Lifepak

Why I Take Lifepak
Lisa D. Bell RN, MBA

(Health and Wellness)

Bellbodies.com

I’ll never forget the day I learned that my retail vitamin wasn’t working. As a fitness educator, I had been invited to check out a new technology which noninvasively measured carotenoid antioxidants inside cell tissue (Pharmanex Biophotonic Scanner). These little molecules, obtained from ingested fruits, vegetables, and vitamin supplements, protect cells and DNA from disease-producing scavengers called free radicals. As a healthy eater and a lifelong vitamin user, I thought I would have a huge antioxidant stockpile. How embarrassed I was to publicly receive a “D” (SCS 27,000). Not a real healthy biomarker for a teacher of health.
I tried to discredit the technology. But many hours of research and field testing showed that it was a scientifically sound system which produced a repeatable, valuable health biomarker. I learned that the scanner was based on Nobel prize-winning science and had been designed by the same university which created the artificial heart. Its manufacturer, Nuskin, was awarded the prestigious American Business Award in 2005 for changing the way Americans live through its scanner innovation.
I put my retail vitamin on the shelf and begrudgingly purchased a month supply of the only multivitamin guaranteed to produce a higher antioxidant score (Lifepak). The cost was significantly more than I had ever paid for a vitamin. As the ultimate deal-shopper, I felt like a fool for spending the money. How could vitamins differ that much in their cost? After all, nutrients are nutrients, right?
Wrong. Nutrients may look the same on a vitamin label. But I quickly learned that swallowing them does not insure that they’ll end up inside your cells, where they are required for metabolic action.
Decades of my retail vitamin use had resulted in a Skin Carotenoid Score (SCS) of 27,000. After one week on Lifepak I could tell that I was doing something dramatically different--- I had more energy and didn’t need naps. After three weeks on Lifepak my score jumped 10,000. Now, two and a half years later, I scan around 50,000.
I share this nutritional blessing with my entire family. Although it costs more than retail vitamins, we save money previously spent on antibiotics and sick days. The ultimate goal is to beat the lifespan of my husband’s mother (47 years) and my mother (54 years), an investment well worth the cost.
My experience with Lifepak and the Biophotonic Scanner has made me passionate about the value of a quality multivitamin. Yet it is a sentiment most Americans do not share. Most believe that any supplement available at Wal-Mart must work, and that cheaper is better. Yet in the world of pharmaceutical and nutritional products, that logic does not hold true.

Cheap Nutrients Help You How?
Finding the cheapest source of consumer goods or groceries can help save money in any household budget. But by taking nutrients that are cheaply sourced or shoddily produced, one sacrifices the protection a quality nutrient can provide and exposes oneself to potential adverse effects.
In the July/August 2007 Health magazine it was reported that Consumerlabs.com, a watchdog of the supplement industry, found that more than half of the 21 multivitamins it tested had too much or too little of certain vitamins---or had been contaminated with dangerous substances like lead. It is sometimes surprising to realize that the FDA does not oversee nutritional products. Purity standards are actually optional.
One way to evaluate the quality of a multivitamin is to consult groups which monitor the industry. Lifepak is the first multivitamin to pass all three nonprofit groups’ safety ratings: Banned Substance Control Group, www.supplementwatch.com, and www.consumerlabs.com. This provides assurance of quality processing (minus the contaminants) and producing a product that contains what is actually listed on the label. Manufacturing and purity standards add to product costs.

If You Cannot Digest It, There is No Benefit
Consider the process of digestion. When you swallow a vitamin, it travels into the stomach where acid begins to break it down. It then flows into the colon, where antioxidants and water are absorbed. Anything left afterward is excreted.
If nutrients are cemented into an indigestible chalk pill, they do not break down, get absorbed into the blood stream, or reach the cell. Workers who empty septic tanks and Job Johnnies report finding piles of “chalk” vitamins at the bottom of the tanks. It may explain the reports that vitamins do not work, or worse, cause health problems.

