Major Retailers Accused of Selling Fraudulent Herbal Supplements 412
MikeChino writes: The New York State Attorney General's Office is demanding that GNC, Walmart, Walgreens, and Target remove store brand herbal supplements from their shelves after the pills were found to be packed with a strange array of fraudulent—and in some cases hazardous—ingredients. Popular supplements such as ginseng, valerian root, and St. John's wort sold under store brand names at the four major retailers were found to contain powdered rice, asparagus, and even houseplants, while being completely void of any of the ingredients on the label.
Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:2, Insightful)
Because the ones that list their actual ingredients are honest and factual?
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What we have here is an entire industry that has a case of the fuckits regarding delivering on promises
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Informative)
I have a friend who worked for the FDA. She told me that she never takes herbal supplements as pills, but only as tea. The tea is classified as a food, and therefore has to be labeled properly.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Insightful)
This is what an unregulated market looks like. Human nature, no matter how well intended 99.99999% of the participants may be, one bad apple will put greed over doing whats right. And then, in order to compete, the rest have to start following suit.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Insightful)
1) It is a regulated market
2) They violated the truth in advertising laws
3) The company is now open to untold lawsuits because some of the contents were harmful.
4) Fraudulent activity is not indicative of an unregulated or free market. Just as theft, breaking and entering, and mugging people are not business plans.
5) One bad apple does not ruin the batch. Simple proof, I have seen three people I went to High School with arrested on COP's. That does not make everyone in our class criminals!
6) Your low opinion of Human Nature does not appear correct. In test after test people in general are honest.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Informative)
I was curious about point #1, so I looked up what the FDA has to say about regulating supplements:
Manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements and dietary ingredients are prohibited from marketing products that are adulterated or misbranded. That means that these firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products before marketing to ensure that they meet all the requirements of DSHEA and FDA regulations. FDA is responsible for taking action against any adulterated or misbranded dietary supplement product after it reaches the market.
Source: http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/ [fda.gov].
It would appear to me that this is not just a New York State Law issue, but also a violation of Federal laws.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Funny)
that these firms are responsible for evaluating the safety and labeling of their products
In their defense, the companies confirmed that the labels were perfectly safe, and said exactly what they intended to say.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Insightful)
I think the main point of his comment is that the products being sold, even legitimately, have not been proven to have any actual effect on the human body. The whole dietary supplement industry is built on "this might help you" type lies.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Doesn't matter. If it says "parsley", which does nothing, then the rule is it's supposed to be parsley and nothing but parsley.
THIS is exactly why I don't understand why there's even a debate about GMO labeling. Not that I'd waste my time fighting to add it to the labels as I care more about residual chemical levels than genes from another edible plant. Nonetheless, cloned in genes that were never part of the product before == adulterated product.
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The concern is that people would avoid GMO products based on fear and prejudice rather than any actual science behind it.
What if we required labels that said 'this product was packaged by black people' ? I mean, what's the harm in putting a label that factually describes an item?
If there is no factual relevance to the labeling, then there is no reason to require it on the packaging.
Whether GMO falls into this camp or not is a separate debate, but if you accept that GMO foods are just as safe as anything els
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Informative)
The irrational prejudice against GMO products is like the irrational prejudice against farmed fish. People preferentially buy fish labeled "Wild Caught" because it sounds better, without any thought to the fact that they are contributing to a known environmental problem, depletion of wild fish stocks. For the health of the oceans, I would like to see this label eliminated.
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I guess you could say the same about horse meat in pork or beef...
We are talking about truth in labelling, not the wisdom of consuming the ingredients on the label. Horse meat is NOT beef, pork, or mutton, to label it as such is a clear case of fraud. A potato that glows in the dark is still a potato, nobody is trying to pass off GMO potatoes as passionfruit for personal gain, to do so would also be a clear case of fraud.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Insightful)
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'Erm' yeah right and there are no plants that get people high or kill people. Plants contain many compounds which can do many things when eaten, smoked or drank as tea. So there are compounds within plants that will help or hinder, you and your modders must simply be too stoned, wait what, to realise, yes compounds within plants they can have a significant impact upon the human body. Aspirin, look it up, oh wait the ignorance factor, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org], tree bark dude, fucking tree bark.
