You’ve stumbled across a website called The Baby Builders. A man named Ryan Shelton claims to help people with all manner of reproduction issues. Before you spend the $147 for a consultation, we strongly recommend that you learn more about the “doctor” who will be guiding you through one of the most important endeavours in your life. Because that $147 consult may lead to your wasting hundreds of dollars each month on dubious supplements and no results. But first, you need to know who with whom you are dealing.
Who is the Man Behind The Baby Builders?
The “doctor” with whom you’ll be consulting is Ryan Shelton, a notorious Internet infoscammer who hawks dubious supplements. And he’ll stoop to fear-mongering if he has to. For example, Shelton pitches a Barbarian XL Testosterone Booster for up to $49 per bottle (one month supply) to address a “silent male plague”. This “plague” is actually reduced testosterone levels in men. It’s long been known that men’s testosterone levels decline with age. And for years, Internet scammers have promoted the idea that men suffer a range of symptoms caused by what’s sometimes described as “male menopause.” (such as fatigue, weakness, muscle loss, dulled memory and thinking, depression, and dampened libido and erectile dysfunction) One thing that medical science is agreed upon is that testosterone supplements won’t help most men with sexual dysfunction. Yet, that’s exactly what Shelton is doing – selling supplements to reverse natural loss of testosterone.
“Dr” Ryan Shelton has a number of Internet-based cures that he peddles including the Hair Revital X, Join FLX, Longevity Activator, SoundQuility, SouthBeach Skin Lab, Diabetes 60 and fertility treatments among other things. Ryan Shelton is not a medical doctor, but a naturopath. However, he bills himself as a physician, which is a violation of law in California. On one of his web offerings, he calls himself a “licensed primary care physician” yet there’s no listing of him in the Hawaiian Licensing Division as a medical doctor. Why does he lie about his qualifications?
Over the past 10 years, Shelton has moved around the U.S. frequently and appears to current have practices in “sun-soaked” Hawaii as well as having a presence in Australia. The Zenith Laboratories that he is listed as the medical director of this Illinois-based supplement vendor, although Shelton has no medical practice in that state. The Zenith Labs website states: “between his best-selling books and his medical practice in Hawaii, Dr. Ryan has helped hundreds of thousands of men & women…” A search on Amazon Books finds no book authored or sold by Ryan Shelton. Similarly, a search of the Library of Congress shows no book by Shelton. Even Google comes up snake eyes. Not only has Shelton not published any books, but whatever ebooks he has sold on the Internet can hardly be called “best selling”. Why does Zenith Labs lie about its medical director’s publishing record?
Over those 10 years, Shelton has been developing an Internet marketing machine to sell supplements that purport to cure obesity, tinnitus, vision impairment, premature aging, diabetes, joint health, heart disease and digestive diseases. Ever hear about the now-discredited Spark Health Media? Shelton was involved in that. If you’ve stumbled across Zenith Labs, you’ll find a host of cure-alls for just about anything that ills you. While some of what Shelton preaches is scientifically-validated common sense, his sites are really all about trying to sell you overpriced pills that will likely not cure you any better than a placebo. So, let’s take a closer look at “Dr” Shelton and get to the bottom of what he’s actually selling consumers and whether we can recommend your buying ANYTHING from this notorious Internet infoscammer.
Some More Flashing Red Lights
“Dr.” Shelton has decided to use the Internet to peddle his potions and creams. While that’s not a crime, what is troubling are the sketchy methods he uses to sell those products. Shelton hires copywriters to compose lengthy (and undocumented) stories about his marvelous concoctions. These marketing pitches are hallmarks of the infoscammers that we’ve chronicled at this blog. Infoscammers, in essence, find ways to misrepresent or overprice medical cures that are readily available for free or low-cost to most all Americans. Worse yet, Shelton has relied upon affiliate marketers to promote his products — and that’s downright misleading. These affiliates claim to have “reviewed” the products, but actually they are paid commissions for every consumer they’ve lured to Shelton’s company. Most all of the reviews are identical; they’ve been largely written by professional copywriters to trick consumers that happen upon their “review sites” into thinking that the product has been throughly tested by the reviewer. In fact, they aren’t.