Antioxidant Clumps Don’t Absorb
There is another issue with nutrients, and that is absorbability. Antioxidants are largely fat soluble. This creates an engineering challenge for the body as it tries to absorb fat in the watery environment of the gut. You’ll notice when mixing oil and water that the solution emulsifies, but never really dissolves. Similarly, antioxidant nutrients bind together in large molecule clumps in the gut, making them unable to pass through the intestinal lining.
Pharmanex uses nanotechnology to microencapsulate fat soluble nutrients in water-friendly carbohydrate rings. Smaller than a red blood cell, these nanoized nutrients keep antioxidants dispersed and help them passively diffuse into the gut. This increases their absorption and reduces the chance of nutrient-induced nausea.
The proof is always in the pudding. Double blinded placebo-controlled studies show that people using Lifepak over 8 weeks have a 61% higher carotenoid score than non-users (“Effects of Lifepak Supplementation on Antioxidant Status and LDL Oxidation in Health Nonsmokers,” Feb 23, 2000). What does the data from retail vitamin manufacturers report about their supplements?

Rolex versus Counterfeit Copycats
Then there is the issue of raw materials in a supplement. What costs more---one or five pounds of vegetables? Lifepak Nano, the highest quality multivitamin produced by Pharmanex (www.lifepaknano.com), costs roughly $105 (distributor price minus shipping, tax) for a month supply. The same supply of nutrients purchased at retail costs roughly $327---without guarantee of reaching the cell.
Compounding pharmacists, who produce their own medications, are experts on the value of raw materials. It was interesting when a compounding pharmacist I know in Arkansas expressed shock that Nuskin could produce Lifepak Nano so cheaply. He had designed his own “super vitamin” but couldn’t get the cost below $150 per month due to the value of the raw materials.

Are Vitamins Safe? Do Antioxidants Extend Life?
Every population survey has shown that adults are deficient in even RDA-level nutrients. In 2002 the American Medical Association responded to this data by recommending that all adults take a daily multi-vitamin. Doctors believed that nutrient deficiencies, including a lack of antioxidant vitamins, were contributing to early disease.
Lately a negative slant on vitamin use has begun to surface. One controversial paper from Europe published in Journal of the American Medical Association made the claim that taking vitamins may actually shorten your life. And each week it seems that a new report is released with negative findings about antioxidants. So what and who should we believe?

Health July/August 2007 reports, “Vitamin experts at Tufts University and the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University continue to say that multivitamins aren’t dangerous and the JAMA paper’s findings are wrong. The paper analyzed previous studies, including many with people who were sick before taking vitamins, so there’s a good chance that vitamins were not responsible for shortening their lives. Experts say the paper also ignored two major studies that found vitamins reduced the risk of death.”
Most negative press focuses on single antioxidant nutrients (Vitamin A, Vitamin E, beta carotene) and investigates their effect in clinical trials. If the results are not favorable, they make the assumption that all antioxidants are ineffective.
However, antioxidants do not operate as lone rangers. Dietary sources of antioxidants---fruits and vegetables--- house a variety of antioxidant species, not just one or two. Antioxidants are team players and work within an entire network to carry out metabolic processes.

Why Carotenoids?
Unlike Vitamins A and E, carotenoids are a group of antioxidants which are very safe, even at high levels. The Institute of Medicine has not established a Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) for carotenoids because high intakes are not associated with toxic effects. These fat-soluble molecules are the most potent defenders against free radicals, sometimes absorbing 20 hits before they die. When carotenoids are abundant in the body, the rest of the antioxidant network remains intact. When carotenoids are low, then the antioxidant network is low (as they struggle to neutralize free radicals themselves).
Since carotenoids play a critical role in disease prevention, it is prudent to work to boost their levels in the body. This is accomplished by consuming brightly colored fruits and vegetables and taking a well-formulated supplement.