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5) One bad apple does not ruin the batch. Simple proof, I have seen three people I went to High School with arrested on COP's. That does not make everyone in our class criminals!
Not yet anyway. Only time will tell... Until then it's only anecdotal evidence, not "proof".
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Interesting)
5) One bad apple does not ruin the batch.
Follow up: yes it does [discovery.com] - at least with apples. Ripening apples release ethylene gas that acts like a hormone to activate a specific gene in fruit that causes it to ripen. As it ripens further, the amount of ethylene gas soars and can cause an entire batch of apples stored together to ripen and rot.
Apples can be stored for an extended period if stored in a cold, oxygen-deprived location. Historically, before refrigeration, apples picked were stored for winter in barrels sunk in lakes. Even then, however, one rotten apple could prematurely ripen and rot an entire barrel.
More information here: Postharvest Cooling and Handling of Apples [ncsu.edu]
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:5, Insightful)
"people in general are honest" .. I think those tests probably did not include lawyers, advertisers, salesmen, corporate CEOs, etc.
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4)
6) Your low opinion of Human Nature does not appear correct. In test after test people in general are honest.
But the dishonest people are the ones that rise to positions of power.
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Good piece by John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" on the whole fiasco... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA0wKeokWUU
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In same cases, I actually think it is a good thing that placebos (Like powdered asparagus) are in the pills instead of actual, properly processed herbal products.
Simpley because it comes from a plant, does not mean it is safe-- which is exactly what this safety evaluation is really all about. (Some house plants are quite toxic!)
Some of the herbs that are "Popular" are downright dangerous when improperly taken, and let's face it-- there isn't exactly a state qualification for herbal remedies that a practitio
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And then, in order to compete, the rest have to start following suit.
You hit the nail on the head!
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Interesting)
No, they don't have to follow suit to compete. The activity described in TFS is already illegal. The bottle just has to contain what they say it contains. I myself take fish oil because I've been told by 3 doctors (general practitioner, nephrologist, and cardiologist) to do exactly that. If it doesn't contain that, then that's fraud, and there are already laws against it. I don't see any need for new ones to make it harder or more expensive for me to continue taking what I already take.
The only "maybe's" I'd consider adding are this:
- No claims on the bottle about the effect of the supplement that haven't already been evaluated by the FDA.
- Make it easier to bring civil action against TV/radio shows or TV/radio show personalities making unsubstantiated health-related claims that aren't even remotely true (make it easier for Dr. Oz's viewers to sue him for the false claims he makes about some of the pills on his show. "Doctor" Bob Martin as well.)
- Make it easier to bring civil action against authors who publish books making unsubstantiated health-related claims (Kevin Trudeau.)
- Make it easier to bring civil action against people who peddle pills via false claims on websites or to the general public via any other means (such as door to door sales, street hustling, etc.)
However I'd never endorse any restriction of what can be sold, and none of what I describe above would do that. Rather, if you make a claim, it either has to be true or it has to be backed up with some kind of peer-reviewed research. (Though it would probably completely obliterate the fields of both naturopathic and homeopathic medicine, which wouldn't bother me in the slightest.)
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There's a gulf of difference between honest unregulated competition and outright fraud
Yeah, on one side of that gulf we have "reality". Guess which side it's on?
Re:Fraudulent herbal supplements? (Score:4, Insightful)
So you're going to call misrepresenting your product as a legitimate unregulated market?
By what standard does someone judge an unregulated concept to be legitimate? Assuming such judgment has teeth, doesn't that standard become a form of regulation?
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The term free market has never been void of regulation
That's because the term "free market" does not mean "free from regulation" unless you work for Rupert Murdoch. The market isn't a place or a thing, it's a set of rules governing trade, not the least of which is property law. A "free market" is just one type of market, it's unique feature is that everyone is "free to participate". Throwing the trading rules out literally means throwing the word "market" out of the term "free market".
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But they do still contain Placebo, right? Because that's what my doctor advised me to take, and it's made my health much better since I started taking it.
So what? (Score:5, Funny)
What's the big deal? Instead of getting "Useless Compound X," buyers were getting "Useless Compound Y."
