Why I Prefer Nutrition From MLM Companies Over The Pharmacies

For a start, let's watch this funny video from USANA -- "A car with all the features, at a quarter of a price". *sigh* :)

Okay, why would I prefer nutrition from MLM companies over the ones that we can find on the pharmacy's shelves?

Well, it's not like the products that's being sold in the pharmacies are lack of quality. They do have products that have good quality as well. I too went to pharmacies to buy Panadol, Listerine and several other health care products. We still need the presence of pharmacies to give service to the people, in which area many MLM companies are lack of. The fact is, they are still needed to provide a positive competition in health care and wellness industry.

But when it comes to nutritional supplements, I'd be much more cautious. I would always prefer to purchase it from an MLM company than a pharmacy. The reason is, unlike Panadol, I would take the nutritional supplements 3 intakes a day, on the daily basis, for the rest of my life! I would not risk taking the advice merely from the pharmacists to decide what I am about to feed into my body. Most of the time, I don't know the level of their knowledge in nutritional supplements -- so I just don't feel safe & quite skeptical.

For me, in order to take a reliable nutritional supplements, what I'd need is two simple requirements:

1. Recommendations from credible parties, such as a doctor's advice, AND
   
2. The real story or experience of many many human that have already taken that nutritional supplements.

But how about the technical information about the products itself? I do care about that too, but not too big into its details which could results myself becoming my own doctor. I'd say, let the doctor does his job.

To demonstrate how I use the two requirements above to select ESSENTIALS™ as my daily nutritional supplements, let me share my USANA's experience.

Recommendation From Credible Parties

This is one of USANA's greatest strength -- support from many medical professionals. This is an area that I wouldn't have to worry about. It's because USANA's ESSENTIALS™ is highly recommended by Dr Ray Strand [1] and Dr Christine Wood [2].

Dr Ray Strand is a medical doctor who has focused his practice on nutritional medicine. He has also written several books about health such as Living By Design, Preventing Diabetes, Death by Prescription, Healthy for Life, and What Your Doctor Doesn't Know About Nutritional Medicine May Be Killing You.

Dr Christine Wood, on the other hand, is a practicing pediatrician who focuses on healthy nutrition for children and the environmental and nutritional impact on health and disease. In the same line with Dr Ray Strand, Dr Christine Wood has also written several books on nutritional medication such as How to Get Kids to Eat Great & Love It!, Challenges to Children's Health, ADHD: Environmental Factors & Nutrition and Marketing Health To Families.

You see not many pharmacy-based nutritional supplements out there that would have this kind of strong recommendation from doctors who have been devoting their medical career into nutritional treatment. For me, these recommendations are good enough to qualify my first requirement.

Real Experience From Many Many People

This type of information is much much easier to access from the MLM based nutritional products than the pharmacy based nutritional products.

When I said real experience from real people, what I mean is I literally see these people swallowed the ESSENTIALS™. They really eat it. Every month, when they depleted they ESSENTIALS™ supply, they will get new ones and start consuming again and again and again.

I am not talking about people who have try it once, then said, "hey it's really good, you know.." I am talking about people who have continuously taking USANA's ESSENTIALS™.

And then I asked them about USANA's ESSENTIALS™. One person said, "I don't feel tired anymore after taking ESSENTIALS™". Another one said, "I don't know how to say it, but I just feel so much better". Then the next one said, "I used to have flu and fever so frequently, now after taking ESSENTIALS™, I'm healthy, always". And it even go to a point where ESSENTIALS™ has helped them, their families and their friends to recover from health problems. The only person who mentioned ESSENTIALS™ is bad for me, is a person who happened to sell a competitor product. And worst yet, she never took ESSENTIALS™.

At this point, if I've guessed it correctly, some of you might argue that those people are saying ESSENTIALS™ is good because they have already joined USANA and are actually promoting the ESSENTIALS™ to generate profit from their MLM business.

I would disagree with that point.

The reason is, if you take a health product which turns out to be harmful to your body, would you continue taking it, then promoting it to your friends, and families and the rest of the people for the sake of money?

I know I won't.

But pharmacy's nutritional supplement is much cheaper than the MLM's one!

