'C-V distance' may be a factor in how easily a woman has an orgasm.
By Regina Nuzzo, Special to The Times
February 10, 2008
During intercourse, the female orgasm can be elusive. What frustrated woman hasn't wondered: Am I simply, um, put together differently than other women?
Kim Wallen, professor of psychology and behavioral neuroendocrinology at Emory University, is busy doing the math to find out. And, yes, he says, simple physiology may have a lot to do with orgasm ease -- specifically, how far a woman's clitoris lies from her vagina.
That number might predict how easily a woman can experience orgasms from penile stimulation alone -- without help from fingers, toys or tongue -- during sexual intercourse.
In fact, there's even an easy "rule of thumb," Wallen says: Clitoris-vagina distances less than 2.5 cm -- that's roughly from the tip of your thumb to your first knuckle -- tend to yield reliable orgasms during sex. More than a thumb's length? Regular intercourse alone typically might not do the trick.
Wallen is not the first to check into this "C-V distance." In the 1920s, Princess Marie Bonaparte, a French psychoanalyst and close friend of Sigmund Freud, grew fed up with her own lack of orgasmic response. In her professional practice, she saw plenty of patients with the same complaint ("frigidity," in the parlance of the day).
She blamed physiology, not psyche.
Bonaparte collected C-V and orgasm data from her patients and in 1924 delicately published her observations under a pseudonym. (She also persuaded an Austrian surgeon to experiment on her, by cutting around her clitoris and stretching it closer to her vagina -- with disappointing results.)
Recently, Wallen dug up Bonaparte's measurements and analyzed them with modern statistical techniques. Sure enough, he found a striking correlation. Now he is hoping to do his own measurement study.
Preliminary work has revealed that only about 7% of women always have orgasms with sex alone, he says, while 27% say they never do. The current research hold-up: developing a reliable, at-home technique for measuring C-V distance, especially one that can deal with stretchy skin.
Women with a large C-V distance should not be discouraged, Wallen says. "Personally, I don't think the inability to experience no-hands, penis-only intercourse with orgasm says anything about a happy sex life," he says. "Maybe it could allow couples to be a bit more inventive in how they have sex."
He acknowledges that the measure might become one more standard women feel they need to live up to, like breast size. "People would ask, 'Is your distance really small?' "
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Call him doctor 'Orgasmatron'
Call him Dr. Stuart Meloy stumbled upon an alternative -- and pleasurable -- use for an electrode stimulation device that treats pain.
By Regina Nuzzo, Special to The Times
February 10, 2008
Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.
He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient's spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, "the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan," says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.
Asked what was wrong, she replied, "You'll have to teach my husband how to do that."
Meloy moved the electrodes until he found the correct, pain-numbing position on the spine. "I went home, had a funny story to tell my wife," he says.
He almost left it at that.
But the next day, he told the story to some colleagues, and a gynecologist commented that one-third of his patients complain of orgasm dysfunction.
Might this, Meloy mused, potentially help such people?
He started a formal pilot study of the device, which is approved for use in treating bladder and pain problems, implanting it in the spines of 11 women, some of whom had never had an orgasm. The women, who were instructed to keep a record of all their sexual experiences, were allowed to use the device for nine days adlibitum.
Meloy's study, published in 2006 in the journal Neuromodulation, reported that 10 out of 11 of the patients felt pleasurable stimulation from the device, including increased vaginal lubrication. Five of the women had previously lost their ability to have orgasms; four regained it with the device. (The fifth never used her device during the nine-day trial because of work stress, she said.)
None of the five women who had never had an orgasm was able to experience one with the device, however. "They said it was pleasurable, but it wasn't sending them over the edge," Meloy says.
The experimental implant -- now trademarked by Meloy as the Orgasmatron after the orgasm-inducing cylinder in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" -- rests on the skin just above the belt line. Two electrodes snake into the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord. A video-game-like remote control allows women (or their partners) to turn electrical pulses on and off and fiddle with timing and intensity.
