Some Thoughts on Mannatech and/or Glyconutrients

A recent recommendation by a friend of mine brought this post to my mind. The recommendation was for my wife, who has not been feeling well for weeks, primarily because of morning sickness (btw, if you didn’t know, we’re having a baby!!!1)

The recommendation was to consider taking Ambrotose, the headline product made by a company called Mannatech as a potential way to alleviate some of the issues Heather’s been having. His wife had had similar issues and had noticed a difference when taking Ambrotose.

A little background info – Over the past few years, I’ve had a decent number of friends (7-10) purchase Mannatech products and said that they had see a difference in their life. During the time that I first heard of Mannatech and heard a sales pitch for it, I did what I do for most things I don’t know much about – I researched it. This process tends to be a bit more detailed when said thing desires money from me =). This was in 2006/2007.

Before I get in to what my research “found”, a brief aside – I am a cynic by nature, and my primary means of researching topics tends to be through the Internet. I realize these two traits means that I could pretty much disprove any idea or theory anyone ever had, by finding some whacko writing about how it’s untrue on some no-name blog. As such please bear with me and keep that in mind, and I’ll do my part to try and be impartial and present the truth – if that’s possibe.

So anyway, at the time of my first hearing of Mannatech, my research was generally inconclusive. The company was not well-known, and there was not a large amount of information on non-Mannatech websites. I’ll freely admit that I was skeptical from the beginning. Furthermore, Heather and I were in generally decent physical health, and didn’t really have the money to put forth $50 to $100 every-other-month for something we didn’t truly need.

Since that time, out of curiosity, I’ll google a few words related to the topic every couple months – specifically, Mannatech, glyconutrients, etc. I’ll check the wikipedia articles, and find forums where the topics are discussed back and forth, by supporters and detractors.

Given that the below points get kind of wordy, I’ll go ahead and summarize as succinctly as I can:

Though I have reasons to be completely in doubt of Mannatech and the glyconutrients they market, I cannot say for sure that their products are fraudulent. The anecdotal evidence provided by my friends would indicate that they can have a positive effect, but points #2 and #3 listed below makes it difficult for me to support a company with a growing history of deception and use of multi-level marketing to sell it’s products.

That said, here’s the things that I’ve found over the past three years that support what I’ve just said above. Read on if you care, stop now if you don’t =).

1. There is a disconnect in the science presented by Mannatech. This first and foremost reason tends to be the purpose of me googling terms about Mannatech. A study that decisively proves that taking glyconutrients would raise energy levels, or cure a disease, or anything would go a very long way to silencing my concerns. Something that I could use, that would make my life better. Sure, that’s a very consumeristic viewpoint, but they’re marketing a product for me to buy, and it’s not cheap.

To date, I’ve not seen such a study , so I can only conclude 1 of 3 things:

a. Studies were done, but proved little to nothing, and were not promoted.
b. Studies were not done and will not be done, and Mannatech has no desire to make their product have definitive proof behind it. This is either because they don’t care about people like me, they’re satisfied with their word-of-mouth endorsements, or they know nothing would be proven. As I don’t buy any products from them, the “why” of this doesn’t matter to much to me either way.
c. Studies are in progress, and take a long time. Hence I continue to search the internet, in case c is the answer.

I know this may seem sarcastic, but I’d love to be proven wrong on this point. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t keep trying to find a study that proves such things.

2. There are indications of deception in the leadership of Mannatech. Two main indicators here:

a. Sam Caster, the founder of Mannatech, has had two business ventures before Mannatech declared as hoaxes and not providing the benefits as advertised by the Texas Attorney General’s office. link. This point by itself is not enough to make a huge difference, but doesn’t lend credence to Mannatech’s credibility.

b. Mannatech paid $6 million settlement in a lawsuit stating that Mannatech launched “an unlawful marketing scheme” that over-promised what the effects of their products would be, including potentially curing Downs Syndrome, cystic fibrosis, and cancer. link. Speaks for itself. I recall in the sales pitch I saw seeing a picture of a girl with Downs Syndrome, and then another picture of the same girl that did not appear to have DS any longer (as far as physical appearance goes). The implication was that glyconutrients was responsible for this change.

There was a seperate lawsuit, that Mannatech settled for 11.25 million, that was the result of similar claims being made. As it was settled out of court, Mannatech admitted no wrongdoing (unless $11.25 million out of your pocket means your wrong). link.
3. Mannatech is sold only through network marketing / multi-level marketing (MLM).

This one is more of a personal issue for me, and doesn’t necessarily say anything about the products efficacy. MLM raises two large red flags in my mind:

a. The inspiration that selling Mannatech will allow a person to reach “financial freedom” as mentioned on their Opportunity website. In MLM-speak, “financial freedom” is a euphemism for millions of dollars for little work. It’s laced with greed, which is ironic because….

b. Very few sellers in MLM networks break even, and even less of them make large amounts of money. The very nature of a business that requires exponentially more people for any one person to make money requires that the last people, the people at the bottom of these downlines, to completely lose out.

I’ll grant Mannatech that their marketing focuses more on the product than the opportunity to sell the product, but the point remains.

That’s all I have to say on this topic, for now. As always, your comments, emails, etc. are welcome.