Recently I cited a report about the current shortage of antiviral drugs like Tamiflu that may help lessen the severity of the bird flu.
A Shaklee distributor made this comment to that post:
Another option, is to boost your own immune system naturally. Shaklee has a relatively new product called NutriFeron (exclusive to Shaklee) that boosts the body’s own immune protection – interferon. Shaklee has 4 clinical trials thus far that are proving NutriFeron’s effectiveness. NutriFeron boosts your body’s own production of interferon. I for one am taking preventive measures to protect my family by strengthening our own immune system. We take NutriFeron everyday. If you want to learn more, click on [link removed] educate yourself, protect your family. have a great day.
This is what we in the website biz call “spam.” And the spamish claim is pretty spectactular: “NutriFeron boosts your body’s own production of interferon.”
Since interferon is produced by the immune system when faced with threats like viruses and tumors, it’s natural to assume a supplement that helps you make more interferon might protect you against the bird flu, especially if a Shaklee distributor says she’ll be using it to protect her family from the bird flu.
I hoped Shaklee wasn’t encouraging their distributors to prey on public fears in order to make a killing on NutriFeron’s supposed bird flu protection properties, but the more I thought about it, the more I doubted any multi-level marketing company would ignore such an opportunity. So I looked into NutriFeron.
It’s pricey: according to the Shaklee website, one month’s supply of 60 caplets will set you back $45 “for non-members” and $38.25 for “members.” Shipping and handling is $6.50 and in California, tax is $3.99. (Membership in Shaklee costs exactly $19.95 a year plus the annoyance of being considered a prospect for distributorship in Shaklee’s own flavor of multi-level marketing.)
And what does that $50-plus get you? Read the label.
One dose (2 caplets) gives you 500 mg of: “MACH® Patented blend of Interferon-boosting Plant Extracts.” This includes:
Nothing strange like eye of newt or human colostrum or anything — just seed and flower extracts. But what do these seed and flower extracts do for us? How do we know this “patented blend” actually boosts interferon as claimed?
The label says NutriFeron is a “POWERFUL BREAKTHROUGH IN IMMUNE SYSTEM SCIENCE” and that it is a “clinically tested, natural interferon booster.*”
Before you run out and buy a dozen bottles, look at that asterisk. It references a message found elsewhere on the label: “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.”
This statement is pretty much the boilerplate disclaimer you’ll find on most dietary supplements. All it means is that it hasn’t gone through intensive FDA testing and can’t be considered a drug like Tamiflu. Tamiflu has proven itself as an antiviral, unlike NutriFeron.
So let’s focus on the “clinical studies” claim, because that seems to be Shaklee’s big selling point, and really, I want to see what these studies proved.
Shaklee cites four clinical studies:
I found abstracts for three studies (the fourth study only appears on Shaklee websites) and only one of the abstracts mentions interferon. (The formula “EH0202” presumably was later named NutriFeron.)
The first two studies cited examined the effects of EH0202 on middle-aged women with menopausal symptoms. The fourth study (the one I couldn’t find) apparently dealt with womens’ pre-menstrual symptoms.
NutriFeron does appear to have been “clinically tested,” but not as a flu preventative.
The third study did deal with a virus, hepatitis c, but was hardly conclusive. Out of the 35 patients who completed the third study, 4 out of 6 saw an improvement in “malaise,” 2 out of 2 lost a “bloating sensation in the abdomen,” and 1 out of 2 lost symptoms of nausea and vomiting.
UPDATE 11/20/2005: As I reread the previous paragraph, I realize I may have made the results of this study appear better than they are, for example, the reader might think that out of 35 people, 2 out of every 2 patients lost a bloating sensation, or 4 out of every six lost nausea. Forgive me, but this is incorrect.
Here is the text of the study’s abstract — you read it and decide for yourself:
Among the 35 patients who successfully completed the study, there were improvements in malaise (seen in 6 patients before and in 2 after EH0202 treatment), bloating sensation in the abdomen (seen in 2 before and in none after treatment), and nausea and vomiting (seen in 2 before and in 1 after treatment). There were no changes in hematology or biochemical examination parameters. There was a statistically significant decrease in HCV-RNA levels in patients with high viral titers after 3 months of EH0202 administration.
(Emphasis is mine. Now I’ll let you get back to my original post.)
The number of people who showed improvement is awfully small. Even the abstract states, “Further studies are, however, needed to obtain a definitive conclusion.”
The two other studies were also statistically insignificant and if they “prove” anything, it might be that NutriFeron may help relieve pre-menstrual and menopausal symptoms. I certainly don’t see any proof that NutriFeron boosts the body’s interferon-producing ability.
Of course, that’s just my untrained, unscientific opinion, but there it is. Perhaps a real scientist will tell me I’ve read these wrong, but until that moment I’ll stick with my conclusion, which is…
If you have the money to burn and you believe NutriFeron will help you fend off the bird flu, go ahead and buy it. The placebo effect might kick in and help you imagine your way to effective flu prevention.
And I say that as a woman who takes a lot of vitamins. If there was more proof that NutriFeron actually helped prevent the flu, I’d probably look for less expensive sources of the seed and flower extracts mentioned above, but I need a little more evidence before my placebo effect kicks in.
I think I’ll have better luck washing my hands frequently, living a healthy lifestyle, getting plenty of rest and exercise, and avoiding people who don’t know enough to cover their mouths when coughing and sneezing. And vitamin C. I’ll take lots of vitamin C.
All of that is FREE (the vitamin C is CHEAP) and won’t involve giving your name, address and telephone number to a multi-level marketing company doomed to produce more failures than successes. [Broken link fixed 12/10/07. Thanks, Mindy.]
Tags: Bird Flu, H5N1, NutriFeron, Shaklee,
Ang, I didn’t delete your comments — I wasn’t talking about you. You and I are practically old friends by now, aren’t we?
🙂
Otay, sorry. I got cornfused. LOL
Old friends yay! I guess I should find other blogs to bug you in huh? LOL
All, I use shaklee, don’t sell it, don’t use interferon.
I read posts 1 through 38 and then skpped to the bottom.
Just wanted to comment on MLM vs other business models. I am wondering how they are significantly different. Take a large public corporation for example. Each sales person has a quota and gets bonuses if they meet or exceed. the district sales manager has quotas for his team and gets bonuses if he exceeds them. While, they don’t recruit new sales folks into their team, they clearly rely on finding more customers for their products. The company increases the quota each year, so they have to go find more customers to make their money. And all the way at the top is a CEO, on top of a very pointy organization, who is making alot of money based on the work of everyone below him.
So, fundamentally, tell me how MLM is really all that different than a public corporation sales team. Each one is a pyramid. Each one has shady sales and those with integrity. Each one has bonuses for achieving certain levels of sales.
I have hear alot of slamming of MLM, but what other business model is any better?
mtb
mtb, thanks for your response. I’d say the biggest difference is that whole recruitment thing you just removed from the public corporation sales team scenario.
I’d also guess that the recruited MLM member understands he is starting and growing his own business. Members of public corporation sales teams won’t have this understanding.
The MLMer doesn’t get reimbursed from his employer for any business expenses, either… he swallows them like a small business owner does, whereas members of a public corporation sales team get reimbursed.
This got me thinking about another question:
If I build up a prosperous vitamin company—or a pet supplies company or whatever—complete with an active sales team, I can sell the business to anybody I want for the true market value. Can the owner of a prosperous Shaklee business do the same?
Hi Bonnie,
I am new to Blogging. This page came up for me when I did a search on the Internet.
This is all very interesting, as I have yet to get a blog for myself, but I have a question about the “public post setting” and “my guest” comments (in post #17).
I understand web/spambots which may post things electronically (and should be illegal), but if you have fields for comment at the bottom that are open to anyone to use, doesn’t that make it a public post? Otherwise, wouldn’t there need to be a password required for people to be able to post?
If you have any thoughts on this, I’d really appreciate it.
———-
Anyway, if I may add to the discussions, there are several things that are missing from the above postings.
#1) The NutriFeron clinical studies were done by Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical, who helped Dr. Kojima develop the product, not Shaklee. They were done before Shaklee was given the marketing rights to this product.
And there are definitely more clinicals. These four are only the ones that have been published. (It can take years to go through the publishing process.)
I even know that the Kenya government has talked to Roger about doing one with NutriFeron and the Basics and the huge AIDS epidemic over there (a incredible problem and huge catastrophe for humanity).
#2) There is much more to the MLM/Shaklee issue than what has been talked about so far.