Electrodes in the right place (determined partly by trial and error) seem to interact with various nerve networks, Meloy says, including nerves from the pelvis that enter the spinal highway near the tailbone. Stimulating those nerves shoots pleasure signals straight up to the part of the brain that processes information coming from the genitalia.
Women who have used the device say they feel as if their clitoris and vagina are actually being stimulated, to quite realistic effect. ("One woman asked me, 'Would it be considered adultery if I gave the remote control to someone other than my husband?' " Meloy says.)
Some volunteers also report fleeting episodes of clenched foot muscles, Meloy says, probably a result of electrical pulses leaving the spine and stimulating nearby motor nerves. (He wonders if the phenomenon might somehow be related to a common orgasm description: "My toes curled.")
And when the device's pulse intensity is cranked up to maximum, Meloy says, some women find their vaginal and rectal muscles squeezing rhythmically in time with the pulses, even before the orgasmic finale.
Meloy thinks that practice, or at least past experience, is key to success with the device. Without prior orgasm experiences, crucial neural pathways may never have been laid down, possibly explaining why women who'd never had orgasms did not experience one during the nine-day trial. Even with extra stimulation from the device, Meloy says, nine days may not have been enough time to build pathways up to full orgasmic strength.
And even the successful women in the trial lost their recovered orgasmic ability when the devices were removed. Meloy hopes that longer access to the device would let women practice their newfound skills and fortify neural pathways -- a sort of orgasmic neural rehabilitation.
Meloy says he has also implanted two impotent men with the device. Both volunteers were able to achieve an erection, he says, and reportedly had powerful ejaculations.
Meloy sees two potential male markets for the device. One includes men with erectile dysfunction who take nitrates for heart disease and therefore cannot take Viagra or similar medications, like Jack Nicholson's character in the film "Something's Gotta Give." The other might be recreational users, men interested in boosting their existing erections and ejaculations -- and willing to pay for elective surgery.
Design work is underway to get the cost of the procedure down to about $12,000 -- roughly the price of breast implants, Meloy says.
He plans to shrink the size of the internal processor to the size of two sticks of gum and the external processor to roughly the size of a belt pager, all while ensuring that the system is durable enough to withstand shear forces of typical use.
Before Food and Drug Administration approval could be granted and the device sent to market -- Meloy estimates that's probably still two or three years away -- the new design will need to be tested in another study, he says. But there will be no animal testing phase. "I don't know how to ask animals, 'Where do you feel the tingling?' or 'Do you want a cigarette?' "
By Regina Nuzzo, Special to The Times
February 10, 2008
Dr. Stuart Meloy never set out to study orgasms. It was an accident.
He was in the operating room one day in 1998, implanting electrodes into a patient's spine to treat her chronic leg pain. (The electrodes are connected to a device that fires impulses to the brain to block pain signals.) But when he turned on the power, "the patient suddenly let out something between a shriek and moan," says Meloy, an anesthesiologist and pain specialist in North Carolina.
Asked what was wrong, she replied, "You'll have to teach my husband how to do that."
Meloy moved the electrodes until he found the correct, pain-numbing position on the spine. "I went home, had a funny story to tell my wife," he says.
He almost left it at that.
But the next day, he told the story to some colleagues, and a gynecologist commented that one-third of his patients complain of orgasm dysfunction.
Might this, Meloy mused, potentially help such people?
He started a formal pilot study of the device, which is approved for use in treating bladder and pain problems, implanting it in the spines of 11 women, some of whom had never had an orgasm. The women, who were instructed to keep a record of all their sexual experiences, were allowed to use the device for nine days adlibitum.
Meloy's study, published in 2006 in the journal Neuromodulation, reported that 10 out of 11 of the patients felt pleasurable stimulation from the device, including increased vaginal lubrication. Five of the women had previously lost their ability to have orgasms; four regained it with the device. (The fifth never used her device during the nine-day trial because of work stress, she said.)
None of the five women who had never had an orgasm was able to experience one with the device, however. "They said it was pleasurable, but it wasn't sending them over the edge," Meloy says.
