Friday, June 5, 2009

Reliv - An Enormous Source of Frustration

The following is an email that I received from one our readers! I want to thank him for taking the time to send this and I hope that this will give you some insight into the other side of Reliv. Please read it carefully and if you have a similar story, please take a moment to share with us.

"Reliv Watchdog,

I ran across your website and I thought it may be good to share my experiences with Reliv with you as it has been an enormous source of frustration for me. It all started a couple years ago when a friend of my father introduced my parents to "The product". My parents started taking it and I think they really bought into the multiple success stories that were provided via conference call in the beginning. They were sold on it and got into the MLM scheme for the discount. My father convinced me to try it, so I did for a month and saw no benefit so I decided it was too expensive for me and stopped. My parents seemed offended by this and pressured me to start taking it again in practically every conversation. Our telephone and in-person conversations inevitably shift to the most recent over hyped Reliv success story which may just as well be coincidence. My father has a mysterious chest pain that comes and goes that he won't allow the doctor to check. When it comes back he ups the dosage and when it dissapears for a while he gives the credit to the Reliv. My mother has no real health problems, but probably likes it because the soy may help her with menopause (just a guess). I figured things would just fizzle out soon and they would shift their interest to something else, sadly I am still waiting for that day to come...

My sister has also bought into the Reliv scam. She spends hundreds if not thousands of dollars on the different powders and consumes them herself and gives them to her children. Her husband, like me, is not impressed but she is so convinced that they could not survive without Reliv that she would probably leave him and take the kids if he tried to stop her from wasting their money on it. Her daughter (six years old) suffers from eczema, bowel problems, and (just developed) asthma-like symptoms. My sister has had her on Reliv for about 2 year now and there has been no improvement, if anything her symptoms have worsened. These problems may even be aggravated or even ORIGINALLY CAUSED by the soy in Reliv. Her husband also took it for a while and dismissed as a waste when he saw no results.

So, some time passes and my parents talked me into attending a Reliv meeting. The meeting was more of an emotional support group than a business meeting. The people were sharing their problems and generic success stories such as "I feel better on Reliv, I can really tell a difference". The guy essentially running the meeting was a chiropractor who told me not to listen to doctors because they don't know anything. Everyone seemed to defer to his judgment, nobody actually knew anything about the product they were peddling and were very resistant to anything that seemed related to math, science, or facts. I asked repeatedly about the ingredients or if there had been any studies conducted to prove the claims of the people representing the product.

Here are some samples of the answers I received:
  • "Maybe try calling the company"
  • "I don't care what's in it and you shouldn't either, it just works"
  • "Check the website, all the information is there for you" - Practically no credible information exists on the website as I'm sure you already know.
Other crazy claims:
  • "Reliv works at the cellular level to restore your body"
  • "In 7 years of taking Reliv all the cells in your body will be replaced with new healthy cells"
  • "If a child got into a can of Reliv and ate the whole thing you don't need to worry"
  • "Reliv is food for your body, if you take it you don't even need to eat anything else"
  • "Reliv can cure cancer"
After this meeting, I suggested to my mother that this man (the chiropractor at the meeting) was a snake oil salesman and it erupted into a very passionate 30 minute conversation outside the hotel. I reluctantly agreed to try the product again, this time for a full 3 months. I took 4 different kinds of Reliv: Classic, Arthaffect, Fibrestore, and Innergize. I took them all simultaneously for the full 3 months, every day, multiple times, at the directed dosages of my parents and their up-line (the stuff was expensive, I wasn't going to half-way do it and not be sure at the end). I saw absolutely no change in how I felt or my overall health. I haven't taken any since. I am completely, 100% convinced that the Innergize is sold just as a flavor enhancer, because let's be honest, the stuff is disgusting without it. It's nothing but sugar, salt, and chromium to help your body metabolize the sugar... of course some gullible people are going to think they feel better after taking it, it's sugar! Just look at the ingredients on their flagship product, Reliv Classic... 7g soy protein, your usual array of vitamins and minerals, and a "Proprietary Blend" that only makes up 142mg of the dose. Even if this "Proprietary Blend" did contain the most potent magical ingredients, 142mg isn't enough to do anything. At 17.9g per dose as stated on the can, this means their "Proprietary Blend" is less than 1/126th of the total dose!