Note: Yes, I'm partially kidding. People are entitled to get the woo they've been promised, and I suppose there are allergy issues involved.
Type of product is irrelevant (Score:3)
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Valerian Root is essentially natural Valium/Xanax as they both operate to increase the amount of GABA in the brain.
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Because if there's one thing we all know, it's that government knows what's what.
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It didn't help me at all with jetlag. YMMV.
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Of course now we have to question, how do you know? Hell, how does GP know? Could have been placebo or something else entirely if it was purchased at any of these major retailers or likely elsewhere.
Re:So what? (Score:4, Interesting)
Instead of getting "Useless Compound X," buyers were getting "Useless Compound Y."
It is not clear that these substances are useless. Saying herbal medicine works, without evidence, is unscientific. Saying it doesn't work, without evidence, is also unscientific. Many herbs have not been tested for efficacy because they cannot be patented so no one has any vested interest in testing them. Many herbs that have been tested, have turned out to be very effective, and many modern medicines are based on chemicals first found in herbs.
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You would think that the people selling the stuff would have an interest in proving these things were effective (perhaps via an industry association).
If they were effective.
Money to be made (Score:2)
You would think that the people selling the stuff would have an interest in proving these things were effective (perhaps via an industry association).
Why? People buy it anyway and the studies cost many millions of dollars. They have NO interest in proving (or disproving) anything about these supplements. In fact they had congress pass laws explicitly preventing the FDA from regulating them so that they wouldn't have to prove their claims.
Re:Money to be made (Score:5, Informative)
The ACTUAL problem, is that active compound content of herbs is HIGHLY variable.
One valarian rout of equal mass to another valarian root, will contain more (Or less) active compound than the other.
This means to have consisten product, EXTENSIVE, and CONTINUOUS product testing would have to be done to assure correct dosage for the proper treatment of a condition.
That's expensive, and creates liability for when the preparation does not meet the listed dosage of active compound.
It isn't that the compounds in the herbs are not effective-- it is that the efficacy of a certain measurement of herbal preparation cannot be consistently effective.
Synthetic preparations (Like a tylenol), are created under lab conditions. The quantity of active ingredient is tightly controlled, and dosage is easily metered. There are fewer ancilliary compounds in the preparation that can cause upset, and overall the preparations are safer, more reliable, and more potent.
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and many modern medicines are based on chemicals first found in herbs.
Yep, aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is the poster child for this. Native Americans used some kind of tree bark or something, which contained salicylic acid, long before aspirin was invented.
Claims without evidence (Score:2)
It is not clear that these substances are useless.
It's also not clear that they are useful. Just because someone makes a claim about efficacy doesn't mean a thing without evidence.
Saying herbal medicine works, without evidence, is unscientific. Saying it doesn't work, without evidence, is also unscientific.
True but there ARE studies on a lot of this stuff that DOES say it doesn't work or that it is no different than placebo or in some cases is actually harmful.
Many herbs that have been tested, have turned out to be very effective, and many modern medicines are based on chemicals first found in herbs.
That has no bearing regarding the ones being sold here. Yes some herbs have medicinal effects. That doesn't mean you assume they do until they've actually been tested for efficacy using double blind studies.
Re:Claims without evidence (Score:5, Interesting)
While you are right that there are a lot of studies showing no effect or a negative effect from alt med drugs, there are also peer-reviewed and high-evidence studies showing that some of them do work and are effective.
My wife is a member of ASPEN, and so I get to read through a lot of their journals with her. In a paper on treatments for IBS, the "drug" that had the highest strength of evidence, and effect size was... peppermint oil. The research shows pretty conclusively that it is better than a lot of IBS-specific medicines that have come out in recent years, several of which got pulled from the market for being dangerous, and now can only be prescribed in limited situations.
Peppermint oil will never be a medicine, because you can buy it at the grocery store. But it *is* highly effective at treating a very serious disease.
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Well, if nothing else, it certainly shows that the manufacturers believe the 'bona fide' supplements are useless, as they would have to be pretty well convinced that no one would know the difference to engage in fraud on such a scale.
