Thanks for the tip, Paul Eilers…
From the Wall Street Journal yesterday, July 6:
“The Texas attorney general has asked a state court to bar Mannatech Inc. from allegedly illegal sales and marketing practices, saying the dietary supplement seller is falsely claiming its products cure, mitigate, treat or prevent diseases such as cancer, autism and Down’s syndrome, in violation of state and federal laws.”
In his news release, the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, stated:
“Texans will not tolerate illegal marketing schemes that prey upon the sick and unsuspecting,” Mr. Abbott said… “The Office of the Attorney General seeks to shut down an elaborate scheme to defraud innocent consumers across the nation.”
Here’s the PDF of the WSJ piece in case…
This is not about the quality of the products. Nor is it about what the products may have done for people. This is about people making promises. Claims. The curse of our industry.
Where is a company with good products, where reps do not make claims and promises to sell their products?
And it’s not just product claims that get everyone in trouble. Money claims are just as poisonous to our health. Think what’s happening with other companies right now.
No promises. No problems.
—
Bargain Hunters: The most popular program I ever created has been selling for $117 for almost two years. It’s available now for $49. 5 CD set: “100 Customers 100 days (3 Scripts)” and the book, “If My Product’s So Great, How Come I Can’t Sell It?” Go here . Second item down on left.
You don’t get it, Kim. The stuff WORKS. People get excited. They want to see others get well, like what happened for them, remember? Not claims. Stories. Mine is about bursitis. GONE. My daughter’s is about cervial cancer. GONE. My wife’s is about a list so long, I won’t bother.
DO YOU KNOW ANYBODY WHO MIGHT WANT TO KNOW ABOUT PRODUCTS LIKE THESE?
The Texas AG is going to be embarrassed, just like ABC.
Say why are you anonymous?
I don’t get it, huh?
What I know is that it doesn’t matter what a product has done for someone. You cannot suggest it will do the same for someone else.
Bodies are different. One can never know for sure what it will do for someone else.
Talking about curing cancer, even if you think it happened, is always a no no because it suggests that a nutritional supplement cures cancer. While nutritional supplements may help a body heal itself sometimes, even surgery and drugs have big disclaimers on them, and they’re ALLOWED to make such claims.
You may insist and keep saying what you want. Free country. But what if, because of it, your company isn’t around to continue helping people – because it’s been shut down for making claims?
absolutely correct kim. yes products in mlm rock they truly do and yes they can do amazing things to a individual dependant on each persons circumstance.
We as a collective in this industry no matter how excited we get no matter how much weight we have lost or how much better our skin nails and hair look or how the neighbours dog has no more pain in it kidneys we need to keep the industry safe and long term. use of testimonials has always been a fine line between a kick in the back side and a good thriving business.
And no im not the previous anon poster…
Even if we do tell our stories of what the products do for us it should not create false hope. That is cruel I say………..
My products worked for my sister in keeping her on her feet during her cancer treatment. However I cannot claim that my product is a solution for all. When I do tell ‘life or death’ stories like these I always add ‘I do not know if it will work for you or not…’
It is only fair to the other person.
We are all looking for miracle potions and lotion. Some work for some and some don’t.
I was looking for glyconutrients (Mannatech not in South Africa) for my sister but as a consumer will not choose any Mannatech products due to this negative publicity.
Think about how your story kills your company and if that is fair to the consumer and the company you represent.
Let’s play fair………
My product is great for me gave me good health for years now, but for you I don’t know want to try? What if it does?
Tilly
I’m with you, Kim – excellent post.
What we’re talking about here is called “practicing medicine without a license” – definitely frowned upon. In fact, it’s against the law.
Nancy
It IS illegal to make these claims. It can be construed as practicing medicine without a license.
Sharing a personal product experience or that of someone you know is QUITE different than telling someone their cancer will be cured.
Besides, it’s not the product that does the healing, it’s the body.
I think that there is no doubt that the Mannatech debacle will reflect badly on network marketing making it necessary for us to continue to explain where we’re coming from. I would never want to see myself in this situation and would not want anything I said or did to put my company in an unfavorable light. So…
What lesson can we take away from this story? We should be advised that our words are powerful, that we can and will be held accountable for the way we use them, that we can hurt our fellow marketers and our way of life, and that our customers need to be able to trust us above all else.
