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Stimulife 750
Is It Really All Good and Nothing Bad?
Hillary
Warner
Recently, another weight loss supplement has stepped into
the ever-increasing market. This drug,
called Stimulife 750, is a supposedly all-natural herbal supplement that
promotes weight loss without any effort from the client. Both the parent company – Stimulife
International – and various distributors of Stimulife 750 make bold blanket
statements such as “Stimulife 750 has everything good and nothing bad,” which
set the success of the pill far higher than is possible. Furthermore, these individuals attempting to
sell the product use a variety of marketing techniques to encourage purchasing
the supplement; however, they provide no scientific evidence to support the
claims they make regarding the safety and effectiveness of the product. By appealing to the clients’ desire for a
natural and easy way to lose weight, providing pseudo-scientific statements to
convey a sense of authenticity to the product, and befriending the client by
seeming to care for their best interests, the distributers attempt to woo more
clients. However, Stimulife 750
contains many ingredients included in other “unsafe” weight loss supplements
and scientific research shows no clear evidence that Stimulife 750 is any more
effective or safe as other diet pills.
The primary source of information
about Stimulife 750 online can be obtained from the official website
for the product. Perhaps the first noticeable aspect of the page is the colorful
borders and the bright pictures of happy, thin people. These images convey the message to the
viewer that Stimulife 750 is a supplement that will make you happy and thin and
ready to run down the beach hand in hand with your new-found romance. The pictures are not coincidental but,
rather, are visual stimuli meant to attract people who desire such happiness
and thinness in their life.
Following the link to “The Stimulife
Story,” one can read of the founder and origins of Stimulife 750. (Again, it is interesting to note that the
main image on this page is a thin, exuberant woman standing on a scale –
assuring the viewer that s/he, too, could be so happy and thin if s/he were to
purchase Stimulife.) The company first
assures the viewer that the product is a safe and healthy “herbal” alternative
as compared to the other weight supplements on the market. The company supports this statement by
describing Stimulife’s founder, John Fike, as a hard-working, knowledgeable
fitness-expert who wanted to deliver both his parents and the world from weight
problems and from the evils of weight-loss supplements. Fike supposedly applied computer technology,
fitness expertise, case studies, knowledge of herbal medicine, advice from
numerous chemists, and a true compassion for those suffering from weight
problems to create Stimulife. One must
really wonder how one man, who was not a doctor or scientist but a man with a
career in “weight training and kickboxing” could accomplish such a staggering
financial and scientific feat. Surely,
there is more to this story than the company tells.
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The website continues on to say,
“Two Stimulife 750TM
caplets provide the nutritional equivalent of four servings of fresh
vegetables.” This statement leaves a
critical reader asking many questions: Does “equal” mean that half of one
tablet has the exact same components, in the exact same amounts, as one
vegetable? To which vegetable is the
comparison made? Each vegetable is
composed of different nutrients – does that mean that each tablet has every
single nutrient that any given vegetable might have? Futhermore, does this statement mean that a client taking
Stimulife 750 need not eat any vegetables while taking the product?
To answer these questions, one need
only look at the ingredients of Stimulife 750 to see that the product
does not have all the nutrients that various vegetables provide. While the supplement contains several herbs
that are portrayed as being beneficial, it is obvious that it does not provide
the client with all the vitamins and minerals that vegetables do. In fact, this ingredient list further
emphasizes the point that Stimulife 750 is a supplement, not a substitute for a main food group as the above
statement seems to convey.
Another significant aspect to the
website is the semi-scientific support offered to demonstrate Stimulife’s
efficacy. For example, within “The
Story of Stimulife 750,” the company states:
“Mr. Fike commissioned an
Independent Testing Laboratory to institute a Dietary Quality Assurance program
of pharmacology, clinical data, good manufacturing practice (GMP) and labeling.
Mr. Fike's advisory panelists for this quality and safety assurance included
leading toxicologists, physicians, botanists and pharmacoligists and chemists.
These U.S. board certified specialists concluded that Stimulife 750TM is safe when used as directed.”
While, on
first reading, this statement might sound quite impressive, on closer
examination it holds little evidence that Stimulife is a reliable product. A large part of the quotation is a list of
the different types of tests that Mr. Fike had “commissioned.” However, the company makes no effort to
explain what these tests are for the viewer or how they demonstrate the
reliability of Stimulife. Rather, this
list serves as a way of impressing the clients without providing them with true
scientific information. Likewise, the
“leading” scientists with whom Fike consulted are not referenced, nor is any
report offered that shows the results of the studies. Overall, it appears that this entire paragraph is a means of
providing pseudo-scientific support for the benefits of Stimulife – support
that laypersons are likely to accept as fact.
