http://www.expressen.se/nyheter/expressens-anna-basen-bantningsmedlet-gav-mig-leverskador/
(The following article is an automatic translation)
Slimming agent
gave me liver damage
Hard Lose Weight with aloe vera and burning pills.
Pyramid Company Forever Living has been criticized for being sectarian and peddle expensive products that do not deliver what they promise.
But business is good. SEK 86 million in profits last five years in the Nordic region.
Expressen's medical reporter Anna base joined the "Forever Family".Equipped with a hidden camera, she learned to circumvent the law. She also tested the company's hard dieting in a medical experiment. It was about to go bad.
- You must immediately stop taking this product, slimming warns Professor Claude Marcus.
Forever Living is an MLM company, multilevel selection, or pyramid business. The company was founded by Mormon, and the American billionaire Rex Maughan. 2014, Group sales totaled 22 billion.
Forever Living has been criticized for being cult-like, to attract sellers with exaggerated promises of income, the products are overpriced and not at all so healthy.
"Manager" Ulrika would like to recruit me to become "Forever Independent Business Owner". I go to the recruitment meeting with a hidden camera. We are fifteen men who gather in a local office in Stockholm. We get instant coffee and small pieces of protein bars, late pitching Ulrika sales concept.
As a seller, you are in the "Recommendation industry," she emphasizes.
- It is the best marketing. If I am close to you telling you to buy an iPhone, you buy an iPhone.
Forever Living can give us time, freedom and money. The dream of many financially independent.
- You decide, you have limitless career opportunities. It's your dreams and your goals.
According Ulrika's virtues are good. 23,000 a month in just ten hours work a week.The more you sell, and the more other sellers to recruit and get under it, the more you earn. Successful can get some of the company's bonus program with luxury trips, cash bonuses and an SUV with the company logo.
- There is a fantastic company. We earn money to help as many as possible to earn as much money as possible! Ulrika says.
What Ulrika not talk about is that it is difficult to succeed. Most MLM sellers fail in the first year.
And first you have to have to become a customer and buy the company's products.Hygiene products, cosmetics, dietary supplements and other things will be replaced with Forever Living's products. A start box with mixed products cost 4500 SEK. A soap costs 143 crowns and a tube of toothpaste 83 crowns. Although I will not be successful sellers have now got a new customer.
During the break I talk to Johanna who are "senior manager". I'm curious to test the company's popular quick fix for weight loss, C9.
- Then you need to take before and after pictures and share on Facebook on how it goes. It makes people curious to get customers to it, she says.
The sellers make money by living "The Forever Living Lifestyle" and display it on social media.
- We work with Attraction Marketing. Make sure to market your lifestyle, you have become alert, happy and looking younger and prettier!
One should use its relationship capital, take every opportunity everyday to sell to family, friends and acquaintances. If you see or hear that someone feel bad do you provide product.
- It becomes routine to listen to the people around and recommend our products. If I'm standing with my children in the game of handball and another mother told her that she stressed lately and sleep poorly. Yes, then I say, try a little Argi, it helped me to get my energy up when I was low. It need not be harder than that!
The company's products is claimed by some dealers, be good for all and help to most ailments and diseases.
The sellers could thus violate drug laws. If supplementation is claimed to have medicinal effects - to treat or cure diseases - are they to be classified as drugs.
Forever Living has previously notified to the MPA for it. Retailers claim that aloe vera gel, for example, helps in rheumatism, heart disease, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, HIV and AIDS and cancer. In a sharp letter to the company informed the MPA that the violations of drug laws can result in fines or imprisonment not exceeding one year.Forever Living blamed on the individual dealers.
One way to try to get around the law is to say "this product cured my illness." But there's more. You can arrange client meetings with external experts, advises the seller Mikael me. The lecturer Mats Petersson is one.
- It's great to have client meetings with him, he can say things we do not say, says Mikael.
I go to a lecture by a health coach Mats Petersson, who will train us in the company's products. A few hundred Forever sellers, mostly women, crowded outside the assembly hall at Scandic Star Sollentuna a spring evening. Pop music pumps, the sorlas and fnissas, the atmosphere is more like it before a concert than a lecture.