Kim doesn’t get it? Please, she gets it better than anyone in the biz. Let’s not insult her because she speaks the nasty truth of this industry.
I have been a Mannatecher for 12 years. I wouldn’t live without the products, and neither would my family. Our health and wealth blessings are beyond measure. BUT, and it’s a big BUT … there are people out there who want this company shut down in a big way.
We have to live by the rules, even if they stink. Do I feel it’s right that a pharmaceutical company can produce a poison and call it a cure? No. Do I think the entire healthcare industry, who is run by Big Pharma, cares one iota about improving health over making money? No. Do I want to keep Mannatech around for generations to come for those who need it. You bet.
So everyone needs to follow the rules, whether they make sense or not. Mannatech will weather this storm as they’ve done so many before. But they are in the limelight now (just as we predicted a dozen years ago), so the attackers are getting stronger, louder and more aggressive … and they have the power. Even more reason to be ever-so-vigilant to play within the boundaries of the law.
Please, use this example as one to teach your people to play the game as we need to at this point. The stakes are SO very high. I can’t imagine a world without Mannatech products, and there are a million ways to get the message across without crossing these boundaries. Hmmmm … maybe take a KK course or two and you’l get creative about working the game.
Thanks for bringing it up, Kim … everyone in the industry needs your advice, especially now.
Thank you.
Personally, I like to say
TRY IT – YOU MIGHT LIKE IT 🙂
The biggest distributors I know (in pay checks, not weight) say that.
Suggesting some product will “cure” some disease is illegal. It is “practicing medicine without a license”.
The word “cure” is a word that can only be used by licensed professionals.
Who can say why some people get well, and some don’t.
We can sell plenty of nutritionals WITHOUT making illegal product claims.
Grocery stores do…. they sell lots of food without claiming their products will “save lives, cure diseases, make you rich by referring other customers, etc, etc.”
Crossing legal lines of limitations is not a very wise idea. Nor is it necessary.
Pat Crosby
http://NetworkMarketingQueenDiary.blogspot.com
Although Mannatech has dug its own grave, I wonder what benefit the general public will be screwed out of this time by the feds?
It doesn’t seem to matter if the products benefit anyone. The lawsuit was also trying to stop nonprofit supply of the nutrients as if it was infering danger to the general public.
The FDA will only approve of a supplement that makes you involuntarily crap your pants and has an abysmal “5-6 lbs weightloss over 6 months” (Alli). This product approval is a shinning example that shoes that the FDA is not interested in benefit to the public. All the FDA does is look for the next vulnerable company they can justify thier existance with.
To all Mannatech reps: Clamp it down now! Make compliance part of your volcabulary. Learn what phrases the FDA is making a living off of and stop using them.
Once the feds have made it appear that they have stopped you from making “false claims”, they will go attack something else.
One year SEASILVER another year MANNATECH… and the beat goes on.If Success leaves clues doesn’t it make sense that Failure leaves clues also? Be aware that MLM Companies all have in common (TOP QUALITY products,CHARITY/KIDS fundraising,MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS reimbursed endorsements, LAB RESULTS as specified up front etc.) a Blueprint for Success if followed. The unwritten ,unspoken and hushed up RULE is to turn the Distributors loose to do/say/print/promise anything and everything to everyone until the Company reaches $200 Million in sales annually or until we receive a “certified letter” from the FDA.Then we terminate a few Distributors as sacrificial lambs. At a few Home Offices the CEOs become emboldened (almost drunk) with power and foolishly attempt to fight the UNBEATABLE!
I saw the ABC 20/20 investigation on Mannatech a few weeks ago. So many people are ignorant. If there was an outright proven cure for cancer, and other such diseases, do you think it would only be available through an MLM or Network Marketing business? It would be MAJOR news, world wide. Not hyped in some local business meeting.
Even doctors are leery when it comes to prescription drugs and subscribing them. The good doctors, anyway. Because they are never 100% sure how the drugs will react with a particular biochemistry. Many times, we are a genie pig, an experiment. People often die from prescription drug use, because a doctor did not know how the drug would react in a patient’s body. But then you get to the risk – reward factor. The doctor believes that the risk is worth taking, because of the reward, the patient becoming ‘healthy’.
