Science Says: Q Sciences Supplements Do More Harm Than Good

Q Sciences is a hemp and nutrition MLM company that has been around since late 2012. The company has come under fire in recent months for their unethical business practices and allegations of being a pyramid scheme. Q Sciences has made several claims about their products that have been found to be untrue, including that their supplements can treat mental health conditions such as ADHD and autism.

Q Sciences has also been accused of using false advertising and deceiving customers about the true nature of their business. As this company is gaining popularity, I'll take a closer look at Q Sciences and their supplements to see if they're worth your time and money.

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• TL;DR Summary

  Q Sciences is a company that produces alternative health products and also operates a pyramid scheme masquerading as an MLM. Their products are not backed by scientific evidence and can be dangerous.

  The false health claims and alternative medicine practices perpetuated by Q Sciences puts people and their loved ones at risk by using unproven and unregulated supplements instead of effective medical care. In some cases this has been linked to preventable deaths.

  The vast majority of people who become ambassadors for Q Sciences will lose money, as they are unable to sell enough products to make a profit. Worse, the ambassadors are not trained medical professionals and may give false health information to customers. Q Sciences is not a legitimate company and people should be wary of doing business with them.

Content warning: ableism, mental illness, suicide, child abuse, religious extremism, and violence.

Disclaimer: If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts or a crisis, please contact the Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741. These services are free and confidential.

The Dark History of Q Sciences

Although Q Sciences is coming into popularity now, their story actually started back in 1999 when a Canadian man named Anthony Stephan developed a product called EMPowerPlus.

EMPower Plus was a supplement that Anthony Stephan claimed would be a better treatment for mental health issues than modern medicine. After his wife's death from suicide, Anthony Stephan took it upon himself to treat and cure his children who reportedly suffered from mental illness disorders including Bipolar Affective Disorder (BAD), Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), depression, and suicidal ideations.

Anthony Stephan claims that his unique product formulation of vitamins and minerals replaced the treatments prescribed to his children and cured their mental health disorders. Because of Anthony Stephan's role and influence in the Canadian Mormon Church, news of his self-proclaimed success spread throughout his community. He began to retail his formulation under the name EMPower Plus.

In 2012, American entrepreneurs Marc Wilson and Daren Hogge partnered with Anthony Stephan to bring EMPower Plus to the American market. They marketed it under the name EMPower Plus Q96 through their new direct selling company: Quintessential Biosciences (colloquially known as Q Sciences.)

At some point, Daren Hogge left the company and Anthony Stephan went back to selling EMPower Plus under the brand TrueHope. Q Sciences is still operated by Marc Wilson and is based out of Utah. The expanded Q Sciences product line includes hemp based products and a new line of nutritional supplements developed by Dr. Stephan Kimberly.

Dr. Stephan Kimberly is a licensed medical doctor. However, it is important to note that he is a self-described alternative practitioner and naturopath. Naturopathy, by definition, is a pseudoscientific practice based on the fallacy of naturalism rather than evidence-based (aka scientifically based) medicine. Because their treatments are more often quackery, naturopaths are considered a danger to public health and condemned by the medical community.

How Alternative Medicine Hurts More Than Helps

Alternative medicine is a term used to describe treatments that are not part of mainstream medicine. This includes treatments such as homeopathic and naturopathic care. Commonly, this is seen as taking naturopathic prescribed supplements (such as those sold by Q Sciences) in place of conventional medical treatments.  While some people believe that alternative medicine is safe and effective, this is flawed logic based on the belief that "natural" remedies are safer than conventional ones.

Many alternative treatments have not been proven to be safe or effective. In some cases, they can even be dangerous. Herbal remedies, for example, can interact with other medications you are taking and cause serious side effects. Some supplements can also cause problems if you have certain health conditions. For example, taking St. John's wort can speed up the breakdown of different medicines reducing their effectiveness.

In addition to this, seeking alternative medicine delays people from getting the evidence-based care that has been proven to work. This can lead to their condition getting worse and, in some cases, can even be deadly.

Regardless of Anthony Stephan's insistence, EMPower Plus never had the ability to treat or cure mental illness. However, his claims otherwise have led to several preventable deaths.

In 2011, one Canadian man with schizophrenia was attempting to treat his condition with EMPower Plus instead of using his prescribed antipsychotic medication. As a result of not receiving the appropriate treatment, he fell into a psychotic state. Believing his parents were aliens, he bludgeoned them in their bed with a wrench killing his father and critically injuring his mother.

In 2016, David Stephans (son of Anthony Stephans) and his wife were charged with "failing to provide the necessaries of life" after their 19-month old toddler died from bacterial meningitis. Meningitis is a preventable and treatable infection. Instead of seeking effective medical care, the parents used nutritional supplements, including EMPower Plus, and other natural remedies.

This is the danger in false health claims. When people believe that they can treat serious illnesses with unproven and unregulated supplements, it puts them and their loved ones at risk.

If you or someone you know is considering using supplemental products, such as Q Sciences products to treat a serious condition, please talk to a doctor first. Remember, alternative medicine is not always safe or effective, and in some cases, it can be downright dangerous.