Yes, I agree with you on that point -- no doubt about that. But, would you compromise your health for cheaper nutritional supplements?

You see, I would buy cheap shoes. I would buy cheap watch. I would buy cheap television. I would buy cheap DVDs. But I will never compromise my health against CHEAP nutritional supplements which have a lot of unknown factors!

Now pricing is really not a question when it comes to buying nutritional supplements. Let me give you a scenario to prove my point. Here's the scenario:

For a moment, let's just assume that MLM never existed in this world, that we only have pharmacies. Now you surveyed several pharmacies and came out with a long list of nutritional supplements, sorted from the cheapest one to the most expensive. Given that you don't have doctor's recommendation on each of the nutritional supplements and that you don't have people's experience over each of the nutritional products, which one would you pick? The cheapest one?

References:
[1] Dr. Ray D. Strand, Specialist in Nutritional Medicine: "Ray D. Strand, M. D. is a graduate of the University of Colorado Medical School in 1971. He finished his postgraduate education at Mercy Hospital in San Diego, California.

He has been in private family practice for over 30 years and over the past 7 years has focused his practice on nutritional medicine. He is quickly becoming one of the leading authorities in nutritional medicine in the world. He has lectured on nutritional medicine across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and England."

[2] Kids Eat Great - Picky Eater - Nutrition for Kids - Childhood Obesity - Meet Dr. Wood: "Christine (Ito) Wood, M.D., C.L.E. is a practicing pediatrician and certified lactation educator with interests in healthy nutrition for children and the environmental and nutritional impact on health and disease. She is a compelling voice on the subject of children's nutritional and environmental issues."

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The Trillion Dollar Wellness Industry Impacts ALL (non-specific to USANA)

This is a good general knowledge that I'd like to share among us. It is not specific to USANA -- it's for everyone. Whether you are with other MLM companies, or even if you hate MLM companies. It is applicable to anyone who concerns about your own personal health. This is going to be something for you to put your thought on.

What I am trying to highlight in this posting is more towards the alarming health symptom of the Wellness Industry than its impact to the economy.

For a start, watch an interview with Mr Paul Zane Pilzer, an economist and also the industry expert, about the emerging of trillion dollar wellness industry. He is also the author to the bestselling book, The Wellness Revolution, How to Make a Fortune in the Next Trillion Dollar Industry [1].

Watch the video now -- click the rectangular play button.

Mr Paul Zane Pilzer research mostly revolves around the Wellness Revolution that is currently taking place in the United States of America. As for our country, Malaysia, we are unfortunately not left far behind -- probably we are at worst.

The reason is, Malaysians currently are 'imitating' the eating habit of American as most of our fast food chain, such as KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Burger King and several others, that we 'enjoy' in Malaysia, originate from the Unites States itself.

Another threat to our health is processed food. Some example of processed food are Ayam Brand Tuna, 2-Minutes Maggi Noodle, Kimball Chili Sauce, Coco Crunch Cereal, Dutchlady Full Cream Milk (my goodness! these are all my favorite food!) -- and these are only a very tiny chunk of all other processed foods that we can find in Giant, Tesco, Carrefour and thousands of other grocery stores in Malaysia. God knows what the manufacturer put inside those processed foods.

Then what put us in worst situation than the Unites States is that most of us are already having stressful enough lifestyle. This is something that our local newspaper has been reporting since the last two years. For example, in April 24th 2007, News Straits Times reported that the stroke cases in Malaysia have increased 300% [2] (from 17,909 cases in 2005 to 52,000 in 2006) in just 1 YEAR! And 30% of Malaysian adult population suffer from hypertension.


We may not have enough 'babyboomers effect' [3] to really drive our local wellness industry, but the needs for the emerging of wellness industry in Malaysia is no less that what the United States needs.

We need to open our eyes wide. Put the goal to achieve good health as one of our priority in life. We can start with an exercise. Eat less fast food or processed food -- the latter is almost impossible to be done. Start taking nutritions to protect your body as well. Learn about how to be healthy. And always put a smile on our face -- always!