I work for a competitior nutritional products MLM. When we give testimonies, personal or about someone we know, we follow up by saying “we can’t say that we heal, cure, treat or diagnose”. How simple is that to add when you’re speaking to someone about your products? If all distributors said that, no one’s reputation would be soiled. Just my two cents. Take care everyone!
Monica
Not sure exactly what I want/need to say but first I am a Mannatech Associate who has enjoyed the products for about 5 years. I’v also taken the 3 Scripts class and If my Product’s do great, why can’t I sell it?, How to recruit Real Estate people, and How to write news ads. Kim has great educational stuff. I’m not quite sure why Kim feels it is necessary to post the bad press about Mannatech, Usana, or whatever company. Presumably we can all read newspapers. Why not stick to the great teaching of the positive things that we all need to do to promote our great products?
Is it just me, or is it always the SAME companies who get in trouble and share the negative lime light?
Question is, why is that?
How many nutritional network marketing companies are there? Why do you never hear anything negative about them? They must be doing something right. Could it be, that they are training their distributors better in what to say and what not to say? Could it be that at the management level they are a bit more cautious as well?
In any case, I think it is the responsibility of the sponsor to make his/her new recruit aware of the rules of the game…and keep reminding them every once in a while…to avoid trouble. The field drives the company. The field generates growth and it is also often the field where trouble brews.
Let’s all come together and help protect our industry.
Ilka ;o)
Attorney Generals. Hmmm. If my memory is correct wasn’t it the AG’s office, in another state, that decades ago tried to close Amway stating its model of sales was illegal? And, if I remember correctly, after years of bad press for “Scamway” the AG LOST. But, of course, that fact did not hit front page. But their win made it possible for all legal MLM companies to operate to this day.
You are correct, Kim, that people, in their enthusiasm, say too much.
You asked a question: “Where is a company with good products, where reps do not make claims and promises to sell their products?” I could rephrase that to “Where is a Used Car Dealership where salespeople do not lie?” The answer to both questions is the same. Nowhere. And everywhere.
I’ve been with Mannatech for over 10 years now and have seen many in the corporate office and in the field come and go. I’ve been to meetings where I was proud of the leaders and what was said at that meetings. I have also been at a meeting where I saw many rules broken or bent & I was angered. (That associate, I am pleased to say, is no longer with our company. He’s off hocking other stuff for another company.)
During my 10+ years I’ve become more and more impressed with the integrity of the management and most of the working associates. I have also become more and more impressed with the science (you know, the techno babble!) behind the products giving them huge credibility and an explanation as to why they are needed.
I have also become very impressed with the pharmaceutical companies, although not always a positive impression. I am grateful for many of their drugs because they have saved many, many lives. But I am not at all pleased with the power they have and assumed.
Where does this power come from? Greed. There is a proverb in an ancient book that says that the love of money is the root of all evil. The desire for more and more money (greed & power) is what makes many associates in all MLM’s cross the line. They will say and do almost anything to get more money.
Let’s look at one of the charges: “…seller is falsely claiming its products cure….” Steve Plog wrote it best when he said the following:
“The FDA Regulations on Cures, Treatments and Healing.
Can Medical Nutrient Therapy from plants, fruits, vegetable and herb supplements with phytonutrients, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, CoQ10 and all botanicals have any effect on treating, curing or healing ADD, ADHD, OCD, ODD, PDD, Depression, Autism, Bi-polar or Asperger’s Syndrome?
The correct answer is, “We’re not allowed to say.” Answering that question truthfully is like insider trading, you know what’s going to happen, you just can’t tell anyone according to the FDA regulations. Is that true? Here are the facts, make up your own mind.
From Webster’s Dictionary
scur-vy
Pathology. A disease marked by swollen and bleeding gums, livid spots on the skin, prostration, etc., due to a diet lacking in vitamin C.
de-hy-dra-tion
An abnormal loss of water from the body, esp. from illness or physical exertion.
al-oe ver-a
The mucilaginous juice or gel obtained from the leaves of this plant, widely used as a laxative and in cosmetic and pharmaceutical preparations for its soothing and healing properties.
Can you publicly say that water cures dehydration? No, not according to the FDA. Any idiot who’s ever sat out in the hot sun all day without water can tell you a cold drink sure feels like it cured dehydration. But the FDA says it hasn’t been proven. None of the above symptoms have gone through proper FDA testing.