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One final
tactic used by Stimulife International is that of appearing to be a company concerned for the well-being of all
members of society, especially those victimized. The website tells under the heading “Belief Structure” how the
company is very concerned for the welfare of the underprivileged and the youth
and works to help them through various programs. However, once again, the
company is vague concerning exactly how Stimulife helps these needy
individual. Likely, this paragraph was
written to give the client the impression that the company truly cares for
people – thus, their product must work because they wouldn’t try to deceive or
victimize the people they care for.
Distributers
of Stimulife 750 have also constructed many websites describing the benefits of
the product. One such distributer website uses
common market techniques to sway possible clients in favor of Stimulife 750,
even more so than the company’s website.
For example, the distributer makes the claim, “Herbal diet pills in the
form of all natural dietary supplements are what most people are searching for
to achieve their weight loss goals.”
Such a claim is a clear example of the bandwagon approach, by which a
company or advertiser says everyone is buying a product in order to make that
product more attractive. Such a claim
is misleading in two ways, in that the seller provides no evidence that most
people are searching for such natural supplements and in that they do not prove
that searching for natural supplements is a wise and favorable action.
The
distributer then follows this false claim with the statement, “Savvy people
know that dieting with drugs is dangerous. So choosing a natural alternative to
drugs makes good sense.” This is an
informal deductive approach to the situation; that is, the company conveys, “If
you are savvy, you will not buy dangerous diet drugs. You are savvy; therefore you will not buy the dangerous diet
drugs.” However, the company makes the
error of equating “not buying dangerous diet drugs” with “buying natural diet
methods.” Such an equivalence is not
logically valid, however, because those people who avoid dangerous diet drugs
might not be the same people who buy natural diet methods, and vice versa. Furthermore, the argument is not only invalid
but also untrue because the assumed premises are not necessarily true. The company assumes that Stimulife 750 is a
not a “dangerous diet drug” and also assumes that the client is “savvy” when
neither may be the case. Because the
argument relies on premises that might not be true, the entire argument is not
reliable. However, it is likely that only critical readers will realize this
logical fact; other clients are likely to fall prey to the “savvy” customer
compliments, as the distributer hopes will happen.
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A final marketing strategy employed by the distributer was
that of attempting to become one with the client. They does this by trying to get the customer to disregard that a
profit is being sought. The seller
states, “We don't just push this product just to make sales. We take this
product ourselves.” Thus, the sellers
try to communicate that the product is very reliable and safe (since they take
it themselves) and that they really just want to share this miracle drug with
the world and not make a profit. Yet,
one must notice that the distibuter (and Stimulife International webpage)
points out that the customers can become distributers themselves and make money
from it, thus meaning that both the distributer and the parent company will
profit. Furthermore, the seller has an
entire link devoted to an explanation of how to become a Stimulife 750
distributor. If the seller were not
interested in profit, one must wonder why they charge for the product and why
they encourage others to sell the product for them. Thus, to a critical reader, it is obvious that this statement is
yet another tactic to attract the client to Stimulife so that the parent
company and the distributer will profit.
Most of
the other websites for independent distributers of Stimulife 750 employ the
same market techniques as those used by the seller as described above and the
parent company. However, some distributers use additional techniques to add to
the product’s appeal. For
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example, the page for independent distributers Akiko and
Dick Dukleth takes a futuristic approach to Stimulife, describing it
as “the next generation weight loss supplement.” This approach, combined with the contemporary metallic
background, convey a sense that Stimulife 750 is a state-of-the-art product
that is more advanced than other weight loss supplements. Such an approach might appeal to younger
people who might find this view of Stimulife to be very age-appropriate for
them. Furthermore, these distributers
compare diets to a three-ring circus with magical tricks that keeps people
losing and then regaining weight. While
the analogy of a magician in a circus provides no evidence that Stimulife 750
is a good diet drug, it may attract people who have had difficulties with
regaining weight. Meanwhile, at a
different distributer
website a bottle of Stimulife 750 is given away each
month as an incentive to register with the site. This technique is merely another way sellers attempt to gain
customers without explaining exactly what Stimulife is or how it works.
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Having
established that the Stimulife webpages provide no real evidence for the
product’s efficacy and merely use marketing techniques to attract clients, one
must wonder just how natural, safe, and effective Stimulife 750 really is. The first step in an analysis of Stimulife
is to take a look at the ingredients.