The Bottom Line
As scientists learn more about nutrient needs in the human body their supplement recommendations change. To protect your health, it is important to choose a vitamin that has been formulated according to latest research findings. Nuskin employs 125 full time PhD scientists who research, formulate, and substantiate their products. In a generic nutritional market, this places them at the top of the industry (www.nuskinusa.com).
Choose a supplement that contains the right combination of antioxidants to mimic fruit and vegetables. Single antioxidant nutrients have proven ineffective and potentially dangerous. Lifepak Nano delivers more than 60 antioxidants for cell and body protection. This includes carotenoids (zeaxanthin, astaxanthin, beta carotene, alpha carotene, lutein, lycopene) and anti-aging powerhouses NanoCoQ10, omega-3 fatty acids, and resveratrol. All 8 forms of natural vitamin E, buffered Vitamin C, selenium, copper, zinc, and manganese are included, as well as 20 flavonoids and alpha-lipoic acid.
Be aware that any complete multivitamin will require the ingestion of more than one pill. Even a complete calcium dose cannot be delivered without multiple tablets. More raw materials equal more capsules.
Despite the best recommendations and research, the decision on supplementation is ultimately up to each one of us. Those who value part of the health equation (exercise, say no to nicotine, eat healthy, etc.), should evaluate their score on the Biophotonic Scanner. If less than an “A” (under 50,000) take the Lifepak challenge, an 8-week test guaranteed to raise your baseline score.
It may be that through this experience you will discover the other part of the health equation—optimal nutrition. Many believe that this is the most important part over the long haul. Don’t miss it just to save a few bucks.

From the package insert, available on www.lifepaknano.com:

What is an antioxidant network?
There are hundreds of different antioxidants that can help fight free radicals and reactive oxygen species. Researchers have found that the body utilizes a broad range of antioxidants that work together to provide the body with optimal free radical protection. These antioxidants work synergistically to protect delicate DNA in the body from free radical attack. It has been found that if just one or two of these antioxidants are deficient, other antioxidants in the body are not able to function optimally. Moreover, because of this antioxidant network, humans have a need to supplement their diet with a broad range of antioxidants.

How does Lifepak Nano reflect current research recommendations?
Lifepak Nano delivers an updated vitamin E complex blend (200 IU) according to latest scientific research with higher amounts of beta, delta, and gamma tocopherols.

Lifepak Nano provides key bone nutrients in clinically significant amounts to strengthen and maintain bone health. Bone minerals calcium (600 mg) in the form of calcium malate, tricalcium phosphate, and calcium ascorbate and magnesium (300 mg) are included in Lifepak Nano as the building blocks of bone health. Vitamin D3 (600 IU) is provided to regulate calcium and magnesium bone metabolism, and vitamin K (40 mcg) to help transport calcium to the bone.

Lifepak Nano maintains normal blood sugar levels, glucose tolerance, and insulin metabolism by supplying the body with optimal amounts of chromium (200 mcg), vitamin C (500 mg), vitamin E (200 IU), alpha-lipoic acid (50 mg), magnesium, and zinc (15 mg) ---important nutrients clinically shown to support normal blood sugar metabolism.

Lifepak Nano provides the optimum amounts of more than 60 different antioxidant nutrients that work synergistically in the body to protect LDL blood lipids from oxidation by free radicals. LDL cholesterol is a harmful cholesterol that should be kept at low levels. It can become oxidized in the body, which lends to the formation of harmful plaque. Lifepak is clinically proven to make LDL particles more resistant to oxidation from free radicals. In addition, omega-3 fatty acids (EPA, DHA, krill oil) help protect the heart by decreasing inflammation (C-reactive protein).

In addition to dozens of advanced anti-aging nutrients such as NanoCoQ10 and 60+ antioxidants, Lifepak Nano contains proprietary Tegreen 97---one of the most powerful antioxidants on earth---to address the central cause of aging: cellular DNA damage.

Note: These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.