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Get your hands on some good Wisconsin ginseng, prepare tea properly (add a slice of ginger) and you'll change your tune about at least one of those compounds.
Re:So what? (Score:5, Insightful)
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Fraud is ok as long as you are honest about it (Score:5, Insightful)
But of course it's perfectly ok to sell fraudule...err, homeopathic "remedies" which do not and cannot work any different than a placebo.
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The local walmart sells dick pills in the pharmacy, ffs. The sort of crap spammers advertise, promising to make it bigger.
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Of course. If the stuff is actually what it says in the label that should be fine.
If some idiot wants to buy 20C whatever that's their business. It's only a problem if the what is in the bottle is actually something different or false claims are made about efficacy.
Homeopathy IS fraud (Score:4, Insightful)
If some idiot wants to buy 20C whatever that's their business. It's only a problem if the what is in the bottle is actually something different or false claims are made about efficacy.
Homeopathic "remedies" are the very definition of false claims regarding efficacy.
Re:Fraud is ok as long as you are honest about it (Score:4, Insightful)
It's two different issues.
1) Are you selling what you claim you're selling?
2) Does what you're selling do what you claim it does?
Homeopathic "remedies" are probably perfectly legitimate on #1: they're just water, with some ridiculously small amount of some item mixed in and diluted beyond the point of one molecule even being in a dose. They're completely honest about what's in the bottle. Their problem is #2: they actually expect you to believe that purified water will cure your ailments, and people do, because they're told it does and people are gullible fools.
These herbal supplement sellers were failing on #1, which is outright fraud. Ginseng root may or may not help you (it certainly does contain certain chemical compounds which will affect your body somehow, just like many other natural plants contain chemical compounds which can have profound affects on the human body: hemlock and oleander are good examples of this), but if they're selling something they claim has ginseng root and it's just powdered rice, that's nothing more than fraud.
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If you're being honest about it, then how is it fraud?
WHOOOOSH....
Homeopathic! (Score:2)
Supplements should have to prove efficacy (Score:2)
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What about people who have done their own research, made their own decisions with their own risk tolerance, and then wish to purchase? Should it be illegal to supply them?
In the nootropics industry, they just don't tell you what the drugs do. They're drugs, and are not scheduled, so not illegal to sell; but it is illegal to label Piracetam or Phenotropil for its scientifically-proven effects without the FDA backing it. This is a stark contrast to the supplement market, where it is legal to label Vitamin
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The Free Market(peace be upon it) will solve this automatically! Any government regulation will kill the Free Market(pbuh) and jobs!
Where did they get the COA for the ingredients? (Score:3)
Every herbal supplement that is going to be ingested in America needs a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) to verify their legitimacy. Disclosure: I used to work in the herbal supplement industry. This is not wholly uncommon. The biggest issue here is that the suppliers/manufacturers were ripping off the GNC etc. Someone along the way faile dto check the authenticity, and they got burned.
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Edit: Every ingredient in an herbal supplement needs a COA... Should have written that more clearly.
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Every herbal supplement that is going to be ingested in America needs a COA (Certificate of Authenticity) to verify their legitimacy. Disclosure: I used to work in the herbal supplement industry. This is not wholly uncommon. The biggest issue here is that the suppliers/manufacturers were ripping off the GNC etc. Someone along the way faile dto check the authenticity, and they got burned.
Yeah...can you tell us where most of them originated? I'm betting China or India. Where the Certificates of Authenticity are...well...not always "authentic", shall we say? And yes, what you pay for in China or India is not always what you get. To say the least!
Multivitamins? (Score:3)
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And attaching a brand name makes it any different? What makes Centrum better than CVS?
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For stuff like this, I hear you, but for actual medications, store brand is absolutely the way to go. Same level of regulation as the name brand, and a huge amount cheaper. Pharmacists and doctors are much more likely to buy the generic version of an over the counter medication than the population as a whole is...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money... [npr.org]
Capitalism! (Score:2)
That's what you get when your supplier is the lowest bidder, and zero checks and balances are in place, all in the name of profit.
Meanwhile, some MBA that set up the deal is relaxing on his Yacht. This is capitalism at work.
