Change-Congress.org

“Work from home! Earn thousands of dollars per week!” Have you ever heard an advertisement that promises this kind of scheme? Chances are it’s a company using a multi-level marketing model, or MLM, to pitch their product.  It sounds like complicated business lingo, but the multi-level marketing approach is pretty straightforward.  The company relies on “distributors” (e.g. you) to not only sell their product, but also to recruit other people to become distributors as well.  The more people you’ve recruited “below” you, the more money you make—assuming those recruits buy the company’s products.

Though multi-level marketing can theoretically be used to sell any type of product, most companies that use an MLM model today sell consumable health and personal care items like makeup and nutrition supplements.  This approach provides a more sustainable business than sales of durable goods, because once a consumer starts using a type of makeup or a nutritional supplement, chances are they’ll continue to buy it if they feel that it’s helpful.

What’s not so easy to understand is whether the average person can actually make any money working as an MLM distributor.  Usually, there are minimum monthly purchases you need to make to retain your status as an active member in the MLM’s network.  This puts a steady drain on any potential earnings, and as a result, it can be hard to claw your way to a profit every month.  Multi-level marketing companies often sell services to their distributors too, with the stated goal of helping them improve their sales abilities and extend their network of contacts.  If you choose to buy these services as well, this cuts further into your profits.

This, combined with the vaguely pyramid-scheme-like design, has caught the attention of the government on numerous occasions.  Congress and regulatory organizations like the FTC have sought to reign in the MLM industry.  Here are a few multi-level marketing companies that found themselves the object of the government’s ire. [Read more…]

(image: CNN)

If you made a list of the most famous doctors in America, Dr. Oz would surely be at the top.  A surgeon who rose to fame after appearances on the Oprah Winfrey Show, Dr. Oz now hosts his own television show focused on health and well-being.  Never one to confine himself to traditional medical practices, Dr. Oz is fond of touting the latest vitamins and nutritional supplements, even when they haven’t been fully scientifically vetted.  Recently, this has landed him in some hot water with Congress.

At congressional hearings in 2014, lawmakers pointedly questioned Dr. Oz about claims he’s made about a variety of health and weight-loss supplements (1).  Politicians like Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri pointed out the wide gap between the claims Dr. Oz has made on his show about a variety of supplements, ( see: forskolin) and the actual scientific evidence that backs them.

What does the scientific literature say about some of the supplements that Dr. Oz has promoted on his show over the years?

Green Coffee Bean Extract

One of the supplements that featured prominently in the congressional hearings is green coffee bean extract.  As reported in The Atlantic (2), Dr. Oz called green coffee bean extract a “miracle pill” which can “burn fat fast for anyone who wants to lose weight.” 

There is indeed some science on green coffee bean extract—a 2006 study found that the supplement, when provided in high doses, reduced body fat slightly in lab mice (3), and a 2012 experiment by researchers at the University of Scranton found that humans taking green coffee bean extract dropped their body fat percentage by an impressive four points (4). 

However, the study in mice was conducted and funded by employees of a company in Japan that sells green coffee bean extract, and the University of Scranton researchers retracted their own paper after the Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint saying the study’s design was “hopelessly flawed.” A retraction in the scientific community essentially invalidates the study.  It doesn’t mean the study found the wrong answer to the question of whether green coffee bean extract promotes weight loss, but it does mean that the study’s design was so poor as to render its results useless (5). [Read more…]

The Change Congress Organization used to be potent political shift movement in a sense about “The United States House of Representatives”, but now, we are heading in a new direction.

In a world of global Internet information exchanges, networks and social media communication platforms; we feel there is a better way to “make a ‘national legislative body’ change” this day in age.

We will continually and constantly expand upon these principles and perceptions throughout our focus on future betterment and environment.

The goal is to touch and search all awareness’s and areas of life; that being health, wealth and self-growth. Personal development is a life long project of passions and pursuits, both powerful and puny, all equaling out to a grandiose game.

Welcome to the new Change-Congress website, we hope you enjoy the waves about to splash the internet.