Can you claim that vitamin C from a lime cures scurvy? No. No? Since the 1400’s when England ruled the high seas, it was a State secret that limes cured and prevented scurvy. Ships with limes in the food came back with zero sailors infected with scurvy. That’s why sailors from England still until today are called Limys. So if we’ve known this fact for 600 years, why can’t we say it? The FDA says you can’t make that medical claim, it has yet to be proven.
Can you say that Aloe Vera can be used as a treatment for constipation or a cure for cuts and healing sunburns? No. No! Webster’s says it does, right? For 5,000 years everyone on planet earth has known Aloe Vera works great on cuts and sunburns. In fact, nobody disputes it. Why can’t we say it? Because the FDA says it hasn’t been proven.”
And why is that? There is no money (for the pharmaceutical companies, et al) in cures, only in treatment. (Anyone wishing his whole article please contact me with your email address and I will gladly send it to you. He is not talking about Mannatech or any other company but FDA vs logic….)
20/20 did an “exposé” on Mannatech last month. It aired parts of an interview with the CEO – edited to prove their points. However when one watches the whole interview (http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=48B9EDFFD7864260) we come away realising that 20/20 had an agenda and was determined to twist everything to “prove” their points.
Look, everyone, our bodies are so starved for nutrition that now matter what you add to your diet your body will say “YES, thank you”. Our diets are bad and that makes more ‘fodder’ for the pharmaceutical companies to come up with more diseases to ‘cure’. Much of what I have written could be said for any other nutritional company. I just happen to be with Mannatech and, of course, feel it is the best in what it does. Will all this negative press hurt us? Probably – for the short term at least. Will we survive? That is my prayer and hope. Will good come out of this? That is the desire & wish. Maybe the FDA will have its hands rapped and the DSHEA law will be able to do and say what it intended in 1994 when it was passed.
Kim, I am curious: Did you put in any of your blogs the news that Forbes has Mannatech as one of the top 5 small businesses for 2006 (2006 October 30 issue)? I don’t think I received your blogs ‘back then’. That is positive news and I hope you are as quick to report that type of news about the different companies as you are to post the negative press (USANA, et al) – and in the same ‘I told you so’ tone.
Peggy – Thanks for your thoughtful reply.
Do I post good news here? Well, I’ve been posting the top 50 Network Marketing companies, and the Top 40 Startups here, each week, for over a year.
Mannatech has always been on the Top 50 list. So yes.
As to top companies as they appear in various surveys, companies do a pretty good job of promoting that themselves.
As someone who cares about the industry, I make it a point to post negative news WHEN and ONLY when it is a problem we can easily prevent. In this case, STOP making promises that no one can keep.
That includes medical claims, of course.
Same with USANA. They need to stop promoting the big financial opportunity when we know 95% of people quit, and when most in the business don’t make enough to cover their minimum monthly purchase requirement, as reported in USANA’s (and probably all other companies’) case.
Most people stay with it not for the money, but because they are bargain hunters and belongers.
They don’t promote that, even though those folks (regular customers all, once distributors) represent 80% of the NM membership in most companies.
The stuff WORKS. People get excited. They want to see others get well.
How hard would it be for Mannatech, or any other nutritional supplement company with a great product to do a clinical study to show how well their product works?
Don’t you think it would generate some very positive press if Mannatech could show, even in a limited clinical setting, that their products helped [name your aliment]?
So, why don’t they?
— Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
http://www.SpaBeautyAtHome.com
Walter@NMC
My interpretation of what Kim is talking about is not about the quality of Mannatech or its products. Right? Isn’t this what she said:
“This is not about the quality of the products. Nor is it about what the products may have done for people. This is about people making promises. Claims. The curse of our industry.”
If Mannatech’s products are as great as they claim, they will survive this “hand slapping”. I think this is a perfect example of really watching what we say and how we say it to people. I don’t fault Kim for posting this. It’s made me more aware and mindful of how I talk to my customers now and in the future. Thanks Kim!
Monica
First thank you for reading my long letter – and Kim for publishing it, unedited I might add.
I would like to respond to a few comments already made here:
thehealingart: said “…Make compliance part of your vocabulary….” That is preached and preached – as I am sure it is with all GOOD MLM’s. But there are some who will not listen…..
