The eight-week Thrive Patch by Le-Vel is an expression given to a range of products that claim to deliver a premium lifestyle promise to anyone. Well, that is a statement rarely heard, as many products are aimed at specific outcomes at one point in time. Initially, one perceives the Thrive as some kind of lifestyle modifications by some kind of expert but the reality is quite the contrary. The Thrive Experience claims to rejuvenate your whole self by
- Weight management
- Enhancing the cognitive performance
- Supporting healthy joint and muscles
- Antioxidant action
- Digestive and immune support
- Relieves general stress
These are titanic claims made by the company and in order to investigate them, the official website was sieved and the following is what we gathered
About the company and founders
The founders (co-owners and co-CEOs) of Le-Vel are Jason Camper and Paul Gravette. The website pronounces their experience as of more than 41 years (combined, almost half a lifetime) in health and wellness field.
We were really intrigued by their experience profile on the official website and searched for some more information on the duo. Paul Gravette is a seasoned entrepreneur and internet sales and marketing expert. Jason Camper shares the same sales and marketing experience as his co-CEO never completed college but learned the knowledge of the sales industry by practical experiences.
So both the individuals are expert of their field, that is sales and marketing but the same is not true about their expertise in the field of health.
Le-Vel is one of the fastest growing corporations in North America dealing in health products; an online marketing company makes use of distributors to dispel its products. It is not accredited by the BBB business but has a 4.71-star rating owing to their customer services.
About the products
The Thrive Experience is an eight-week course employing the following supplements
- Thrive M
- Thrive W
- Thrive Mix
- Thrive DFT
Then there is a separate list of products for long-term use (the details can be found on the official website).
Thrive M and Thrive W is gender-specific supplements for men and women respectively. These are a ‘premium’ blend of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, plant extracts, enzymes, probiotics and amino acids.
On comparing, the two products that are gender specific, we expected that the ‘premium blend’ for men and women will be addressing some specific nutritional targets for either sex. However, the composition is identical for both men and women in quality and quantity. One is left wondering why market the same product as two ‘gender specific’ supplements and find it nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
Thrive Mix contains almost the same blend as the Thrive capsules with the addition of carbohydrates, proteins, fats and sugars, some other vitamins and minerals with iodine and additional selenium. The mix provides a calorie count of 110. The plant extract is from Garcinia, which is used in herbal medicine as a means to weight management.
The quantity of iodine and selenium grabbed our attention. Let us take iodine, the daily-recommended allowance of which is 150mcg for adult men and women both. The Thrive Mix provides 60mcg, which is about 40% of the RDA value. The RDA value of selenium is 55mcg for adults whereas the quantity provided by the Thrive capsules and the Mix equals to about 104mcg in sum (more than required).
Similarly, the RDA for folic acid is 400mcg for men and about 400-600mcg for women while the capsules and the mix deliver a 1000mcg in the total of folic acid that is again far too above the RDA. B12 is another important water-soluble vitamin required in minute amounts of 2.4mcg whereas the capsules provide 100mcg. The spot to highlight is, an excess of anything brings along its side effects.
Thrive DFT is a skin patch that delivers its constituents via the skin into the circulation in the time-released fashion. The patch contains Forslean and Cosmoperine, the former is beneficial for developing a lean body mass (herbal extract) while the latter is used to increase the absorption of drugs into the skin, thus enhancing the bioavailability of nutrients.
The patch delivers green coffee extract and Garcinia extract (used for weight loss) and White Willow bark extract, an herbal yield with pain relieving properties (similar to aspirin). Co Q10 present in the DFT patch is a natural antioxidant that plays an important role in our metabolism.
The Le-Vel makes gallant claims of its products being a result of ‘years of scientific research’ while not providing any evidence to any such effort put by them. The individual ingredients of the Thrive products are no doubt under investigation and research process for their paybacks to health, but the Thrive supplements lack the backing of any such support.
Side effects of Le-Vel Thrive eight-week Experience
Our search for the side effects of Le-Vel Thrive Patch supplements took us to Amazon where we found happy as well as dissatisfied customers. The majority of them had complaints about the product not working, a racing heart, weight gain, stomach aches, jitters to a delivery of orders with crushed seal and incomplete supply.
One of the customers had explained of symptoms that were close to withdrawal signs, with weight gain, exhaustion, jittery effects and ‘speed wired’ feelings with her husband having ‘anger episodes’ after going off the DFT patches.
The couple was trying to abandon the supplement by gradually decreasing the dose of the capsules. Another customer had to go for a refund because the supplement was causing her health problems. Yet another experienced high blood pressure.
While reviewing the individual ingredients of the Thrive supplements, we emphasized the RDAs of certain components; reasons being those micronutrients are required by our body in small amounts, and their excess is certainly going to cause trouble.
The complaints of many customers about high heart rate, blood pressure, jitters followed by exhaustion can be attributed to the high caffeine content delivered by different components like green coffee bean extract, green tea caffeine and caffeine itself.
The iodine and selenium have very important roles to play for your thyroid, if your thyroid is working at subliminal levels, you will obviously benefit from the combination. On the other hand, if you have a normal working thyroid you will experience the energized feel followed by exhaustion and fatigue and you might end up ditching the supplements in case of an already overactive thyroid. The high caffeine levels might interrupt your sleep patterns and contribute towards high blood pressure.
Aspirin helps in alleviating pain and aches but too much of everything can be bad for you and the extract from white willow bark may cause serious reactions in people allergic to aspirin or may worsen the situation in individuals with bleeding disorders. The extract is also known to have caused stomach upsets and we have seen some customers complaining of it.
Our say about the Thrive Experience
The Thrive Diet supplements for a ‘premium’ lifestyle are focused more on the marketing of the product range rather than an individual’s health. This is evident by the far-reaching disclaimer they have added on their official website and the rapt attention of the consumer to become the promoter for their product.
The whole blend of different vitamins and minerals and so forth, are a too overpriced combination that can be easily achieved via other sources (diet and specific supplements) and without the distressing side effects of Thrive Experience.
Thrive Patch… we do not think so
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