told me she is fine and will be better next morning. It happens many times before she took Laminine. Now I’m beginning to think that if my mom started taking Laminine again, she would be back working again and feeling great. I think she hasn’t tried it long enough as it would take more than a week for her to see a big different, but it would cost me too much money. She might change her mind and try laminine again, but my dad doesn’t want me to buy anymore pills for her because he want me to pay off my credit card debts that I’m in right now for other things I need to save money on. 🙁
My nutritionist recommended Laminine to me for insomnia, ADD symptoms and malaise, long-time complaints of mine probably related to post-menopausal conditions. I can provide one further positive testimonial. I have found marked and consistent relief on all counts. I feel grounded, energetic and optimistic when I take the pills. My sleeping patterns are virtually normal now after a year of Laminine, often on a dose of 2 pills a day in the morning. I notice no adverse side effects.
In many ways I consider the Laminine pills a substitute for protein packing, as for example, before an athletic event ether an athlete eats concentrated foods to boost his or her energy level and concentration. To test whether there really was any effect on me other than psychological I decided to take 2 pills only on days when I play (recreational) tennis with a pro. My tennis game after taking 2 pills is markedly improved due to my enhanced ability to concentrate and direct my energy into what athletes have called the “zone”. If I forget to take the pills, my game is often inconsistent and, by comparison, demonstrably off. The pro I play with is quite amazed at the effect of the pills. He asked me if he should take them but I responded that his level of concentration without pills didn’t suggest the need for these pills.
I realize that there are no scientic trials or studies. My question to my nutritionist was are there any ingredients other than the concentrated protein in the fertilized egg that could be dangerous? She said no and I am very pleased to have found this supplement.
By the way, my nutritionist told me that she found out about Laminine from a Parkinson’s victim who had reported definite improvement in his tremors and lack of balance. My husband has Parkinson’s and he has reluctantly tried Laminine despite his total distrust of pills that his PD doctor has not prescribed. He now takes them on days when his symptoms seem particularly bad, to good effect. I also have gotten him to take them before his tennis and I have noticed improvement in his game, particularly in his balance in tossing the tennis ball and serving. I am trying to persuade him to take them regularly.
One more thing–you analyse Laminine as if it were a drug. It isn’t. It is a food supplement. Yes, food has to be tested for safety and healthy and unhealthy qualities. But I don’t think the same clinical trials and studies are always necessary, are they? Do we require clinical tests to support an enthusiastic assertion that an apple a day keeps the doctor away? I may be overstating my case–and the Laminine marketers may be overly zealous and falsely scientific in their assertions of healing powers, but still, isn’t the tone of your critique a bit too pretentious for a pill predominantly comprised of the ubiquitous egg?
You say I analyse it as if it were a drug. I don’t believe that I make any reference that Laminine is a drug on par with a prescription medication. There are legal loopholes in US law under the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act which does absolutely nothing to educate the public. It allows for dietary supplements to be sold to consumers without having to be proven safe, effective, or that what’s listed on the label is actually what’s in the product. And the reality is, plenty of hokey operators have been playing the carnival shell game with consumers and skirting the law by selling supplements with no active ingredients listed on the label. I call your attention to this recent article which highlights this: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/03/sidebar-whats-in-those-supplements.
So let me leave this in no uncertain terms. While “legally”supplement companies can get away with this kind of nonsense thanks to (pro-supplement state) Utah Senator Orrin Hatch pushing through the DSHEA in 1994, this does not make it ethical. So when it comes to companies who go to market without any real evidence to support their claims, I, for one, will stand up and fight for balance so that consumers have the other side of the story that the companies don’t want consumers to know.
If we were talking about anything else and not dietary supplements, you would be demanding a much higher level of evidence. If a car manufacturer put out a new type of child safety seat, you would want to know that the seat was put through RIGOROUS testing and that the marketing claims were consistent with actual safety data (if they were making safety claims) before you put your little bundle of joy in it.
