The Truth about Vitamin Energy Patches

When I was first asked about vitamin energy patches I thought it was a joke. Who would pay for and wear a sticker that is supposedly going to make them healthier? Sadly, it’s not a joke and “distributors” are polluting social media with the the same song and dance all multi level marketing (MLM) salesman use. You will be sold with an “opportunity” and personal stories, because there is absolutely zero research to support any of their claims.

So what exactly is this “Skin Sticker Technology”? People are paying for stickers and claiming it causes “weight management, mental clarity, appetite control, metabolic support, and has natural time release.” That my friends is what you would call “puffery”, or in a more blunt term, complete bullshit. Let’s look at some common claims and why it is complete nonsense. 

Mental Clarity – How do you define mental clarity or create an objective test to measure it? If it can’t be measured, how can you claim it has been improved? 

Metabolic Support – What does that even mean? Nothing. 

Weight Management – Again, meaningless. Now when I teach people a healthier diet we get slow, steady, and maintainable weight-loss. That is very easy to document. 

Lean Muscle Support – Another useless claim. How do you measure your lean muscle being better supported after wearing a vitamin sticker? 

Joint Support – As pointless as muscle support.

Natural Time Release – Really? How exactly would it be unnaturally time released? At what times is it released? It’s just nonsense. 

 

Anti Aging – Nothing can slow down time, however, certain things like stress can make you look older than you are. Keep reading, I’ll explain how these products can do exactly that.

There is absolutely no way to validate any of these claims. They can’t be proven true or untrue because they are complete nonsense. I thought to myself, if people are willing to fall for this, what else will they try?

What if there was some magic fairy dust you could sprinkle on your meals that would magically cause weight loss, regardless of what you ate? Amazingly, a company already did this and made millions! The company was Sensa and thankfully the Federal Trade Commission shut them down and ordered them to pay back 26.5 million dollars. That means people spent over 26 million dollars buying this stuff! There is no shortage of predators looking to take advantage of desperation.

Back to the magic sticker. There is zero evidence to support any of the claims. Everything a distributor tells you is puffery. Here is the offer I’ve made to a few distributors but none have accepted: For one week I will eat healthy, nutritious meals and for one week they have to lay in healthy meals and absorb the nutrients though their skin. They can even roll around in it to really maximize skin contact. These companies claim their stickers have “time released delivery, and absorption rate, greatly superior to that of any consumable product.”   Which method do you think will be more effective?

Let me explain how easy it would be to do a study on these vitamin stickers. One large group of people get stickers with the active ingredients in them (test group). Another large group of people get the exact same stickers with no active ingredients (control group). The key is the people handing out the stickers and the people getting the stickers can’t know which ones they are getting; this makes the study a double blind placebo controlled study.

Measurements are taken on each person before the stickers are given out. This could include body weight, blood nutrient levels, blood pressure, strength, endurance, or hormone levels. There is no shortage to what could be tested.

After a period of time the same measurements are taken again. The results of the control group are compared to the results of the test group and the data is analyzed. Simple.

That has never been done. Why? Because these companies know the results will be terrible. How do they know this? Because vitamin stickers make absolutely no sense!

Here is what the studies will show. People who get the active supplements will have higher levels of stress hormones. Is it healthy to be under constant high levels of stress? Of course not.

What the products from these companies do is give you a constant and high dose of stimulants. Stimulants work by causing the release of stress hormones. Stress hormones increase heart rate, increase blood pressure, increase cholesterol, increase alertness, decrease digestion, and increase blood sugar, all of which over the long term can be devastating to health. Chronic stress is not good!

Do people under constant levels of stress appear to age slower or faster? A good way to see what constant stress does is to look at pictures of the president after a few years. (Maybe they just need some vitamin patches.) If increased levels of stress cause a person to look older faster than wouldn’t these products be more pro-aging than anti-aging?

Since the patches work by stimulating the release of stress hormones, you are in a state of chronic fight or flight. Will you feel more energized? Yes. Is it healthy? Absolutely not. It’s like saying I feel more relaxed if I just drink wine all day. Will drinking a little bit of wine all day relax you? Of course. Is it healthy long term? Probably not. I went into more detail on what energy products are really doing to your body in this article.

