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[economistnews]

Vitiligo: Why I won't be using controversial treatment

Vishal Chohan, from Coventry, said his vitiligo had left him feeling self-conscious as he was growing up, but he now embraced it as part of who he is.

"I won't personally buy [ruxolitinib] because I'm past that suffering," he said. "I've embraced the way I look."

Vitiligo is thought to be an autoimmune condition where the person's own body starts attacking cells in the skin that make protective pigment. This causes visible whitened patches or blotches which are prone to sun damage.

Mr Chohan first noticed a white patch above his right eye when he was 11.

"I didn't really think much of it, you don't as a kid," he said.

"Then I went to India for six weeks and in that time it went to both eyes, to my ears, to my hands, to my legs, to my elbows."

It was difficult, he said, and he was taken to a string of doctors and even priests who told him his condition was the result of being "bad" in a previous life.

"You don't tell an 11-year-old kid that do you?," Mr Chohan said. "That had a massive impact on me, I was thinking 'what did I actually do to deserve this'?"

It wasn't until a family holiday when he was 17 he began to feel more confident. All it took was a group of travellers not seeming to notice his white patches.

"At that moment I rewound to when I was 11," he said. "They saw past the vitiligo."

'Make you who you are'

Now Mr Chohan sees his vitiligo as something that makes him unique and not something to be ashamed of.

He worries the success of treatment, which has already been approved in the US, is measured more by its effect on white patches than its wider impact on wellbeing.

Some side effects include acne and a negative effect on people's immune systems.

Recently, Mr Chohan said he had written a letter to his 11-year-old self about his vitiligo.

"It is basically saying 'you're going to go through things that are difficult and it's OK because it will make you who you are and you will be happy'," he said.

[economistnews]

I don't Follow a Guru Because I’m Terrified

Many followers of yoga say to find a guru. A guru is a guide that you follow in life and/or spirituality. Some people choose to follow blindly and others follow with caution. I don't follow a guru because I’m terrified. I have a hard time with the entire guru thing because I'm fearful of being taken advantage of or being guided down a self-serving path.

You give money to most gurus to fund some sort of mission that usually has great intent. My experience was horrible because I felt like I was completely doing the right thing. Wesley Chapman, the son of Dog the Bounty Hunter, was my guru. He had an amazing mission of helping kids that were severely abused and were labelled the same as him - unlikely to thrive.

For most of 2018, I paid $1000 a month to talk on the phone with him once a week. I had assignments and we followed a curriculum that was supposedly reviewed by Dr. Drew whom I eventually met. We talked about my life story - the abuse, my fears, passions and the life I wanted to create. In many ways he used all of those against me in the end. I paid $1500 to fly out to Malibu and work an event called The Human Gathering where I was supposed to be a participant. I got to drive around the founder of Make-a-Wish and other attendees to and from the hotel to the event venue. I met Maggie Q, Dylan McDermott and the daughter of Rodney King. At the end of the event, Wesley told me, ”You convinced me of your future.”

I thought I had finally surrounded myself with the like-minded people I had always dreamed of finding. Then, the ’ask’ happened. Wesley had me on a conference call with his assistant, her husband and myself. They invited me to join them in the quest to help kids all over the world through his organization, A Human Project. This was only an increase of $500 more a month. I felt so sure that I was so the right path that I, without hesitation, said, ”Yes.”

After completing my coaching program, I was asked to come to ’his’ ranch for an internship. This internship had nothing to do with Camp Human or A Human Project and everything to do with how we were to build a product for people to enroll in The Hero’s Quest. I also was used as an assistant for an event called a Warrior Podcast Emersion. Where people paid an upwards of $10,000 to learn how to start podcasting. I ended up building a clickfunnel that made Wesley about $5000 off of two women. This was a complete disaster. I was asked if I was all in. Later, I learned that ‘all in’ meant to leave my life as I knew it and move to Idaho to work for Wake The Hero. There wasn’t actually ever a real coaching curriculum in place at the time of my coaching training.

The call never came after I left the ranch as well as a reimbursement check for gas and a lock. The Long Shot Ranch ended up being owned by three men - Wesley Chapman, Nick Long and Russ Perry. All of them, in my opinion, are frauds. However, after being strung along I was reimbursed with Nick’s permission. Wesley was eventually kicked off the ranch and is now trying to use his family for monetary gain through a vlog where companies sponsor ads with Life With The Chapmans.

#guru #yoga #yoga guru

[economistnews]

Vishal Chohan and Haroon Habib were given a community order at Reading Crown Court after making false bets with Coral

A BOOKMAKER who tried to dupe his employer out of hundreds of pounds by making false bets for his friend avoided jail.

Vishal Chohan worked at the Coral betting shop in Reading in May 2015 when his friend Haroon Habib attempted to place bets on dog races.

Habib, 26, tried to pay £500 for a 3/1 bet with his debit card, but when his card was rejected the dodgy bookie agreed to put the bet through without paying.

He then turned his losing bet into a winning one by tricking the system and shared £1,500 winnings with his accomplice.

The duo returned £500 of the money to make the bet appear legitimate and the offence went unnoticed for a whole year until the betting shop traced Habib through his failed card payment.

Edward Hollingsworth, prosecuting, said: "Chohan was formally dismissed following the investigation and was arrested in May last year.

"It is clear these men knew each other and these bets were made falsely due to Mr Chohan's position at the bookmakers."

Nina Tavakoli, mitigating, said Chohan had debts in excess of £60k as a result of a gambling addiction and he was forced to declare bankruptcy earlier this year.

The 28-year-old narrowly escaped prison after breaching a suspended sentence of two years for punching a man in a nightclub.

Tony Ventham, representing Habib, explained he was highly unlikely to reoffend and his misjudgement had caused great shame on his family.

Kate Brunner QC added: "This was a very opportunistic and one-off offence and there was certainly no planning involved.

"You were given an opportunity to show that you could turn your back on crime, but this offence occurred only five months after you were given a suspended sentence.

"This was a blatant abuse of trust and you are both jointly responsible for your part in this venture."

Chohan, of Stonefield Park, Maidenhead, and Habib of Carlisle Road, Slough, admitted to fraud by false representation and received a community order of 12 months, with 130 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation activity of six days, at Reading Crown Court on Monday, July 17.

#Vishal Choha