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That's what you get when your supplier is the lowest bidder, and zero checks and balances are in place, all in the name of profit. Meanwhile, some MBA that set up the deal is relaxing on his Yacht. This is capitalism at work.
No, this is douchebaggery at work. They use capitalism to make their schemes happen, but capitalism also allows good things to happen too. Cars get you to and fro every day, and also get people killed at the rate of 35,303 per year for 2011 (source CDC death tables).
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Which is only true because governments have enacted safety legislation.
Without those laws, cars would still be death traps.
Capitalism does NOT solve things like safety issues, no matter how much the proponents of free markets keep repeating the lie.
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On Fraudulent item Emulating another Fraud (Score:2)
Surprise? No!
"Truth in Labeling" should apply to EVERYTHING (Score:2)
Same goes for ratings on movies, books, etc. - if a customer wants something, or wants to avoid something, it's not about passing judgement on the customer's interests, but about making sure that people can get what they want AND avoid what they don't want.
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Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Objectivity (Score:3, Insightful)
I can't decide whether this says more about corporate greed or about the culture of alternative medicine, that these retailers can make such a flagrant mockery of herbal supplements, and apparently get away with it for quite a while.
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From one snake oil salesman to another.... Why I sold twelve bottles of Bob's Beautiful Budding Hair Restore/Cold Remedy/Wart remover just yesterday to Bill over there.... Now he has 12 relabeled bottles of Bills Rubbing Liniment/Sunburn Treatment and Hair dye to sell today....
There is no honor among thieves...
Wait a second.. (Score:2)
(peers closely at bottle) ...are you saying that this isn't GENUINE snake oil?
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(peers closely at bottle) ...are you saying that this isn't GENUINE snake oil?
No, but THIS is better than snake oil.. This is ANACONDA oil....
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Probably China (Score:5, Interesting)
US FDA/USDA-style regulatory enforcement and quality controls are practically non-existant in China. Just look at the great melamine scare a few years ago where they where bumping up the "protein" level of ingrediants by adding toxic melamine (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2... [wikipedia.org] and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2... [wikipedia.org]).
All imports of food/drug or ingrediants from china should be banned out-right.
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US FDA/USDA-style regulatory enforcement and quality controls are practically non-existant in China. Just look at the great melamine scare a few years ago...
You realize there were actually 2 such scares? The first one, some children died, they executed the responsible executives by firing squad. Then it happened again a few years later. Talk about resilient corruption...
Re:Isn't this all of them? (Score:4, Insightful)
500 mg or more of Cinnamon helps insulin sensitivity- close to what the diabetic drug Metformin does. However, a number of cinnamon pills are bogus- sawdust and cinnamon oil often times.
500 mg -1000mg of Niacin (nicotinic acid) raises HDL (even more effective when combined with large doses of fish oil).
Some supplements do work. It is bad enough to try and figure out which supplement contains the right form of Niacin, compared to figuring out if the supplement even contains the ingredients on the label.
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No, they wouldn't be called drugs. The FDA considers synthetic, non-natural compounds as drugs, as well as specifically-derived and scheduled natural compounds. Anything unscheduled and synthetic is a drug which may not be labeled for any use; anything unscheduled and a natural part of diet (i.e. synthesized or refined minerals, vitamins, neurotransmitters) or from a natural source is a supplement, and may be labeled with anything that anyone has stated before, including historical uses or scientific con
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Scheduled: Drug. Not present in nature: Drug. Present in nature: Supplement. Synthesized drug which metabolizes into a natural substance present in the body (e.g. a wholly-unnatural compound which metabolizes into noradrenaline): Supplement.
So weed is not a scheduled Drug, it is a Supplement? Tell that one to the DEA
Substances are placed in their respective schedules based on whether they have a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, their relative abuse potential, and likelihood
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Wait a min... I've seen Caffeine listed in the "Active ingredient" list of some headache medications, which means it is being sold as a drug....
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No, try peppermint tea the next time you have a runny nose, natural antihistimine that works for a awhile...but pseudophed works better.
Try wintergreen tea (steep for 10 minutes from boiling, it's in a bark not leaves) instead of aspirin or advil, also a natural aspirin, contains chemical similar to it. Of course, aspirin works better....