The experimental implant -- now trademarked by Meloy as the Orgasmatron after the orgasm-inducing cylinder in Woody Allen's 1973 movie "Sleeper" -- rests on the skin just above the belt line. Two electrodes snake into the space between the vertebrae and the spinal cord. A video-game-like remote control allows women (or their partners) to turn electrical pulses on and off and fiddle with timing and intensity.
Electrodes in the right place (determined partly by trial and error) seem to interact with various nerve networks, Meloy says, including nerves from the pelvis that enter the spinal highway near the tailbone. Stimulating those nerves shoots pleasure signals straight up to the part of the brain that processes information coming from the genitalia.
Women who have used the device say they feel as if their clitoris and vagina are actually being stimulated, to quite realistic effect. ("One woman asked me, 'Would it be considered adultery if I gave the remote control to someone other than my husband?' " Meloy says.)
Some volunteers also report fleeting episodes of clenched foot muscles, Meloy says, probably a result of electrical pulses leaving the spine and stimulating nearby motor nerves. (He wonders if the phenomenon might somehow be related to a common orgasm description: "My toes curled.")
And when the device's pulse intensity is cranked up to maximum, Meloy says, some women find their vaginal and rectal muscles squeezing rhythmically in time with the pulses, even before the orgasmic finale.
Meloy thinks that practice, or at least past experience, is key to success with the device. Without prior orgasm experiences, crucial neural pathways may never have been laid down, possibly explaining why women who'd never had orgasms did not experience one during the nine-day trial. Even with extra stimulation from the device, Meloy says, nine days may not have been enough time to build pathways up to full orgasmic strength.
And even the successful women in the trial lost their recovered orgasmic ability when the devices were removed. Meloy hopes that longer access to the device would let women practice their newfound skills and fortify neural pathways -- a sort of orgasmic neural rehabilitation.
Meloy says he has also implanted two impotent men with the device. Both volunteers were able to achieve an erection, he says, and reportedly had powerful ejaculations.
Meloy sees two potential male markets for the device. One includes men with erectile dysfunction who take nitrates for heart disease and therefore cannot take Viagra or similar medications, like Jack Nicholson's character in the film "Something's Gotta Give." The other might be recreational users, men interested in boosting their existing erections and ejaculations -- and willing to pay for elective surgery.
Design work is underway to get the cost of the procedure down to about $12,000 -- roughly the price of breast implants, Meloy says.
He plans to shrink the size of the internal processor to the size of two sticks of gum and the external processor to roughly the size of a belt pager, all while ensuring that the system is durable enough to withstand shear forces of typical use.
Before Food and Drug Administration approval could be granted and the device sent to market -- Meloy estimates that's probably still two or three years away -- the new design will need to be tested in another study, he says. But there will be no animal testing phase. "I don't know how to ask animals, 'Where do you feel the tingling?' or 'Do you want a cigarette?' "
Robot boosts hip surgery success
Researchers say that a surgical robot developed by UK scientists makes hip operations so simple that even students can get good results.
Normally, operations using chrome alloy to resurface the ball of the hip joint are notoriously difficult and require years of experience to perfect.
But untrained students using the robot for "virtual" operations have been able to achieve high levels of accuracy.
Trials of the new technology are under way at four British hospitals.
Up to 5,000 hip resurfacing operations are done each year.
Learning curve
Normally, inexperienced surgeons face a steep learning curve when learning to carry out these operations, the researchers said.
And if hip bones are repaired incorrectly, wear and tear occurs, requiring patients to undergo further painful and expensive corrective operations.
To prove how easy the new technology was to use, the researchers studied 32 medical students doing operations on a model of a hip joint.
In a similar way to GPS navigation systems, the technology senses the movement of the surgical tools and compares it to detailed images of the bones. It thus allows surgeons to see a "real-time" virtual model of the progress of the operation.
This could significantly improve a patient's health and wellbeing and ensure they do not have to undergo repeat operations
Professor Justin Cobb
Developed by PhD students at Imperial College London, the robot then plots where surgical incisions should be made and calculates the correct angles for inserting chrome alloy parts needed to repair the hip bone.
