Nu Skin shares shed a third of their market value by Thursday afternoon. Shares of nutritional supplements maker Herbalife, fell 10 percent, while those of USANA Health Sciences were down 12 percent.

Xinhua news agency said the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) ordered local authorities to investigate a report, alleging Nu Skin had been exaggerating its influence and creditworthiness in brochures and organizing "brainwashing" gatherings.

Short sellers and other critics have accused companies such as Herbalife, USANA and Nu Skin of running illegal pyramid-type schemes, questioning their distribution model where distributors make money not only from their own sales, but also from those by people they recruit to become distributors themselves.

In 2012, short seller Andrew Left's Citron Research said Nu Skin's direct-selling business in China was actually "pyramid-selling" and was illegal under Chinese law.

He accused USANA of the same practices in 2013.

The most publicized attack against a nutritional products maker and distributor came from activist investor Bill Ackman, who accused Herbalife in December 2012 of running a pyramid scheme and took a $1 billion short position in the company.

Short sellers make money when the stock price of a company drops. They sell borrowed shares in the hope of buying them back at a lower price and return them to the lender, and gain from the difference in price.

Xinhua, China's state news agency, quoted on Thursday an SAIC spokesman as saying the administration would take legal steps against any violations if the probes showed the media reports were factual.

"We are aware that Chinese regulators have now initiated investigations to review issues raised by recent news reports," Nu Skin said in a statement later in the day.

Herbalife and USANA could not be immediately reached for comment.

The company said the investigation could hurt China revenues, but added that it was too early to say if its previous forecast would be affected.

The company's sales in Greater China more than tripled to $464.6 million in its quarter ended September 30. The region accounted for about half of total sales.

yep this is a very bad doctor indeed!!!!

I read the rebuttle Kelly Sennolz wrote. It's absurd! Any company that makes processed food could say the same thing. USANA has over priced vitamins and supplements, PERIOD! You pay Kelly and her 2 legs of all her down lines. 

As a practicing physician and completing almost 30 years in the medical field, having been honored for my dedication and expertise, history of being board certified in both Internal Medicine and Emergency Medicine, and never having been sued (which is a RARE thing, indeed), I find the need to factually express the content and intention of our business.  
 
After working for decades in clinical emergency medicine, it became exquisitely clear that modern medicine does a very good job at what I call "ill care" and is less than thorough in wellness medicine, or "health care". 

There seems to be a lack of educational opportunities for traditional medical practitioners in the concepts and science of wellness medicine.  Additionally, there is not a payment mechanism for doctors to be able to support this area within their practices.

As has been extensively reported in the press over at least the last two years, the medical industry is highly focused on pharmaceutical interventions, surgeries and technological advances.

The concepts of wellness medicine have not been applied for many reasons. Not only is there a lack of education and understanding regarding scientific principles of supporting a patient's general health but there is an almost complete lack of financial support for doctors who want to help their patients with wellness medicine, such as payment for well visits.

Efforts are currently being undertaken to turn the tide in this regard, but I fear it will be decades before the ability of a physician to support a patient in disease avoidance is adequately funded to the point of intervention.
 
I would like to share an overview of what we do in our business and why we know it is important.
 

Our program utilizes scientific principles based on rigorous prospective studies, clinical experience and the work of the top experts in the industry. Patients who enroll in our program are taken from where they are, physically, and moved slowly and gradually to the establishment of healthy lifestyle habits. We achieve this through various mechanisms including: personalized coaching, progressive and entertaining educational and interactive classes, transmittance of understandable and fun science-based health habits, group communication and coaching, nutritionally sound interventional tools and a host of other tools and skills.
 
The best thing about our program is not only is the doctor able to provide excellent wellness direction for their patients, not only is the patient able to take small, significant steps towards a lifelong pattern of healthy choices, but the patient will actually SAVE money over the course of a year.   There are many reasons for this, including potential deductibility, transference of costs of daily living to their health program and decreased spending on food consumption, but also statistically significant out of pocket savings have been documented for patients maintaining a healthy lifestyle.    Our estimates are patients will save over $600 the first year with ongoing savings after that.  Not bad for a program that improves health, too!
 
Many of the most esteemed health programs in the country utilize a shake and bar portion of their program because it has been statistically demonstrated to work.  Our choice of Usana Health Sciences was rigorously researched.  Some of the reasons include:
 
1.  Product portions of our program replicate seminal studies completed by Dr. Ray Stand

2.  Usana provides the top rated nutritional in the independently evaluated "Comparative Guide to Nutritional Supplements" by Nutrisearch.  This text is an independent, ongoing study of nutritional supplements in North America.  Usana has not only rated as the top nutritional in every edition, but is the most cost effective of the top rated nutritionals.  (www.comparativeguide.com)
3.  Usana carries a line of nutritionals featured in the Physician's Desk Reference (the REAL PDR, not the over the counter PDR).  This reference is the most consulted reference on pharmaceuticals by physicians.
4.  Choice of Olympians: only company to my knowledge to offer a million dollar guarantee to Olympic athletes that they won't test positive for banned substances (a testament to the quality and purity of these products)
5.  Manufactured according to the strictest Pharmaceutical GMP standards (not common, as poster states)

6.  Usana's research team collaborates with the Linus Pauling Institute (LPI)  on cutting edge nutritional and clinical research.  The LPI is one of the foremost nutrition research facilities in the country.  LPI was one of the first two research organizations in the nation, along with Harvard University, to be designated by the NIH as a center of excellence for research on complementary and alternative medicine.