I am all for consumers having control over their own decisions, but those decisions should be made on balanced evidence, not just a bunch of marketing hot air and puffery.
I’m curious and skeptical as well about Laminine.
I’m also spiritual and I believe in many things can help heal the body.
However, the price itself is enough to make me raise my eyebrow and think ” where’s the wish to help”? Poor people obviously can’t get on Laminine!
So I asked a distributor I know if I couldn’t just buy 1x 30 capsules ( one week supply for a beginner @23 £ + shipping ) and test it on myself – but the answer was “what if it starts to help and then you’re out of Laminine”.. I would say that’s up to me to decide to take that chance 😀
I would rather pay $40+ to see if it works than waste $1000+++ on something I don’t know enough of yet.
The price itself for food supplements says it all!!.
You know the old saying- “if it sounds too good to be true it probably is”. I think it can be applied to Laminine.
I too would like to see some REAL documented evidence.
Dear Kat,
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment on my article. I know many distributors are not too happy with my review, but I’m a science guy and I like to see a stack of evidence over anecdotal testimonials. If someone hasn’t trained in the sciences, then that probably will never really mean anything to them.
You could try the product and see what you think for yourself. Assuming it is just an egg protein pill, then it probably couldn’t do any damage to you. If you were to feel a jolt then I’d be curious to see lab analyses of it testing for adulteration with other ingredients not listed. The other side of the placebo effect is expectation. I think when people get to the end of their tether and are desperate for a solution to whatever health woe they’re experiencing, then a strong belief that “this will help me” can in fact be enough to spark an improvement.
As you rightfully point out, if it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is. In the quarter century I’ve been working in the health industry, that has rung true over and over again more times than I could ever count. I have seen companies make hundreds of millions of dollars selling health in a pill, only later to find out it was either dangerous (herbal ephedrine) or had absolutely no physiological effect (herbal supplements that, upon testing, are shown to have no active alkaloids).
Please leave another message down the road after you’ve had a go and let us know of your experiences.
Kind regards
Bill
I am curious Dr. Sukala. I have read many of your articles and find them quite informative on health and fitness.But tell us, have you practiced medicine or done any incentive laboratory research and testing of any kind. I understand that you have a Doctorate in Exercise and Sport Science? Have you tried any products yourself containing egg embryo extract?
I eat egg embryo extract at least a few days per week.
I agree that we must be very careful of the hype around MLM or MLM-like products. But claiming that Western Allopathic Medicine (WAM = drugs and surgery) is backed by solid eveidence is laughable. A 2014 study published in the British Medical Journal showed that only 11% of WAM is actually proven to WAM standards, while 53% lacked any sort of credible evidence at all.
This is another case of “buyer beware” in regard to all forms of medicine – WAM, Complementary and MLM “health” products.
As practitioners, we must spend time with our patients, understand their needs, and guide them into individual pathways that will improve their health in the most efficacious way for them.
Hippocrates said “The measure of love shown to his patient counts above all”. Most practitioners seem to have forgotten that greatest of all medicine.
Let us all focus on what is helpful for patients rather than trying to prove that only “our” sort of medicine is good.
Thank you for your comment John. I will respond with a few key points:
1) Please provide the complete citation for the 2014 BMJ article you reference.
2)I have no kindling love affair with WAM, but I think it’s a bit naive to assume that anyone who is trained in medicine automatically reaches for their prescription pad for every patient. As an allied health professional who has worked in clinical settings with many different medical practitioners, I have seen docs try to get people to focus on lifestyle changes first as their first line of treatment. If those patients are unwilling or unable to adhere to lifestyle changes and their health is in immediate danger, then a med may be warranted as an adjunct to getting them back on track with healthy lifestyle changes.
3) I agree, practitioners should spend adequate time with their patients. In my business, I do take the time to sit down and listen to each person and give them the time they deserve. It is sad that the medical field has a habit of pushing people out the door.
