This isn't OK is it? Forever Living on FB.

[IHeartKingThistle]

I have a couple of FB friends deeply into Forever Living at the moment. I'd hide them but there's some weird fascination in watching it play out.

Anyway one of them has linked something today where a FL person is telling a story about a relative of theirs with cancer who wasn't tolerating chemo and is now doing much better after drinking Aloe Vera gel. It's not making any claims that it treats cancer (it says he now could be strong enough to restart treatment) and it's only anecdotal but it just doesn't sit right with me. I have no experience of the products at all btw.

AIBU to feel a bit uncomfortable about that?

Not superior...exactly the same...just up to 5 times more expensive.

I blocked someone who had recently got into FL at the point she suggested that aloe vera could actually have a curative effect on my DH's Stage 4 bowel cancer. But not before I sent her a message saying just how fucking wrong her suggestion was.

PS. They'll say anything to make a sale. Same person had approached a friend whose child has ASD. Same sort of crass claims made.

I have an awful confession. When I was about 21 and an evangelical vegan, I actually believed all the stuff I read in a book about self healing through diet.

I was a complete idiot. I actually made some fucking awful wholemeal scones for a person I knew who was dying of cancer.

I will never live it down. Thankfully his family threw them in the bin is still speaking to me, they are lovely people

I meant well but I was so stupid

Trying to make money out of this sort of thing is really wrong.

It's been illegal to advertise and sell "cures" for cancer in the UK since the 1939 cancer act.

Again from Wikipedia -

The Act's most notable provision is a clause prohibiting taking any part in publication, except under specified conditions, of advertisements that "offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof". Prosecutions do take place, but are rare.

^The expression “advertisement” includes any notice, circular, label, wrapper or other document, and any announcement made orally or by any means of producing or transmitting sounds.

The Act provides for exceptions in making material available to registered medical and nursing personnel and pharmacists, and for material produced by hospitals and local authorities.^

I love to hate FL nuts. I have 2 on my facebook friends list, and like the OP I cant bring myself to hide it because I just devour how stupid they are and can't wait to see how it all pans out for them (and I dont wish ill on them, if they can make a success of it great, though hopefully not by making a total asshat of themselves by flogging and brainwashing their friends)

I get a hair up my arse when I see stupid claims about how with their clean 9 you won't put the weight back on because you have "rebalanced your system" or such bollocks. Any kind of false claims I just give a face and wait for them to try and justify it but they never do.

I'm not super against multi level marketing or direct marketing - some organisations sell products people want or might want, and if the product speaks for itself and there isn't a saturated market, you could have some success. Some people do quite well with Avon, Stella and Dot, Cambridge Diet etc (the latter where you have had to have achieved a healthy weight using the product, have decent training to sell the product, and where the referrals come via the website and maybe doing the occasional wedding fayre or local advertisement, rather than harranguling your friends about it). But you have to wonder really whether or not that many people are sitting around waiting for aloe vera to change their life, if its is indeed capable of doing that.

One of the women is full on and added me to a group called "the magic of aloe". I deleted myself instantly. 2 days later she added me again. I deleted myself again. Hint, taken? Time will tell...

Oh good, not just me then!

it wont work for everyone there is a 60 day money back guarantee so if it doesn't work if it does nothing or if it makes you ill you wont lose out

all im saying is it works on my sons skin and it was falling fucking off! (ok exaggeration it just looked like i had gone over him with an electric sander) and if it works for a cancer sufferer well done who are we to tell her your not feeling better its a placebo effect your going to die sooner than you wish is it our place? really? to say that to someone with cancer? i would never ever have the balls to do that!

follow the rules of cancer if it works and its legal say nothing if it doesn't work if they are being taken advantage off speak up

seriously i lost my nan to this disease if giving her aloe vera juice could have saved her i would have bought shares in the company

YANBU op. I think FL & all similar products should be banned from FB. I also think they should go a step further and ban them altogether like other pyramid schemes

The post says they took the testimonials to show the consultant and he said 'let's get him on this straight away'.

The post says they took the testimonials to show the consultant and he said 'let's get him on this straight away'.

Finding that a tad hard to believe.

My son has scoliosis and I joined the Scoliosis UK Facebook group....there are people on there pedalling the Aloe stuff as a magic cure for scoliosis.
How the hell drinking some squashed up leaf can change the direction your child's spine is growing in I don't know...

I tried the Aloe Vera cooling aftersun from Lidl! and it is disgusting...nasty sticky, gloopy texture and burns like hell!

I've had a flyer from a nursery mum. She's raving about how being involved has been helping her through her own cancer. As lovely as she is in person, I can't contemplate engaging with her on this topic.

"What harm?" It's harmful if it encourages vulnerable people to part with money they don't have - either as customers or as distributors.

If aloe Vera was as good as fl claims surely a pharmaceutical company would have snapped it up and be making millions. Funny they haven't !

seriously i lost my nan to this disease if giving her aloe vera juice could have saved her i would have bought shares in the company

I guarantee you it would not have made a jot of difference to your nan's prognosis.

With the vast investments of time and money into cancer research, do you genuinely believe that FL have somehow stumbled upon plant-based elixir that has a positive impact upon cancer, yet this has somehow eluded the whole of the medical research community?

And do you see that the 'if it works, I'll buy shares in the company' mentality is exacting what they're finessing in order to line their pockets? They prey on desperation and plant seeds of promise in order to manipulate people into buying the product.

It's terrifying that people are so gullible.

Nothing wrong with trying anything or everything, the shame comes when people do try and manipulate others to sell things. Given how prevalent that is, if I saw a friend claiming this and knew them to be truthful I'd believe them, for anyone else selling a product I'd be highly sceptical. I'd be less sceptical if it was Aloe itself they spoke about rather then an actual branded product.

Aloe was great for my skin when burnt, it majorly aggravated my eczema though on some parts of my body. The juice made me bloated and have bad bad wind, not to mention tasted like wank.

If it works for your DC chicken, that's great, aloe works for my sunburn burn too.

it wont work for everyone there is a 60 day money back guarantee so if it doesn't work if it does nothing or if it makes you ill you wont lose out

Well you might if you were gullible enough to believe that using these products could have a significantly curative effect on an advanced cancer. A 60 day money back guarantee is difficult to claim from the grave.

These people prey on the fear that cancer strikes into every heart and for that I find them despicable. I totally agree with MrsDeVere that FL products will not help anyone on chemo. Other than to empty the wallet of the person on chemo, of course.

Some herbal medicines are great but the medicine-ones have already been snapped up by Pharma companies that manufacture them. I take some herbals for a ongoing condition, my friends have seen it work well for me but herbals like meds work different for different people.

And just to be clear, none of the FL is herbal medicines, it's supplements- totally different ballgame.

supplement is too generous a term.