Oil of oregano is also natural antihistamine.
I can buy tea and coffee and coca cola without limit or oversight or papers...what's your point in bringing up caffeine, same
Re:4 of 5 contained zero of the claimed ingredient (Score:5, Insightful)
Over-regulation is bad. Selling a bottle that is 100% not what it says on the label, is a reasonable expectation. Call it what you want - false advertising, fraud, etc. It's clearly something that shouldn't be permitted. I don't think you'd get much argument from either side of the isle.
Re:4 of 5 contained zero of the claimed ingredient (Score:4, Informative)
Er, aisle.
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Unless you're Orin Hatch [nytimes.com]
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Wrong. The true libertarians will argue that this is excessive government regulation, and that the government should stay out of commercial affairs like this, and that the "invisible hand of the holy free market" will correct these problems. So if someone wants to sell baby formula with melamine in it, libertarians think that should be perfectly legal and that bad word-of-mouth will put such companies out of business (after some babies die from it--oh well), and that the government should just keep its no
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My politics tend towards liberal/progressive for most issues, but I don't have a lot nice to say about Obama either; I think he's sold out to the banksters for one thing.
But yeah, a lot of nutty people on the right say absolutely insane things about him, that he's a communist Muslim and wants to declare martial law and become a dictator, shit like that. It's absolutely insane. Do people really believe that a President can just declare himself dictator and the military will go along with that? People on t
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Many of these supplement companies do have a money back guarantee, but they make it such a hassle
Re:4 of 5 contained zero of the claimed ingredient (Score:4, Informative)
But the Republican/Libertarian said regulation is bad!
Nope...That's NOT what they say.
The ones I hear talking about this say that government and regulation should be as SMALL as possible; that OVER REGULATION and large government is bad.
There is a MAJOR difference between what they actually say and what you claim they say.
Re:4 of 5 contained zero of the claimed ingredient (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:4 of 5 contained zero of the claimed ingredient (Score:4, Insightful)
You are confused, there are already regulations and they were broken in this case. The solution is there already in existing law.
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There's no actual treatment of flu.
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The store-brand crap claims to contain an ingredient it doesn't contain. The homeopathic crap claims to not contain an ingredient it doesn't contain. It should be obvious how those are different.
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There's a giant difference.
Homeopathic "crap" is actually highly purified water. So while it probably isn't going to help your ailment (though it might: the placebo effect is real!), it's not going to hurt you either.
These fraudelent supplements are made from all kinds of crap, some of it apparently even harmful. So taking it could cause you an allergic reaction or worse.
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Arguing about a bottle label? Now you're just trollin.'
Homeopathy is a system that claims to treat disease. A homeopathic preparation "made in the standard way" incorporates those claims, even if the FDA/equiv prohibits printing that claim on the bottle. This is because the preparation and method have been subjected to rigorous scientific and medical examination (for over two centuries) and found to be fake medicines before the fact.
Herbal supplements also claim to treat disease, and some of them have bee
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> If there was *any* hope that this herb could treat that sickness where money could be made selling it, big pharma would have snapped it up and sold it under FDA rules as a drug, even over the counter
If it's a natural herb they can't get the patent. If they can't get the patent, they can't get a monopoly. If they can't get a monopoly, they can't make profit.
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Not true. Nobody has owned a patent on aspirin in my lifetime, but they still make money manufacturing it. You don't need a patent to make money, it helps, but it's not required. If they can isolate the active part of the herb, then they can patent that, or better yet, just get a chemist to synthesize that part... Where it costs money is in the double blind clinical trials which actually *prove* the stuff works without harming the patient and figure out the appropriate dosages.
IF it was effective at, say
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If there was *any* hope that this herb could treat that sickness where money could be made selling it, big pharma would have snapped it up and sold it under FDA rules as a drug, even over the counter.
Wrong. If it's naturally-occurring, they can't patent it, so they don't bother paying for all the clinical research that's necessary to make medical claims about its efficacy.
Over-the-counter stuff is cheap, sure, but the reason it's out there and being sold with specific claims about its efficacy is because
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The regulations were there already, they were broken. The scrutiny happened. Offenders were caught. It's a good thing. You have no point.