The Eilers Family: Angie Rhoads was totally out of compliance when she said she was cured. I understand she has removed that word from her vocabulary. However, in her words, she was deceived by 20/20. She wrote about it in her blog http://www.angie-rhoads.blogspot.com/
Monica Lawrence: we have 3 different signs both posted and read stating that foods do not cure, etc. The wording was composed not by Mannatech, but by lawyers who know the FDA law. On 20/20 they even aired someone quoting a bit of one but then did creative editing – and bullying but that is another (documentable) story – to get their slant across.
Judy & Ilka: I totally agree. Kim Klaver message should be heard by more than is hearing it now! We sell, we tell OUR story and we sell…..
Walter: with the FDA law, as it is right now, makes it that no matter how many studies are done people still can not say the product ‘works’ (see my examples about Vitamin C etc.) I understand that years ago now Mannatech did a series predictability studies on their product and AIDs showing encouraging results and were told that if they ever tried to publish it etc. they would be closed down. And the cost of clinical studies is far out of any MLM’s budget.
In closing I will repeat – with my husband’s editing – my desire through this: maybe the FDA will have its hands rapped and be forced to follow the DSHEA law.
I really appreciate this reminder about being careful of what we ( as network marketers ) say to people about our products and our income.
The reminder has come at a good time for me because one of my team members is gathering testimonials for his website.
Network Marketing companies are held responsible for what their distributors do and say, and it must be so difficult for the compliance sections of the company to ensure that all distributors are complying with the policies of the company.
Thank you Kim, I appreciate all you do for this industry.
regards from Julieanne van Zyl
Hi Kim…I appreciate your reminders to us in the field to make no promises! And I appreciate that I am associated with a company that takes that stance VERY seriously. The distributors for Immunotec Research are expected to comply with that stance so that our company, our products and our livlihood are NOT jeopardized.
This situation with Mannatech reminds me of what happened locally where I live, to the company Seasilver. Back in 2003 the FDA came down HARD on that company, forcing it to relabel its product and reword its brochures. The company was heavily fined and had to shut down until those changes were made, and no distributors were paid during that time. The company and its two top distributors were sued for MAKING FALSE CLAIMS. Within a few months production continued, but the aftermath caused the company to finally shut its doors entirely in early 2007.
If you’ve got a few minutes, cut and paste this link to read the details as well as the readers’ comments to the article and what happened to Seasilver. Their opinions are enlightening as they apply to how MLMers and NWM companies conduct their businesses:
http://tinyurl.com/2eced3
Karen
http://www.pioneeringhealth.com
Is it just me, or is it always the SAME companies who get in trouble and share the negative lime light? Question is, why is that?
It’s probably not safe to assume that just the companies getting spotlighted have the issues.
People like to go after big targets. For a district attorney, it gives him/her more exposure. So, it’s better to take on a big company like Mannatech than some Mom and Pop MLM no one has heard of.
And don’t forget about Minkow, the guy going after Usana. Don’t think for a second he’s doing it out of the goodness of his heart or because Usana is doing something different than any of the other nutritional MLM companies.
No way.
Minkow admitted to making lots of money shorting Usana stock. (For those who aren’t familiar with this, when you short a stock, you make money when the price goes down. Miknow shorted a large amount of Usana stock before he published his report, thus profiting from the stock’s drop.) You won’t see Minkow going after a private MLM company because there is no stock to short, thus no way for him to make money.
It’s definitely not safe to assume that people like Minkow and the Texas attorney general don’t have huge self interest when they attack network marketing companies.
And just because a few companies get all the attention doesn’t necessarily mean those companies are somehow doing something especially different, or that those who don’t get the spotlight are squeaky clean.
— Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
http://www.SpaBeautyAtHome.com
Walter@NMC
With the FDA law, as it is right now, makes it that no matter how many studies are done people still can not say the product ‘works’
Sure, you can’t say it ‘works’ in the sense that it treats, cures, or prevents disease, because then it is classified as a drug, and becomes heavily regulated.
But you could still do a study and point to the results of that study.
For example, I know of at least one MLM nutritional company that has done a double-blind placebo study to show that their supplements increase the levels of antioxidants in the body. And distributors are free to cite that study all they want without fear of trouble.
And the cost of clinical studies is far out of any MLM’s budget.
