Multi Level Marketing or MLM is not a new concept. Products like Mary Kay and Avon cosmetics have been sold in this way for many years.
The aim of MLM is to sell product by rewarding sellers with a percentage of sales and various other incentives. These may include cars, holidays or cash rewards. The more you sell the higher the rewards. The sellers are a non-salaried workforce.
One new MLM company is Le-Vel. They market a range of dietary supplements they call the Thrive Experience.
One of their products is the Thrive Patch or as the company calls it “Thrive Premium Lifestyle DFT”.
The company claims this product will help with weight loss. It says you will
Experience ultra premium results, with benefits such as improved health, wellness and fitness, as well as weight management and nutritional support
Let’s have a closer look at this product and the company that sells it.
What Is Thrive Patch?
This is an online marketing company selling their product via cloud technology.
All company support for either customers or sellers is online. There is no telephone support.
They also utilize social media to promote their products. They have over a million followers on their Facebook page.
The company philosophy is:
Not to create a product, or a product line, but to build a Global brand, a new icon
They aim to do this by selling what they say are ultra premium products.
The Thrive Patch is one of these products. It is a patch that contains herbal ingredients that enter the body through the skin over a 24 hour period.
The patch can be used on its own but the company recommends that it is used as part of the “Thrive Experience”. This entails using other dietary supplements from the company in the form of shakes or pills.
Thrive Patch Ingredients
This patch comes in a range of colors and designs. It also comes in three options:
- Thrive Lifestyle DFT
- Thrive Ultra DFT
- Thrive Black DFT
The main ingredients of all three options are:
Forslean
This is a proprietary ingredient from the Sabinsa Corporation. This an extract of Coleus forskohlii1, a plant native to subtropical and warm temperate habitats and a member of the mint family. It has been used in ancient herbal medicines to treat a number of ailments.
One study carried out on 23 women showed that it may help prevent weight gain but has little effect on weight loss. Another study carried out on 30 overweight men showed that it did benefit weight loss. It would appear that studies suggest that more investigation is required.
Green Coffee Bean Extract
Green coffee refers to raw, unroasted coffee beans. This extract may offer a variety of health benefits. One of these is as an aid to natural weight loss. Studies suggest that it may help weight loss but more investigation is needed2.
Garcinia Cambogia
This is a fruit extract which contains hydroxycitric acid. This has been thought to promote weight loss and control appetite. It is present in a lot of dietary supplements for weight loss along with other ingredients. Studies indicate that more investigation is needed to prove its efficiency for weight loss or appetite suppression3 .
CoEnzyme Q10
This is a compound4 that helps generate energy in your cells. It is produced naturally in your body. Its production may to decrease with age. Supplementation of CoQ10 may have many health benefits. It does not appear that weight loss is one of them.
White Willow Bark
This has been used for many years as a painkiller. The salicin in willow bark converts to salicylic acid. This is what aspirin is made of. It does not appear to promote weight loss5.
Cosmoperine
This is another proprietary ingredient from the Sabinsa Corporation. It is a derivative from piperine found naturally in black pepper. It is used as a potential transdermal “bioavailability” enhancer. This means it may help drugs or nutrients permeate the skin.
The Thrive Ultra also contains:
Satiereal Saffron Extract
This is another proprietary ingredient from Inoreal. It may help you snack less and therefore lose weight.
Green Tea Extract
This may help with weight loss but does not have a significant effect6 .
The Thrive Black also contains:
Quercetin
Studies have shown Quercetin increases human endurance through improved exercise capacity7.
Yerba Mate
Has many health benefits including weight loss 8 .
Guarana
This extract contains caffeine. It may help boost athletic performance. It may also improve mental function and help weight loss9 .
How Does Thrive Patch Work?
The patch is applied to clean dry skin every 24 hours. The ingredients then permeate the skin delivering the nutrients to your blood stream.
There has been no clinical trial on the efficacy of this product.
There may be some health benefits in some of the individual ingredients. However the amounts of each are not known. Neither is it known how much of them will actually permeate the skin.
Thrive Patch Side Effects
There are no side effects indicated on the company website.
They do advise that you do not use these patches if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. They also advise that you consult a doctor if you have any medical issues or are on medication.
Customers have reported side effects including nausea, skin irritation and muscle cramping.
Thrive Patch Reviews & Complaints
There are many positive reviews of this product online. However bearing in mind this is sold via MLM, it is hard to know how much merit to apply to these reviews.