Kind regards
I respect your review Doc and i’m glad they are personal views. Please what have you got to say about pdr accepting Laminine (pdr.net) and how kevin Sorbo got his relief from the use of Laminine. You may probably watch this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMkFNJ0k6UU and give us your opinion as well. I live in Ghana and work in a hospital buh not a doctor and can give countless testimonies on the use of this supplement. An elderly woman i met had diabetes and gangrene just as the video above who had to fly down from UK because they couldn’t help her. She was put on Laminine and just as you would see in the clip above had her healing.
That is not to say your comments are hogwash but at least some of us see results in the products.
Hello,
I noticed a large increase in stamina/lean muscle mass , but found it almost impossible to lose weight. Seemed odd.
Hi,
I am an end user of this product and i can confirm beyond any doubt that after taking this product i started to notice changes and felt the benefits .
i am not sure if it works for every body but definitely worked for me and i encourage those who are in doubt to give it a try .
what a great product!!!!
I used Laminine before and am sure, beyond a doubt that it was wonderful for deepening my sleep and it DID make me feel younger and stronger.
I am also sure it is WAY OVERPRICED, as are all multi-level-marketing products I have ever seen.
SO now I found the same proprietary 9 day old fertilised egg extract authorised by Dr Strand who developed it in Norway. At a fraction of the price.
I mean come on, how expensive can it possibly be to incubate eggs for 9 days and crack em open, and grind and dessicate the contents?
Get the Young Tissue Extract, (dr Strand’s original) at Swanson – they do mail order but they won’t send to Canada : ( – I got an American friend to order it and send up to me.
And this ain’t MLM. I don’t care if you mention me bc I ain’t getting any commissions. I CAN tell you this stuff, for me, worked just as well as Laminine. I ain’t ever never buying that overpriced stuff again.
Thank you Swanson!
Sometimes there are understandable reasons why a supplement goes MLM and does not go through peer-reviewed medical journals. And sometimes the sheer volume of anecdotal evidence compensates for the lack of reputable peer-reviews. For me, if enough people can anecdotally report a diagnosed condition with before and after blood results or Xrays and can honestly say that YTE was the ONLY agent involved in correcting the XRAY / blood results, then its good enough for me.
But, unfortunately, there are very few posts here that give that detail. I want to hear 20 people say something like this :
I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis with blood RF factor of XYZ and Xray showing total cartilage loss.
Medication did not change these results at all. I stopped medication. I started with YTE. AFter 2 months my blood RF factor was ABC and Xrays showed cartilage back. My rheumatologist is Dr ABC practising at XYZ.
Is there anyone out there that can say this ?
Rob
May I suggest that you conduct your own experiment on the product. Like buy a pack and have chemist friends to analyze it’s contents or have actual lab rats to try it for observation, and then let us know of your findings.
I haven’t tried the product yet, I am very curious. So far my main concern about it is that, what happens when you stop using the product? Cause I have read a number of testimonies saying that when they stopped taking Laminine, they’re back to their pre-Laminine state. So does it mean people will dependent on the product?
TO THOSE WHO HAVE TRIED THE PRODUCT: Has it permanently eliminated an ailment or pain from your body? And even when you stop taking Laminine, did the ailment or pain totally disappear? And never returned?
That’s what I would like to know.
Hi
After reading this article,my conclusion is…………………start changing my diet and ensure I eat more vegetables,fruits and diverse proteins to get all the amino acids,minerals and vitamins my body needs on a daily basis.
