Product Review: Essentials, HealthPak, MyHealthPak

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Today I'll be blogging about several products, because they have a lot in common: Essentials, HealthPak, MyHealthPak.  They are what I believe to be the core nutritional products that everyone should consider taking.  They are substitutes for one another - different combinations with the same goal of comprehensive nutrition.

First, the Essentials.  Comprised of two Mega Antioxidant and Chelated Mineral tablets, taken twice a day (that's 8 pills a day), the Essentials are the core formula that Dr. Myron Wentz used in his research decades ago, and it's the formula that founded USANA - enhanced every few years.  When I first joined USANA in 1996, I was taking the Essentials, and noticed a distinct improvement in my health.  I used to tell people I was 22 going on 45.  I had low energy, depression, hair loss, all kinds of things.  The Essentials didn't magically cure me, but I felt better and my symptoms were reduced.  I actually was told by a doctor that I had the health of a sedentary man in his mid 40s, and it would take years to reverse the damage done by ten Whoppers a week (yes, I'm serious).  That was a wakeup call - I knew I had to change something, but it took years and several setbacks before I would have the epiphany to actually change my habits.  Fast forward to 2009, with glimpses of stress, moves, family crises, horrible eating habits for the first decade.

When I was looking for a solution to my personal health crisis (no, you don't get the details), I remembered my positive experience with the Essentials, but knew I needed to unleash the Kraken on the free radicals I'd allowed to take over.  Enter The HealthPak - USANA's top of the line multi-vitamin product.  It's the Essentials plus an Active Calcium and an Antioxidant Booster with Grapeseed extract, Alpha Lipolic Acid, and as much resveratrol as you'd find in 5 bottles of wine.  Read the science and research as deeply as I have, and you'll see it's truly powerful stuff - in travel-friendly packets instead of bottles. For most of the past 17 months, I've taken the HealthPak and seen a consistent improvement in a lot of health issues that I struggled with for a decade or longer. I used to feel old and weak, but not so much anymore. I used to struggle with physical energy, even to breathe at times, but it's much easier now. I know I'm on the right path.


MyHealthPak: Absolute genius.  Who says, "I want to take the world's best-quality nutritional products and customize them into travel-friendly packets, with my name and custom label?"  Whoever introduced the idea, you rock.  Whoever convinced management to invest bajillions of dollars for the equipment, you rock also.   Now, add in the special pills you can add in - higher, more cost-efficient doses like Proflavanol C200, Visionex DS, and CoQunone 100.  I've created what I call a Zombie Plague Prevention Pack with the Essentials, vitamin D, along with Hepasil DTX and Proflavanol C200 - which use the new Hybrid Nutritional Technology.  That's a whole other blog post.

With HealthPak and MyHealthPak, if a friend gets sick, I can offer to share a few packets along with the nutritional information, which is printed on the box.  The sealed packets make certain that they're avoiding contamination.  When I've shared the HealthPak, in most cases I've had the friend remark how much better they feel and how they're impressed with how fast they recovered - two days instead of a week.  As for me:  I've had one sick day in 17 months. Wait, I was sick?  Yes, I admit it.  I broke my wrist and for a month all but stopped taking my vitamins because I needed two hands to use the pill crusher.  Someone at work got the sniffles, then another, then me. One Saturday I woke up with a familar headache.  I got my wife's help to crush the Essentials, and added 2000 IU of vitamin D.  Repeat twice a day.  Sunday was rough, but I was walking around and making jokes. I took Monday off to be sure I didn't infect coworkers.  I was able to attend meetings by phone and do all of my work, which as a database administrator requires mental focus.  I have no doubt that the nutritional support was connected to my healing.*

This isn't a cure for the common cold.  There isn't a "cure" - there is, however, the immune system.  Let's use a military analogy, because, after all, the immune system is our internal version of the armed forces.  When you send troops into a battle, do you starve them, or do you feed them well and give them tools to do their highly trained job?  I once read that a Navy SEAL's training diet is over 10,000 calories a day.  I'd rather have that guy defending my country with his bare hands than a 90 pound weakling trying to lift a sword.

Give your immune system what it needs to defend you from disease.  As you can see from my experience above, if you stop getting the cold and flu for a year, you haven't cured it - your immune system is just dealing with invaders more effectively.  It's also doing a better job defending you against free radicals that turn cholesterol into arterial plaque and turn healthy cells into cancerous cells.  Cancer and heart disease are not inevitable.  You can do something about them, too - with proper nutrition.

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
 

Not just vitamins...

Over the past few months, my coworkers have witnessed improvements in my health. I've lost weight, and kept it off. I've got more energy than I used to - which gave me the stamina to work through some intense times, and earn a promotion.

I've also avoided the numerous plagues around the office - all but one. Every time someone I work with would get sick, I'd give them a few days' supply of the HealthPak I take.

"Here, this will help your immune system fight off whatever you've got."

Some would answer, "But it's just a cold/flu/the-crud and I'll be better in a week or two." Ok, don't take my help. Suffer for a week or two. No, no, I'm trying to help here.