- He is a fantastic person, so humble and cozy! And I even got to exchange a few words with him in the parking lot, says a woman happy, smiling wide.
There is a murmur through the crowd when Mats Petersson enters the scene. Mats Petersson says he studied nutrition and physiology and made the "thirty thousand analytical tests on humans." According to him, the company supplements well against a wide range of diseases and health problems. Drinking aloe vera, for example, helps with bowel disease, Crohn's, IBS, constipation, fungal and stabilizes blood sugar and blood pressure. Other supplements are good for everything from allergies, migraines, asthma, heart attacks and cancer. Many supplements helps to maintain weight or lose weight.
We are sellers get mixed messages. Forever Seller Cecilia, who presented Mats Peterson emphasized that we can not come up with medical claims. But Mats Petersson tips straight afterwards on how to get around the law and claim that the products help prevent disease.
- Learn to say this: "It seems that people are good in the stomach. Then you have not claimed" this is it "but" it seems like. "And so they say jaja, it tastes good in the mouth, the feel fresh and it seems that they will be good. so they may well believe it then, huh! But you know that it actually works, and that's the important thing!
Mats Petersson talks about how healthy you become the company's products in four hours. And covered with great rejoicing.
I buy the company bantningsbox C9 by Ulrika of 1375 crowns. The box contains in addition to aloe vera gel, meal replacement powders, pills that claimed to raise metabolism and fiber powder.
- A colleague of mine went down nine kilograms. Incredibly awesome! Ulrika says.
She speaks warmly of aloe vera. It's great for the stomach and the "whole system".
- It is incredibly nutritious, but above all it is alkaline. It becomes like a bar of soap in the gut. So the body is easier to absorb nutrients, the immune system gets better and you get a healthier bowel.
- Then follow it with a dietary supplement tablet containing these green coffee beans, and it puts the initiate combustion.
C9 is a tough slimming. I want to examine what it does to the body. Therefore do I first me at the Karolinska University Hospital Huddinge research department of Professor Claude Marcus. There are samples of zinc, iron, B, and vitamin D, blood lipids, blood glucose and liver enzymes. I will also be measured and weighed.Everything is as it should. I am healthy and normal weight.
Claude Marcus rejects, however, both aloe vera and combustion tablet - they're not going to help me lose weight.
- There is no evidence that aloe vera provides weight loss. And these tablets for combustion will not help you. 99 percent of what is sold is just quackery and nonsense.
If you lose weight fast cure because it simply because you get to eat very little.
- It should not be dangerous for those who are healthy. But there is very little calories, you can become dizzy, nauseous and constipated. Do you feel bad you should cancel, says Claude Marcus.
"Kick start your journey towards your slimmer and healthier me!" Pepper brochure in my C9 box.
The first two days I do not get to eat any real meals at all. Just shotta little aloe vera, take a combustion tablet, fiber supplements and drinking a shake. If there is a crisis, I get to eat some fruit or vegetables. But not "moffa of me," Ulrika admonished.
It will be tough. I'm hungry, tired, cold and headache. I can not train as usual. Especially nice is I do not either.
- Please, Anna, eat something, calls her husband desperately.
Day three, I have lost one and a half kilos. Although fiber powder, I'm constipated. I am extremely tired in body and brain. Lose words when I should talk or write. "Optimal health" Forever Living promises, feels far away.
Day five I feel unwell and interrupts. After a few days I will resume course. But I become obsessed with food. Dreaming about food and plan what little I still get to eat meticulously. It feels so unhealthy, small ätstört, interrupting estate slimming. I eat healthy, but continues to drink aloe vera, take supplements and burning pills.
Back at the research department , I get to take new samples and weigh and measure me again. After a few days, call Professor Claude Marcus about the test results.
- Anna, you have elevated liver enzymes. It is not at all good. How are you?
I get scared. Slimming experiment has damaged my body.
- Your samples before was great. After this period you have taken this preparation has affected your liver. The leak enzymes from the liver to show that it has taken some damage from this.