As for me, I've already started reducing the frequency to going to any fast food restaurant once every 4 months. I am also doing some gardening activities during the weekends. And I've started protecting my body by consuming my ESSENTIALS™. Smile? Yes, even on my Monday morning!

References:
[1] The Wellness Revolution: "In 2002, The Wellness Revolution was the 'shot heard round the world' for the wellness industry. It defined wellness as an industry—linking tens of thousands of disparate service and product suppliers with a single cause. It showed scientists, fitness providers, businesspeople, food manufacturers, doctors, and others focused on disease prevention and anti-aging that they were part of a worldwide revolution—rather than merely lone iconoclasts inside their chosen professions or industries." Also, click here to visit www.amazon.com to read the review on the The Wellness Revolution book.

[2] News Archive (1991 - 2007) Search Results List: "Nation's No. 4 killer disease By Annie Freeda Cruez (536 wds) (Main Section) PETALING JAYA: At least six Malaysians are hospitalised with stroke every hour. But the news gets grimmer. There was a 300 per cent increase in the number of people with stroke between 2005 and last year."

[3] Baby boomer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "A baby boomer is anyone born between 1946 and 1964 in a country that experienced an unusual spike in birth rates following World War II, a phenomenon commonly known as the baby boom. In the United States, the term is iconic and more properly capitalized as Baby Boomers. The terms 'baby boomer' and 'baby boom' along with others (i.e., 'boomies' or 'boomers'), are also used in countries with demographics that did not mirror the sustained growth in American families over the same interval."
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I've Been Brainwashed by USANA for RM2,674 (USD786)!?

What a prominent topic, especially at this point of time!

You see, when I decided to join USANA and opened three business centers, I believe I've made my decision timely and reasonably and that I have absolutely valid reasons to spend that much of money for myself -- primarily not because I was lured into money making opportunity that USANA provides although USANA pays its distributors their attractive weekly commission and the business outlook is very promising due to the quality of the products and its appropriate pricing.

But my primary interest falls to what USANA has to offer in term of health.

It really took me several months before I submit my application as USANA consumer and distributor. For RM2,674 that I've spent, I received the following from USANA:

• 14 months ESSENTIALS™ Nutrition Supply that will boost my personal health -- No doubt about this because USANA ESSENTIALS™ Nutrition is Top Ranking nutritional products.
• Distributor Starter Kits -- this includes a planner booklet, product catalog, a newsletter and an online membership account at www.usana.com which will allow me to access the training materials, business support section, product support section, regular business & health news update, tracking my business progress and a lot more.
• 3 Business Centers -- a business opportunity for me if one day I wish to run the educate & distribute business. It will allow me to register both Preferred Customers and Associates.

Now, divide RM2,674 by 14 months, that's only RM191 (USD56) a month.

Major chunk of that money, which is 92% of it (or equivalently amount to RM175 (USD51) per month), was actually used to pay for the 14 months ESSENTIALS™ supply -- which is a tangible useful products! For me that's not bad at all. It is affordable and it makes sense.

To further furnish what I really mean by 'affordable', let's dig into the value of the ESSENTIALS™ that I received.

What is it that I see in ESSENTIALS™?

You might wonder why I chose ESSENTIALS™ when there are so many other nutritional products out there? I have six valid reasons for that.

• Reason #1: ESSENTIALS™ is rated #1 in the Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements [1], a compendium of over 500 nutritional products (that also includes Amway, Nu Skin, Shaklee & many more other branded nutritional manufacturers/distributors) in the United States and Canada. If you are looking for nutritional supplement comparison, I would suggest you to look for the book. It is the best book ever on comparing nutritional supplements and their manufacturers.
  
  With this strong reason, I can be assured that, by consuming ESSENTIALS™, I am consuming the best nutritions for my body.
  
  
• Reason #2: ESSENTIALS™ (and other USANA products of course), are listed in the medical references which make it legal for doctor's prescription. Dr Ray Strand and Dr Christina Wood are among the credible doctors that recommend ESSENTIALS™ to their patients for preventive and nutritional medicine program.
  