I, too, was very skeptical and uneasy about MLM. And with good reason. There are so many people out there taking advantage of other people, that I just didn’t want to be involved in something like that. (This applies to the profession of sales as a whole.)
In fact, I’ve been a Shaklee product user for 23 years. I never experienced pressure from my upline to sell, but I also never truly understood MLM (or marketing in general), until recently.
And now I can’t tell you how much I could kick myself for not understanding this decades ago!
Anyway, here are some things I’ve learned, upon doing a more thorough analysis:
Yes, pyramids typically don’t have products that are sold and that is why they are illegal.
But many MLM’s tack on a product to a large sign up fee to make it sound legitimate.
In fact, many people who make the “big money” in MLM’s are actually just making money from recruiting bonuses. And their income collapses if/when their organizations stop recruiting.
It may come as a surprise…but Shaklee has never had any recruiting bonuses tied to joining, and no one has ever gotten a dime from signing someone up. 100% of commissions are made from product sales.
It only costs $19.95 to join as a member and the sponsor doesn’t get a dime. (Costco charges $45 per year – my Citibank Credit Card costs me $75 per year – so Shaklee seems like a real steal!) And right now, our membership is free with a minimum order as part of our 50th Anniversary special.
Membership by the way, doesn’t make you a distributor automatically. You still have to be appointed as a distributor by your upline. (Who would buy shoes if the shoe salesman constantly pressured you about selling shoes?)
Even now, with our brand new “Fast Start To Wellness Distributor Program” (that includes some awesome products and gives people an additional bonus), it is but one out of three options for joining, each one offering their own added benefits.
Also, there are many different forms of MLM.
Shaklee is what’s known as a hybrid. It is called a “stair-step breakaway” plan.
It is NOT based on sponsoring levels. That is what confuses people when they hear any type of “get three who get three” conversation.
Each business leader must have a whole bunch of “customers” (usually at least 40-50+) – people who are NOT building a business. Some people out of those customers may build a business, but that still leaves a whole bunch in their personal business groups.
There are many people in Shaklee who make a good income just from their base of customers, without recruiting any business builders.
So in order to understand it, it is critical to know that each downline business builder has a group of customers of their own.
In addition, business builders 2nd, 3rd or 4th level can make more money than their uplines if they have more customers and/or have more people that they’ve trained and recruited.
(Many people are shocked to learn this.)
There are two reasons for this:
a) Bonuses are limited to 4 generations, meaning that if I have a 3rd level business builder who has 3rd and 4th levels, I don’t get paid on them.
b) If I haven’t trained a certain number of business builders myself, I don’t even get paid on my own 3rd or 4th levels, or not paid as much. This prevents what’s known as unjust enrichment.
Thus your income is dependent on your own efforts as well, not just on the efforts of others.
The glorious difference between the stair-step breakaway MLM plan and many other MLM plans is that it is stable and doesn’t depend on recruiting to produce continuous income.
It is also wildly successful (as evidenced by the 500 MILLION products Shaklee has sold).
The glorious difference between MLM and the corporate sales structure is that sales rep can promote themselves to sales manager and not have to wait until someone else dies or moves on.
It is based on the Golden Rule, where everyone has exactly the same opportunity.
In the corporate world, an employee can be hired, but cannot hire other employees, and therefore is trapped by the limits of his job. There is no fairness and there is no leverage (and little or no incentive to help others succeed or be promoted themselves).
There are many more benefits and distinctions as well, but those are the major ones that have been touched upon, but not made fully clear above.
In my view, the most important thing about all of this is that if customers and distributors are not trained properly, (no matter what compensation system is used) they may make mistakes in the way they communicate the benefits of the products or the business they represent.
They may not conform to Shaklee’s guidelines regarding product claims, or they may not talk to people about their needs and desires for which having their own business may be a perfect solution.
This causes the typical “sales” pressure scenario or the lack of credibility that we all hate so much!
Stewart
P.S. Sorry this is so long, but I thought a complete comment would be more helpful than a cursory one. Hopefully all who read it will be more informed, and find it useful.
To all my Shaklee distributor brothers & sisters:
There is never a need for emotionally defending a position. There is always a good reason that people feel the way they do. When you can relate to people and their reasons, and understand the issues involved, you will be compassionate, respectful and empowered.
Let’s go out and continue to do good in the world!
Dear Stewart, thanks very much for your thoughtful and informative post. As you may have noticed, I responded to your question about the guest comments in public post settings in a separate post.
Regarding MLMs: I did not know about the “unjust enrichment” policy at Shaklee. but I’m glad to see it as it seems more fair than what I previously understood it to be.
Do you know if Shaklee representatives are allowed to sell their thriving Shaklee businesses as owners of small businesses or franchises may do? This would be an important point to understand if I were trying to decide whether or not to start a Shaklee business.
If I purchased and built up a fast food franchise, I could sell it for its true market value and the new owner would (if he continued my stellar business practices) continue to earn just as much money as I did, not counting any downturns in the burger market.
But can Shaklee distributors sell their businesses if they want?
Regarding NutriFeron: I look forward to any new studies which may prove it can boost interferon levels as Shaklee claims. I promise to write about them.
My only complaint about the four studies given as examples of proof on the Shaklee label was that only one seemed to address NutriFeron’s effect on a viral illness, and that study was not conclusive.
Thanks again for your civil post.
Hi Bonnie,
Thanks for your response.
To answer your question, yes, Shaklee businesses can be bought and sold. I know a number of people who have done so (at quite a premium, I might add).
You can also leave your business to your kids (or in your will). There are quite a number of second and now third generation Shaklee kids/businesses, which to me is quite impressive.
I was shocked to learn that a number of other MLM’s do not have this as part of their program. The businesses are taken back by the company if anyone retires, dies, etc. VERY POOR ETHICS if you ask me!
(I LOVE your comment about following your stellar business practices!!! 🙂 That is true of every business, and not everyone knows how to run or build a business that can run without them! That’s why I agree with that old adage: “The Money Is In The System.”
Some older Shaklee businesses are still run via inventory out of their garage – if you can believe it.
The newer and smarter businesses are what we call MDO – where the “Members Direct Order” from Shaklee via phone or the web, and we simply get an email notification of their order. That’s how this business is truly a passive income business, even without recruiting other distributors – FYI.)
Regarding your other comment on NutriFeron, I did some research (looking up Shaklee’s info, direct from the horse’s mouth, as it were), and think I found the source of your question.
There are actually FIVE clinicals, four of which were published in the last year alone by independent scientific medical journals. The other one is the one that shows the increase in natural Interferon production. The four other ones were designed to show other things.
If you’d like to listen to the discussions by the Shaklee scientists themselves, I have posted two recording on my personal website: Just go to http://www.immunitybreakthrough.com and click on “More Info.” These discussions clarify the claims, the breakthrough, the development and the science behind it, as well as other factors you can do to boost/support your immune system.
I hope it’s okay to pass along this information. (After you check it out, you can delete the website info from this message if you wish, so you & others don’t think it is spam or advertising.)
Stewart
P.S. I “borrowed” some of the testimonies others have posted so more people can benefit from the results others have gotten. I hope that is okay.
HI
I am a holistic Nutritionist working on my doctoral dissertation. I was so encouraged by the results my present clients and my own family had with this product that I decided to delve into this with much greater intensity. Upon doing so, I realized that this is a product that might be used in the control of MS or possibly in the prevention of it. Now, MS is multi faceted, but this holds a powerful potential in the current approach to MS. As a testimonial, my family and I did not even have a cold this year, despite all the people around us hacking away, some with quite severe illnesses. I have seen some of my clients with mild health issues benefit in the same manner as we did and I have other clients with severe health issues, that chose to try this product and who also could not believe the improvement they experienced.
In support of the research on this product…. This is good solid research, and just because the product uses simple things like botanicals, does not negate the powerful impact it may have on this country and our health.Now maybe it will be effective in the possible prevention of bird flu and maybe it will not.The person you quoted was simply saying that she prefers to act preventively rather than after the fact. Rather than approaching illness and disease AFTER the fact, this product is used as a preventive. Now, the testimonials pouring in are very powerful regarding HIV, Hepatitis( first hand experience with my clients on this one) and other health issues. Possibly you could spend more time doing more research on the current uses of interferon and its limitations and applications rather than bashing a natural product?! There is also substantive information on the botanicals in this product as well. You may find the information very supportive of the Shaklee claims.