Students were able to carry out the procedure three times more accurately compared to when they used conventional methods to manually navigate the joint.
Clinical trials of the device, called the Wayfinder, are currently being carried out at Warwick Hospital, Bath Hospital, Truro Hospital and the London Clinic.
Expert levels
Surgeons can practise the operation "virtually" before carrying out the real thing.
Professor Justin Cobb, head of the Biosurgery and Surgical Technology Group at Imperial College London, told delegates at the British Society for Computer Aided Orthopaedic Surgery Conference in Glasgow that the device rapidly turned untrained surgeons into experts.
"The reason for using students in the study was to show that even students, with the right technology, can achieve expert levels straight away.
"More importantly, we've also demonstrated that no patient has to be on an inexperienced surgeon's learning curve.
"This could significantly improve a patient's health and wellbeing and ensure they do not have to undergo repeat operations."
Stephen Cannon, president of the British Orthopaedic Association, said hip operations were among the most difficult areas in orthopaedic surgery. He said the tool showed promise for use in training and in the operating theatre.
"Further research will be required to fully establish value to patients. The technology will need to be cost-effective if it is to be taken up by the NHS."
Normally, operations using chrome alloy to resurface the ball of the hip joint are notoriously difficult and require years of experience to perfect.
But untrained students using the robot for "virtual" operations have been able to achieve high levels of accuracy.
Trials of the new technology are under way at four British hospitals.
Up to 5,000 hip resurfacing operations are done each year.
Learning curve
Normally, inexperienced surgeons face a steep learning curve when learning to carry out these operations, the researchers said.
And if hip bones are repaired incorrectly, wear and tear occurs, requiring patients to undergo further painful and expensive corrective operations.
To prove how easy the new technology was to use, the researchers studied 32 medical students doing operations on a model of a hip joint.
In a similar way to GPS navigation systems, the technology senses the movement of the surgical tools and compares it to detailed images of the bones. It thus allows surgeons to see a "real-time" virtual model of the progress of the operation.
This could significantly improve a patient's health and wellbeing and ensure they do not have to undergo repeat operations
Professor Justin Cobb
Developed by PhD students at Imperial College London, the robot then plots where surgical incisions should be made and calculates the correct angles for inserting chrome alloy parts needed to repair the hip bone.
Students were able to carry out the procedure three times more accurately compared to when they used conventional methods to manually navigate the joint.
Clinical trials of the device, called the Wayfinder, are currently being carried out at Warwick Hospital, Bath Hospital, Truro Hospital and the London Clinic.
Expert levels
Surgeons can practise the operation "virtually" before carrying out the real thing.
Professor Justin Cobb, head of the Biosurgery and Surgical Technology Group at Imperial College London, told delegates at the British Society for Computer Aided Orthopaedic Surgery Conference in Glasgow that the device rapidly turned untrained surgeons into experts.
"The reason for using students in the study was to show that even students, with the right technology, can achieve expert levels straight away.
"More importantly, we've also demonstrated that no patient has to be on an inexperienced surgeon's learning curve.
"This could significantly improve a patient's health and wellbeing and ensure they do not have to undergo repeat operations."
Stephen Cannon, president of the British Orthopaedic Association, said hip operations were among the most difficult areas in orthopaedic surgery. He said the tool showed promise for use in training and in the operating theatre.
"Further research will be required to fully establish value to patients. The technology will need to be cost-effective if it is to be taken up by the NHS."
Campaign Targets Noise-Induced Hearing Loss in Kids
Sat Feb 9, 11:47 PM ET
SATURDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- About one in eight -- or about 5 million -- American youngsters have noise-induced hearing loss, something that's entirely preventable, says the American Academy of Audiology.ADVERTISEMENT
The academy has launched a public education campaign, called Turn it to the Left, to boost awareness of the problem and explain how it can be prevented simply by turning down the volume of personal music players.