Boven is aloe vera as Forever Living urging customers to drink every day. It is known that aloe vera can cause side effects on the liver. The WHO database contains 89 cases reported, of which nine lives related to jaundice and liver inflammation. We have also had six Swedish cases of liver dysfunction, where the cause isstänks be that people drinking aloe vera. Including an otherwise healthy woman who had to go into acute liver inflammation.
- The reason why it has become so this is probably the combination. You have tested this regimen to lose weight, you might not be in as much energy as the body becomes more vulnerable. So if there is any substance that affects the body, affecting the liver, increases the risk that it will be bad of it. This means that this preparation is not any good, says Claude Marcus.
I must immediately stop with aloe vera, inculcates Claude Marcus.
- The liver is an important organ that is needed to purify the body in different ways, if it is affected, it can eventually become really dangerous. One can get liver failure, and then you become thoroughly sick, becoming mighty tired and yellow in the face, one can become chronic liver disease.
Claude Marcus points out that I was lucky - my liver was feeling fine before I started the regimen. I also drank aloe vera less than a few weeks.
- You're healthy! But if you have an affected lives even before then there is a risk that it could be really dangerous. I would directly advise against it because we now know that it can affect the liver negatively. Then one should not take this, especially when you lose weight.
- The risk of hepatic events is, and it is enough that you should not sell this kind of preparation. Dietary supplements are harmful should not have been and may be marketed. I think this is something that the NFA will look at the future, says Claude Marcus.
That aloe vera can cause liver damage is not Forever Living or their vendors announcing. But Forever Living's external "expert" Mats Petersson told during the training session that aloe vera can give the liver.
- You can get an altered liver status. Then you back off a little, say we are running a little bit to the body adapts acclimatized.
When Expressen calling Mats Petersson and ask what formal medical skills he has, he claims that he first studied at universities abroad. Sen says Mats Petersson he has no academic credit.
- No, it is the criterion ... I have been out and talked nutrition in 30 years.
He denies urged retailers to break the law. When Expressen says that it is on tape, he says:
- Do you have it on tape? I have no reason to sell, I do not represent the products, I do not represent the company.
But if you encourage dealers to tell them to say that it seems that people are good because then you do not claim to be good. Is it serious?
- No, we can of course argue about.
Petersson says he paid with 15,000 to 20,000 crowns to teach Forevers dealer.
Mai-Lis Hellenius, lifestyle professor at the Karolinska Institute, is critical to C9.
- It's very expensive. I do as Sverker and throw it in the bin. All that is in the box, you can get in you by eating awesome food and at a much cheaper price. Chances are also greater that you get a healthy mix of nutrients. Good food is the best for health.
Both the Mai-Lis Hellenius and Claude Marcus is now calling for tougher control of diet supplements.
- It's way too uncontrolled in Sweden. Maybe we should have a regulatory framework that is similar to what we have for medicines. That it may only be prescribed by a doctor and nurse, that you should follow so it has the intended effect and whether it has side effects, says Mai-Lis Hellenius.
The contents could not be loaded. Try again later.Forever Living products for health and weight loss brings in big money. The business concept has made Rex Maughan, 79, the billionaire.
Forever Living owns farms and castles around the world. Among other things, the company owns the famous yard Southfork Ranch where the TV series Dallas was filmed. Rex Maughan has renovated the building for tens of millions of crowns.
In Sweden, operations are controlled since 2013 by the country manager Fredric Alerstam, 46. He enjoys golfing, skiing, fine wines and exciting journeys, according to the presentation of Forever Living's magazine. And he can afford their hobbies.Alerstam receive compensation from Forever Living to its private companies Fredric Alerstam AB.
The company has during the past three years have had combined revenues of over nine million. In 2015, his company monthly income of more than 260 000. Alerstams office is located on one of Helsingborg's upmarket streets overlooking the strait. Fredric Alerstam himself lives in an exclusive villa in Angelholm and driving around in a new white Porsche Cayenne with a base price of almost one million.
Forever Living with operations in the Nordic region had sales of SEK 480 million in 2014 and made a profit after financial items of SEK 30 million. During the year, also sent eight million kronor in dividends to the US parent company.