In regard to multi level marketing etc, I find you very ignorant. I suggest you do some more research on that, and possibly call up Harvard, Yale etc to ask them why they allow professors to teach this scandalous way of doing business adn why they have not been hauled to jail for illegal doings in the business world! No really, My only fault with you is that you did not really do your homework.I would have rather you were more objective, got the facts straight and maybe talked with people in the field with more knowledge than yourself. Possibly you had a very bad experience with multi level marketing? Say, Amway? We all have at one time or another. However, this article was very subjective and not thorough enough.
Hi
I am sorry to interrupt you , but nobody wants help me.I was calling to Canada difficult to get some information.
I have COLON CANCER.I strarted took NUTRIFERON-Shaklee produkt that stimulate immune system.
After 4 days of taking this caps ( 2 every day)I start to heve enormous pain.
sOME peole says it can be good because my immune system start to fight with cancer, but pain start to be terrible so I stopped taking Nutriferon, now my pain is a little smaller but does not return to level before takieng Nutriferon.
Maybe Nutriferon help me, can you tell me maybe I should takie Nutriferon with some vitamin.Is this pain normal?
I hope there is no possiblity that Nutriferon stimulate my cancer not immune system?
Can you tell me should I stop taking …??
Please answer me, it is the matter of my life
Thank you
Kate
Dear Kate, I am so sorry about your cancer and your pain. Please let your doctor know you are experiencing pain and ask him/her what you should do.
I don’t know the answers about Nutriferon, but I just wrote to five Shaklee distributors who commented here, asking them if they might help you find more information about Nutriferon so you and your doctor can decide what to do.
I’m hoping one or more will respond to you either by e-mail or in this thread. I will watch this post… please let me know if you get no answer and I will contact Shaklee on Monday morning for you.
Dearest people in interest of the good of humanity,
It seems that you are in a war with Shaklee Distributors here. Disregarding the fact that I am also a Shaklee upcoming master coordinator (in Malaysia), I will truthfully state my points in a most unbiased manner, although I don’t think it will be truly possible.
Thank you Bonnie, for you have made a good point in saying that the peer-reviews are “statistically insignificant”. I have to admit that to most people, the studies are not convincing enough to prove the efficiency of Nutriferon. However, do realise it is not easy for peer-reviews to be accepted in prestigious journals, and that millions have been spent to research the combination of plants used in Shaklee’s Nutriferon. The price is not because of advertising or because Shaklee is an MLM company. You should know that Shaklee Corporation consistently tests its products to prove their efficiency, and Nurtiferon is one of those products. Shaklee has actually spent quite a lot in further testing the combination of “seeds and plants” that Dr Kojima has researched himself. A lot have been invested into research and to prove that it is absorbed into the body as well as increasing interferon levels in the blood. For such a breakthrough, a high price is always expected. Apart from that, the stock of Nutriferon in the USA was not enough in order to be exported into Malaysia till now, due to the popularity (hence, the price) of the product. This is also another example of “high demand, low supply”. It is the same with everything else in the world, be it CPUs or any technological advances. Therefore, I am confident that the price of Nutriferon will reduce progressively.
Apart from that, do know that Shaklee is one of the ONLY companies (the ONLY company I know of so far) to do frequent clinical testing to prove the efficiency of its products. A higher price is generally expected.
I have studied many so-called “multi-level marketing” companies before I joined Shaklee faithfully. I know and I can bet my life that Shaklee, as is with Amway and Elken, is not a Pyramid Scheme. Companies such as Quest International and Digital Crown Holdings Limited (DCHL) are amongst the many pyramid schemes around. In general, pyramid schemes are those that promote recruiting or “head-hunting”, and not selling. These companies would usually impose a high startup fee, usually amounting from hundreds to thousands of dollars, and distributors can simply earn a percentage from recruiting prospects. There is no actual “sales” and these activities are deemed unethical. In Shaklee and Amway, distributors DO NOT earn anything from recruiting, but only through their sales. The joining fee is at a minimal and includes the processing fee as well as the starter kit. Shaklee is a legitimate network marketing company, and is reviewed and studied by many lawyers worldwide. Accusing Shaklee or even Amway as a pyramid scheme is inappropriate and unacceptable. I do not know whether you’re one of those conspiracy theorists around, or maybe you’re from an MLM company which is in competition with Shaklee. If you’re not a certified lawyer who knows the law more than we do, I suggest that you stop accusing Shaklee of being a pyramid scheme, before you invite more trouble.
Regarding the Shaklee Distributor who made the claim “effective against bird-flu”, I would like to say that this particular distributor is ultimately paying the price for being over-zealous in his/her pursuit to be successful in Shaklee. We have never (and should NEVER) claimed nor mentioned in any way that Nurtiferon is effective to protect us from bird-flu. We can only claim that it MAY cure certain cancers and illnesses, because although physically the same, human bodies are different from one to another, in that some people might benefit greatly, while some would not benefit much from Nutriferon or any other food supplements.
In terms of effectiveness, I have tried many other brands of food supplements in order to control my atopic eczema. All doctors I know of recommend Evening Primrose Oil (gamma-linolenic acid) and Vitamin C for this condition, and my mother once spent thousands upon thousands investing in food supplements (many brands) for me. Nothing happened. When I joined Shaklee, I was not really convinced of the effectiveness of GLA-complex from Shaklee, which is claimed to be “three times as effective as Evening Primrose Oil” and I was hesitant to use. Due to the constant recommendation from my uncle K. Sow, I finally gave it a try, and I swear to God there is nothing like Shaklee. After 8 years, I can finally see my own fingerprints. Thanks to constant clinical testing, the products made a tremendous difference in my life. I have been suffering from Atopic Eczema since 8 years ago, and I have benefited unexpectedly from Shaklee products. It is simply a case of doubt-turned-into-faith. I have also seen with my own eyes the benefit of our products, even in cancer survivors in Malaysia. I am now “married” to Shaklee, and I will do my best to protect the name and dignity of the company.
I have faith in Shaklee products, but it is up to the people to evaluate the products themselves.
Thank You Shaklee, for making a difference in my life!
There are many other things that I would like to answer, but I choose to leave it to those who are more knowledgeable. I apologise for any mistakes in language, as well as any criticism. I am only 20 years old, and although I may not be as educated or knowledgeable as some people here, I am willing to stretch myself further to improve myself. Criticisms to my opinions are welcome. Thank You.
I want to make a more simple opinion here. There are some who are interested in preventative measures, and there are of course some who do not. For those who want to protect themselves from illnesses, and who are constantly consuming food supplements, I congratulate them for being health-concious. Otherwise, just don’t buy or consume them.
Let the people decide for themselves whether they want to live healthier lives. That will definitely save us a lot of headaches. As far as I’m concerned, Bonnie’s accusations that Shaklee is a pyramid scheme in particular, are also “statistically insignificant”.
To Kate, what you are experiencing is called “healing crisis”. The body will relive symptoms, perhaps worse. Please contact a local distributor regarding this effect. You should not only be taking Nutriferon, but also others that might help with the pain. You should also become a full-time vegan, and you have to re-adjust your lifestyle. It works for most cancer patients in Malaysia. I must also stress that Shaklee products MAY help, but cannot cure cancer. You still need to undergo chemo. For your nutritional needs, Shaklee can assist you.
Dear Kate,
One of the most reliable articles regarding Interferon that you can share with your doctor can be obtained in this webpage:
pathmicro.med.sc.edu/mhunt/interferon.htm
Immediately contact the nearest Shaklee Distributor for more help.
By the way, regarding the comment made by the distributor (in the first post), she/he may have implied bird-flu, but have never stated it directly. There are some over-zealous distributors who would make certain unrealistic claims, but that does not mean that the entire community of Shaklee Distributors does the same. The distributor’s comment may not have been exaggerating at all, just the way we perceive it. I apologise if I wrongly understood the particular distributor’s comment. I know that Nutriferon may be the only alternative we have for now. Nutriferon doesn’t put emphasis on bird-flu, but may help in prevention.
Sorry for the multiple posts by the way. I have a weakness of typing too much…
Take care people…
Dear Julian, thank you for your thoughtful contributions to this post.
Very intersting about the studies Shaklee has financed! In the absence of more independent research, however, customers will probably rely more on personal anecdotes such as yours when deciding whether or not to try NutriFeron.
I’m glad NutriFeron helped with the excema—I will never discount people’s personal experience with a product. As you said, I only discounted the motives of the original distributor who spammed me, as well as the studies referred to on the NutriFeron label.
Regarding Kate: I know at least two of the Shaklee distributors I contacted made attempts to reach Kate, although I don’t know yet what the outcome was.