Thank you Dr Bill Sukala
Hi Charlotte,
Thank you for your comment. Yes, when you look past all the sales hype and sleight of hand in the wording, the one thing we know is that there is no substitute for healthy eating and regular exercise. Kind regards, Bill
i saw an advertisement for Laminine. Couldn’t believe the claims despite the age old saying “if it sounds too good it probably is.” I purchased a pack for me and my daughter. The web site says safe for all. My daughter has epilepsy and takes medication and has problems because of this. She took Laminine after 36 hours she began to get flashes actually similar to her normal pattern but these were stronger and lasted longer and she was unwell for a couple of days. I told her to stop for 48 hours and then retake the Laminine. She did and the flashes started again. No scientific trial i appreciate, but disconcerting nevertheless. I have an outstanding problem with balance of brain chemicals which when they occur cause me to see myself different (body dysmorphia). Nothing life threatening but very upsetting. Within 24 hours of taking Laminine, my body dysmorphia came on with a vengeance. I continued the tablets for another 24 hours in the hope it would settle down. It didn’t and i had to stop. I waited 48 hours during which time the dysmorphia slowly reduced. Then i started them again and it came on again with a vengeance. Maybe the worst I’d had for a few years. What’s in there that caused mine and my daughters problems i can’t know, but that’s two conditions that might show up if it was properly trialled. The distributors here in England were hard sell ringing all the time, even after i had brought the product, and then extended to ringing about the monthly ordering system. You are absolutely right in what you say. I think people are gullible about their health. And probably just taking a supplement with vitamins, minerals, and amino acids would, for a short time, give a high. Best of luck in your endeavours.
Hi Margaret, thank you for sharing your story. I know that many of the comments on this post are from Laminine distributors so I often warn readers to take “testimonials” with a grain of salt. Sometimes they read more like enthusiastic sales copy than anything else. In your case, you clearly do not represent the product in any capacity other than someone whose tried it. There have been others online who’ve had adverse effects, too. As you state, it would be helpful to have clinical trials to tease out the risks vs. benefits.
Hi Dr Bill,
I am so glad I came across this article. I have sjogren’s syndrome (auto-immune disease), I am 40 now and I was diagnosed at 26 years of age. I see my rheumatologist once a year and have never resorted to medication. Yes I have bad days, but I eat well, exercise when I can and have a positive attitude (this I believe is the key to keeping it under control).
I had recently experienced a flareup and this time it was quite bad to the point I had inflammation around my heart and extremely tired. My blood test results showed normal apart from high inflammation and low white blood cell count. I had an ECG, echo test and bloods, again everything normal except for inflammation. Inflammation is awful especially when it is severe and particularly being so fatigued, so I thought what can I do to improve my health????
I have been a member of an Australian auto-immune disease foundation for sometime, I’ve been looking at the website more deeply just recently to see what else can I do to improve my health…. Well the site claims that Laminine works…. I did some research, loads of it and like you just kept finding bullshit claims. When I contacted the key person who manages this site about Laminine I was advised to purchase the supplements through her (this is when the alarm bells set-off… I wanted to see clinical and scientific proof… My question: “Why aren’t they selling it in a pharmacy or recommended by my doctor or by my rheumatologist?”
I had a flare up and that’s crap but it’s even more shity when an auto-immune disease foundation recommends a product that is not clinically nor scientifically proven to work.
Thank you for this article, I am so thankful I read it…. I can only imagine now the bullshit claims that will follow once I have posted this. You have done me a huge favour!
Hi Jo, Apologies for the delay in approving your comment. I think a few of the bullshit bombs might have been responsible for landing your comment in the sin bin. You make a very good point in that it’s unethical that a foundation like that is promoting commercial products. Though Laminine is still being sold, I am noticing a significant reduction in traffic to this article even though it ranks well. I believe the product might be running its marketing life cycle, as I’ve seen over and over again with these types of products (over the entirety of my career).
I think it’s important to note there are plenty of people who have convinced themselves that certain products are magic and they sell them with good intentions. Nevertheless, as you found out for yourself, there is no categorical research support for each of their marketing claims. You can look and look but you simply will not find it. As I’ve said over and over in my article and in the comments section of this article, the company and its legions of distributors keep referencing journal articles that have nothing to do with Laminine. No matter how much evidence and logic/reason you present, they willingly insist on being misled. Nutrition is a science and not a religion. Once it goes religious (as it has in this case), then it’s a waste of time to even have ideological debates over any nutrition or supplement topic.
