When I read about the founder of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals being sentenced last week to 25 years in prison for defrauding customers with dubious herbal remedies, I asked myself yet again: Why doesn’t the government regulate this stuff?

Oh-oh, here we go again: ”there oughta be a law…”  Especially because everyone knows all dietary supplements are as bad as this - or worse.

Unlike conventional drugs, which must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration before hitting store shelves, dietary supplements are basically sold under the honor system.

The most prominent supplement gone bad was ephedra, which tens of thousands of people ingested to try to lose weight. By the time it was finally banned by the FDA in 2004 — after seven years of dithering by officials — ephedra was linked to more than 100 deaths.

Apparently the author, David Lazarus, failed to see this report - despite the fact that it was all over the media at the time…and overlapped the ephedra ban.

Report: Vioxx linked to thousands of deaths

Wed., Oct. 6, 2004

Merck & Co.’s arthritis drug Vioxx may have led to more than 27,000 heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths before it was pulled from the market last week, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing an unreleased study by government regulators.

Brings a new perspective to those ephedra figures, doesn’t it? 

To return to Mr. Lazarus:

How’s this for a rule: If you put something in your mouth, and if that something is purported to improve your health or well-being in any way, then it needs regulatory approval before being marketed.

…What that means, though, is that we have to beef up a woefully underfunded, understaffed and underutilized FDA and give the agency the resources it needs to do its job — keeping dangerous or ineffective medicines away from consumers.

Funny…didn’t Vioxx HAVE regulatory approval from the FDA?  Well, THAT worked out well, didn’t it?  So much for ”…keeping dangerous or ineffective medicines away from consumers.”

Look David, it’s this simple: I agree that the FDA is “…underfunded, understaffed and underutilized.”  This is why we’ve experienced serious food-safety problems like E. coli in spinach, melamine in pet food, and salmonella in peppers and tomatoes…in addition to having dangerous drugs like Vioxx on the market.  So let’s get real here.  The FDA needs to take care of existing responsibilities first, before we expand its mandate.  In my humble opinion, the time they put into ephedra would have been better spent scrutinizing Vioxx, rather than stonewalling.  The Vioxx scandal demonstrated that the FDA failed to protect consumers where it really mattered.

FDA safety system described as “broken”

Witnesses and Senate Finance Committee members charged that the FDA’s Office of New Drugs:

• Rushed Vioxx through the new drug approval process with unnecessary haste and in the face of concerns about cardiovascular risk raised by the agency’s own reviewers.
• Missed or ignored “red-flag” safety warnings after the drug was on the market and tried to silence an agency scientist whose analysis raised additional concerns about the drug.
• Delayed too long in adding a cardiovascular warning to the rofecoxib label and allowed Merck too much control over what the label would say.
• Is generally reluctant to act on safety problems that might cast doubt on previous regulatory decisions.

The hearing contributed to a perception that the FDA is an agency in trouble. The Bush Administration has not appointed anyone to replace former FDA director Mark McClellan, who left in 2002 to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), and there has been no director of the Office of Drug Safety for nearly 2 years. The Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) likewise has only an acting director.

Now, I don’t like it when supplement manufacturers make misleading claims and rip people off, either.  But this particular “solution” doesn’t solve anything.  It might deter the scammers, but it would also take a number of promising supplement compounds off the market and create gridlock.  It’s a “cure” that’s worse than the disease.

All I can say, is that if I had a “consumer advocate” position with one of the largest newspapers in the United States, I’d fight back against the scammers by informing people about the science (if any) behind supplement claims, and explaining the marketing tricks.   In reality, this is what I do now, and it seems to work - at least on the small scale.  It would be nice to see it tried on an audience as big as the one Mr. Lazarus commands.  From where I sit, it seems like a more effective strategy than demanding increased regulatory power for an all-wise, benevolent government agency that doesn’t exist outside my own imagination. 

A University of Melbourne team tested the impact of a home-based physical activity programme on 138 volunteers aged 50 and over with memory problems.

…Some volunteers were asked to complete three 50-minute sessions a week of moderate physical activity, such as walking, for 24 weeks. Others were not asked to increase their exercise levels.

At the end of the study, the people in the exercise group achieved better scores in tests of their cognitive function, and lower scores in tests to determine signs of dementia.

Follow-up showed that the benefits persisted for at least another 12 months after the exercise programme was stopped.

Exercise is known to help keep the cardiovascular system healthy, and may help boost cognitive function by boosting blood supply to the brain.

Writing in the journal, the researchers said: “Unlike medication, which was found to have no significant effect on mild cognitive impairment at 36 months, physical activity has the advantage of health benefits that are not confined to cognitive function alone, as suggested by findings on depression, quality of life, falls, cardiovascular function, and disability.”