A company can always partner with a university, etc. For example, a while back there was a discussion about all of the studies performed on goji. These were all (or at least mostly) independent.
My point is, if something is THAT good, you would expect some clinical results validating benefit. (Maybe there are for Mannatech. I’m uneducated in that area of nutrition.)
— Walter Reade (from Wisconsin)
http://www.SpaBeautyAtHome.com
Walter@NMC
There are other glyco-products i have heard about in other companies. I haven’t ever heard the company Mtech,itself, making “cure claims” and the policies and procedures forbid inflated claims. So, the company, I imagine is looking at all the personal websites people make and zapping the owners. Trust me, Mannatech does zap people. There are key substances that have the same process in everyone, such as Vitamon C helping the immune system. Yet, the degree of time, quantity, and many other environmental outside factors play a significant role. Such as leading a healthy lifestyle, avoiding polution, and daily stress. We can’t play God, we can only play house.
Brian C.
Oops! In my comment above I meant to say it was the FTC, not the FDA, that came down hard on the company that made Seasilver. My bad!
By the way, I also wanted to mention that my company, Immunotec Research, is so concerned about being ‘compliant’ with the FDA and FTC that they no longer allow its distributors to have their own websites to market Immunotec’s products. We must all use the replicating site that the company provides. The down side is that the company site is full of techno babble, but I understand why they feel the need to keep from being a target of the FDA/FTC.
Karen
http://www.pioneeringhealth.com
Esteemed Kim:
I am a Mannatech associate, and I am writing because it seems to me that your recent comments about Mannatech are not only off the mark but irrelevant to a much more important challenge facing all network marketing supplement companies these days, namely, whether DSHEA will stand and whether we will stay in business.
Instead of pointing a finger at Mannatech and some of its associates for supposedly breaking rules about health claims, you (and all the “me toos” who agreed with you) ought to be looking at the fact that the last thing drug companies want is for the public to buy natural, non-toxic, NON-DRUG products.
In the case of glyconutrients, pharmaceutical companies have been trying for years to develop glyconutrient drugs — see “Sweet Medecine: Building Better Drugs from Sugars” in the July 2002 issue of Scientific Amaerican, for example. If there were glyconutrient drugs available today, we would be hearing about them everywhere in the media, so obviously that horse hasn’t yet left the starting gate.
But there is a great deal of money at stake here and big pharma will do anything and everything it can to protect its market share.
Do you really believe that so-called claims about “cures” are the REASON for the attacks on Mannatech? They are merely the EXCUSE for these tactics.
Mannatech is the target today because it has more scientific validation than most other supplement manufacturers and is therefore more of a threat to drug makers. To believe that the attacks will stop at Mannatech is naive, indeed — another company will be on the hot seat tomorrow.
Rather than spending time blaming the victim, you would serve us better by encouraging discussion of and defense against government interference with the rights granted by DSHEA to all Americans.
I have been impressed with your approach to network marketing and with your training materials, so I am corresondingly deeply disappointed by your shortsighted approach on this critical issue. I urge you to refocus on the broader, more important question of whether we will band together to protect our rights and our livelihoods under DSHEA.
It would be a shame if we were to lose our businesses and our right to choose health supplements because we were so busy pointing fingers at each other that we failed to cooperate and defend ourselves.
Remember: united we stand, divided we fall.
Thank you for allowing me to have my say.
thehealingart wrote “Although Mannatech has dug its own grave,….”
Who has said they have dug their own grave? Just because the Attorney General of Texas has said what they said does NOT mean it is curtains for Mannatech.
Look what I said about another case, years ago, against Amway. The Attorney General LOST and Amway WON. It took years (5?) to be resolved I’ll grant you that but Amway has not shut its doors. All MLM have learned lessons from the charges – including Amway – and go on.
So don’t say Mannatech has dug its own grave unless you know insider news that the rest of us don’t.
Looks like Sam Caster is headed for his second business bankruptcy
AG action long overdue. I have had SCam Caster in my sights for 15 yrs.
As a consumer advocate I deplore his business scams and as a minister of the gospel I am saddened and offended at his blasphemy.
Thanks all for your comments from the heart…
Iwem:
You write:
“It would be a shame if we were to lose our businesses and our right to choose health supplements because we were so busy pointing fingers at each other that we failed to cooperate and defend ourselves.”
