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Years ago, out of extreme desperation, I tried EMPowerplus by Truehope. While I don't necessarily consider this a mistake, it certainly wasn't worth my while -- it had no benefit whatsoever. Regardless, Truehope itself disgusted me as a company. Recently, again, someone asked me about it, so I decided to take another look at their website and see how one of my least favorite companies is doing. As it turns out, nothing has changed. Here, I review the research provided by Truehope that their product(s) (mostly a micronutrient formula called EMPowerplus) work on depression.
Just so we're clear on our terminology here, TrueHope is the name of their company, and EMPowerplus is the name of their main product. (TrueHope is also the company that threatened to sue me.) They have many other products they would be happy to sell you as well -- who wants to leave money on the table, after all?
Since I last looked at them, they have also developed new formulations of their EMPowerplus product. Now they have;
What's the difference between all these products? Why would you need a version of their product that's $71.98/bottle versus $81.98/bottle? (Prices as of June 25, 2023.)
From their website (I endorse none of this):
Note the information they provide on their EMPowerplus Truhope Program for various mental illnesses doesn't specify which formulation they're talking about or which, if any, were used in the research they cite. And let's not forget, if you have four products that were real medications, you would have to prove that each of them worked individually.
First off, there are many "reviews" on the Truehope site. I can't comment on their veracity, but what I can say is that a company can pay people or other companies to ensure they have many five-star ratings. Illegitimate five-star reviews are something companies pay for all the time. Beware reviews and ratings on sites with questionable reputations.
Regarding claims and evidence, there are what I would consider to be ridiculous claims without any cited evidence all over this website. I can't address them all. I will address the health claims and evidence around bipolar and depression specifically, however.
Finally, there is a disclaimer right down at the bottom of the site that says this:
"These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."
Oh good. Substances that don't "diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent" depression. Let's give them all my money.
Please remember that supplements are not considered medicines by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and, thus, are not controlled in the same way. As the National Institute of Health says (bold mine):
Medicines must be approved by the FDA before they can be sold or marketed. Supplements do not require this approval. Supplement companies are responsible for having evidence that their products are safe, and the label claims are truthful and not misleading. However, as long as the product does not contain a 'new dietary ingredient' (one introduced since October 15, 1994), the company does not have to provide this safety evidence to the FDA before the product is marketed.
Dietary supplement labels may include certain types of health-related claims. Manufacturers are permitted to say, for example, that a supplement promotes health or supports a body part or function (like heart health or the immune system). These claims must be followed by the words, 'This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.'
(Whether Truehope abides by labeling claims rules will be left for an exercise for the reader.)
Remember, when a real medicine hits the market, it has undergone double-blind, placebo-controlled studies. This means that the medicine has been compared to a placebo (a medication that does nothing, say, a sugar pill), and it has been done without the patient or the doctor knowing whether the patient has been given the placebo or the medicine. This is so there's no bias in the results.
There is a reason why this is required -- it's the gold standard of testing and the only way to prove whether something really works or not.
The following screenshot is what Truehope has on its website with regard to the EMPowerplus Truebhope Program and depression.
As you can see, they claim that the EMPowerplus Truehope Program:
The research listed is:
(Note they don't bother actually linking to the study, but rather, just a copy of the abstract they have on their site.)
Okay, so let's see how their cited research supports their claims:
The first thing to note is that the first link goes to a case study from 2013. A "case study" means it's about one person. One single, solitary person experienced something. That tells us almost nothing. Anyone can experience some given thing. It's called an anecdote. It doesn't mean you can generalize at all.
Secondly, let's look at what it says. It says that a yeast infection may impair the usefulness of using micronutrients to treat a mental illness -- in this case, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression. This was their hypothesis (basically an assumption). That's it. It's a case study about a hypothesis (PubMed link here; full report not available).
Does this support any of the four supposed benefits of their program? Nope. None. All this does is say that one person may have found that candida (a yeast infection) might have impaired their mental illness treatment.
The second link goes to a 2004 paper about a case series. That's a series of case studies. In this case, only nine children ended up being a part of this case series. This was an open-label trial. In other words, there was no placebo arm, so we have no idea how well these children would have gotten if nothing had been done. And, of course, there was no blinding, so the families involved knew their kids were getting the treatment. It's the opposite of a double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
And when it comes to the evidence, you can't say much, even about these nine children, because the abstract doesn't say much. It simply says that on several specified scales, nine children with "behavioral and mood problems" showed improvement after eight weeks on a "nutrient supplement." That's it. Can this be generalized? Of course not. Does it say what they tested? Not here. Does it specify which symptoms improved? Not here. ($51 USD may tell some of those things. I wasn't prepared to pay it.) The PubMed link is here.
Note the concluding sentence of the authors (one of which you might call a "true believer" in micronutrients):
"The findings suggest that formal clinical trials of broad nutritional supplementation are warranted in children with these psychiatric symptoms."
The authors themselves aren't even bold enough to say this shows evidence of anything. All it says is that this case study warrants a search for possible evidence.
So, when it comes to looking at the "evidence" TrueHope has listed supporting their claims that EMPowerplus actually does anything useful for a person with depression, I would say there is none. Is there evidence somewhere else? Maybe, but why aren't they listing it if there is?
If you want to spend your money and time on a product with no listed evidence and with a company that treats its consumers like such idiots, I'm not going to stop you. I just think you should know what you're actually getting.
Next time, I will look at the research they list that supposedly supports their claims about treating bipolar disorder.
Natasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, advocate, and consultant from the Pacific Northwest. She has been living with bipolar disorder for 26 years and has written more than 2000 articles on the subject.
Find more of Natasha’s work in her acclaimed book: "Lost Marbles: Insights into My Life with Depression & Bipolar" on Amazon.
Connect with Natasha at the social media links below.
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I was SO WORRIED when I saw you say you were going to talk about this product. I was worried they got to you! I’m thrilled you are on the side of reason.
TrueHope is the company in Raymond, Alberta who is part of the family where the parents didn’t get their kid medical treatment and he died and they went to prison for it for a while. Awful family, awful company, awful website. I boycott all the local nutrition stores because they all sell TrueHope products.
One of my psychiatrists in the past wanted me to buy this stuff. Its very expensive. I also bought Inositol Powder because a psychiatrist on youtube that I like says their is some evidence to support its use. I bought something called Phosphatidyl Serine but like the Inositol I have not used it since I bought it last year. Now Im 2 1/2 weeks into treatment called rTMS and the psychiatrist who runs it (other than my meds) said he wants me to take a broad spectrum miltivitamin and keep taking my Vit D drops even in the summer. I told him I had this EMPower Plus and he said just take a broad spectrum multi. So after checking the 2 bottles I had in my cupboard I am taking 2 capsules per day till the bottles are gone. (I must have tried it before and had upset of some type to stop taking it with 2 bottles left in my cupboard. So Im using it as a multivitamin till its gone and then will switch to a normal multi as he suggestioned. rTMS is for treatment resistant depression/PTSD and hopefully it will help me with my chronic moderate/severe MDD.