As for why the product is not recommended or sold by your doctor is that the majority of docs who are evidence based would not resort to selling protein pills with no evidence supporting the claims. Though I have come across a few docs over the years that jumped at the business opportunity. These products probably won’t harm you, but I question their efficacy given the lack of supporting research.
Thanks again for your comment and keep up the good work with your exercise and nutrition!
Kind regards,
Bill
Hi Dr. Sukala
I am in a dillemma right now. My mother has been suckered into the laminine scam going around. She is convinced that the product is good
As soon as i found out about this ‘laminine’ i researched online all about it and all i found was testimonials and no research and studies done on it. I was skeptical and continued my research. It lead me to your article about laminine, and i just knew the product was a load of crap.
My mother wants me to buy bottles of laminine to send to her dad (my grandpa) who is in the Philippines (We live in Australia) who is quite old and has many health problems.
I have a hard time trying to convince her that the product is not very good, and it just contains amino acids and vitamins that you can buy in a normal drug store here in Australia. I wouldnt have looked into laminine if it was cheap, but the bottles of laminine are very expensive and I do not want my mother wasting her money.
I have a hard time convincing her, but i will show her your article. Although the product is not good, I also want to help my grandpa. My question is, what other alternatives, maybe supplements or vitamins could we purchase in Australia instead to send to my grandpa instead of laminine? Any supplements that could do what laminine claims to do? (and more)
Hope to hear from you soon!
Hi Jason,
I can empathise with your frustration. But you have to remember that when it comes to these sorts of decisions, they are based on emotion more than reason. People believe what they believe even against a mountain of evidence to the contrary. You asked if there are any supplements that can do what laminine claims to do. Well, first we have to ask whether Laminine actually does anything at all in the body. The claims are lofty and there is no clinical research to support these claims, despite what the army of distributors would have you believe. If laminine’s ingredients are just vitamins, minerals, and protein, then you can easily buy these for a fraction of the price anywhere in Australia. But likewise, they could easily be purchased in the Philippines too. I understand your grandfather has some health issues so if possible, it would be helpful to look after his physical activity and regular diet (i.e., eating real food). After all, when it comes to laminine supplements, the operative word is supplement and not substitute for healthy eating. Kind regards, Bill
Laminanie cures all, everything, cancer, tumors, etc… Its is Gods miracle for us to enjoy.
If only
There are no miracle remedies, but there is a whole world populated by the gullible and venal who will attempt to both promote their product and protect their source of income whilst citing miraculous cures with zero evidence to back their claims. This scam is no different to thousands of other fast-buck pyramid schemes. I’m a confirmed sceptic and will accept nothing based on faith alone; personal ‘testimonials’ are probably the least convincing ‘evidence’ in existence. Want to feel better? Eat healthy and exercise; you don’t need an overpriced egg product to do so. As for all the ‘try it yourself’ suggestions, why would I want to if there’s nothing wrong with me? Thanks Doc, and keep pressing for the peer reviews and genuine, non-partisan and unbiased research. I suspect we’ll have a long, long wait…
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for taking the time to leave a comment. I agree. We’re going to be waiting a long time. I think what many people fail to understand is that the 1994 US Dietary Supplement Health Education Act (which, by the way, does nothing to educate anyone) allows for dietary supplements to be sold without having to be proven safe, effective, or that what’s on the label is what’s actually in the bottle. The onus is not on manufacturers to prove anything, it’s on government to prove that it either doesn’t work, isn’t safe, or is adulterated. After nearly a quarter century in this field, I’ve arrived at point where I don’t think you can sell most dietary supplements without being misleading in the advertising. Very sad. Anyway, keep on spreading the good word that healthy eating and exercise are the way to go. Cheers
This comment forum is polluted by sponsors (commercial or otherwise) seeking to dislocate and shift attention drawn from the author’s crippling scrutiny to their array of dubious ‘Laminine cure-all’ anecdotes, lashes of character assassination against the author and dialogue disputing the validity of his article based upon implied vested interest of this page’s creation due to financial backing (an unbridled irony); each of which are ineptly cloaked acts of vindication in order to mitigate lost sales this article may have caused to their company.