This possible loss of “our businesses” will not be because anyone is pointing fingers. The trouble is caused by the reps who will not stop claiming and promising, and who are caught on video tape doing those things.
My approach, because I too, am someone who works in the industry, and I don’t want it to disappear, is to do what we can to prevent being under the media and government spotlight at all.
People who are promised things that don’t come true eventually complain to the feds or AG and that’s when the trouble starts and everyone in the media starts looking for similar problems so they can make news.
As to the DSHEA, and your comment, “whether we will band together to protect our rights and our livelihoods under DSHEA” you are free to use this forum to post your suggestions as to how we can do this.
🙂
nursevvt – although your name is hyperlinked your site is not available so I could not respond to you personally.
I am curious as to why the huge amount of anger and venom in your writing. I truly would like to converse with you to sort this out and to clear up a lot of the misconceptions that are out there.
So, if you read my message, please click on my name and you will see my picture and “contact this rep”. Thank you.
No one has been caught on camera saying “cure” no one saw how they badgered the poor girl on 20/20 until she would say “cure.” Please people, this is bigger than us.
I was taught to never, ever, ever put down another network marketing company. That still stands in my book. So, to put differences aside, lets look at how this affects all of us.
Mannatech is a Research and Development company and are innovators in glyconutrition, which are standardized non toxic food molecules with credible science.
The DSHEA Law passed in 1994 means a supplement company has the right to present science for educational purposes.
Mannatech has dotted their i’s and crossed their t’s. This recent AG thing in TX is a part of negotiating when a company makes waves for making a difference.
A man who signed our Declaration of Independence had the foresight to see what would occur in our health care. His name is Dr. Benjamin Rush.
Dr. Benjamin Rush served as a personal physician to General George Washington, was a veteran of the revolutionary war, and delegate to the Continental Congress.
He said, “Unless we put medical freedom into the constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of men and deny equal privilege to others.
It will be the constitute of the Bastille of medical science. All such laws are un-American and despotic and have no place in a republic. The constitution of this republic should make special privileges for medical freedom as well as religious freedom.”
This is an amazing message from our past which has predicted our dichotomy today, and is clearly expressed by our 21st Century, Dr. Benjamin Carson. He is a pediatric neurosurgeon of Johns Hopkins who has been named by Time and CNN as one of the top 20 doctors of America. In 1987, he was the lead surgeon in the twenty-two hour operation that separated the heads of the Binder Siamese twins from Germany. It was the first such operation in which both twins survived.
He said. “I do not see glyconutrients as unnatural, I see them as complementary to traditional medicine. Dietary supplements should become an integral part of health care in this country.”
He further states, “Medicine has become a significant business, and there are a lot of people who invest a lot of money into drug development who are not going to look at these things in a friendly manner.”
He is correct.
A “disruptive” technology is making a difference in people’s lives all over the world from something completely non toxic and this defies main stream conventional thinking.
The word disruptive means an innovation, product, or service that eventually overturns the existing dominant technology or status quo product in the market.
A current top seller called “The Tipping Point” by Malcolm Gladwell illustrates this by discussing the tipping point as a sociological term that refers to the moment when something unusual becomes common.
Author Shopenhauer, a famous German Philosopher , wisely stated, “Thruth passes through three stages.”
* First it is ridiculed.
* Second it is fiercely and violently apposed.
* Third, it is accepted as self evident.
When a new way is suggested, people often criticize it as strange, outlandish, or even at odds with the universe itself. It is lambasted and laughed at.
When momentum begins to build for change, ridicule gives way to concerted opposition. The forces that benefit from the way things are currently arranged feel affronted. They defend the status quo with whatever means necessary.
When this momentum builds into an undeniable force, it creates an incentive for the power-holders to move off their adamant position. Now the impossible is not only possible, it becomes the new standard. It becomes self-evident.
Guess which phase Mannatech is in right now?
Google this, “20/20 “Cure for Disease or Empty Promise?” – and read the comments and see the news report.
The FDA can only approve molecules with toxicity levels. If it is non toxic, then there is no approval, its that simple. Thus, there was an out cry from the public for alternative or holistic information.
