I saw a television commercial for this "supplement" yesterday. It claimed that Prevegan was "clinically proven to improve memory"!
Being of a certain age and forgetfulness, I decided to investigate further.
Their website claims, "After over 15 years of research, we know Prevagen works to improve memory."
http://ift.tt/1Mlb2X3
Also: "Prevagen can improve memory*"
* 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.
The compound is a jellyfish protein called apoaequorin which the company manufactures in bacteria using recombinant DNA technology. They isolate the recombinant protein and mix it with rice flour in a gelatin capsule, then sell it for $37 a bottle.
Does it work, you ask? Is it safe? What does "clinically proven" mean? How does it work?
Their website provides answers!
"How does Prevagen® work?
Laboratory research has demonstrated that Prevagen® has powerful cell supporting activity by providing a protein originally found in jellyfish."
OK that makes NO sense to me!
"View our research and studies on Prevagen®"
They offer three studies, two are open label studies where the subjects all report that their memory is better while taking the pills!
Those are basically useless propaganda.
The third is a randomized double blind study. Unfortunately the study is not published anywhere I can find, except as a meeting abstract, and on the website. The webpage will not permit me to cut and paste the charts or text, so I'll point out its flaws (well, some of them) which probably prevent its being published in a reputable journal.
They randomly assigned 218 people to take the pill or not. Controls took identical looking pills containing no prevagen. The people were tested on some memory tasks. The results are quantitified and statistically analysed.
The first line of the results section is:
"There was not a significant change over time when looking at the complete study sample on the GML. However..."
They show a graph which in fact shows improvement in both placebo and treatment arms! The 90 day mark for the treatment group is marked with a red dot as significant! Great, it actually WORKS!!??
Actually, NO, the significant difference is between scores IN THE TREATMENT ARM, before and after PRACTICE!
THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TREATMENT AND PLACEBO!!!!
I could go on about the statistical manipulations they are going through to produce a significance 'dot" on their charts, but basically they have massaged the data to make it look significant when it is not.
As for safety,
http://ift.tt/1NIqWO4
Interestingly the safety is based on this :
"Apoaequorin is easily digested by pepsin, a characteristic commonly exhibited by many non-allergenic dietary proteins."
So their own safety study claims that the protein is easily digested in the stomach!
Then I found this:
http://ift.tt/1hg3ZFe
and this:
http://ift.tt/R2uZuN
Snake oil, indeed. Filthy liars peddling bul*****, I say.
Being of a certain age and forgetfulness, I decided to investigate further.
Their website claims, "After over 15 years of research, we know Prevagen works to improve memory."
http://ift.tt/1Mlb2X3
Also: "Prevagen can improve memory*"
* 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.
The compound is a jellyfish protein called apoaequorin which the company manufactures in bacteria using recombinant DNA technology. They isolate the recombinant protein and mix it with rice flour in a gelatin capsule, then sell it for $37 a bottle.
Does it work, you ask? Is it safe? What does "clinically proven" mean? How does it work?
Their website provides answers!
"How does Prevagen® work?
Laboratory research has demonstrated that Prevagen® has powerful cell supporting activity by providing a protein originally found in jellyfish."
OK that makes NO sense to me!
"View our research and studies on Prevagen®"
They offer three studies, two are open label studies where the subjects all report that their memory is better while taking the pills!
Those are basically useless propaganda.
The third is a randomized double blind study. Unfortunately the study is not published anywhere I can find, except as a meeting abstract, and on the website. The webpage will not permit me to cut and paste the charts or text, so I'll point out its flaws (well, some of them) which probably prevent its being published in a reputable journal.
They randomly assigned 218 people to take the pill or not. Controls took identical looking pills containing no prevagen. The people were tested on some memory tasks. The results are quantitified and statistically analysed.
The first line of the results section is:
"There was not a significant change over time when looking at the complete study sample on the GML. However..."
They show a graph which in fact shows improvement in both placebo and treatment arms! The 90 day mark for the treatment group is marked with a red dot as significant! Great, it actually WORKS!!??
Actually, NO, the significant difference is between scores IN THE TREATMENT ARM, before and after PRACTICE!
THERE IS NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TREATMENT AND PLACEBO!!!!
I could go on about the statistical manipulations they are going through to produce a significance 'dot" on their charts, but basically they have massaged the data to make it look significant when it is not.
As for safety,
http://ift.tt/1NIqWO4
Interestingly the safety is based on this :
"Apoaequorin is easily digested by pepsin, a characteristic commonly exhibited by many non-allergenic dietary proteins."
So their own safety study claims that the protein is easily digested in the stomach!
Then I found this:
http://ift.tt/1hg3ZFe
and this:
http://ift.tt/R2uZuN
Snake oil, indeed. Filthy liars peddling bul*****, I say.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/1NIqWOc
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