"Just try it." Some do, some don't.

Within two days the response of those who take the HealthPak is unanimous: "I can't believe I feel so much better - it usually knocks me out for a week or two." Sometimes it's:

I have more energy.

I can think straighter.

I can handle stress better.

So last week, about 50% of the office staff was sick at once - the local weather had temperatures swinging from 70 to 30 and back three times in a week, so getting sick was almost guaranteed. It didn't help that our office's HVAC blew cold air for half of Monday. Plus, I'd kept forgetting to take my HealthPak for a couple weeks. As soon as I felt that familiar this-is-gonna-be-a-horrible-week headache Monday night, I ramped up to the full dose. A few hours of agony Tuesday morning and I was able to function normally in the afternoon. A minor cough continued for a couple of days but I'm positive my immune system won the battle by then. The people that have joined me with taking the HealthPak - similar results. Symptoms that have typically turned into bronchitis, went away in days. What would have sent someone home for a week, didn't.

So, more energy, less sick, weight managed, got promoted. As Montgomery Scott said in Star Trek IV: "Would that be worth somethin' to ya, eh?"

Hindsight is 20/20

It's been almost a month since my last blog, so I'm going to pretend it's not from me being lazy but rather that I wanted to get a distant perspective to make sure it was unbiased. You buy that, right? OK, good. Swamp land, Florida, check.

So let's discuss the convention. Remember I had this fear that I'd be in amongst 5,000 health nuts worshipping a few select people? It was nothing like that at all. The convention experience was amazing. 7,000 people attended. It was held in the Salt Palace, which in itself is an L-shape two blocks by two blocks - Salt Lake City blocks, mind you - so going from one end to another is about 2/3 mile. The general sessions were in the Energy Solutions Arena, another 1/3 mile of a walk beyond that. In all, I walked about 15 miles - and get this - didn't get a single leg or foot cramp.

The lack of pain tells me that I was in better shape and health than a year prior, where I'd get a cramp just walking 200 feet in a parking lot. During the convention, I even lost another 5 pounds or so, and had plenty of energy through the end of the 14-hour days. I'm sure it was partly psychological, because I was having a blast.

Everyone at the convention had such high energy, especially the speakers. The company had a huge store set up, with attention-grabbing contests and games for prizes. Convention-only specials on Rev3, sampler packs of Nutrimeal and energy/protein bars, and skin care products made sure the store was constantly packed. But when the company announced they had reformulated the Essentials and HealthPak, and improved the MyHealthPak, the "new products" section of the store had hundreds of people in line until it closed noon Saturday.

There is so much to tell about the convention that I'll have to split it over a few posts. I learned a lot about the science behind the products, as well as how to promote them and the business effectively; that part isn't as hard as I thought. I'll share some of the highlights with you next time. As always, if you have questions, email me at markjholmes@usana.com or visit my website at http://supergeek.usana.com.

Nutrimeal Saved My Life

Ok, so the title sounds a bit extreme. Maybe it's an exaggeration, maybe not. My time machine's in the shop, so I'm just extrapolating.

Several months ago I went to the doctor with specific complaints of a general feeling of not-well-being. She listened, we discussed for over an hour, and we concluded that the doctors I'd seen for the past decade about this same thing had not taken enough time to listen to the full story. Thus, they were never prompted to run some tests that were more comprehensive than usual.

I won't divulge the details, but at our next meeting she showed me the full results, which were remarkably normal in the usual areas, but had the word "alert" in key places - while I was not in immediate danger today, there was evidence of a specific long term problem. She wanted to prescribe lots of medication and tests, but we discussed the fact that I'd been taking the USANA HealthPak for a few weeks and already feel a distinct improvement - which she also observed. We agreed that I would keep taking two prescriptions with the HealthPak and check in now and then. So far I'm doing much better than before, and the prognosis is a full recovery without drastic measures - although it may take a while for my body to heal itself. I need a way to take my prescriptions every day without swallowing pills.

So, this is how Nutrimeal Saved My Life:

• On its own, it has more nutrition in one serving than I was getting all day six months ago. I'm confident what's on the label is really there, as bioavailable as modern science will allow.
• I can practically inhale the Nutrimeal in 30 seconds, which is good because no matter how early I wake up, I arrive at work just 3 minutes before a meeting.
• Because I often have trouble swallowing, I need to crush my medication including vitamins. Chocolate Nutrimeal has some sort of magical ingredient that neutralizes the taste of anything put into it. Granted, the heavenly Ovaltine-like flavor is also neutralized, but like a matter-antimatter reaction, the chocolate "takes one for the team."
  
• All of this means I get my full dose of whatever's prescribed without fear of choking on a pill, thus I'm ten times more likely to take anything at all.

P.S. The HealthPak 100, when crushed into a very fine powder, can be inadvertently inhaled like Pixie Stix powder. Unlike Pixie Stix powder, the vitamins are completely safe and will not cause a burning sensation of nasal passages. Ask me how I know.