Dearest Bonnie,
I just came back from the Nutriferon Training at Malaysia, and I met a new distributor today. When I introduce myself to him, he said “oh, YOU’RE Julian Gan? I saw your post in a blog related to Nutriferon” and I was like, “REALLY?” I never really posted anything recently since I was quite busy as I only started building my Shaklee business. I believe you all have just heard from my best friend who is also my downline. Yep, he knows about my skin condition, and many others do. I’m not surprised that many people know about my history since I share my experience at every opportunity possible. My best friend and I once indulge in humiliating each other and our friends in every blog we can find, because most blogs have a single weakness, which is you can act or pretend to be someone else. I apologise that “I” have caused quite a bit of havoc here. Gosh, he even knows my writing style!
However, what he just said made me quite proud of him because he’s my downline. It is around 90% accurate, and I would like to add a bit to “my” statements.
Firstly, regarding the MOTIVE of this product called Nutriferon (it is sold in sachets here, which you can mix into any beverage, and it tastes like orange), all it can do is to improve the interferon response in your body. We can safely state that once the interferon response is at it’s optimum level, the macrophages and immune cells will eliminate viruses and bacteria more effectively. HOWEVER, if that person’s diet is still poor and he/she does not supplement his/her diet, the body’s immune cells and macrophages will be weaker and in lower quantities due to lack of proper nutrition. THEREFORE, even if you take 10 sachets of Nutriferon everyday, your immune system will still be generally weak, regardless of your interferon response. I would still recommend people to take A, C, E, garlic complex, zinc, and soy protein. Nutriferon is basically a food-supplement supplement.
Secondly, we in the nutritional supplement business are always walking on a fine line, ESPECIALLY those of us in Shaklee. Our claim is that it MAY help to cure hepatitis C, CERTAIN types of cancer and various immune related illnesses. It MAY prevent avian flu and SARS. (refer to the statement “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.”) This is because we are marketing Nutriferon as nutrition, not a drug. Despite various evidences that prove the efficacy of Nutriferon, we do NOT claim that it will cure anything because if we do, we will have to market it as a drug which people would use to cure illnesses. That is not our mission. Our mission is to prevent, not to cure. We want people to use it on a daily basis in order to prevent illnesses, not to cure. However, most people would misinterpret it as a claim that nutriferon can cure cancer and it can definitely prevent cancer and avian flu. In my opinion, that distributor did not make any exaggerating claims about Nutriferon, but it is easy for most people to misinterpret that claim. That is why I say that we are walking on a fine line between being a nutrition company and a pharmaceutical company. We in Shaklee believe that if we fine-tune our body’s immune system, our body will fight the disease by itself. Therefore, Nutriferon is meant to HELP the body to fight cancer, prevent avian flu, etc. It still depends on that person’s body.
Thirdly, we sometimes “use” people’s fears so that they will better take care of their health, but we never abuse that fear for the sake of increasing sales volume. The fear of getting infected with deadly diseases is very real and not fictitious. There is good reason to be afraid. Even if you don’t care about your life anymore, you wouldn’t want to infect other people,particularly your loved ones, would you?
I’m sorry that “I” made quite a big fuss in this blog. I’ll make sure he’ll pay. Does anyone knows any famous blogs related to extremist islamic jihad groups? I’d like to lure them to Malaysia with the sole purpose of castrating him… Remember, when someone praises himself or talks mostly about himself, it most probably isn’t really him, but someone else.
With apologies,
THE TRUE Julian Gan.
To Ray,
I know you’re looking at this…
What! You mean there is an imposter on this thread?
I guess I should be peeved, but since you started your comment with “Dearest Bonnie”, all is well.
(Naughty Ray!)
I’m glad to see this open dialog about Nutriferon. I’ve had, and still do have, a gut twist whenever I think of companies like Shaklee or Amway. Most of the products they sell are available over the counter at considerably less cost. The main difference I see is that the distribution system is more micro and the research/testing seems a little more available and thorough. I’d like to tell you about my little experiment.
I was diagnosed in March of this year with a rare disease of the bone marrow called Myelofibrosis. The treatment options are limited and my initial research indicated that mean survival is about five years. Well that just won’t do!!! I’m 41 and just adopted a beautiful baby boy. He’s our world and I couldn’t be any more proud.
What I found out is that the disease is not treatable with conventional treatment (standard chemo and there’s nothing to cut out). My choices are treat it and try to supress it or get a stem cell transplant (no, not the kind Bush just vetoed). Interferon is one of the tools in the arsenal.
My hematologist/oncologist has been reluctant to start me on any medications since my blood work has been relatively good. The only problem is that I feel like I’m carrying around a full term baby… and I’m a dude. My spleen is two and a half times what it should be. That’s a problem.
I’ve been trying Nutriferon for a little while now. My initial CT scan showed 27cm, and now after taking this stuff for a little while it’s at 26.2 (that could be because the second measurement was done by ultrasound). I started out at twice the dose and felt like total crap. One of the side effects of interferon is that you have flu like symptoms (and since my bone marrow is turning into scar tissue, I wrote it off to that). I stayed off for about a month, and now I’m back on again and feeling like crap again. Yay!!!???
I’m open to talk more about my little experiment if you would like. Shoot me a note and I’ll post again to update you guys. It definitely seems to be doing something.
Alan Caruthers
saalanc@hotmail.com
By the way, good luck in finding any research about whether Nutriferon actually raises blood serum levels of Interferon. Even their high level muckety mucks don’t seem to know.
Hi there Alan.
After taking nutriferon for a few days, I had the same flu-like symptoms for about a few hours, but after then, everything is fine and I can see significant improvements in my eczema. My theory is that the “side effects” should be called healing crisis, the process of the body fighting a certain disease or the expelling of toxins in the body. Please refer to a professional Shaklee Distributor in your area, he/she should know more about this.
Regarding your disease, we have NEVER claimed that Nutriferon can actually cure any disease, because otherwise we would have to market it as a drug. Secondly, our products are meant to help the body to “create” its own “cure” to fight the disease. If someone has cancer or other immune-related illnesses, taking Nutriferon itself just won’t cut it. Interferon acts as a kind of signalling device that announces to our immune cells (soldiers) to fight off certain bacterial infections. But if your immune system (soldiers, bases, weaponry) is weak, signalling won’t do any good. You should take A, C, E, Garlic, Zinc and protein. Please consult your physician before consuming these products, and contact a Shaklee Sales Leader.
Best of Luck,
Julian.
Julian,
Thank you for your comments on this product, but I think that the assumption that the pain I’m feeling is a “healing crisis” is a bit misplaced. I’ve been through those before and trust me, it doesn’t compare to this. With this disease, my marrow is slowly being replaced by a fibrous tissue that is pushing on my bones. When I take a product like this, or have a flu, my core temperature rises and the tissue expands, pushing more on the bones from the inside. My hope with taking the nutriferon (other than the fact that my doctor doesn’t want to start me on interferon alfa until blood is squirting out my eyes… sorry, I got a bit of hostility towards him right now) is that my naturally occuring interferon will rise and signal the cells to break down the fibrosis. I already take an excellent quality multivitamin/mineral (that is actually more afordable than Shaklee and a better formulation as well). Obvioulsy, I’m a skeptic. While I appreciate your recommendations, I don’t think for a minute that tossing down a handful of vitamins is going to do the trick for me. I just want the rest of the systems in my body to work as well as possible for as long as possible so that I can raise my little boy into the great young man I know he will be.
Alan
Bonnie,
Just recently I was solicited Shacklee products by my daughter’s ENT while at her office for a regular check-up (my daughter has a cogenital defect, which among other things, affects her airway clearance). So, I came to the internet to look it up and happened upon your website. I have found your initial post about Nutriferon to be very useful. Thank you Bonnie.
Alan, I, too, hope you can raise that little boy into a grown man, and see your grandchildren, too.
JB, I hope you find success in treating your daughter’s respiratory problem.
I do think good nutrition and supplements can help strengthen our immune systems, and Nutriferon does seem to have helped some of the people who’ve posted here, but more research needs to be done.
I doubt Nutriferon can harm a person, but if you’re tight on money it can certainly hurt your pocketbook.
Unfortunately not many nutritionists or doctors know much about nutriferon or MACH yet, otherwise we may know more about the effects that Alan is experiencing. I guess the only guarantee now is that Shaklee offers 100% guarantee that the products work. But let us remember that food supplements is always about prevention. While supplementing MAY help in curing, it’s not intended to treat disease.