Naturally, Stimulife International gives glowing descriptions of every
ingredient contained in Stimulife; however, the company fails to describe all
the potential side effects of the ingredients.
Two
different ingredients in Stimulife 750, white willow and uva ursi, are
diuretics. The website idealizes these
diuretics by saying that each “aids in
elimination of toxins through the kidneys,” making the effects sound beneficial
to the client. However, the true story
behind these two ingredients is that, as diuretics, they will cause the
clients’ bodies to lose water and become dehydrated, leading to a sudden loss
of a few pounds. Such an initial weight
loss gives the clients hope that they are losing fat when, in fact, they are only
losing water weight by being dehydrated.
For example, George M. of Arizona says, “After only 7 days of taking
Stimulife, I have lost 4 pounds, and I feel great, and I'm not starving
myself." Likely, this client is experiencing the effects of the diuretics rather
than actual weight loss.
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According to Stimulife
International, another benefit of the product is that it is “all natural” and
does not contain caffeine, ephedrine, or other “controversial elements and
catalysts currently found in most weight loss supplements.” However, one of the ingredients of Stimulife
750 is guarana, which is described by the company as an “energy and nutrient
source.” Guarana is a powder made from
the dried seeds of the Paullina cupana plant indigenous to South and Central
America. Despite the natural, “herbal”
appearance of this ingredient, however, it is a chief alkaloid caffeine like
that in coffee, tea, and other weight loss supplements (PDR for Herbal
Medicines, 1017).
One might wonder how guarana
compares to other forms of caffeine in terms of safety. According to the Physicians Desk Reference
for Herbal Medicines, a healthy adult “habituated to caffeine” could take up to
7-11 grams of guarana (equivalent to 400 mg of caffeine) over the course of the
day without experiencing any harmful consequences. However, the person must be used to caffeine for this to be true.
Furthermore, the maximum limit of 400 mg of caffeine per day includes other
forms of caffeine intakes such as coffee or tea. Thus, if a person were to be a coffee drinker, s/he should
increase the amount of guarana taken to avoid negative side effects. Furthermore, individuals with “sensitive
cardiovascular system[s], renal diseases, hyperthyroidism, increased tendency
to spasms and certain psychotic disorders such as panic attacks” should not
take guarana. Also, guarana – as with
all caffeine products – should not be taken by pregnant women and may cause
sleeping disorders in nursing women (PDR 1018).
Further evidence for the possible
danger of guarana was investigated by Maria Santa, who injected aqueous guarana
extracts into Chinese hamster ovary cells and bacterial cells. The cytotoxic effects were studied using
three different systems; however, results were the same across the
systems. While the lowest level of
guarana tested was not toxic, Santa still writes that the results of the
analysis “suggests that the concentration of guarana is of critical importance in
its cytotoxic activity and high doses could be harmful to human health” (Santa
164-7).
In addition, studies have been done
to test the authenticity of guarana in various commercial products. The pharmacological effects of guarana are
due to methylxanthine alkaloids, which, along with catechins and other
polyphenol compounds, can be extracted and measured to determine authenticity
of the guarana. In this study,
twenty-four products containing guarana were assayed and subjected to liquid
chromatography. The results from the
chromatographic profiles of 14 of the commercial products indicated that
several of these might not contain active guarana as they claim or might
contain less than the advertised amount of guarana they claim. While this might seem to counterbalance the
danger issues guarana might pose, the study also demonstrates that the efficacy
of guarana products might be compromised by a lack of true guarana or lower
levels of guarana than claimed (Carlson 691-701).
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However, not all scientific studies
of guarana have generated evidence to suggest it is dangerous or toxic. In a study performed in 1997, mice ingested
guarana in various dosages – some ingesting only one dose of either 3.0 mg/kg or
30 mg/kg while others ingested smaller doses of guarana (0.3 mg/ml) on a
regular basis. Not only did guarana
affect memory positively in passive avoidance tests and certain maze path
tests, all the mice had the same average lifespan of normal mice not treated
with guarana. This finding was true for
both the single-time users and the chronic guarana users of 23 months within
the mice. This evidence seems to
indicate that guarana has low toxicity, as opposed to the findings of Santa as
described above (Espinola 223-9).