This next story is sad, but 100% true. My parent's neighbor recently discovered he had cancer. They talked him out of chemotherapy and had him taking Reliv instead. At first they reported that he was feeling better and had more energy, but after about 3 months he became very sick and his wife took care of him at home. He continued to take his Reliv and died in the middle of the night His wife said that Reliv was the last thing he had that night before falling asleep. I believe his wife blames my parents (though she has been very forgiving) and I feel terrible for her. He was a really, really, nice guy.

On to the most recent episode. My wife is currently pregnant, and my parents wanted her to use Reliv during pregnancy. At first I didn't have a problem with it as they agreed to give us the products for free and I viewed Reliv as a "harmless waste of money maybe slightly superior to a multivitamin". Now I think my initial assessment was wrong. My wife took the cans to her doctor and she was told not to take it, of course I had to break the news to my parents and once again I look like the bad guy because "Those doctors just don't know anything". I just can't win, my family has chosen some wacko vitamin powder over me. If there is some sort of birth defect I'll never hear the end of how Reliv could have prevented it.

I'll wrap this up with some final thoughts:

This next part is purely speculation, but it's something to think about. Once they convince you to buy in and spend the thousands of dollars up front to become a distributor, it's probably not easy to back out without taking a loss. I have never sold the stuff myself, but I imagine that if you wanted to quit you would have to find a way to get rid of all the cans of Reliv stacked up in your basement. This keeps people perpetuating the hype while they try desperately to avoid financial failure. I'm sure many people spend money they don't have on these products and panic when they aren't able to sell them, thus they are willing to say anything for a sale.

The whole thing reminds me a lot of a cult, like the "Christian scientists" that believe all medical problems and sickness can be cured with prayer. I'm not sure if it's like this everywhere, but from the cross-section I've been exposed to so far, most of these people are Christians and they seem to get Reliv intertwined with religion and it almost becomes their new religion. The distributors push it like a group of crazies and make outrageous claims like it can cure aids, cancer, hepatitis, and anything else you can imagine (no exaggeration here). The support structure creates emotional links and false hope that keep this whole scam going and it takes advantage of people in vulnerable situations looking for help. It has practically destroyed the relationship I had with my family and I'm sure wasted much of their wealth and time.

Thanks for your website, I hope one day I can find a way to convince my family that Reliv is a bunch of BS. Hopefully the company will go bankrupt due to the recession or something. If you put this on your website, please don't use my last name.

Thanks,
"Concerned Person""

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

A friend (also a reliv distributor)talked me into trying reliv shakes for my various ailments; high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity... She said that reliv would help me in alleviating the problem. I've been using reliv as she directed twice a day. I noticed that after drinking the shake reliv now & innergize, I feel energetic and have a "flushed" feel in my face, like some kind of a buzzed feeling. After an hour or so, I get very sleepy that I have to take a nap to function. My friend told me to bring some drink to the office to help me go throught the day. Big mistake! I took reliv at 3:00PM every day and on my drive home every 5:00PM I am very very sleepy that once or twice I almost dozed off during driving. I got so scared that I have to pull off the road to take a nap. Since then I stopped drinking reliv in the afternoon and I never again experienced being sleepy while driving home. Since I bought about 4 months supply of reliv and no way to dispose of it, I'm just drinking it at night to help me sleep. By the way I did not notice any change in my health brought about by reliv.
Any good changes happened after I followed my doctor's advice of diet and exercise.

The_Reliv_Watchdog said...

Hi - Thank you for taking the time to read my blog and post your experience.

Reliv will refund your money for the products if it hasn't been 30 days yet. You need to go back to the person who sold them to you and ask for your money back. Also you can sell the items on eBay.

Thank you again for sharing.

Anonymous said...

