| No Silver Lining for this
Bogus Supplement
After watching the smarmy marketers of
a supposed Renaissance supplement cure-all called Seasilver blatantly
rip off consumers for the last year, the Federal Trade Commission
(FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) swept in and put
an end to the charade.
Seized were 132,480 bottles of this $39.95 wonder potion that supposedly
cures 650 different diseases, including AIDS, cancer, obesity and
diabetes. To see just how far this supplement fleecing of America
had gone, one need only to drive by the company’s palatial
129,000-square-foot corporate headquarters in Carlsbad, Calif.,
which houses a 600-seat auditorium, 1,000 customer service representatives,
a gourmet kitchen and dining area and a spacious workout and yoga
facility. Court papers note that the brains behind the operation,
Bela and Jason Berkes and David R. Friedman, bring in $180 million
annually off the sale of this snake oil, which contains, among other
secret ingredients, aloe vera, “phyto-silver” (purportedly
a plant-based silver), sea vegetables, the herb Pau D’Arco
and cranberry concentrate.
“This is the sort of intolerable health fraud I had in mind
when I announced six months ago that the FDA will take vigorous
actions against firms that prey on consumers and patients by selling
worthless dietary supplements as cures for serious diseases and
conditions,” says Mark. B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D., the FDA
Commissioner. “Using these ineffective products is worse than
wasting money—it may cause irreparable harm by delaying or
replacing approved treatments that can bring actual health benefits.”
What this means to you:
It’s always a good idea to do your
homework before taking a marketer’s word for it. Before buying
any health-related product, do some research. Is there really any
evidence that this product will do whatever the product purports
to do? You can quickly and efficiently search for health- and supplement-related
research through the National Library of Medicine at www.pubmed.gov.
|
