Xtend-Life-Questionst
17th February 2006
Please click on the question of interest:
Kevin Trudeau and Soy...
I value your opinion and welcome your comments re 2 separate items, Kevin Trudeau and soy. 1) Kevin Trudeau - author of 'Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About' Do you have any personal knowledge of Trudeau, his background and integrity? Trudeau presents a compelling and scary message of the pharmaceutical industry in bed with the FDA, FTC, doctors, medical schools, Federal government leaders in Washington D.C., the media, health care industry, food industry, and others...
Question: From Peter. (Subject: Bio-availability of Chrysin...)q1
Regarding Chrysin, I note there is considerable controversy regarding bioavailability. Many commentators say it is useless if taken orally because it just does not get taken up by the system. Others say that this problem is resolved by combining with piperine. It's all very confusing. Does Xtend-Life have any position/observations on this issue?
Answer: From Warren.
We only use Chrysin in our Total Balance Men's Plus to help prevent the conversion of testosterone to estrogen.
As with many other nutrients, there are bio-availability issues with Chrysin. These issues come about because the nutrients are usually released in the stomach where they are subject to 'attack' by both stomach acid and enzymes. Of course, for that matter so is all the food that we eat, so it could be argued that this should not be a problem.
However, when you are taking a concentrated form of a nutrient such as those found in a supplement you are ingesting only minute amounts of each substance so the impact of stomach acids and enzymes become a real issue if they damage any of the active ingredient (which they do with many nutrients). This means that not enough of the active ingredient gets to the upper intestine where it needs to be in order to pass through the intestinal walls and into the blood stream to be delivered to the cells.
Piperine is well known to help bio-availability of many nutrients and it is for this reason that we use it in Total Balance and some other products. I am not too sure of its actual mechanism of action. (I would have to ask Prof.Dr.A Munem about that).
Even though Piperine helps with bio-availability it only plays a relatively small part in delivering Chrysin to where you want it to go... that is initially to the upper intestine.
The only way to do that effectively is to enteric coat the tablet which protects the ingredient as it passes through the stomach which is an acidic environment and then disintegrates rapidly when it arrives at the upper intestine which is slightly alkaline.
This is why you could have a Total Balance tablet in your pocket and get soaking wet with acid rain (if you were so unlucky) and it would not damage the tablet. But... switch to a wet alkaline environment and the tablet would soon disintegrate in your pocket.
So... bottom line... if you want to get the most out of your Chrysin... ensure that it is not only combined with piperine but the tablet is enteric coated as well.
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Question: From Jim. (Subject: Kevin Trudeau and Soy...)q2
I value your opinion and welcome your comments re 2 separate items, Kevin Trudeau and soy.
1) Kevin Trudeau - author of 'Natural Cures They Don't Want You to Know About'
Do you have any personal knowledge of Trudeau, his background and integrity?
Trudeau presents a compelling and scary message of the pharmaceutical industry in bed with the FDA, FTC, doctors, medical schools, Federal government leaders in Washington D.C., the media, health care industry, food industry, and others. Trudeau cites his personal experience of being born with a heart defect, mitral valve prolapse, and correcting the problem by rebuilding the heart via natural treatments outside the US. The treatments used by Trudeau are not legal in the US and his US doctors who initially diagnosed the problem denied his cure and said that he must have been misdiagnosed in the first place.
2) Soy
Do you have any first hand knowledge of the benefits/dangers of soy?
My wife and I use organic soymilk distributed by Whitewave Foods Co instead of cow's milk.
However, the following makes us pause in confusion and bewilderment.
A reference to dangers with soy mentioned in a newsletter from Dr. Mercola (www.mercola.com) prompted me to read the article "Cinderella's Dark Side" by Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. The article states that soybeans contain (a) large quantities of natural toxins with potent enzyme inhibitors that block action of trypsin and other enzymes needed for protein digestion, (b) haemaglutinin that causes red blood cells to clump together, (c) goitrogens that depress thyroid function, (d) phytic acid that blocks uptake of essential minerals-calcium, magnesium, copper, iron and zinc-in the intestinal tract, (e) endocrine disrupting isoflavones, genistein and daidzein.
The article further states that the New Zealand Government issued a health warning about soy infant formula in 1998.
Answer: From Warren.
I don't know much about Kevin Trudeau except that he is a highly effective marketer. I do know that he has been banned by the FTC against doing any further infomercials and has had some heavy fines imposed on him. Refer to the FTC website at:
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/09/trudeaucoral.htm
He came to fame promoting the coral calcium infomercials which were outrageous in their claims and were quite misleading. I understand this is what got him into trouble. I can't comment on his personal experiences as I don't know all the facts.
I have not read his book but there is no doubt that the relationship between the medical 'industry' and the pharmaceutical industry is incestuous to say the least. Even without reading his book I would guess that there is an underlying truth regarding many of the things that he says about the pharmaceutical and food industry. Just bear in mind that he is foremost a marketer and some of what he says may need to be 'toned down' a bit.
With regard to soy, this is a subject of much controversy. There is no doubt that soybean on its own has toxic substances present and should not be eaten.
I have a great deal of respect for the work of Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig, Ph.D and the articles that they write are well researched.
However, bear in mind that soy is a great substance for extracting all sorts of good nutrients from and the extracts are 100% safe. You would be quite amazed with the variety of nutrients that can be extracted from soy.
With regard to using soy milk I have not done enough research on this personally to venture an informed opinion...but if and when I do, I would certainly be influenced by the findings of Sally Fallon & Mary G. Enig.
Having said that, I have no doubt that soy milk (so long as it is non genetically modified) is a far better option than cows milk...which I would never touch. But...personally I would not drink either.
I recollect the banning of the infant formulas some years ago but I think that this was due to other forms of contaminants or, more than likely because it was genetically modified.
I know that these comments are not conclusive but I hope they are helpful.
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Question: From Ed. (Subject: Iceland Health Omega 2...)q3
Can you compare if possible, Iceland Health Omega 3 vs. Xtend-Life Omega 3?
I use yours but a friend asked me to compare them and then he would make a decision. I guess the infomercial on Iceland Health gave him some insight but he needs a little more info.
Answer: From Warren.
I had a look at the Iceland Omega 3.
Like our product it is a concentrated molecularly distilled fish oil with approx 60% Omega 3 (this will always vary from batch to batch). Each softgel contains 1000mgs the same as ours, but only contains 200mgs of DHA which is the key nutrient. In contrast each of our softgels contain about 250mgs of DHA.
But here is the interesting part. They retail 30 soft gels for $39.95 as opposed to our 60 soft gels for $16.85. In other words they are over four times more expensive than our product...
They do not identify the fish they are using so it is likely to be a mixture... unlike our oil which is all New Zealand Hoki. We process our fish close to where it is landed by the fishing boats and as such it is incredibly fresh. We also structure our manufacturing runs so that the product is rarely older than 90 days when we ship to customers.
However, the Iceland Omega 3 may be as fresh... I honestly don't know. The only thing I know for sure is that they certainly know how to charge a lot for it :)
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