I’m a little concerned about people taking Nutriferon to try to reduce thyroid levels. Nutriferon is supposed to help strengthen the immune system, however, the problem with many thyroid problems is that the immune system is already over-active. People should be taking supplements to help ‘balance’ their immune systems instead.
Good afternoon everyone,
I just found this website by clicking on ‘Nutriferon’ and ‘menstrual’, to do a little research of my own on how it affects estrogen levels, as one of the herbs used in Nutriferon has been used in the past to ‘bring on menstruation’.
I began taking Nutriferon about 2 months ago, and since everyone has been talking about how it affects viruses, I can share my own personal experience, embarassing as it may be.
I have had HSV2 for many, many years, and have had almost continual outbreaks for much of that time. These are not mild outbreaks, with a cute little bunch of blisters, but I had feverish feelings, extreme fatigue (I couldn’t stay awake, my eyelids would literally begin to close), extreme migraines, and dizziness with each outbreak. I also had inflammation. Since it travels down the nerves to the skin, I also felt very aggressive and nervous. I had not found many people with such severe symptoms. I eat organically, exercise, take quality supplements and stay away from foods containing arginine (which cause outbreaks). I first tried Lysine, then raw garlic, then Shaklee garlic (which worked somewhat well at keeping it at bay if I took it every day), and Valtrex…the pharmaceutical med.
I have two sweet children and could not function on a normal level. I tried Shaklee’s Nutriferon, one tablet, last year, but it kept me awake all night, and I was afraid to try it again. This year, I was so desperate to be over this awful cycle, that I picked the Nutriferon up again and decided to take 1/4 the dose. (Two tablets are the normal dose, so I started with 1/2 of a tablet.) I was shocked to find that within an hour and a half, my symptoms began to diminish. I kept taking 1/2 every morning, or sometimes a whole tablet, depending on how I felt, and I was absolutely amazed at how it seemingly got rid of the herpes virus. I know this is only one puny little woman’s testimony, but so far I am so thankful, I could do a jig. I thought to myself, “My goodness, I don’t know what to do…how do I live a normal life again?”
Just thought I would throw my two cents in there.
P.S. I never take a whole dose of anything at first, but always start out low; perhaps this was the mistake of the man who is taking it for cancer? I am not sure, but I am so sorry for him, I truly am, and I hope he finds whatever will help him be well again. I know the feeling of being sick and in bed much of the time.
Take care!
New to the blog. Hi. Just read the entire thread. Started out interesting but then it turned for the worse.
There was what seemed to be a good debate going on about the studies given to Nutriferon. This is about Nutriferon, right? Who cares how it is sold as long as it is legal. Everyday people go about there lives personally or doing whatever kind of work they do using guidlines. Finding “so called loop holes” or rules in which to maneuver. It happens in big, small, and home based business. It happens in personal life. Wheel and deal man.
Without explaining each very broad example cause a little tought will enlighten you. Any kind of taxes, wholesales, clubs “counrty and yacht”, coupons, outlets, direct buys, memberships, fleet sales, buying in lot form, and there are so many more ways people get and sell things. I give you money, you give me product. How much money and how much product is not always the same. I would say all legal business is similar but not alike. If you have a problem with Shaklee and how it operates, cry a river, cause your getting scammed everyday weather you know it or not anyway.
I say lets get the most for our buck. Does the dollar I give you give me what I want and expect to get. In other words who cares how Shaklee structured there business plan just as long as it is legal and I get what they tell me I will get.
So… I did find some interesting comments on how it did help some people and that is encouraging. I hope to see some more debate on Nutriferon because lets face it there is not alot out there to help with the flu besides masking the symtoms with drugs.
Sorry for a newbee rant but like I said it started out to be a interesting blog and was hoping to hear more.
thanks
Highstick
Holy Cow, I just noticed that this looks to be a dead thread after 2mo. Oh well, maybe someone has some info to add later.
Hi,
We take Nutriferon as a family and have had pretty good luck with it.
BUT….
It is so darn expensive. I do get a Shaklee discount from a friend, but our family goes through 4 bottles per month at a cost of over $120.
I think Shaklee products ARE pretty darn good, but I just hate paying this much.
Do you know if there is a similar over the counter product that has the same ingredients?
Maybe I’ll go scan the “immune boosters” at GNC and see what I find…
Thanks again!
I am a Shaklee member… occasionally a friend purchases supplements from me… I do not hard-sell, I do not do shows, I just use the products and enjoy the occasional discount when a friend asks me to get some products for them.
With that “disclosure statement”… I would like to add that my family has been helped by Nutriferon and other Shaklee supplements (garlic, alfalfa, optiflora, etc.)
I have been GREATLY helped with my hypoglycemia by using Shaklee products as well.
WE also use Shaklee cleaners, we own an AirSource, etc.
We have had less sickness and the sicknesses we have had has been shortened in length and severity by using Shaklee.
My son with asthma had only one very mild attack all winter (as opposed to the 7-10 attacks he had had every winter since he was born 11 years ago!)
My husband has no spleen, so when he becomes sick he has a hard time getting well.. nutriferon has made a big difference for him.
We have made it through strep throat and have narrowly avoided bronchitis with Shaklee.
My godchildren got throuh whooping cough with Shaklee.
My son’s warts FELL OFF after taking optiflora regularly for 12 weeks.
I could go on and on and on.
I know it is spendy (the supplements are, but actually the cleaners are cheaper than commercial chlorine-based cleaners), but they are very much worth it to us!!!! 🙂
Well i still think these sort of illnesses must be cured on natural ways. This way the organism is getting stronger and can react better to viruses. I appreciate medicines but just for limit situations.
I think the saddest element in this entire discussion about Nutriferon is that Shaklee people say the product may be able to save people from the Bird Flu by building up the immune system. This is pretty much a lie at the start.
The fact is H5N1 turns the human immune system against itself in what is called a Cytokine Storm. The body’s immune system over-reacts by increasing production of two toxic and inflammatory cytokines until they begin damaging the body’s own tissues, the lung tissue in particular.
Potentially, the healthier your immune system, the more power you are giving the virus to kill you. That is why human Bird flu deaths have a higher rate among the young.
Here is one reliable statement on the issue (from 2005), though there is much other more recent documentation:
“The noted increase in cytokine production is what distinguishes avian flu from other flu, Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, in Minneapolis said. “The hyperproduction of cytokines is very relevant. It points out that the way people actually experience severe illness with this virus is different than what we see with other influenza viruses.”
“This is basically a cytokine storm induced by this specific virus, which then leads to respiratory distress syndrome,” Osterholm said. “This also makes sense of why you tend to see a preponderance of severe illness in those who tend to be the healthiest, because the ability to increase the production of cytokines is actually higher in those who are not immune-compromised. It’s more likely in those who are otherwise healthy.***
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2005/11/11/hscout529060.html
Shakelee zealots and all the rest of the health food people are more like snake-oil salesman than anything else, in my opinion. To them, one solution (the one they’re selling) fits all. It’s their “feelings” about how something works over actual facts. Many will die if the Bird Flu goes pandemic and people listen to the insipid advice offered by such people.
This is all interesting, and I have tried some of the products, including Nutriferon. Shaklee seems to make quality supplements, but the ingredients don’t seem to follow USP standards. The supplements will enhance one’s diet, etc. And this can be a nice business if one doesn’t mind the recruitment pitches. And are the sales to mere consumers, or really only to other distributors?
If the health claims were true–the medical field and the scientific community would be telling us! And most of the Shaklee expert advisors while learned in some way, are not termed ‘mainstream,’ meaning the doctors are not medical, the pharmacists are naturopaths without DEA license, etc.
In fact,I just received an email from my Shaklee rep. who did not realize he passed on, albeit well-intentioned, a well-known hoax ‘report’ from Johns Hopkins. Now, I am a well educated person who reads and researches a lot—and I am a cancer survivor, so I was not mislead by misinformation.
I guess it comes tothis for me, if something is a fabulous gift, a cure, for mankind, the majority of the world’s poulation would know and accept it!
Thank you for this opportunity to share my opinion.
Hey Bonnie!
What a great thread! I quite disagree with you in the strongest possible terms about Nutriferon and MLM (in general), BUT I appreciate any blog that allows argument (in the true Greek style). Let’s continue it.
As a teacher, married to a teacher, with two kids in public schools, I can tell you that there is no more of an effective viral transfer station then the environment in which I work. Further, all four of us are exposed to germs and viruses all day, every day, from hundreds of none-too-clean sources!
