I'm shocked, shocked to find that Shaklee would use my name like this!

Maybe in a couple of years, as I segue from middle age to dotage, I'll change my mind, but at this point, I'm not all that interested in any anti-aging whatever that will extend my life - let alone those of the rest of my giganta age cohort of Boomers -  by a couple of dozen years.

The world, in fact, will need my generation to pass on, not hang on, so that it can free up resources for those who are coming along behind us.

This is not to say that I don't plan to hang around for a while, and I'm doing what I can to make sure that I am physically and mentally fit enough to age independently and gracefully.

But I'm not looking for any Fountain of Youth, any magic potion, any delish elixir, like Vivix, the Shaklee antiaging tonic "which the company hints can help people live 25 years longer." (Especially one that's grape-flavored. Yuck!)

But the idea of anti-aging is interesting, so I was  intrigued to read a recent article in the Wall Street Journal on David Sinclair, a Harvard Medical School longevity researcher, who has just resigned from a paid position on Shaklee's Scientific Advisory Board.

Sinclair was only on the board for a short while, and submitted his resignation after The Journal more or less called him on what appeared to be an endorsement of Vivix.

While Sinclair now claims his actions were misinterpreted, he:

...enthusiastically introduced Vivix to the company's sales force in New Orleans. He joined Shaklee's chief doctor in a joint radio appearance, and his picture and name are often used on Vivix sales sites run by Shaklee's salespeople.

I know how you can get carried away in the moment at a sales conference, but here's what Sinclair had to say at Shaklee's last summer:

... "over a year ago, we set out together to do this, to make a product that you could actually activate these genetic pathways that can slow down aging." In a video of the conference -- posted on the Internet -- he added, "Together, as part of the Shaklee family...we can take this technology right now, to our friends, to our family, and really have the benefits of this new technology right now, within our lifetimes, and you'll learn more about the Vivix product later."

He also went on a radio show to promote Vivix, and talked about a study in mice and the "lifespan" extension those little lab critters experienced with an ingredient found in Vivix, which, by the way, ain't cheap: $100 for a month's supply, or about $3 a teaspoonful. But what's $1200 a year if it's going to translate into a lot more of them?

You have to ask yourself exactly what did Sinclair think Shaklee was doing with his words and credentials?

After all, their web site asks grabbers like:

"How would you like to feel 25 years younger and live 25 years longer?"

Shaklee claims the question is rhetorical, aimed at getting people to think about how great it would be to feel 25 years younger, etc.  (In my case, the question got me trying to remember what Ted Mack used to say about Geritol when he was flogging it on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour.)

But we all know how darned easy it is to make that leap from a rhetorical question to a product promise, don't we? Although apparently Dr. Sinclair does not...

Shaklee is no stranger to hype.

They sell their wares through "social marketing" (think Amway, Mary Kay Cosmetics, and the Avon Lady), and, with a certain rhetorical flourish that you'd think David Sinclair might have recognized as an impossibility, they promise "infinite income potential." (I guess we're all going to need that infinite income potential if we're going to live another 25 years, especially with the latest downsizing of our 401Ks.)

My guess is that David Sinclair was more interested in the hefty but finite income potential that his association with Shaklee provided him. And why not? Why shouldn't he be able to cash in on his expertise and research?

He absolutely should be able to.

But he also absolutely should have realized that a marketing engine like that of Shaklee was going to exploit that association - what did he think they were paying him for?

And what did he think he was doing by getting involved in that sales conference?

If he'd just gotten up there and droned on about mice longevity, it would have been one thing. The sales people would have tuned him out, looked at their watches, and figured out how they were going to escape and hit the bars on Bourbon Street. (Did I mention that I've been to more than a few sales conferences?)

Instead he said,

"Together, as part of the Shaklee family...we can take this technology right now, to our friends, to our family, and really have the benefits of this new technology right now, within our lifetimes...

And now he says he was misinterpreted, used and abused.

Isn't this a bit like Claude Rains as Captain Renault in Casablanca claiming, "Shocked, I'm shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!" just as Rick's croupier hands him his winnings?