Expressen trying to meet CEO Fredric Alerstam for an interview, but he does not want.
- I have bad experience with journalists. Send questions in emails, says Alerstam on the phone.
A few days later Expressen go to Forever Living's Nordic office - 1:30 millions castle in Mölndal outside Gothenburg - and trying to meet Fredrik Alerstam. Then we politely but firmly driven out of the head office property manager.
- Fredric want you to go, says property manager.
A few days later recur CEO with an email. How he responds, inter alia, that Aloe Vera can cause liver damage:
- The products are controlled by the authorities and follows the prevailing laws and recommendations for safe ingredients and products.
If the expensive slimming cut C9 as Professor Claude Marcus dismisses respond Alerstam:
- The results achieved through changes in diet and exercise. Our programs offer a multi-step process that many people think is simple and practical to follow and where contributions are estimated as part of the experience.
Alerstam now make the distance from the health coach Mats Petersson learn Forever Living distributors to circumvent drug laws. But he puts the blame on the dealers:
- Forever Living Products Scandinavia AB not engage Mats Petersson, however, we have knowledge that some independent retailers have hired him as inspiration lecturers, we are very careful to follow all the regulations and to train our independent distributors to do the same.
Forever Living invites customers to drink aloe vera every day. Thousands of Swedes follow their advice.
When Anna base finished with aloe vera recovers her liver.
After a few weeks, her normal values.
But it's hard to stop thinking about how many people can walk around with hidden liver damage - without knowing it
Well, the translation is awkward but the facts are clear.
ReplyDeleteApart from the horrendous accounts of how these Forever Living products can harm you, what truly shocks me is the fact that this company could be founded in 2014, and already have 22 billion in sales (is that U.S. dollars, or Swedish crowns?)
In either case, it shows that these MLM rackets are still immensely popular, drawing in thousands of otherwise intelligent persons. In two years this company, founded by some crackpot Mormon, is raking in vast sums. What strange psychological compulsion is driving people to get involved in a tedious, exhausting, and ultimately futile make-believe business? And why do they insist on paying outrageous prices for things that could easily and cheaply (and more safely) be obtained in stores and shops?
If we could understand this, we could see what is really driving the MLM rackets.
Anonymous - The 'FLP' racket appeared in 1978, but the first 'MLM' racket appeared in the late 1940s. Today there are more than 1000 'MLM' front companies registered in the USA alone.
DeleteIf you want to know why 'MLM' core-adherents keep handing over their cash for grossly over-priced wampum, then read these articles.
http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.fr/2013/02/forever-living-products-flp-is-mlm.html
http://mlmtheamericandreammadenightmare.blogspot.fr/2015/06/forever-living-products-flp-cult-secte.html
In brief, 'MLM' core-adherents have been converted to the delusional belief that if they hand over their cash each month and recruit others to duplicate the same system, eventually they will enter a form of Paradise on Earth where no one works, but where everyone is healthy, happy and prosperous.
A self-perpetuating non-rational ritual belief system instigated for the clandestine purpose of human exploitation, is what is driving all criminogenic 'MLM' cults.
Dear Mr. Brear --
ReplyDeleteI have read the two essays that you suggested, and from them I glean that hard-core attachment to an MLM scheme is, at bottom, unshakably irrational. As in all cults, an individual's belief and adherence are linked to a profound psychological commitment that trumps every reasonable counter-argument, and even all objective facts. This makes for a poor prognosis for anyone who is a true-believer type in an MLM.
It also means that very little rational argumentation is of any use, except as a preventative measure to warn off potential victims. But unfortunately, today most people in the Western world are governed by feelings and gut response rather than by logic and intellect. There's no way to stop these deluded fools from buying into an MLM scheme. Everything around them says "Trust your immediate response! Go with your instinct! Live authentically, not hobbled by intellectual doubts!"
Anonymous - Thank-you for your most-thoughtful observations.
DeletePlease feel free to contact me via e-mail axiombooks@wanadoo.fr
I am interested to learn what has drawn your attention to the 'MLM' phenomenon.