"The hearing loss kids experience now will accelerate the hearing loss normally associated with aging when these kids are in their 60s and 70s," Alison Grimes, academy president and head of the Audiology Clinic at UCLA Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
"Hearing loss is the third most common health problem in the United States and affects more than 31 million Americans. With the Turn if to the Left campaign, we hope to educate kids to turn down the volume and prevent hearing loss before it begins."
Grimes said it's a simple thing to turn down the volume, avoid areas with excessive noise, or use earplugs, but many children aren't doing it.
"Parents and teachers need to help educate kids at home and at school," she said.
Because children seldom complain about symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss, it can be difficult to diagnose. Symptoms may include distorted or muffled sound, difficulty understanding speech, or ringing in the ears, which is a sign of imminent damage. Youngsters may not even be aware of hearing loss, but it can be detected during a hearing evaluation.
"Kids need to have their hearing checked regularly by an audiologist, but more often than not, children don't see an audiologist until there is a problem," Grimes said. "Hearing is critical to children's safety and to the development of speech, listening, learning and social skills. With a little education, a commitment to turning down the volume, and regular visits to an audiologist, hearing loss can be prevented."
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more about noise-induced hearing loss.
SATURDAY, Feb. 9 (HealthDay News) -- About one in eight -- or about 5 million -- American youngsters have noise-induced hearing loss, something that's entirely preventable, says the American Academy of Audiology.ADVERTISEMENT
The academy has launched a public education campaign, called Turn it to the Left, to boost awareness of the problem and explain how it can be prevented simply by turning down the volume of personal music players.
"The hearing loss kids experience now will accelerate the hearing loss normally associated with aging when these kids are in their 60s and 70s," Alison Grimes, academy president and head of the Audiology Clinic at UCLA Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.
"Hearing loss is the third most common health problem in the United States and affects more than 31 million Americans. With the Turn if to the Left campaign, we hope to educate kids to turn down the volume and prevent hearing loss before it begins."
Grimes said it's a simple thing to turn down the volume, avoid areas with excessive noise, or use earplugs, but many children aren't doing it.
"Parents and teachers need to help educate kids at home and at school," she said.
Because children seldom complain about symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss, it can be difficult to diagnose. Symptoms may include distorted or muffled sound, difficulty understanding speech, or ringing in the ears, which is a sign of imminent damage. Youngsters may not even be aware of hearing loss, but it can be detected during a hearing evaluation.
"Kids need to have their hearing checked regularly by an audiologist, but more often than not, children don't see an audiologist until there is a problem," Grimes said. "Hearing is critical to children's safety and to the development of speech, listening, learning and social skills. With a little education, a commitment to turning down the volume, and regular visits to an audiologist, hearing loss can be prevented."
More information
The U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders has more about noise-induced hearing loss.
Saturday, February 9, 2008
Company builds $1 billion juice business
By PAUL FOY, AP Business Writer Sat Feb 9, 6:51 AM ET
SALT LAKE CITY - On stage at a sales convention, XanGo executive vice president Joseph Morton said that when he first stumbled across mangosteen, a tropical fruit with purported curative powers, "I didn't have to have it confirmed in the New England medical journal before I would listen." ADVERTISEMENT
The multilevel marketing company has built a huge business around its mangosteen-based juice, which it promotes as an immunity booster. The company still hasn't proved its health benefits — which it says could include a stronger immune system and improved joint function — to skeptical experts. XanGo's Web site includes a disclaimer, noting the juice is not meant to treat or prevent disease. A lab test arranged by The Associated Press found its antioxidant power to be on par with other fruit juices.
Morton, a 37-year-old triathlete nicknamed Ironman Joe, was on a business trip in Malaysia when he saw mangosteen, a white delicacy wrapped in a blood-red leathery shell, on the dessert menu.
From that introduction, Morton and his business partners capitalized on a new brand category of liquid "super-fruits" that is "doing gangbusters," said Jeff Hilton, a partner at Integrated Marketing Group, a branding and packaging consultant.