I used to get sick (I mean really sick) every single darn year what with kids coughing and sneezing on me and wiping their hands on their dripping noses and then ALL over the classroom. Since starting a Nutriferon campaign, my wife and I just haven’t taken ill as years past.
We’d tried just about everything. NOTHING helped until Shaklee’s Nutriferon. Immune booster as claimed? You bet! I’m living proof.
The studies do show an indication of furthering interferon production. More studies are needed, but Shaklee has the right to make the claim based on the evidence. It does NOT claim to be an antiviral like Tamiflu.
Bonnie, let me now emphasize a part of the study you didn’t (same National Institutes of Health abstract you used)…
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There was a statistically significant decrease in HCV-RNA levels in patients with high viral titers after 3 months of EH0202 administration.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
What’s all that mean? That there was a DECREASE of the presence of Hep-C indicators after taking what would eventually become Nutriferon. The herbal blend did that. If that significance was a lie, it would have been exposed by now. (The scientific world is tough nuts on falsehoods.)
The MLM concept well predates the Roman Empire (although the system was not called MLM at the time). [Internet marketers call it multi-tiered affiliation now-a-days.] Back then, Person A would give Person B a small commission in barter goods for bartering successfully with Person C (using Person A’s goods). Person B then found Persons D & E to do the same for him using Person A’s goods. Beats pounding the flagstones of the marketplace all day when you have more important things to do. Folks weren’t stupid back then, they just didn’t have the techo-gadgets and sophisticated economic systems we have. (BTW, I don’t recall the preRomans, or the Romans for that matter, ever running out of customers and business partners!)
Next point. The MLM concept works very well for people who are people persons and work their business. One finds a heck of a lot of customers while looking for the ‘three to find three’. In addition, although in mathematical theory, one MIGHT eventually run out of persons IF everyone was involved with the 3-on-3 system (that is not a given), in reality, such a situation has never existed due to diverging interests and increasing populations. Mathematically, you MIGHT reach that point of no more prospects sometime in the year 2525 or beyond (personally, I’m more worried about many other things then if a person MIGHT run out of steam in 500+ years).
Practically speaking, there is a reason why criminals have copied and corrupted the multilevel concept… because it works. It produces income. They devised a way to make it do so in a much shorter time frame and unethical manner. That they did so is a testimony to the system and a mark upon their black hearts for cheating people. Do we blame Ford or GMC for drunk drivers? Is the stop sign (or the government that placed it) hauled into court because a person ‘ran’ it and caused an accident or death? Is the blogger or blog held accountable because a reader so disagreed with a blogmaster’s statements that they had a heart attack or stroke? Don’t blame the very productive MLM system because someone has thought of a way to use it illegally.
=======================================
To Mariesail:
Shaklee’s Scientific Advisory Board
Yasuhiko Kojima, M.D.
Jeffrey Blumberg, Ph.D.
Peter Sacks, M.D.
Chen Chunming, M.D.
Hmmmmmmm. 3 MDs and a Tufts University professor. Guess you’re just wrong on that one, eh? Yikes!
=======================================
To Wango:
If Nutriferon boosts the IS (as indicated by the research), and if the IS is elevated when needed, then the liklihood of overcoming an infection with more rapid recovery seems great. That a particular virus MIGHT use that to its advantage does not negate the original supposition that boosted levels of interferon is generally a good thing because of the effects of the heightened levels.
Fact is, only one of the “Shaklee people” (Jane) stated “Another option, is to boost your own immune system naturally.” Jane then went on to say that she’s “…taking preventive measures to protect [her] family…” Funny, I didn’t read anywhere in her post that Nutriferon defeated the Bird Flu, merely that she was taking a specific course of action to reduce possible infection by increasing interferon production. So what say you quit dumping on “Shaklee people” over something that was NOT said.
Mucho thanks to you, Bonnie, even though we disagee!
Brian
–
This is all interesting and a good dialogue!
The esteemed doctors are honorary advisors/experts and possibly stakeholders—they have nothing professional published (that I’ve seen) in academia re: Shaklee products or claims, or Shaklee’s application of Nutriferon formula. They just say they think company is good. Dr. Kojima co-created Interferon, a controlled medicine (see Wikipedia) used in massive doses and combinations—and VERY carefully, and later developed the natural formula to allegedly stimulate the body’s very small interferon production (formula later adapted to Nutriferon) for immunosuppression to fight issues, but his original research doesn’t show the results Shaklee implies implicitly—he applied it more to hormonal issues. So I’d like to see some literature there.
I am a cancer patient, treated by an international network of oncologists—and no one has pointed me towards Nutriferon, evon though natural interferon production is suppressed by chemotherapy. In fact, while undergoing procedures one avoids extra vitamins/minerals,etc. because there is not a lot of academic research proving the good or bad additional supplements. All can be good or bad, depending, and can interfere. And look at the recent findings to the negative of the academic studies (outside USA, but in the journals) re: added antioxidants.
No NIH studies, clinical trials, USDA research subjected to peer evaluation re: Shaklee or interferon production boosting in one’s body. Why doesn’t academia refer to what the company published (see Web link below)?
Why no voluntary USP formularies (to certify ingredients and production)? Or rigorous Dietary Supplement Act findings? Shaklee merely certifies ingreients are safe & pure as individual ingerdients and their processing meets basic standards. So is Shaklee better than other companies? It’s probably good, as thes things go in 2007. It’s claims? Well? The high costs really are to cover the incomes of the various levels of distributors, so a simple consumer really does pay a high markup. Product cost to produce product+company profit/overhead+generated incomes down the MLM line=Retail cost of Shaklee products.
I found research at this Web site: http://www.naturalinterferon.com/ a Shaklee cite for sharing research
Plus this: http://www.niaid.nih.gov/final/immun/immun.htm, which does not discuss Nutriferon.
Here are some financial & corporate facts prior to RHJI ownership of the global company:
http://www.answers.com/topic/shaklee-corporation?cat=biz-fin
F. Shaklee family sold Shaklee to Yamanouchi Pharma/Consumer, which sold Shaklee Global Group to
RHJInternational-Ripplewood Holdings and Activated Holdings HQ Belgium & Japan, and includes Barnett family as part of the corporate configuration for industrial partnership to own 80% of Shaklee USA.
I want the best for my dollar–this is all my opinion and research, which I love to do; I have the time to keep my mind going!
I suppose I have even greater concerns after reading recent posts. It’s like Shakelee is more of a cult than a company. There are true believers or unbelievers, but not enough factual evidence about the products themselves to influence objective persons.
Certainly I am not dumping on Shaklee, I’m simply saying, “The Emperor is not wearing clothes.”
Enjoy your vitamin fantasies if they get you through the night, but don’t expect cures from this type of stuff. If you feel better, it’s likely a Placebo Effect. You can get the same rush from a $3 bottle of mutivitamins from Wal-Mart if you really put your mind behind it.
This is the patent cited on the Nutriferon bottle. ‘Nuff said.
United States Patent 6,811,796
Yoshida November 2, 2004
——————————————————————————–
Preventive or therapeutic agent for pollen allergy, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, asthma or urticaria, or health food for prevention or improvement or reduction of symptoms thereof
Abstract
A method for prevention or therapy of pollen allergy, allergic rhinitis, atopic dermatitis, asthma or urticaria by administration of two kinds of crude drugs–seeds of Cucurbita moschata and flowers of Carthamus tinctorius–and at least one crude drug selected from Plantago asiatica, Lonicera japonica, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Coix lachrymal-jobi var. ma-yuen, Zingiber officinale, Curcuma longa, Curcuma zedoaria and Artemisia argyi to a patient; and a health food for prevention, or improvement, or reduction of these symptoms containing the above substances.
——————————————————————————–
Inventors: Yoshida; Satoshi (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: Matsuura Yakugyo Co., Ltd. (JP)
Appl. No.: 10/126,779
Filed: April 22, 2002
——————————————————————————–
Current U.S. Class: 424/738 ; 424/439; 424/758; 424/764; 424/776; 424/778; 514/826
Current International Class: A01N 65/00 (20060101); A23L 1/30 (20060101); A61P 11/00 (20060101); A61P 11/02 (20060101); A61P 37/00 (20060101); A61P 37/08 (20060101); A61P 11/06 (20060101); A61P 17/00 (20060101); A01N 065/00 ()
Field of Search: 424/738,758,439,776,778,764,757,750,740 514/826,861,863
——————————————————————————–
I am not a Shaklee distributor. My husband was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. He is doing well and besides the conventional treatment we took an aggressive approach nutritionally to keep his system built up during his radiation and chemo treatments. His tumor is shrinking and he has been able to work every third week while on treatment. After his last chemo his platelet count was starting to get low which is normal under the circumstances. I was handed a bottle of NutriFeron and started him on it right away and he was on it for a month before his next chemo treatment. His platelet count went up from 92,000 to 126,000 when it normally goes down and usually patients have to stop treatment.
I also researched the man who discovered interferon and how it works in the body. He also worked to put together a natural remedy to stimulate the body to create its own interferon for the immune system.
NutriFeron is expensive. Cancer is more expensive. Even with insurance coverage we have paid out almost $10,000 out of our assests. The shot a patient gets after a chemo session is a $6,000 shot of which we pay $1,000.
So do your research and get your fruits and veggies in order for your health. Other excellent nutrients we have added to our diets since the onset of cancer is wheat grass and flax oil.
Thank you,
Thanks for all of the comments. I truly enjoy the dialogue. Having an honest discussion and civil debate is helpful to us all.
I signed up with Shaklee about a month ago. I’m doing my own “research” before I tell anyone anything about the products.
I am taking Nutrifuron along with other supplements, but I will not suggest them to my customers until I see more scientific evidence to support Shaklee’s claims. (I’m a skeptic, by nature, but if I believe in something I will support it.) I’ve never really been a salesman because as many have stated: “Prove your product is better than the others.” I don’t care if it is cars, appliances, etc. I’ve sold one thing my whole adult life and that is education. I’m a teacher, so I guess I am a salesman each and every day. I sell my students on the benefits of an education. But, that education is based on learning and examining with an open mind, not one that can be led anywhere. Most stories have, not only two sides, but many.
I can’t say if Shaklee is the “perfect product” for everyone, but I have researched their marketing plan and I agree with it. Yes, I plan to see if others wish to join, but my biggest emphasis is a quality product for my customers. Maybe my business will not grow like others, but I will feel good about my company. That is the most important thing to me.
I will keep looking for research based on all of Shaklee’s claims whether it supports or doesn’t the claims. I’m open to all viewpoints and interpretations. In the end, I have to become educated and then make my decisions. This is what I try to teach to my students every day.
Education is expensive, but “Ignorance” costs a lot more. If anyone can direct me to any other information about Nutrifuron I would greatly appreciate it.
Once again. Thank you for this forum. It has been very informative and stimulating.
Bonnie you are awesome!
When I clicked the link to find out what supports your claim that Shaklee produces more failures than successes, I got a 404-File Not Found error. Please provide your data. I do not sell Shaklee but I have used their products for 35 years with sufficient success.
I stumbled upon this site about an hour ago; when I should have been sleeping.
Okay, disclaimer, but modified: I think I’m still a Shaklee distributor. I was more active a few years ago, there were some major changes in my life, and I had to rearrange some priorities.
That said, after reading most of the above posts, I have several thoughts on different comments, and it’s hard to know where to begin.
Regarding Shaklee as “basic,” or “standard,” my research led me to conclude they are way beyond that!
Biased, Shaklee users and business people may be, but they are reasonably biased, not ignorantly biased, or uninformed, regarding the products and business as their critics appear to be!
Are all those posting in this thread aware that Shaklee has had over 70 articles published in scientific and medical peer review journals? And do all the posters here know what an accomplishment that is?
Do you know how many U.S. Olympic medalists have used Shaklee for their supplementation program?
Do you know that medical doctors in the U.S. are not legally permitted to prescribe food supplements as a cure for any illness other than a deficiency in that particular supplement? A doctor is not going to prescribe iron supplements for a patient unless he has blood work that shows that patient has an iron deficiency. INSURANCE companies are not paying people to take food supplements; drugs, yes. By the way, when you pay for a drug perscription, do you ever think that part of the profits to that drug company go to the lobbyists they send to Washington? Now how cheap are your perscriptions?
It is NOT true that if a product was a great gift for mankind that the world, or even a large part of it, would necessarily know it and accept it.
CASE in POINT
There are many skin care products which claim to have C and E in them to help with anti-aging, and it may be true that their product contains some. However, vitamins C and E are very unstable and easily damaged by light and air. It was not possible until recently for those nutrients to be significantly effective when applied to the skin. How many other companies have since caught up with the Shaklee technology, I do not know, but I know Shaklee has several patents on their skin care line, Enfuselle.
Just after they introduced this product, Paula Begoun released her new book in which a university (Tufts, I think) dermatology researcher was quoted explaining why vitamins C and E are not really effective (due to being unstable). He goes on to say, that if that problem is solved, we should all go out and buy stock in the company which produces the product because it would be a miracle product!
I wrote Paula Begoun and told her about the new Shaklee “miracle” product. She phoned me! She asked for the ingredients. I sent her empty boxes which listed all the ingredients, but it is not just the ingredients that make Shaklee’s skin care so good. It’s the patented process they developed which successfully delivers the potent vitamin C and E to the skin, and is received by the cells; not activated until it is applied to the skin.
She did not reply to me ever, and when I checked her website I did not see the Shaklee Enfuselle products listed in any of her reviews. Not surprising, since she markets her own line of skin care….This is not to say she does not have some worthwhile information at her website.
Other companies? Well, I know of one, supplement “company,” or rather supplier, which is promoted by an M.D., and claims the women’s multiple supplement is especially designed to meet a woman’s needs…There were no “distributors” for me to contact; I wrote directly to the doctor, a woman, who also had a paperback published about help for menopausal women, and asked why the B vitamins in that supplement were so extremely high, (6666% of the DV, or RDA, for one of them) and yet the biotin was 10% of the RDA? REALLY, what would be the reason for such a formula? Well, I guess she was too busy to respond; I never heard from her.
However, are the posters here aware of what a good B formula is? Do you know that if those B vitamins are not within certain ratios, the body kicks them all out? And do you know that some B vitamins actually cost more to put into a supplement than some others? Now which company has an expensive supplement?
Expensive, is a product you pay for which doesn’t deliver what you were promised it would. And I must think, that by expensive, a critic would be comparing the Shaklee products to some other product of like kind, otherwise what kind of meaning would that have? Please don’t compare Shaklee supplements with other supplements which are not bioavailable nor do they even break down in water in 30 minutes, which is the industry standard for testing whether that supplement is going to be used by your body or just eliminated by your body.
For people who have found many of the Shaklee products to be truly life saving, these are not “expensive” (because as noted above, that implies an apples and apples comparison….) but rather these were products which had VALUE for them.
BTW, my family was introduced to Shaklee by our family internist, who has a very successful and still growing practice. At that time his family had used the products for about 20 years. They were reluctant to get involved with Shaklee, as they finally did, because they had been so burned by another shoddy, a purportedly MLM company, before that.
There are MANY M.D.s, along with dentists, nurses, nutritionists, and other well respected health care professionals who use, promote and sell Shaklee. Not the Shaklee Corporation, but other publications, and these professionals themselves, make literature and tapes available.
It so happens my excellent acupuncturist is not one of them! He sells a different line. I did compare that multiple’s ingredients and formula to Shaklee’s, and while it looked to be very good, it COST TWICE AS MUCH!
BTW, I’ve worked in retail. Do you have any idea what the mark up is on the other things you buy? Things which for the most part add no health benefit to your life?
If you choose to supplement, and shop for a product, beware, because with most of those supplements on the market, you don’t know where the ingredients came from! You don’t know what pesticides are on them, and the FDA does not regulate that for you! Therefore, based on my research, with PERHAPS a few exceptions, all the other supplement products EXCEPT for Shaklee, are the snake oil products. When you use their products, you are the guina pig, and maybe in a few months or years there will be a recall: such and such recalled, China had an export product used in the popular supplement blah blah blah. Well, I won’t hear that from Shaklee, because they spent millions testing their ingredients AND their products before they sold it to me; I wasn’t a guina pig for them!
BTW are all the posters aware: if you purchase ANY product from Shaklee, even if you use all of it and have nothing left but the empty package, and are not happy with it for ANY reason, they will refund all of what you paid for the product. This does not come out of the pocket of the distributors; this comes directly from the Shaklee Corporation!
So, backed with the information that we as Shaklee informants have, knowing Shaklee has safe products, we are able to offer to people who WANT to try a product, they have nothing to lose, because they can get all their money back they paid for the product. Do you think GNC makes that offer?
People who have diseases, or chronic conditions, and are looking for help they can’t find in drug treatments, or want something safe, should always present the product they want to try to their physician who is treating them. For instance some nutrients make some cancers worse! Some help.