Another thing Shelton will do is fudge on his credentials. For example, at his Baby Builders website, he proudly displays the logo of the California Naturopathic Assn. Just go to the bottom of that webpage — it is the furthest to the left. He also prominently features the ATMS logo:
But there’s something interesting about these logos. The California Naturopathic logo mentions an “agricultural association”. Dig a little further and you’ll find that this logo is for a California-based cannabis dispensary that is out of business. And the ATMS logo is for the Australian Traditional Medicine Society. It’s a membership organization — practitioners pay $300 per year to become members. But if you put Shelton’s name in the membership directory, you’ll find that he isn’t a member. So why does he prominently feature these logos on his website? By this time, you’ve probably figured it out.
How He’ll Try to Sell You Supplements
Shelton is all about selling supplements. He’s intimately involved with Zenith Labs, which is an on-line supplement dispensary of overpriced vitamin pills. At Baby Builders, Shelton has created nine different supplement packages that he’ll peddle after your first consultation. He’ll charge up to $200 per pack. Yet, if you tried to buy the same formulations at a reputable supplement retailer, like Vitacost, you’d save close to $150. For example, his Male Fertility pack includes the following supplements.
CoQ10 (60 capsules) – $7 at Vitacost
L-Carnitine (100 capsules) – $12 at Vitacost
L-Arginine (100 capsules) – $9 at Vitacost
or you can get all three supplements in one liquid for a modest $19.
N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) – $10 at Vitacost
Liver Detox pills (90 capsules) – $5 at Vitacost…..and by the way, these have been largely proven to be ineffectual.
Omega 3 (90 softgels) – $6 at Vitacost (for 150 softgels) and Harvard University reports that these don’t help either.
The bottom line is that for as little as $40 you can buy at Vitacost for what Shelton will try to charge you $200. This is consistent with his pattern of dramatically overcharging for supplements that have little or no scientific proof of effectiveness.
Scientists Have Found That Supplements Don’t Improve Fertility
Infertility is a toughie. Modern medicine relies upon very expensive methods to induce pregnancy and there’s no guarantee. For couples who don’t have $60,000 in spare change, herbs and supplements look to be an attractive alternative. Unscrupulous marketers know this and they offer all sorts of pills that will “fix” the problem. But the bigger problem is that there’s no scientific evidence backing up these claims. They very credible Mayo Clinic reports that “no evidence in the medical literature that supports herbs or supplements as a treatment for infertility”. The similarly reputable Center for Science in the Public Interest said its nearly yearlong investigation of 39 “fertility” supplements — pills and powders with names such as Fertile CM, Pregnitude, FertilHerb for Women, OvaBoost, and Pink Stork — found no evidence they increase a woman’s chance of conceiving. It asked the federal government to clamp down on the marketers’ claims. A very large 2019 study published in the well-respected Journal of the American Medical Association found that supplements containing zinc and folic acid have been found to do nothing to improve fertility (although folic acid can reduce the risk of developmental neurologic problems in the developing fetus). And Harvard Unversity established in a 2018 study that antioxidants, vitamin D, dairy products, soy, and caffiene appeared to have little or no effect on fertility.
Infoscammers Who Sell Supplements Exploit the Placebo Effect
The idea that your brain can convince your body a fake treatment is the real thing. It’s referred to as the placebo effect and has been around for as long as humans have attempted to heal other humans. However, scientists have been able to actually document how placebos work and have found that in some cases a placebo can be just as effective as traditional treatments. Infoscammers rely upon this effect to help them sell their questionable supplements. Whether it be pills or diets or lifestyle changes, almost half of the people who buy into these schemes are likely to experience some degree of relief due to the placebo effect. Sadly, Shelton’s marketing team have zeroed in their marketing strategy to exploit the placebo effect. In short, as many as 50% of the people who buy his overpriced pills are likely to feel some effect. And, once hooked, they’ll be faithfully buying Shelton’s shady overpriced pills for a long time.
How To Improve Your Fertility……for free!
If a medical doctor has determined that you have a physiological impediment to impregnation or conception, then you may be out of luck. However, if the doctor has made no finding, then you might be able to improve your fertility…..for free. For example, male sperm health is affected by lifestyle factors. A diet comprised of whole foods (not packaged, processed foods), limited consumption of alcohol, regular physical activity, concerted stress reduction and avoiding smoking can lead to a substantial improvement in sperm health. For that matter, it’ll improve almost all aspects of your life. Researchers at Harvard University established that a healthy diet high in omega-3 fats and vitamin B12 will help, as will maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle.