Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Friday, February 19, 2010

I get e-mails

It's one of the perks of blogging. I'm going to reproduce this one in its entirety.

Recently, congress introduced the “Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2-10,” which, if passed, will drive up the cost of dietary supplements and restrict access to them. The bill will place added costs through tax dollars on relatively low-priced, scientifically proven, dietary nutritional supplements (please find full details in the press release below).

In a time when Americans are seeking more alternative, preventative healthcare solutions instead of relying on expensive drugs, this bill not only threatens businesses that manufacture supplement products but the American consumer who is now seeking ways to improve health before they spending money on doctors visits and prescriptions.

Organizations such as the Life Extension Foundation manufacture highly effective nutritional supplements under strict pharmaceutical grade, FDA standards and are marketed under some of the most stringent restrictions placed on any products sold anywhere in the world.

I would be delighted to have you speak with Stephen Joyal, M.D., Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs at the Life Extension Foundation. Dr. Joyal is a genuine expert who can provide insight and comments from the perspective of the medical professional and from the nutritional supplement maker. I know you will find the facts he reveals to be fascinating and eye-opening. Please e-mail me or call me at 212-966-0024 and I will be glad to arrange for you to speak with Dr. Joyal.

Best,

Ashley


Okay, now would you like to hear the truth? Thanks to some friends in Congress such as Sen. Harkin, by labeling their snake oil "supplements" the manufacturers in fact do not have to produce any data whatsoever that the junk is effective in the slightest, let alone "highly effective." The crap sold in the GNC and Whole Foods and even the CVS is not "scientifically proven," it does not constitute "preventative healthcare solutions" and no, it won't extend your life. All it will do is empty your wallet. The only opportunity the FDA has to intervene in this large-scale fraud operation is if a product is discovered to be dangerous; and since they don't have to test any of it ahead of time to find out whether it is or not, that only happens when people start dropping dead in large numbers, as in fact happened with products containing ephedrine.

It's long past time we put these con artists out of business.

1 comment:

C. Corax said...

I thought it would be fun to search on Joyal's name in Google Scholar. First off, his name is misspelled in the press release. It's Steven. Definitely the same snake oil salesman. He does appear as a coauthor of a paper in one seemingly credible journal, though it looks like it is a case of a pharmaceutical company doing a study of one of its own products. After that, everything is from Life Extension Magazine, my favorite being how his name is used in this article:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/jun2008_Rebuttal-to-Attack-Against-Bioidentical-Hormones_01.htm

Snake oil, indeed.