9 Year Old's Amazing Story

FEBRUARY/2012: SAM’S STORY OF Crohn’s Disease and Alopecia

My son Sam was 9 at the time I started him with the Shaklee products. Sam was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata at age 5. Alopecia Areata is an auto- immune disease that causes hair loss. Sam was completely bald at age 5 with no hair on any part of his body. At age 7 he developed Crohn’s Disease, another auto-immune disease that affects the intestines. Sam was put on a multitude of drugs, including Chemo drugs to treat the Crohn’s. Believe it or not he did start to have some hair growth due to the drugs he was taking. But after starting the Shaklee products listed below, he began to have significant hair growth.

Shaklee Nourishing Scalp Treatment

-B-Complex

-Multivitamin & Multimineral w/more Vitamin D plus Iron

-Omega Guard fish oil (Has seven Omega 3s, DHA, EPA, and more)

-Nutriferon (Blend of interferon-boosting plant extracts)

-Immunity Formula I (Supplies nine immuno-active nutrients for immune system)

Also we noticed a big difference in his Crohn’s symptoms. When we went to his gastroenterologist for a check up, he couldn't believe the changes in Sam. Not only had he grown and gained weight but when his blood work came back his level from his CBC were so much higher that the doctor thought we had doubled his chemo. And of course I told him that we had only added the Shaklee supplements. So with that said, Sam is now 12 (soon to be 13) and we have not had to up any of his prescriptions since age 9! The doctor said he usually has to increase these drugs as children get older, but with Sam we are staying the same. We still have a CBC done every 6 months to monitor him and our hope is to one day be completely off all prescription drugs. Sam is very healthy now and I see good things in his future.

Memo from Marilyn:

This story will likely leave a lump in your throat. When parents deal with serious illness of a young child, their fervent prayer is for relief and healing. In the Lannings case, little Samuel was coping with two auto-immune diseases. When I introduced Gwen to Shaklee in 2009, she already had the mindset of helping Sam strengthen his immune system in natural, holistic ways, with the goal he would not need chemotherapy drugs. On October 1st, Gwen received the news she had been hoping to hear. Oh, happy day!

On a gloomy cloudy rainy morning the phone rings and the sun finally comes out after 5 long years! Sam had his quarterly blood work done a couple of weeks ago and his doctor personally called me this morning to say that Sam's Crohn's is in remission. His levels were all normal and the inflammation test showed 0.01%, which means Sam doesn't have any active Crohn's disease at this time.

Sam who just turned 13 was diagnosed with Crohn's at age 7. After trying several medicines to get it under control we finally found some drugs that worked. 6mp or Mercaptopurine is an anti-cancer ("antineoplastic" or "cytotoxic") chemotherapy drug. As a mother I struggled with the fact that Sam would be on medication for the rest of his life, much less a drug with many side effects. Also Sam has been taking Pentasa for inflammation.

Several years ago we were introduced to Shaklee products by my dear neighbor Marilyn Fitzgerald. I expressed to her my goal of reducing Sam's meds and possibly getting him completely off of them. We put Sam on a multitude of the supplements that Sam continues to take.

Last year after Sam had his blood work the doctor asked if Sam had been skipping his meds and I assured him he had not. I ask why and he said his levels were down, which meant that even though Sam was growing and gaining weight we didn't have to increase his meds the way we had steadily been doing in the past. So for the next year Sam's dosage has stayed the same. Sam had blood work done a couple of months ago and the doctor said he thought it might have been a bad read or abnormal. So we repeated them a few weeks ago again along with the inflammation test and it wasn't that the test were abnormal they just showed all of Sam's levels at a normal rate!

Sam's doctor told us that Sam can stop all medications and for us to continue with the Shaklee supplements and to see him back in 6 months! It was a great day!