The reliv distributor I know tries to yank my heart strings (I have a soft spot in my heart for kids with special needs and volunteer with various related organizations) by telling me the latest sob story of another miracle child cured of autism or Down's Syndrome. Must be some powerful snake oil to erase a chromosome from every cell in the body!

BigCat said...

I have a sister who works with Reliv and can't get her off my back. They used to live here in California and ended up moving to Colorado. I sent her an e-mail that her niece who is my daughter just graduated from high school. I get a call from her and she instantly changed the conversation to how Reliv has cured everything from Cancer to Heart problems. She asked me to go to see their President and I can tell you I ain’t. So does Magnesium and Potassium. She is brainwashed by these people. I cannot get anything out of her but Reliv. Is this a cult? What a joke. She actually wants me to dump school and join Reliv. No way Josie. They teach their people how to be rude. I just can’t buy it.

The_Reliv_Watchdog said...

Hi BigCat - Thank you for reading my blog. I hope you have found some useful info here.

In many ways Reliv and other MLMs are like a Cult. People get so wrapped up in them.

BigCat said...

I have a sister who works with Reliv and can't get her off my back. They used to live here in California and ended up moving to Colorado. I sent her an e-mail that her niece who is my daughter just graduated from high school. I get a call from her and she instantly changed the conversation to how Reliv has cured everything from Cancer to Heart problems. She asked me to go to see their President and I can tell you I ain’t. So does Magnesium and Potassium. She is brainwashed by these people. I cannot get anything out of her but Reliv. Is this a cult? What a joke. She actually wants me to dump school and join Reliv. No way Josie. They teach their people how to be rude. I just can’t buy it.

Anonymous said...

I made a comment before but I wanted to add to it......I was reading your site and I got a call from my upline, trying to put me in touch with another person with a testimonial. I have Ankelosing Spondylitous and these people were telling me how to take the shakes to relieve my pain. The amounts he told me to take raised a red flag as I know something about nutrition, and when I added it all up I found out that if I had listened to him I would have had 5 times the daily amount of Vitamin A (45000 IU). That can cause alot of problems and when I told her that what they were suggesting was not healthy but actually harmfull, she replied with "well thats what it takes to feel better. Some people need more". I said well I have read of people dying from this and she laughed and said in a tone like I was a child "oh no one had died form this stuff." I told her about this web site and that she should read it so she could see another side of RELIV but she said she had no desire to. I asked her why and she said " I am building a business here and I dont want to focus on the negative." I had to shake my head at her total brainwashing. I fell for reliv at first because I know alot about nutrition and it seemed to make sense on the surface. When you have a disease like A.S. that causes great pain and fatigue, its easy to want to be better. When someone tells you that they got better doing XYZ, then you want to try XYZ. I started the shakes and I had some good and bad reactions. I did feel more energized and alert, I seemed to have more stamina, but then I started to have abdominal cramps and once after taking the shakes I had a really bad feeling like I was overdosing on something....my body felt like I had to go #2 but I didnt have to, I got shakey and disoriented and had to sit on the toilet for about a half hour till I fell asleep and woke up feeling a little better. I thought I just took it on an empty stomach but now I think I was having a reaction to something in it. I have been told that these products start to "grow" on you and eventually you will crave them. The guy with A.S I spoke to said that if he missed even one shake he will start to "feel it" and has to stop what he is doing and drink the shake or his pain starts to come back. Now I am not a Dr. but I do know that your body does not drop its nutrient levels so fast that you will crave a shake, more likely there is some addictive quality to these herbs and its a withdraw symptom they are experiencing. I am going to research all the ingredients in the "Proprietary Blend" of the Reliv Classic, Fibrestore and Arthaffect to see if they have addictive qualities. Can you tell me your opinion on this theory I have about why they will crave it so badly that missing it for a few hours will cause such a drastic reaction. Even after 1.5 weeks of taking these things I felt the urge to take them. Thanks for your website, I shall be a major pain in my uplines you-know-what now. I am a debater, and I love to corner people that think they know it all. My upline just proved that they dont want to hear anything but RELIV RELIV RELIV. I felt like I was talking to my mother when I was explaining how it was negligent of the guy I spoke with to tell me to take that much of something with out knowing whats in it. She didnt even register what had said and when I finished she went right back to the RELIV push, telling me to talk to the upline nutritionist and hear more testimonials. I said I wanted to get unbiased information and she seemed to react like I had just told her that I saw Bigfoot or something. I cant wait to get them on the phone!!!!!!!!!! ROFL! Payback time baby!