The Q Sciences Product Line

While Q Sciences is no longer affiliated with the EMPower Plus product, we can't ignore the fact that the same pseudoscience themes have been carried over into their new line of products.

Q Sciences claims that their products reduce inflammation, support immunity, and support brain health - a nod to the EMPower Plus claim that "mental health issues are nutritional deficiency disorders."

These claims are not backed by any scientific evidence. What’s more, the push for "natural" remedies in the face of chronic disease (including mental illness) is ableist. It perpetuates the false belief that people with chronic conditions are not doing enough to take care of themselves. When, in reality, people with chronic illnesses already have to exert a great deal of effort just to maintain their health.

Furthermore, the Q Sciences multi-level marketing (MLM) model creates the opportunity for their untrained ambassadors to create more false health claims. This results in the perpetuation of dangerous health misinformation.

I scrolled through Instagram for 15 minutes and found claims being made by Q Sciences ambassadors about ADHD, autism, anxiety, depression, and IBS as well as preventing birth defects! Who’s to say how much more there is on social media? Of course, none of these claims are true, because none of this is possible from the range of products offered by Q Sciences. 

Regardless of their namesake, Q Sciences is not based in science at all. Q Sciences products are based in pseudoscience and naturalism. Q Sciences ambassadors cherry-pick low quality studies and use fear mongering marketing to sell their products and recruit people into their MLM scheme.

When someone tells you that Q Sciences can treat serious mental illnesses like autism, schizophrenia, and depression, don't believe them. Nutritional deficiencies are not the cause of mental illness and therefore, they cannot be treated with nutritional supplementation. Using Q Sciences products instead of proven treatments can be dangerous.

In regards to the nutritional quality of Q Sciences products, deceptive and dangerous marketing aside, I don’t see anything remarkable about their products or formulations. If anything, they’re sub-par compared to what exists on the market and grossly overpriced for it.

The Q Sciences oral spray vitamins, while interesting in theory, are a gimmick. Only certain vitamins can be absorbed properly through the mouth and it is nowhere near as revolutionary as their marketing insists. If you’re looking for a high-quality multi-vitamin, I would suggest trying Thorne Research instead. It is a much more comprehensive formulation and at a discount compared to Q Sciences.

The Q Sciences “Business" Opportunity

In addition to their line of products, Q Sciences also offers an opportunity for people to become ambassadors and sell their products.

The Q Sciences ambassador program is a multi-level marketing scheme (MLM) that relies on recruiting new members to sell their products. The problem with MLMs is that they are designed to be profitable for the company, not the ambassadors. In fact, over 99% of people who join MLMs lose money.

Statistically speaking, the vast majority of Q Sciences ambassadors will never see a return on their investment. They will spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on products and marketing materials, only to find that they are unable to sell enough products to make a profit.

What's more, Q Sciences ambassadors are not trained medical or health professionals and are therefore unable to give accurate health information to customers. This can be dangerous, as we've seen with the false claims made about EMPower Plus.

Lastly, to make matters worse, Q Sciences may not be a legitimate MLM.

Is Q Sciences an MLM or Pyramid Scheme?

The definition of a pyramid scheme is a business model that recruits its members by promising to provide payments or services when others are enrolled into the scheme, instead of supplying investments or sale of products. The FTC affirms this by saying, “If the MLM is not a pyramid scheme, it will pay you based on your sales to retail customers, without having to recruit new distributors.”

In order to qualify for the compensation plan, Q Sciences ambassadors must recruit new ambassadors regardless of the products they sell.

Q Sciences is clearly operating a pyramid scheme, as their ambassadors are paid not for selling products, but for recruiting new ambassadors.

Some MLM advocates insist that the differentiation between MLMs and pyramid schemes is that MLMs sell products whereas pyramid schemes do not. This isn't always true.

Take Advocare, for example, an MLM that was shut down by the FTC for being an illegal pyramid scheme. Advocare recruited distributors to buy into the idea of a business opportunity by purchasing inventory and becoming eligible for cash bonuses and rewards. However, the FTC determined Advocare was a pyramid scheme because distributors were rewarded for recruiting new distributors over selling products.

The true definition of a pyramid scheme is not whether products are sold, but whether members are paid more for recruiting new members than they are for  selling products.This is an illegal business model, and one that can have serious consequences for the people involved.

Based on these definitions, Q Sciences is not a legitimate business. Q Sciences compensation plan puts more emphasis on recruiting than selling products. Additionally their products are not backed by any scientific evidence. If you are considering using their products, or joining the Q Sciences ambassador program, please beware. You could be risking your health, and your wallet.

Conclusion

Q Sciences is a company that sells unproven and dangerous alternative health products. Q Sciences' dark history highlights the dangers of using alternative medicine, including their own products, to treat serious mental health issues. Contrary to the cherry-picking tactics used by the company and its ambassadors, naturopathic treatments are not supported by science. Using them instead of proven treatments can be dangerous and even deadly.

Q Sciences' ambassador program is a multi-level marketing scheme that is likely to be unprofitable for participants. What's more is they seem to be operating as an illegal pyramid scheme, in which ambassadors are incentivized more for recruiting new members than they are for selling products.

I advise against using Q Sciences products or joining their ambassador program. Doing so could be costly, dangerous, and even deadly.

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