XanGo has more than two dozen competitors that sell fruit juices, powdered drinks and vitamin fizz tablets. Tahitian Noni International Inc. sold $2 billion worth of noni juice, from the French Polynesia fruit, in its first 10 years by 2006. MonaVie, also of Utah, bottles a blend of acai juice from the Amazon basin berry. Pure Fruit Technologies Inc. underprices XanGo on a mangosteen-based juice that sells in health food stores.
XanGo, a private company that doesn't reveal financial statements, said at the October convention that since its launch five years ago, sales of the mangosteen-based juice topped a cumulative $1 billion. It ships out bottles by the case from Spanish Fork, Utah, and says it has 700,000 unsalaried sales associates in 17 countries.
"That's the only product they sell, and people are taking it around the world," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who quaffs the purplish-color XanGo and pops multivitamins and other supplements every day. Hatch was the prime sponsor of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which allows the sale of supplements unless the Food and Drug Administration can prove them harmful.
An independent lab test performed for The Associated Press shows XanGo's antioxidant strength is no better than other readily available fruit juices, yet it costs nearly $40 a bottle. XanGo insists mangosteen contains other beneficial chemicals.
"My big concern with XanGo is that the business has gone a long way without showing any benefit in human trials," said Wayne Askew, director of the Division of Nutrition of the University of Utah's College of Health.
Others are skeptical, too.
"It's a 'Wizard of Oz' story," said Anthony Almada, president and chief executive of GENr8 Inc., a marketer of sports nutrition dietary supplements. "The industry is built on storytelling, and because they do it one-on-one, without advertising, they don't incur the wrath of the FDA."
Dietary supplements are a $22 billion largely unregulated business in the U.S.
For the lab test, The Associated Press shipped a 750-milliliter bottle of XanGo to Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute at Corvallis. The institute measured its antioxidant strength against store-bought juices that sell for a few dollars a bottle.
On a scale of molecular weight, XanGo's antioxidants measured 14,884 "micromoles" per liter — slightly higher than cranberry juice, but lower than black cherry and less than half the power of blueberry juice. Apple juice finished last in this test.
"In terms of its antioxidant capacity, XanGo is in the middle of the pack," said Balz Frei, the institute's director and chairman.
Antioxidants are substances added to many foods and even soap in the belief they can slow down the damage oxidation can do to cells.
Frei and other scientists emphasize that antioxidants haven't been shown to actually work inside the human body. Antioxidants are known to work in test tubes, but stomach acids could neutralize them before they can get to work destroying any cell-damaging free-oxygen radicals.
Uncertainties over testing protocols have stalled research, yet every day seems to bring another mangosteen bottler, as an Internet search will show.
XanGo's research and development manager insists mangosteen has more to offer than its so-called oxygen radical absorption capacity — a rich cocktail of other beneficial chemicals barely known to science.
"You have a fruit that's very complicated, with a lot of chemicals in it," said Mike Pugh, who dismissed antioxidant ratings as a "numbers game" He said the type of antioxidants can be more important.
Pugh believes all the scientific debate can be pointless: If mangosteen makes people feel better, he said, it must do some good.
"It helps with my severe allergies," said Tim Gardner of Hammond, Wis., a 27-year-old district manager for a chain of auto parts stories who drove nonstop with his wife and two other couples to Salt Lake City for the XanGo convention. Gardner said he became a sales recruit to lower his cost to $25 wholesale from $37.50 for a three-quarters of a liter bottle.
"You're not trying to sell the product; you're sponsoring other people," Gardner said. "Every distributor is a customer, and every customer is a distributor."
Jon Taylor, a one-time Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. distributor and trial consultant for disaffected distributors who analyzed XanGo's multitiered compensation plan at the AP's request, said it was little different from scores of other multilevel marketing ventures.
It's a formula, he said, that makes money for the top 1 percent of distributors and leaves many other recruits stockpiling products they can't sell.
"The reason you lose money is you have to buy products every month to stay good with the company," Taylor said. "That's the rub."