The guy on the lamimine website listed as their ‘research scientist’ had his medical licence revoked in New Jersey for billing medicaid for unapproved drug addiction treatment about 15 years ago and was also convicted for tax evasion .
Wow, very interesting! I had no idea. I did a bit of looking around online and was able to find evidence that your claims are indeed true.
https://www.justice.gov/archive/tax/usaopress/2003/txdv03an0430_r.htm
Dear Doctor!
Thank you for the hard work. People like to be manipulated unfortunately. This Laminine hoax is a joke. The inventor, Dr. Davidson died at the age of 59! The saviour of humanity could not save himself, ha-ha ha… And of course he forgot to make notes about his great invention!! Ha-ha-ha!
Plus I did not find any clinical studies or trials on Laminine hoax. I do have vegetarian, paleolite, vitamin overdoser friend, but none of them looks any younger than their age or they look even older. People have to understand: not even billionaires (actors, businessman, kings) can lengthen their lifes or slow down their ageing… No miracle drugs or methods, this hoax Laminine does not help them either.
Hi Csaba,
I agree with you. It’s a lot of marketing hype and hot air in my opinion and it is very sad that people fall victim to it again and again. Thanks for your comment 🙂
Hello Bill. LifePharm’s Laminine pills are now distributing in EU countries for about some years. I live in Poland and “laminine” has already some history there. Now, after some downfall in interest, it is coming back once again, by YT, websites and Facebook groups.
My friend has become the distributor about 2 weeks ago. He also has an illness, which he hopes to cure by this wonder-pill. I’m trying to convince him about so many shades of this business, but no result, he has not much knowledge to do at least basic scientific research and believes in info from Laminine zealots a lot. He is also not much an English speaking person. I could maybe open his eyes to some data, but he is convinced that “scientific research” LifePharm approved and published on one of Polish Laminine main sites is enough to prove healing capabilities of this pills.
I’ve checked all links to research documents on mentioned site (all documents under links are in the English language). Please see for Yourself and check this links at the bottom of opinieolamininie.eu/certyffikaty.html You will surely find interesting things there 🙂 I wish You have time to maybe comment a little bit all of this documents. I don’t have much medical or biological knowledge,
unfortunately. Your comments surely will help a lot of people at least in Poland (the network of Laminine distributors is growing there).
By what I see, the most of the research documents are of course nothing to do with Laminine pills or Fertilized Eggs Extract etc., just with laminines-glycoproteins and Fibroblast Growth Factor. There are however a couple of not so convincing research documents about Fertilized Eggs Extract helping to fight depression and stress (I think You have maybe covered issues with this researches in this article). Next, we can find PDR 69 2015 with LifePharm info, documents made by LifePharm and Dr. Edward Andujar, some promotional about YTE (Dr. Eskeland), halal food certificate and some Indonesian info about ingredients of Laminine. There is also one unsigned document “Laminine Research Summary” with interesting references/bibliography. Most of this references are about FGF and Chicken Embryos (i think they are used in FGF experiments). There is one titled Significant Modification of Lipid Metabolism in Aged Persons Following the Treatment with the Nutritive Supplement Containing Embryonary Peptides, G. Mihaescu, R.
Olinescu, F. Oancea. I don’t how this last one stands in science because I am not any scientist at all. Anyway, there are others, who are 🙂
Greetings
Clearly the whole product and company is trash. But what about the healing potential of raw eggs? Can we eat raw eggs to get natural Laminin? Or egg white protein powder? Lets not throw the baby chicken out with the egg white bathwater lol
Laminine is a brand name. Laminin is a protein that, if you eat it, it would be broken down like any other protein source. But not surprisingly, much of the research they try to cite as support for their product has absolutely nothing to do with the product. In short, I’d suggest looking for another golden unicorn because egg white protein powder ain’t it. Here’s an article to that effect: https://drbillsukala.com/golden-unicorn-of-health/
But, have you ever tried? thats the question, no matter how good you want to fool prof about laminine, have you ever tried it? You said “American Health Journal” is biassed or what ever you called, but have you ever studied for your self about laminine? and what the result? i want to know too, you can answer my comment in YES or NO, if yes, good, i want to know what the result and effect to your body, and if NO, dont said anything, just said NO, so i can assume your article is biassed too.