Well, for better or worse, there is my two cents in response to some of the postings here.
The best of health to every one of you!
I’m sorry, but so you know anything about how the immune system actually works? If you did, you would realize that Interferon is essential in yes, recognizing when we have things that need to be fought off. Let me try and break it down for you. You can’t just say, oh there are plants in here so its not effective. you need to look at the molecular structure of each of the ingredients, assess how it is broken down by the body in the intestines and then absorbed through the omentum into the blood stream. Also, did you ever think to ask a bout the correlation between these ingredients and the regulation of beta- amyloid proteins through neprilysin? I think you need to uderstand more of the science because if you dont know what these things are then obviously you dont know what you’re talking about.
If the FDA decides to crack down on supplement companies, where once & for all they would support the claims of natural supplements, when the dust & smoke would clear, Shaklee would be one of the only companies still standing. The FDA has always regarded Shaklee as the ‘cadillac’ of the supplement industry. When several of their officials visited the production facility of Shaklee nearly ten years, they came out saying that ‘Shaklee exceeds being the cadillac of the supplement industry’. People can say what they want, but the prove is in the health of those who are/have been multiple users of Shaklee products. Dr. Forrest Shaklee’s vision for global health/wellness is still very much alive today.
Bobb Dee, could you provide a link for the statement that “Shaklee exceeds being the cadillac of the supplement industry”?
When I search the FDA site for the term “Shaklee”, I get approximately 475 hits, but only two containing the term “Cadillac”, and those concern a company called “Cadillac Plastic.”
Some of the hits include correspondence in which the FDA tells Shaklee representatives that if Shaklee continues to make “implied disease claims” regarding Shaklee supplements, then Shaklee supplements will be subject to regulation under the drug provisions of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. An example of this kind of correspondence is here.
I’d like to repeat that I regularly consume supplements like Vitamins C and B and Glucosamine, etc., but they are inexpensive supplements found in any pharmacy.
I find it difficult, however, to swallow some of the unproven claims companies like Shaklee make in order to sell very expensive supplements that can only be purchased through their MLM company.
I am not attacking the sincere people who believe what Shaklee has told them. Instead, I criticize zealots like the woman who came to my site with the bogus claim that Shaklee could protect her customers from the Bird Flu.
Right now she’s probably telling her friends and neighbors that her expensive vitamins will protect them from the Swine Flu, too.
Wow! I’ve been jogging for over 5 years now, and my immune system is so strong. My husband and family can get a terrible flu, and I’m still feeling okay! I haven’t have a cold in years and I feel great!
All I need is some good shoes for about $50 a year (that’s a lot cheaper than Nutriferon).
A friend was trying to get me involved on Shaklee, and doing my research I came into this site.
I’m just glad she can’t brainwash me with the idea that some miracle pill is going to make me feel better!!!!!
I wish the best for everybody!
The women and men who are Hepatitis C and cancer survivors after having taken Shaklee Nutrition and Nutriferon would be happy to share their own life experiences. If you have not used these products, I would be careful with the words. How much is your life worth if M.D. Anderson dismisses you to go home and prepare for your funeral. $50 a bottle for Nutriferon is cheap compared to the funerals of several of my customers who are still living and breathing in good health. My health was restored 25 years ago due to Shaklee Nutrition. I owe my life and my health to Shaklee. Thousands can say that in all honesty but we cannot say that the products will cure anything. Dr. Shaklee just said take the nutrition and the body will use it to restore healthy cells. There is a new study recently published that Nutriferon will raise killer cells in the body that will attack and destroy viruses. Good enough for me and thousands of very happy and healthy Shaklee distributors.
I feel very bad for those who do not have Shaklee in their lives, particularly those like myself in their 70’s and up who have to depend on the medical profession and take drugs. I am drug free, thankfully! And still going strong!
Hi Bonnie,
Wow! What an experience! I stumbled upon your site while Binging Dr. Kojima and have read through most of the posts here which is something I would normally never have the time to do but my boys and husband are on a Daddy/son campout so it’s just me and the computer tonight.
I do have one little one with me (my sweet little baby boy) that must know that Daddy and brothers are gone because he has awakened three times since I’ve been reading these posts so I’ll try to get this in before he calls out for me again.
I agree with you that the clinicals and studies referred to should speak directly to and about the purpose stated on the bottle. I mean, what does menstration have to do with boosting the immune system?
Well, anyway, here is something that a friend of mine sent to me about a month ago. It was from someone who attended Shaklee’s annual conference. It doesn’t say much but you seem to be able to follow up on and properly search out information on all the things people have posted on here. So if you are able to find anything further on the study mentioned in the link my friend sent me, I’d like to see it.
The study I am referring to is the third one mentioned by the sender of the original email. It has to do with the Nutriferon and viral activity.
Like I said, it doesn’t say much. It’s only a paragraph, but if you are able to find out more about the study and what was actually found or proven, then I sure would like to see it.
I’m not very computer savvy. I’m lucky to get into my email everyday so I don’t know if I am doing this properly but here’s the link I was given:
http://www.secure-session.com/files/4/4932/1500057488/BCB4282A41/i/3%20study%20summary.doc
If that doesn’t work, then I guess I could forward you the email I received with the link in it. I just copied the address of the page that comes up after clicking on the link given to me in the email from my friend.
Thanks for all you’ve done on this topic thus far. You’re a trooper!
Lynne
Lynne, please forgive the delayed response. I was waiting for a response from Dr. Moscona and got caught up in other concerns.
The document you cite above contains the following quote:
I found several Shaklee sites quoting this same paragraph.
I searched for research by Dr. Ann Moscona— who is definitely a prominent virologist, featured on TV news shows and in medical journals. I specifically looked for research of hers containing the phrase “Human Airway Epithelial Model” but couldn’t find anything (except Shaklee sites citing that term).
I then searched for research by Dr. Moscona containing the word “Nutriferon” — but again, I found nothing.
In searching for “interferon” and “Shaklee” I did find an article by Dr. Moscona entitled: “Global Transmission of Oseltamivir-Resistant Influenza“. It was published in the New England Journal of Medicine 9 March 2009.
The name “Shaklee” is used once in the article, at the end in a note describing Dr. Moscona’s potential conflicts of interest regarding the article. The note states that she serves on advisory boards and receives consulting and lecture fees from various pharmaceutical companies, as well as grant support from Shaklee and NexBio. (Nothing wrong with that.)
Interferon is mentioned once in the article, in this sentence:
Hardly the glowing endorsement trumpeted in the Word document.
There many be another research study out there that I couldn’t find, something with the results of that investigation of “other promising antiviral avenues”, but until somebody points it out to me I’ll have to assume this was the study referred to in the Word document.
But just in case, I emailed Dr. Moscona on September 12, 2009, to ask if the quote from the Word document was an accurate summary of her research. As of today, I’ve gotten no response.
My opinion: unless someone can find the original research stating that Nutriferon really was “found to be a potent up-regulator of Natural Killer Cells”, I’ll have to believe that the statements in the Word document are inaccurate and misleading, meant to sell more Nutriferon.
I just wanted to clarify from the original comment…that the member fee is 19.95 for a lifetime not for a year.
HELLOOOO… QUIT ARGUING ABOUT THE MLM ETC. PLEASE!!! HAS ANYONE OUT THERE WITH HEPATITIS C TRIED THE NUTRIFERON AND SEEM GOOD RESULTS? NOT JUST A DECREASE IN MCV RNA SINCE THAT IS VARIABLE. HOW ABOUT IT— ANYONE READY TO GIVE ME ANY GOOD NEWS? I’D SURE APPRECIATE IT!!! I WAS DIAGNOSED IN 1995, WITH CHRONIC HEP. C UNTIL THIS YEAR I AM HAVING SYMPTOMS SHOWING AN INCREASE IN THE ACTIVITY. MY PLATELETS, WBC’S ETC. LOW AND FIBRO-SPECT OF 86. I TRIED THE MEDICAL RECOMMENDATION OF INTERFERON/RIBAVIRIN THERAPY AND WAS VERY VERY ILL, AFTER 3 WEEKS OF 104 TEMP AND EVERY INCH OF MY BODY ITCHING AND HURTING I QUIT. DR. EVEN AGREED I SHOULD.THAT WAS 10 YEARS AGO, NOW ALL OF A SUDDEN THEY WANT ME TO TRY AGAIN. I SAY NO.
ANYONE OUT THERE WITH ANY TESTIMONIALS?