Bob Freeze, XanGo's vice president for public relations, dismissed Taylor as a "disgruntled" former Nu Skin recruit "who has taken up a fight to bring down any legitimate multilevel marketing company."
Provo, Utah-based Nu Skin, a $1 billion network marketing company that sells dietary supplements and skin care products, has been fined three times by the Federal Trade Commission for misrepresentations.
Successful XanGo distributors take a cut of commissions from others recruited into their chain of sales associates. Denise Villahermosa, 49, who lives in northern Virginia, sits atop an organization of 6,000 distributors — "we all use the product" — that produces more than $100,000 in monthly sales. That makes Villahermosa a top-level "premier" distributor; she gets commissions, bonuses and travel rewards for her efforts.
"We sell the XanGo story," Villahermosa said. "I share my story, how I got involved and how the product has worked for me. I wanted to stay healthy."
XanGo has been warned by the FDA for claiming that mangosteen could ward off disease or cancer. The company insists those claims were printed by a third party on a brochure at a recruitment seminar and it's not responsible.
XanGo executives said they haven't heard from the FDA since receiving a warning letter last summer and assume the case is closed.
Paul Teitell, the FDA's assistant district director in Denver, said the matter isn't settled. The agency can seize the product, stop the company from doing business or prosecute, he said.
"The fact they haven't heard from us since last summer doesn't mean the case is closed," Teitell responded. "We warned them, and what happens beyond that warning is based on the way they behave, not how we behave."
SALT LAKE CITY - On stage at a sales convention, XanGo executive vice president Joseph Morton said that when he first stumbled across mangosteen, a tropical fruit with purported curative powers, "I didn't have to have it confirmed in the New England medical journal before I would listen." ADVERTISEMENT
The multilevel marketing company has built a huge business around its mangosteen-based juice, which it promotes as an immunity booster. The company still hasn't proved its health benefits — which it says could include a stronger immune system and improved joint function — to skeptical experts. XanGo's Web site includes a disclaimer, noting the juice is not meant to treat or prevent disease. A lab test arranged by The Associated Press found its antioxidant power to be on par with other fruit juices.
Morton, a 37-year-old triathlete nicknamed Ironman Joe, was on a business trip in Malaysia when he saw mangosteen, a white delicacy wrapped in a blood-red leathery shell, on the dessert menu.
From that introduction, Morton and his business partners capitalized on a new brand category of liquid "super-fruits" that is "doing gangbusters," said Jeff Hilton, a partner at Integrated Marketing Group, a branding and packaging consultant.
XanGo has more than two dozen competitors that sell fruit juices, powdered drinks and vitamin fizz tablets. Tahitian Noni International Inc. sold $2 billion worth of noni juice, from the French Polynesia fruit, in its first 10 years by 2006. MonaVie, also of Utah, bottles a blend of acai juice from the Amazon basin berry. Pure Fruit Technologies Inc. underprices XanGo on a mangosteen-based juice that sells in health food stores.
XanGo, a private company that doesn't reveal financial statements, said at the October convention that since its launch five years ago, sales of the mangosteen-based juice topped a cumulative $1 billion. It ships out bottles by the case from Spanish Fork, Utah, and says it has 700,000 unsalaried sales associates in 17 countries.
"That's the only product they sell, and people are taking it around the world," said Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, who quaffs the purplish-color XanGo and pops multivitamins and other supplements every day. Hatch was the prime sponsor of the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which allows the sale of supplements unless the Food and Drug Administration can prove them harmful.
An independent lab test performed for The Associated Press shows XanGo's antioxidant strength is no better than other readily available fruit juices, yet it costs nearly $40 a bottle. XanGo insists mangosteen contains other beneficial chemicals.
"My big concern with XanGo is that the business has gone a long way without showing any benefit in human trials," said Wayne Askew, director of the Division of Nutrition of the University of Utah's College of Health.
Others are skeptical, too.