A common trick of supplement makers is to sneak different forms of caffeine into their products. They’ll disguise the caffeine with different names like guarana, green coffee extract, and many more. Caffeine will undoubtedly make you feel a burst of energy. You will be convinced it is all the other ingredients giving you that energy, but in reality it’s the caffeine. You will get the same jolt from a caffeine pill. 

This is what I feel to be the most dangerous aspect of distributors. People can buy and sell these supplements, tell crazy personal stories, give health advice, but have no understanding of physiology or what is actually happening in the body. One of my favorite Einstein quotes says it best: “Feeling better does not equal getting better.” Amphetamines provide a lot of energy; you’ll feel great, but it’s far from healthy. Consuming caffeine all day long is another way to have more energy and feel more alert, but it also is far from healthy. 

Meal replacement shakes are another common product that are wise to avoid. The only thing you should replace a meal with is a healthier meal!  Always avoid shakes that have pea and soy protein, the cheapest and worst forms of protein you could buy. Avoid any that contain synthetic and fractioned vitamins, the artificial sweetener sucralose, and caffeine so you can feel more energy.

Do you remember for years the government told us to avoid saturated fat and eat margarine or trans fats because it’s healthier? Now the U.S. is going to ban trans fats because it has caused heart disease and killed hundreds of thousands of people. Trans fats are artificial fats, sucralose is an artificial sugar. I think it is wise to avoid any supplement containing artificial sugars.

I choose to learn from history and avoid any artificial “food.” Why take the chance? And please don’t ever give it to your kids! The government also just removed its stance on consuming cholesterol. For over 40 years you were told to limit your intake of one of the healthiest foods you could eat, eggs!

It is also wise to take caution with men’s and women’s multivitamins. Most are no better than any generic multivitamin you could purchase at a box store. A common trick is to add some caffeine so you feel more energy. You may think your energy boost is from better nutrition when it fact it’s just the caffeine. I wouldn’t take these products if they were given to me free for life.

Be very careful of different “cleanse” or “balance” products. Often times these products are just laxatives. I assume poop and water weight loss isn’t the weight loss most people are looking for. It is very unwise to take laxatives on a regular basis. Toilet paper reduction, extended bathroom stays, time released diarrhea,  and never be too far from a toilet would be some truthful puffery to attach to these products.

I won’t bother with the fact that over 95% of people who are conned into MLM vitamin sales lose money, or that the vast majority of distributors have zero schooling when it comes to physiology, nutrition, biochemistry, or anything health related.

Please DO NOT take health advice from a “friend” whose real goal is to make money off you. Would you take your broken car to a friend who has zero schooling or experience fixing cars? Then don’t take your body to a person who has zero schooling or experience when it comes to health and nutrition! Whatever you were thinking about spending on these products, take that money to the grocery store and buy some vegetables and fruits instead.

Imagine if someone had an overweight and un-energized dog. What would you think if the vet said “What this dog needs is an energy patch. We are going to shave one of his butt cheeks and put a vitamin sticker on it. We’ll combine that with a doggy meal replacement shake, some balance detoxing elixir, and a lot of Facebook posts.” It’s so absurd it’s laughable. Yet, marketing is so good people think it makes sense for humans. Never forget, we are animals too. 

Ask yourself this question: Are my weight issues, health issues, and lack of energy the result of not wearing a vitamin sticker? Or, is it because you need to eat healthier, exercise a bit more, have a few more laughs, and show more gratitude for all the good things you have in your life?

The gimmicks to replace healthy eating and exercise are endless. However, none of them have ever and will never work for long term health. It’s time we stop searching for gimmicks and focus on the basics.

If you need some help getting on track I’ll send you my healthy foods guide, grocery shopping list, and over 150 recipes, for free. Just request it below.

P.S. For the distributors that are about to post a personal story with some hate mail…. If you have any research to prove anything I said wrong, post it. If you resort to personal attacks, you’ve already lost. If you want to claim I took the time to write this to sell something else you’d be wrong. I have a large number of members/followers and have been asked about these products a lot. Writing an article to refer people to is the best way to answer. 

“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser.” Socrates

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