Hello my friends. I'm Dr. Steve Nugent and I am really pleased to bring you this very short and important video about glycans, commercially known as glyconutrients, the immune system, and the future of Mannatech products and immune support.
Let's start with glycans or glyconutrients. It's the foundation for any health program, partially because of its immune modulatory function, but also because of the cellular communication function that we have in Ambrotose. Frequently I'm asked by associates, well what's the difference? Ambrotose, Manapol, don't they do the same thing? Well, there's crossover, but they don't do the same thing. Ambrotose is our product for cellular communication. It does contain Manapol of course, but its primary function is not immune support. Its primary function is cellular communication.
If you have proper cellular communication, the result can be that your body then knows how to deliver nutrition to cells, how to feed the cells, how to defend your cells, how to repair your cells, when and how to make new cells. All of this is so key to your overall health, and this is why Ambrotose needs to be the foundation for any health program.
And we've done quite a number of studies on our product Ambrotose. And these are specific studies about Ambrotose function, not like our competitors do where they'll tell you about a study on an ingredient that they may have in a product. These are actual studies on Ambrotose. So what do we know from these studies? Well, cellular communication first. That's the most important thing. The next thing of course is brain function. We actually have seven brain studies using Ambrotose. Seven.
Now this is important because lots of companies out there are telling you they have a brain product and in fact they have no studies on their specific product at all. Again, they quote ingredient studies done by other scientists and not done on their product by their company. In our case we are the science company and we have done scientific studies specifically on our flagship technologies, which of course are the Ambrotose technologies. So brain function, memory function, your thought process, attentiveness, improving your mood, and of course we have studies that show that it supports your immune function. So understand that Ambrotose is not specifically and only about immune function, but rather it includes a variety of functions. By the way, also digestive function is supported. We know this again by specific scientific study on our product.
Now there are patents all over the world on this product and we are always looking to file new patents on new technologies and changes. So look forward to those. Let's talk about Manapol very briefly. Manapol is Mannatech's most important single ingredient. Manapol is also available as a product by itself. When an associate comes to me anywhere in the world and says they have a challenge and they want to know should they take Ambrotose or should they take Manapol or should they take both? If someone presents to me with an immune challenge, the very first thing I say to them is get some Manapol. Why? Manapol — all the testing on Manapol, and that by the way is our trade name for our specific acemannan — and that has no equal anywhere in the world. No equal.
And I'll give you some examples in a moment. So this is true acemannan. You will see other companies that say that their manos from aloe or their aloe product in general is acemannan, and that is simply not the case. The only true acemannan in the world is Mannatech's Manapol. This was the aloe product that started it all in the industry.
Mannatech has done the lion's share of research in this area of science. We really actually pioneered a new area of science, and that's being taught in colleges now, called nutritional glycobiology. No other company can make that claim.
I want you to see that there's a very specific difference, and I know most of you probably won't remember the formula and it's not important, but what I want you to see is that there is a very definite difference scientifically between true acemannan — that's Manapol from Mannatech, no other company offers it — and other manos from aloe products. You look at these chemical formulas, you can see they are different. They are different. They're not the same. Other companies do not have what we have. And structure is key to function. It's very, very important.
You have to have, by scientific definition, you have to have manos from aloe that has a molecular weight of at least one million dalton. In fact, our Manapol has been consistently exceeding two million dalton. There is no competition for Manapol in the world from any other company. Don't be fooled by the other companies.
Now, a lot of people will say, well it's just aloe gel, right? And in fact, on our labels legally, we have to write the word inner leaf aloe vera gel. But what we do is we specifically take the acemannan molecules. It takes 660 kilograms of aloe leaf to make one kilogram of Manapol.
Our competitors, they just take whatever from the aloe gel and they call it acemannan, but it's not. It doesn't meet the scientific definition. Some of our competitors even have in their product the inner lining of the aloe leaf itself. So, as you look at the picture, that light green border on the inner part of the outer leaf casing, some of them even do that. It's really not good science.
Virtually all of the studies on Manapol, starting back in 1983 when it was first discovered by Mannatech's first chief of science, all of the studies on Manapol have been about immune function. So when someone says to me, what about my immune health needs? I say, Manapol. And it's really about immune modulation, not just immune support. I'll explain that to you.
And we're going to talk about two ingredients, Manapol and Ambrogard. But first, let me explain to you the idea of immune modulation. You'll see a lot in the press and by other companies that talk about immune boosting. You want to boost your immune system. No, you don't. And then you'll see some people will come to you and they'll say, my immune system's overactive. I need an immunosuppressant. I can't use an immune booster. Well, that would be true. You couldn't use an immune booster if you had an overactive immune system.
So what you want is immune modulation. This is how it works. Let's imagine that my left hand represents normal healthy immune function. That's what you always want. Normal healthy immune function. If your immune system is weak, you don't want to boost it. You want to modulate it up to normal. If you boost it, it could go above normal. You don't want that. You want to raise it to normal healthy function. If your immune system is overactive, you want to modulate it down to normal healthy function. So modulation is very different than boosting or suppression.
And the two best immunomodulators that I've seen in my career have been Manapol. And some of you know that I've looked at thousands of products in my career. So Ambrogard is our trade name for the premium form of arabinogalactan. You have two forms of arabinogalactan. It comes from the western larch tree. One form is standard ordinary arabinogalactan. Anyone could buy that. One form is a premium form. A form that's been tested in a human double-blind placebo-controlled study.
And what do we know from that human study? In this study, they tested people who were receiving either the influenza vaccine or the pneumonia vaccine, and their responses to vaccines were enhanced by the Ambrogard. Ambrogard helped to modulate the function. So Manapol and Ambrogard help to modulate the function. Both of those are key ingredients in Ambrotose.
So immune modulation is what you want. Not immune boosting, not immune suppression. You want immune modulation. That's what you're after. And that's why you come to Mannatech for Manapol and Ambrotose. Glyconutrients are absolutely key to your optimal health. And we at Mannatech do scientific study to validate what we sell. And that makes us very different from our competitors. Very different.
In fact, I often make the joke that now that we have our 18th study, that's 18 more than almost all of our competitors globally. And this is because not only are we science driven, but we can accomplish that mission. Our 18th study validates immune modulation of Ambrotose technologies. And again, this was a human double-blind placebo-controlled study.
Now, you might say, well why don't our competitors do these same studies with their specific products? Well, number one is expense. Millions of dollars. They don't want to spend it. Number two is they need a lab. Almost none of them have a lab facility of any type. And number three is standards. You see, once you've published a peer-reviewed study, you have to meet certain standards. If you're not publishing or researching, well all you have to do is good marketing and just say, our product's the best. You don't have to prove it. You don't have to meet standards. At Mannatech, we meet the standards.
We have a state-of-the-art analytical chemistry lab. Not just a lab, a state-of-the-art lab. We have spent more than 50 million US dollars on scientific research. Our major competitors spend no dollars at all. Nothing. Zero. We have specific studies on our products. And as I've mentioned, we've just now posted our 18th scientific study. And 13 of those 18 are human double-blind placebo controls. That's the gold standard of scientific study.
So what's the future? The future for Mannatech is to continue our research. Our first chief of science started it. Our second chief of science continued it. And I pledge to you that this will continue in a big way into our future as the third chief of science here at Mannatech. Every day I'm investigating new science and our scientific team is on this every day, looking into new research to make better products for you in the future. So remember, of all of the companies in the world, there is one that offers you Manapol and Ambrogard. There is one that offers you Ambrotose. You are the future for helping to support people's immune systems all over the world.