A fool quickly parts with his money. Read the article in it’s entirety before you leave a comment.
First, thank you DR Sukala,
I have experiences these types of MLM’s since the 80″s since certain herbal vitamin company came on the scene. These companies have one thing in mine. Sell you a MLM membership to make money for themselves. Their products have no scientific proof, but have many testimonials from their MLM members.
I am not saying that some people don’t get results physically or mentally, but the majority don’t. Use it if it works for you, but don’t believe unfounded truths without scientific evidence. I take vitamins I buy at a health food store, but I don’t have to pay $1100.00 for their benefits, and there are many reputable books than can tell you what to take for certain medical conditions and physical stamina. Believe me I pay much less ($25-50/ Mo.) for the same results than some of the people in MLM’s claim.
Thanks for the comment, yep, MLM in general is notoriously overhyped. I’ve seen countless companies selling otherwise average products they could buy at their local supermarket for a fraction of the price, yet because of grandiose marketing, they are willing to pay thousands for drop-shipped products with a fancy label. A sucker quickly parts with his money.
I am a user of laminine for 7 years now. Back then I had too much work with stress and lack of sleep leading to depression and fatigue. I took laminine. I was able to sleep and rest. That was the beginning. In 2018 I had blood test done by an insurance company and they rated me ELITE. That means that I am healthy beyond my age. I have tumors in my breasts that got encapsulated and there is no need for chemo therapy or surgery. I had chicuncuña (a mosquito bite desease that is extremely painful in the joints and debilitating) and it only lasted 2 days while most people had it for at least 2 weeks with faint pains for several years. In general, I recover from any discomfort quickly and I seem to have more energy and much better health than people my age. I want to also mention that your article is very well written I enjoyed reading it very much.
Hi Dr. Bill
I was a former employee of this company in xxxxxxxx.
Their management itself is terrible in their company, they just rely on a testimony from other peoples, not from scientific method. You can see their Facebook, their Youtube, their instagram post, just claiming everything, their Presentation is just for “how you become rich from this product”
This product just like another Vitamin product not great not terrible
The selling point itself is from the Bonus they will get when re-Selling this product, not from the scientific effort.
You article are right, their income is decreasing year after years, even in this sept 2021, still decreasing.
The worst of all is, their member bought Thousand of this products just to get the bonus, and then the unsold products they sell underpriced in ecommerces, but we, the staff are get the storm and anger from the management why all this happening, smh.
1. Bad Management
2. Bad Top Management (boss) habit, too childish
oh one more, this is a Family company, all their top management in US are Father and Son management, so guess what will happening, you criticize them, you will be fired or get the penalty
*sorry for my english, lmao
Wow, that’s quite the experience. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Well written article. This Laminine popped up in my Facebook feed after I had clicked on an ad for Stoko supportive apparel (a real company) as I have some osteo in my knees. The add I saw was specifically tailored to people with knee osteo (very clever marketing) with some frankly outrageous claims that it would stimulate stem cells to regenerate my knees a la PRP injections (which I am also skeptical of). Usually if something is too good to be true, it is. When I saw the claims that only would it completely re-grow my knee cartilage, but solve depression, high cholesterol etc, it looked preposterous for a pill that contains some kind of protein supplement (which I already take to achieve my minimum recommended daily protein intake).
I found this article well down in a google search, but it confirmed my suspicions. Thanks for writing.
Hi Marc, Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. Glad you’re keeping your wits about you out there in the jungle!