The company is listed with the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating. It has 195 customer complaints and 21 negative reviews. UIt also has 59 positive reviews.
Of the happy customers Kelly N writes:
I have ordered and used this product. The products do work and are healthy for you. I would highly recommend this company. You are in control of your autoship and can turn it off and on as you wish. The company has a support ticket system to resolve issues.
There are customer that find the patches have no effect. They also find they do not stay on.
Marnell B. writes:
They claim weight loss and energy. Product did not do anything for me. 1 out of every three Duo patch would fall off. When I complained to the company about it, they didn’t even respond to the complaint.
There are many complaints about the after sales service from this company. The auto ship appears to be hard to cancel. The refund policy is not always upheld. You cannot contact them by telephone. It has to be online. It appears that this system is less than satisfactory.
Jen S writes:
Do these people have a home office with customer service that can answer a phone. OMG this has been the worst service ever. We owe a business and would never run it like they have.
Thrive Patch: Packages, Prices & Where To Buy It
Return/Refund Policy
The company has a 30 day return policy.
They will refund the cost of unused product. This will be less 10% processing charge and shipping and handling.
Refunds for open, partially used or damaged products will be issued at 50% of the original purchase price.
Thrive Patch Pros & Cons
Thrive Patch Review: Final Verdict
There are many positive reviews of this product. How many of them are genuine seems hard to tell. It makes me wonder when you see their promoters posting on forums:
It’s funded my wedding, I drive a 2016 C300 Mercedes they legitimately pay for each month and I have been on 4 expense paid for FUN trips. The products work and you get compensated generously for your efforts!
That being said, the products may work very well for some people.
I would also personally be a bit dubious about requesting a promoter to contact me via Facebook to buy the product. I am sure we all have those annoying friends that take part in MLM schemes and bombard our Facebook pages with their promotions.
It may be you want to try this product and earn yourself some extra cash becoming a promoter. Alternately, you might want to follow a healthy lifestyle with a good diet and exercise.
We laid out the facts, will you buy Thrive Patch? Comment below and tell us what you think!
Read next: Skinny Stix Review: Does It Really Work?
References
- Henderson, Shonteh, et al. “Effects of coleus forskohlii supplementation on body composition and hematological profiles in mildly overweight women.” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition 2.2 (2005): 54. https://jissn.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1550-2783-2-2-54
- Vinson, Joe A., Bryan R. Burnham, and Mysore V. Nagendran. “Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, linear dose, crossover study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a green coffee bean extract in overweight subjects.” Diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity: targets and therapy 5 (2012): 21. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3267522/
- Heymsfield, Steven B., et al. “Garcinia cambogia (hydroxycitric acid) as a potential antiobesity agent: a randomized controlled trial.” Jama 280.18 (1998): 1596-1600. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/188147
- Borekova, Martina, et al. “Nourishing and Health Benefits of Coenzyme Q.” Czech J. Food Sci. Vol 26.4 (2008): 229-241. https://www.bezpecnostpotravin.cz/UserFiles/File/Kvasnickova/CJFS_koenzymQ10.pdf
- Boullata, Joseph I., Patrick J. McDonnell, and Cynthia D. Oliva. “Anaphylactic reaction to a dietary supplement containing willow bark.” Annals of Pharmacotherapy 37.6 (2003): 832-835. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1345/aph.1D027
- Jurgens, Tannis M., et al. “Green tea for weight loss and weight maintenance in overweight or obese adults.” Cochrane database of systematic reviews 12 (2012). https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD008650.pub2/abstract
- Davis, J. Mark, et al. “The dietary flavonoid quercetin increases VO2max and endurance capacity.” International journal of sport nutrition and exercise metabolism 20.1 (2010): 56-62. https://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/20/1/article-p56.xmlhttps://journals.humankinetics.com/view/journals/ijsnem/20/1/article-p56.xml
- Kang, Young-Rye, et al. “Anti-obesity and anti-diabetic effects of Yerba Mate (Ilex paraguariensis) in C57BL/6J mice fed a high-fat diet.” Laboratory animal research 28.1 (2012): 23-29. https://synapse.koreamed.org/DOIx.php?id=10.5625/lar.2012.28.1.23
- Boozer, C. N., et al. “An herbal supplement containing Ma Huang-Guarana for weight loss: a randomized, double-blind trial.” International Journal of Obesity 25.3 (2001): 316. https://www.nature.com/articles/0801539