"It's a 'Wizard of Oz' story," said Anthony Almada, president and chief executive of GENr8 Inc., a marketer of sports nutrition dietary supplements. "The industry is built on storytelling, and because they do it one-on-one, without advertising, they don't incur the wrath of the FDA."
Dietary supplements are a $22 billion largely unregulated business in the U.S.
For the lab test, The Associated Press shipped a 750-milliliter bottle of XanGo to Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute at Corvallis. The institute measured its antioxidant strength against store-bought juices that sell for a few dollars a bottle.
On a scale of molecular weight, XanGo's antioxidants measured 14,884 "micromoles" per liter — slightly higher than cranberry juice, but lower than black cherry and less than half the power of blueberry juice. Apple juice finished last in this test.
"In terms of its antioxidant capacity, XanGo is in the middle of the pack," said Balz Frei, the institute's director and chairman.
Antioxidants are substances added to many foods and even soap in the belief they can slow down the damage oxidation can do to cells.
Frei and other scientists emphasize that antioxidants haven't been shown to actually work inside the human body. Antioxidants are known to work in test tubes, but stomach acids could neutralize them before they can get to work destroying any cell-damaging free-oxygen radicals.
Uncertainties over testing protocols have stalled research, yet every day seems to bring another mangosteen bottler, as an Internet search will show.
XanGo's research and development manager insists mangosteen has more to offer than its so-called oxygen radical absorption capacity — a rich cocktail of other beneficial chemicals barely known to science.
"You have a fruit that's very complicated, with a lot of chemicals in it," said Mike Pugh, who dismissed antioxidant ratings as a "numbers game" He said the type of antioxidants can be more important.
Pugh believes all the scientific debate can be pointless: If mangosteen makes people feel better, he said, it must do some good.
"It helps with my severe allergies," said Tim Gardner of Hammond, Wis., a 27-year-old district manager for a chain of auto parts stories who drove nonstop with his wife and two other couples to Salt Lake City for the XanGo convention. Gardner said he became a sales recruit to lower his cost to $25 wholesale from $37.50 for a three-quarters of a liter bottle.
"You're not trying to sell the product; you're sponsoring other people," Gardner said. "Every distributor is a customer, and every customer is a distributor."
Jon Taylor, a one-time Nu Skin Enterprises Inc. distributor and trial consultant for disaffected distributors who analyzed XanGo's multitiered compensation plan at the AP's request, said it was little different from scores of other multilevel marketing ventures.
It's a formula, he said, that makes money for the top 1 percent of distributors and leaves many other recruits stockpiling products they can't sell.
"The reason you lose money is you have to buy products every month to stay good with the company," Taylor said. "That's the rub."
Bob Freeze, XanGo's vice president for public relations, dismissed Taylor as a "disgruntled" former Nu Skin recruit "who has taken up a fight to bring down any legitimate multilevel marketing company."
Provo, Utah-based Nu Skin, a $1 billion network marketing company that sells dietary supplements and skin care products, has been fined three times by the Federal Trade Commission for misrepresentations.
Successful XanGo distributors take a cut of commissions from others recruited into their chain of sales associates. Denise Villahermosa, 49, who lives in northern Virginia, sits atop an organization of 6,000 distributors — "we all use the product" — that produces more than $100,000 in monthly sales. That makes Villahermosa a top-level "premier" distributor; she gets commissions, bonuses and travel rewards for her efforts.
"We sell the XanGo story," Villahermosa said. "I share my story, how I got involved and how the product has worked for me. I wanted to stay healthy."
XanGo has been warned by the FDA for claiming that mangosteen could ward off disease or cancer. The company insists those claims were printed by a third party on a brochure at a recruitment seminar and it's not responsible.
XanGo executives said they haven't heard from the FDA since receiving a warning letter last summer and assume the case is closed.
Paul Teitell, the FDA's assistant district director in Denver, said the matter isn't settled. The agency can seize the product, stop the company from doing business or prosecute, he said.
"The fact they haven't heard from us since last summer doesn't mean the case is closed," Teitell responded. "We warned them, and what happens beyond that warning is based on the way they behave, not how we behave."
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