My mother in law is trying to force me to take Reliv vitamins to help with my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome type illness. I am skeptical of any powder that claims to do so many wonderous things, especially when it is part of an MLM-style selling program.
I’ve searched the net, and all I can find are people selling the stuff. Strangely enough, they all rave about it. I don’t want to hear from a reseller, I want to hear from people who have tried it, and get honest feedback.
Another thing that has me concerned is that the levels of vitamins in the powders seem to have no relation to the RDI levels for those vitamins, and in fact it contains Vitamin A, which I found listed as “a vitamin that should only be taken by people with deficiencies” because it is linked to cancers.
I have taken this product for a week (hey, she ordered it for me, and I have to pay her for it, so I figured I should try it), but have noticed no effect. For $50 a tin, I think it should be instant! Spoke to my brother in law about it tonight, and he says they say that for every year you’ve been sick, you have to give it one extra month to start working. I’ve been sick for 6 years, and there is no way on Earth I’m going to spend $1200 hoping that it will kick in after six months.
I just want opinions from people who aren’t trying to sell it. The whole think reeks of scam.
Just my educated opinion, backed by tons of research that vitamin and mineral supplements do nothing for CFS, or much of anything else, either. Unless you have a specific deficiency such as pernicious anemia, beri-beri, or scurvy. Then they’ll fix the disease associated only with that deficienty.
This does not include 99.999% of the people that take these supplements.
People with malabsorption may need supplements also, but do just fine with the generics, not the fancy $50 a pop ones.
Anyone else? I’m really very anxious for more information on this product. Please offer any advice you can. I need to be able to present my mother in law with a good reason when I tell her that, not only do I not want any more, but I want to return the unused portion for the money back guarantee.
I haven’t tried this particular supplement, but I’ve tried lots of others. In no particular order, here are my thoughts.
People with CFS don’t respond in identical ways to identical treatments. Maybe one CFS patient benefits from 100 IU of B12. Another patient needs 250 IU. Another patient gets sick with even a tiny dose of B12. I personally cannot take vitamin C. It makes me horribly ill. So taking something like this, with so many things mixed together, you have no way of knowing how each thing is affecting you. Maybe one vitamin is helping you, but another one is hurting you.
Some doctors treat CFS with large doses of vitamins. But they deliver those vitamins intravenously. Many CFS patients can’t properly metabolize supplements. So taking them orally can be a waste.
I personally get sicker if I take a large dose of vitamins. I feel awful, and urinate frequently. My theory is my body has to work extra hard to flush the extra vitamins out of my body. Urinating so much dehydrates me and aggravates my neurally mediated syncope (low blood pressure and fainting). Also, I feel like while my body is trying to flush out the excess of one thing, other vitamins I need get flushed out as well. So I end up worse than when I started.
I take Guaifenesin now (which I’ve mentioned before - brief plug - http://www.guaidoc.com ). Before that I took a lot of other things. When I wanted to take a vitamin or mineral, I tried to find a pill that only had one vitamin or mineral. I also tried to find it in as small a dose as possible. This way I could experiment. I could find the exact amount of that item that I needed.
If this particular blend of vitamins helps you, you can make up your own blend cheaper. There are companies that will sell you vitamins in powder form. Make your own Reliv! You can even adjust it for your own needs, which you can’t do if you just keep taking their blend.
The only supplements I found that helped me were Malic Acid, magnesium, and zinc. I took the three together every day and it did help. The trouble with magnesium is, it can give you diarrhea. Many people take calcium to offset this. Many people find that these supplements help with CFS, but again, every CFS patient is different. If you wanted to try any of these you would have to experiment to find the right dose, and you might only need one or two of them.
Yes, too much vitamin A is dangerous. I am very sensitive to it. I would take it for a few days, and then have to stop because it would make me sicker. Be very careful with vitamin A, because vitamin A toxicity mimics the signs of vitamin A deficiency. In the US, the FDA is currently re-evaluating the recommended minimum dosage of vitamin A, and considering naming a maximum daily dosage. Also, vitamin A is not a water soluble vitamin, it is a fat soluble vitamin. So it can build up to very dangerous levels in your body.
I’m suspicious of that “you have to give it an extra month for every year you’ve been sick for it to start working.” That sounds like a way of stringing you along. Some medications and supplements do take a while to make a noticable change, but it shouldn’t take months! I mean, I’ve been sick 20 years. Would I have to take this stuff for 2 years before it STARTED working?
I hope this helps. I’m glad your family is concerned about you, and want to help, but I understand how frustrating it can be, too.
I didn’t want to take Reliv in the first place because of the Vitamin C levels - I also get very sick when I take Vitamin C. The fact that you have to drink this stuff in fruit juice means you get even more Vitamin C than what’s marked on the tin. Last time I took C suppliments, I wound up getting the flu and glandular fever, which lead to my FMS/CFS. I’ve only taken Reliv a week, and I’ve already got the flu again! Inconclusive, but an annoying coincidence.
I’m going to stop taking it, see my doc and get him to recommend something better and then go see my mother in law and tell her the doctor advised that <product x> is better than Reliv. I will also try to get some information from him on Vitamin A and the risks associated with it. My mother in law is giving this stuff to her mother, who is recovering from a stroke. I read that Vitamin A has been linked to strokes, so it may not be a good idea to be giving it to the poor lady.
What is the company that sells this stuff? I would ask if any case-control clinical trials have been done. You might want to look at http://www.quackwatch.com/ to see if there is anything there about this company.