Congress responded with the DSHEA Law passed in congress in 1994, which gives supplement companies the “right” to present science to prove efficacy of their dietary supplements. Even the medical paradigm reported that 40% of Americans had used alternative medicine – JAMA 1997
Now google the interview that ABC 20/20 refused to air by typing in
“Mannatech-Sam Caster 20/20 Interview 1 of 4”
I also want to address Quackbusters. If you are a subject of derogatory remarks on quackbuster Stephen Barrett’s website quackwatch.com or Robert Baratz nachf.org you have legal rights. The purpose of these links, below are to expose the truth about their credibility. Copy and paste these links.
http://www.kospublishing.com/html/quack_busters.html
Disecting who These people are and who funds them.
http://www.chiroweb.com/archives/23/25/18.html
Steven Barrett’s court loss.
http://www.canlyme.com/quackwatch.html
Stephen Barrett conceded in a court of law that he was not a medical board psychiatrist because he failed the board certification exam.
http://www.bolenreport.net/feature_articles/feature_article025.htm
Robert Baratz revealed in court that he only worked in a dental office
for a 2 and a half week period shortly after graduation in 1974, and never since then.
My personal experience is that NO ONE said “CURE.” and that Angie Roads, in her own words on that 20/20 Interview spoke out on how they badgered her until she would say it under an enormous amount of pressure.
Its not about Mannatech, its about our health rights. I am not saying cure, but just telling my health recovery is what they want to shut down so that no one has hope.
Google the words “When Healing Becomes a Crime – Hoxey” and see ow the AMA kicked out the Hoxey clinics out of the US in the 50’s for making a difference in people’s lives that conventional treatment couldn’t touch at the time.
I say, wake up, because Mannatech will come out of this better and stronger than ever.
Claims are made everyday by robot doctors about medications that destroy lives. Why doesn't the Attorney General go where the real problems and true destroyers are and make it a true concern for the public. They even have a name for it – Steven Johnsons Syndrome – a very destructive response to modern medicine and they still keep it in "dark" because it "helps more than it harms." Even if it is deadly to one, that is way worse than making over excited promises about something that helps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevens%E2%80%93Johnson_syndrome
"Medication/drugs
It can be caused by adverse effects of drugs (allopurinol, diclofenac, etravirine, Isotretinoin, aka Accutane, fluconazole,[4] valdecoxib, sitagliptin, oseltamivir, penicillins, barbiturates, sulfonamides, phenytoin, azithromycin, oxcarbazepine, zonisamide, modafinil,[5] lamotrigine, nevirapine, pyrimethamine, ibuprofen,[6] ethosuximide, carbamazepine, nystatin, and gout medications).[7][8]
Although Stevens–Johnson Syndrome can be caused by viral infections, malignancies or severe allergic reactions to medication, the leading cause appears to be the use of antibiotics and sulfa drugs.
Medications that have traditionally been known to lead to SJS, erythema multiforme and toxic epidermal necrolysis include sulfonamides (antibiotics), penicillins (antibiotics), barbiturates (sedatives), lamotrigine and phenytoin (e.g. Dilantin) (anticonvulsants). Combining lamotrigine with sodium valproate increases the risk of SJS.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are a rare cause of SJS in adults; the risk is higher for older patients, women and those initiating treatment.[2] Typically, the symptoms of drug-induced SJS arise within a week of starting the medication. People with systemic lupus erythematosus or HIV infections are more susceptible to drug-induced SJS.[3]
SJS has also been consistently reported as an uncommon side effect of herbal supplements containing ginseng. SJS may also be caused by cocaine usage.[9]"
Think it is time to stand up and start complaining with as much energy and passion about the true harm to our nation's health as there is about punishing a company for it's distributor's language.
Do not even try to say it is about lying to the user for money … to many manipulations are done in the modern medicine arena for money and rarely has a complaint against those authorized to use the "heal" promise been from the government. They get a pat on the back and FDA seal of approval.
Jurene Mason
SJS Victim
By the way, "These conditions were first recognised in 1922.[2]"
Isn't it time citizens start lodging complaints about the true problem to those in authorities? I am certain that if the floodgates here were opened, they would be so busy looking into the deaths and major harm by "approved" drugs – their would be no time for attack in areas that do no physical harm. And the drug companies that keep the courts busy attacking their competitors would be too busy defending their murders.
too busy to stop and figure out my password, rarely comment..that is reason for anon