However, since it is still in doubt whether guarana has harmful effects
on its users, Stimulife should not claim that its product that contains guarana
is harmless. Furthermore, as guarana is
another form of caffeine with known negative side effects on various
individuals such as pregnant women and people with cardiovascular disorders,
Stimulife International is deceiving clients by falsely claiming that its
product contains “nothing bad”and can have no potentially harmful side effects.
A final ingredient to consider
critically in Stimulife 750 is chromium picolinate. According to the ingredients website page for Stimulife
International, chromium picolinate is a component that “helps metabolize stored
fat and helps stabalize [sic] sugar in
the bloodstream.” However, this ingredient is common in many weight-loss
supplements and “fat burning pills,” and its safety is debated and much
researched. Multitudes of scientific
studies have discovered evidence both for and against the safety of chromium
picolinate. For example, Anderson et.
al. investigated the effects of both Cr chloride and chromium picolinate in
rats who ingested different amounts of each component. Blood samples were taken at 11, 17, and 24
weeks to measure glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, lactic acid dehydrogenase,
transaminases, blood urea nitrogen, total protein, and creatinine. Results showed no significant differences
in any of the blood variables measured nor in body weight or organ weight over
the three different time periods. This
finding led Anderson et. al. to
conclude that chromium picolinate is not toxic at levels on a per kilogram
basis even at several times the upper limit of estimated safe intake for humans
(Anderson 273-9). On the other hand, a
more recent study conducted by Speetjens et. al. in 1999 showed the chromium
picolinate cleaves DNA. Chromium
picolinate, if it is incorporated directly into a cell, is reduced by ascorbate and thiols into a
hydroxyl radical that quite readily cleaves DNA – indicating that further
research on the dangerous side effects of chromium picolinate are necessary to
ensure its safe usage (Speetjens 483-7).
Once again, it is evident that Stimulife 750 is not as harmless as it
purports to be based on its ingredients.
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However, one must give credit to the
known beneficial herbs contained in Stimulife 750. For examples, numerous studies have shown the potential benefits
of gingko on memory and of ginger on digestive disorders. However, although Stimulife does contain
herbs that are known to be beneficial, its parent company still is being
unethical in saying that its product is “all good and nothing bad.” The diuretics it contains dehydrates the
clients while giving them a false sense of hope that they are truly losing
weight. Guarana, while being as effective
other caffeine products in terms of weight loss when used in proper amounts,
can also cause all the same negative side effects as caffeine and
ephedrine. While studies have shown
chromium picolinate to be both safe and dangerous, a very recent project has
showed that the chemical can seriously damage DNA. By not sharing this scientific information with their consumers
while providing them with pseudo-scientific nonsense about their product,
Stimulife International is being dishonest with and manipulative of the
consumers. Perhaps the worst
manipulation performed by Stimulife International is encouraging so many
clients in their false belief that weight loss can be done with no effort
rather than pointing consumers toward a healthier way of life. Only when consumers realize that weight-loss
is less a miracle and more a goal to reach a healthy weight will they learn to
recognize Stimulife 750 and other weight-loss supplements for what they are :
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Works
Cited
Anderson, R.A. et
al. “Lack of Toxicity of Chromium
Chloride and Chromium Picolinate in Rats.” J
Am Coll Nutr, Vol. 16, Issue 3, 1997: p273-9.
Carlson, M. and R.D. Thompson.
“Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Methylxanthines and Catechins in
Herbal Preparations Containing Guarana.” J AOAC Int; Vol. 81, Issue 4, 1998:
p691-701.
Espinola, E.B. et. al. “Pharmacological activity of Guarana
(Paullinia cupana Mart.) In Laboratory Animals.” J Ethnopharmacology;
Vol. 55, Issue 3, 1997: p223-9.
“Herb Connection: Stimulife 750.” http://www.stimulife-ind-dist.com/stimulife-750.htm Available online.
“Independent Distributers Akiko and Dick
Dukleth.” http://www.aztecwin.com/index3.html Available online.
“Official Website for Stimulife 750.” http://www.stimulife.com . Available
online.
Physician
Desk Reference for Herbal Medicines.
1st ed. Montvale, N.J. : Medical Economics, 1998.
Santa, Maria A. et. al. “Evaluation of the toxicity of guarana with
in vitro biassays.” Ecotoxicol Environ Saf; Vol. 39, Issue
3, 1998: p164-7.
Speetjens, J.K. “The Nutritional Supplement Chromium (III)
Tris(picolinate) Cleaves DNA.” Chem Res Toxicol; Vol. 12, Issue 6,
1999: p483-7.
“Thinner You.” http://www.athinneru.org Available online.
