Day +551 : “I am a lawyer! Do you think I can get cheated so easily?” (1)

I am fine today.

A lawyer came to my office today to introduce me the Xango juice – a mangosteen juice marketed by the US based multi-level marketing(MLM) company called Xango, LLC.

He showed me a brochure with a lot of testimonies about the juice. Like most MLM health products, the brochure tends to impose an impression on the reader that the juice could eradicate all health problems and cure all diseases – so called magic cure.

I told him there is no way for me to accept testimonies as evident that a product works as claimed. This is because testimonies only tell us the success stories of the product, and even this, there is also no way for us to substantiate whether they are true. In order for us to assess the product, the failure stories are as important as the success stories. Therefore, published clinical trial result in renowned journal with peer review is very important. Unfortunately, not a single MLM company could provide this, including Xango.

If I give Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to 100 patients who are undergoing cancer treatment everyday and tell them this special KFC is very expensive and contains very “powerful” ingredient that could cure their diseases. I am very sure in the end of their treatment, some patients will be giving testimonies that KFC improves their condition or even cures their diseases :-) This is why we have to be very careful with testimonies.

When the lawyer felt that it was extremely difficult to convince me to take the juice, he started to become impatient.

“I am a lawyer! Do you think I can get cheated so easily?” he questioned.

“I don’t care who you are – lawyer, doctor, even Nobel Prize winner. Convince me with clinical trial report, not who you are,” I replied.

To be continued and see you next post :-)