Anonymous said...

A friend who is a reliv distributor convinced me that I should take reliv to get pregnant. We tried for five years with no success since I had endometrieosis.Well I agreed to listen to the testimonials and bought one can. I took it every day twice a day for two weeks. I began sneezing for half an hour straight and developed a very bad cold. My husband was afraid that I had developed an allergic reaction to the soy and told me to stop taking reliv. I did but was sad that now I wouldn't get pregnant. A few days later I had terrible pains in my abdomen. I thought I had appendicitis. We went to the doctor where I vomited all over the place. The Dr. told me I had both a urinary tract infection and a yeast infection. She also said that I vomited because of the intense pain that I had from these infections. I only ever would get a urinary tract infection if I drank too much coke. And could always feel it coming on and would drink cranberry juice which would get rid of the problem. So I really haven't gotten a urinary infection for years. The same with a yeast infection. These came almost suddenly and gave me no warning that my body always provided. When I told my "friend" about this she wanted me to up the dose and hear testimonials about how some people get worse before they get better.(oh please) I said no thank you and it took me a month to get her off my back. Well now after a few months of NOT taking reliv we finally got pregnant! Of course my "friend" started saying that it was because of reliv that I got pregnant. I can't help but think it was in spite of it!

Hummingbirder said...

My "friends" have tried to push Reliv on me because I have an autistic son. I told them "no soy for kids with autism" and they said their soy is better. I don't care...it's still soy! They try to give me the guilt trip and keep asking "are you sure you don't want to try this for your son?" It's sick, and yes, like a cult!

Anonymous said...

Words don't express my graitude that there is a place that is telling the TRUTH!!!!! It's a relief to know that other's have had the same bad experiences and I'm not the only one; or crazy to feel the way I do. I too had a terrible reaction to Reliv, when I confessed it to the people that sold it to me they immediately said, "Up the dose!" In hindsight I can't believe I was dumb enough to believe that rhetoric...but I double it as I was instructed. Within no time I was nearly suicidal...no energy, living in a fog and crying over everything. I literally could not stop crying. Plus the symptoms I was trying to cure were no better. What I find the scariest about this product is the promotors are abosolute robots and cannot believe it when they come up against failure. You see, it's my fault that it didn't work. They can still maintain their 100% success rate. Yes folks Reliv "works" for everyone. Ha! It wouldn't be possible to get everyone in the world to agree that the same candy bar was "good" to the taste, much less good for you! These folks (sellers) have lost touch with reality! I see the product as poison and I always will. Sadly I got my 90+ grandmother on the stuff when I knew no better and she too felt poisioned. She was having night sweats like a woman in menopause! Sadly I wonder if it contrbuted to her demise...because she was never well after trying Reliv. Shame on you Reliv sales people. Start listening to your clients!

Unknown said...

Actually since it is soy based the product will cause higher estrogen levels. Because of this my mother has had a recurring sarcoma that is estrogen fed for the last 8 years. This product is not safe in my opinion. I wish she would stop taking it.

Anonymous said...

All I can say is after taking Reliv NOW as instructed for only 3 days, my depression has increased dramatically! I cry all of my waking hours and sleep all night and most of the day.
I do not believe it is just cleansing my body of all the toxins. A good massage followed by drinking a lot of water actually works where this stuff doesn't. They will tell me that I haven't been taking it enough time and up the dose. I know my body and my depression symptoms
This stuff is scary!I AM GOING TO RESEARCH THE EFFECTS OF SOY ON THE BODY.