  Here are the medical references that enlisted the ESSENTIALS™:
  1. Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR)
  2. Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties (CPS)
  3. Master Index of Medical Specialties (MIMS)
  
  Now with this pointed up, I can be rest assured about the safety of the supplements. Nevertheless, if my intent is to cure diseases or to prolong one's life who's affected by a disease, it is always wise for me to refer it to the doctor first for minimal or optimal recommendations.
  
  
• Reason #3: ESSENTIALS™ contains both balanced nutrients and antioxidant that are needed by my body, in the right amount, to gain optimum health. Its science-based formulas are developed by expert scientific team lead by Dr Myron Wentz [2].
  
  USANA also has its own Medical Advisor Board who provides USANA with valuable insights into product applications and efficacy, as well as feedback on how the products work, how well they work, and how best to promote human health. USANA works with Medical Advisory Board members on a regular basis to review formulas and get suggestions for improvements.
  
  With this said, I knew I am going to get a nutritional supply that is going to further improve as time goes by, even if it's already on top of the nutritional supplement ranking.
  
  
• Reason #4: ESSENTIALS™ comes with 100% potency guarantee which means, what it says on the label is what's in the bottle. Now this is important because one-third of the supplements out there, are not in the bottle what is says on the label and this is because supplements are unregulated industry [3]. But with 100% potency guarantee from USANA, I shouldn't worry about that.
  
  Well, now I know I get what USANA promised me to deliver, to a great extent of accuracy. This is important because if the nutritional experts and doctors say that my body needs 90mg of Calcium per intake, then I want to be sure that the amount of nutrition I get in a tablet is REALLY 90mg.
  
  
• Reason #5: ESSENTIALS™ is produced by adhering to pharmaceutical-grade GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices) [4]. This is practiced by manufacturer of drug substance, but not typically by many nutritional supplements manufacturers. Although not required, USANA has voluntarily taken this extra step to confirm the safety of its products.
  
  This is a further assurance for USANA's potency guarantee. With that said, I now feel much more comfortable to consume the product because now, I know how they ensure their potency.
  
  
• Reason #6: ESSENTIALS™ is shipped directly from USANA distribution center (in Malaysia, the center is at Kuala Lumpur) right to my home or office, if I wish for it. This will ensure that I will always get a genuine ESSENTIALS™ -- not an imitate one. With that, I have no doubt at all with the authenticity of USANA products.

You see? RM175 a month is too cheap for a high grade quality and top rating nutritional supplementary like USANA ESSENTIALS™. ESSENTIALS™ is like a Rolls Royce sold at Proton price. Well, that actually goes back to Dr Myron Wentz vision to turning the population of the world to its healthiest state. He has to make it affordable. (now, shouldn't all cars in Malaysia be Rolls Royce?)

Okay, let's get back to the original question whether I was brainwashed by USANA or not? Or did I spend nothing for my money? Both are just as fiction as Star Wars. The right word best replaced 'brainwashed' is 'fascinated'. That's what really happen to me.

In a nutshell, this is by far one of the best investment decision I've made for my health.

References:
[1] About ComparativeGuide.com: "In 1998, author, educator and biochemist began a search for a vitamin and mineral supplement for his family. A year later, the first Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements was produced, and MacWilliam Communications Inc. was born. The company now includes Northern Dimensions Publishing, a small publishing company focused on nutrition and health science." Detailed book review on Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements at www.amazon.com.

[2] USANA Health Sciences > Company > Management: "Dr. Myron Wentz, internationally recognized microbiologist, immunologist, and pioneer in the development of human cell culture technology and infectious disease diagnoses, holds a bachelor's degree in biology from North Central College in Naperville, Illnois; a master's degree in microbiology from the University of North Dakota; and a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of Utah."

[3] The statement "one-third of the supplements out there, are not in the bottle what is says on the label and this is because supplements are unregulated industry" was made by the Wellness Industry expert, Mr Paul Zane Pilzer during his interview in CBN Television Show. Click here to watch the interview.

[4] Good Manufacturing Practice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Good Manufacturing Practice or GMP (also referred to as 'cGMP' or 'current Good Manufacturing Practice') is a term that is recognized worldwide for the control and management of manufacturing and quality control testing of foods and pharmaceutical products."


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