Maybe it’s a coincidence…but I have to think for a living, and a bout of physical activity always makes me feel sharper.  It’s much easier to sit down and write after a workout - or even after something as simple as a walk around the neighborhood or a few push ups.  I’m a lot more productive when I sit back down at the computer, which more than makes up for the time spent away from it.

Over-the-top? For sure. Nonetheless, it’s a perfect illustration of a tactic used in a lot of supp company ads.  All you have to do to mislead people, is cherry-pick a few facts, and add some “warm and fuzzy” spin with adjectives like “natural,” “balanced,” “holistic” and “elemental.”  If you can work in a little paranoia about the “establishment,” so much the better.

Pb® is all natural. Pb® is pure. Pb® is elemental. Pb® is balanced. Pb® affects one’s optimal health. Pb® is readily absorbed by the blood stream and accumulates in the body, competing with unnatural toxins that cause illness. Pb® is highly bio-available.

…Pb® is based on an ancient remedy, widely used by doctors and by holistic healers all over the world for thousands of years. But doctors were threatened by the efficacy of Pb®, and so they convinced federal government regulators to ban it…We guarantee Pb® with a 125% money-back guarantee, and if you buy now, we’ll include a bottle of all-natural As33®!

If you don’t get the joke, check out the Periodic Table. “Pb” is the abbreviation for lead.  Likewise, “As33″ is arsenic.  Both are quite natural…and quite toxic. 

It’s amusing - and a little creepy, all at the same time.

Ok, no one in the supplement industry is trying to sell you lead or arsenic (at least not deliberately); in fact, most supplements people take are fairly benign.  But just because something isn’t going to make you sick, doesn’t mean it’s worth your money.  

The take home lesson is that a clever writer can make anything sound good - so it’s worth your time, health and money to be more skeptical about ad claims.

With each extra decade of a neighborhood’s age, the researchers said, the risk of obesity was 13 percent lower for men and 8 percent lower for women.

There are several reasons older neighborhoods are more walkable, said the lead author, Ken R. Smith of the University of Utah: better sidewalks, trees to provide shade and intersections at shorter intervals.

But older neighborhoods have something even more basic when it comes to luring someone into heading out on foot.

“You always want to have something to walk to,” Dr. Smith said. And unlike many modern residential areas, older communities may have stores and other businesses near houses.

We’re sort of lucky in that regard: we don’t live in an old neighborhood, but we’re close to a main drag, so we have a number of stores and services in walking distance.  In addition, our neck of the world is reasonably pedestrian and bike-friendly.  As a result, I see a lot more people out and about on the streets during the day than I used to when we were living in Ohio. 

Even if it didn’t help reduce excess weight/fat, walking is healthier for both walkers and the environment.  The fact that it does, is an added bonus.

Is it Mutant or Health Food?

Don’t expect to find irradiated spinach and lettuce in your supermarket any time soon, even though federal regulators have given the food industry permission to sell it.

Several hurdles will discourage immediate widespread adoption, including cost, lack of irradiation facilities, concerns about how well it will work and whether consumers will buy produce that’s been irradiated to kill dangerous bugs such as E. coli.

“Right now, it’s not cost-effective,” says David Gombas, senior vice president of the United Fresh Produce Association. “It’ll take time and money to make it practical.”

So they put a “scare” headline over an article about something the food industry ISN’T going to do???  Why they figured this rated a three page article is anyone’s guess.

Personally, I’d prefer to take my chances with “mutant” spinach in my salad, rather than E. coli 0157:H7, but hey, that’s me.  It’s a moot point for now, at any rate.

Our research shows that small, specific changes in food and physical activity behaviors can have a positive effect on health and effectively stop weight gain.  AOM provides free web-based programs, tools, and resources to individuals, families, groups and communities of all types and sizes.

As I’ve written before, a lot can be accomplished through small, progressive changes, vs. trying to overhaul an entire lifestyle overnight.  Cutting a little here, and making small changes there can help prevent weight gain, as well as set the stage for future weight loss success.  There are lots of tips and tools on the AOM site, so it’s definitely worth a look.

According to the Associated Press, the ad has touched a lot of nerves, from the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council to the American Cancer Society, which beat a quick retreat from the controversy.

However, other nutritionists have stepped in to defend the hot dog. “My concern about this campaign is it’s giving the indication that the occasional hot dog in the school lunch is going to increase cancer risk,” said Colleen Doyle, the American Cancer Society’s nutrition director. “An occasional hot dog isn’t going to increase that risk.”

The occasional hot dog?  Probably not…but then again, that isn’t necessarily what we’re talking about here.  Personally, I think this is a bit cowardly on the part of the ACS.

Now, it’s completely fair to say that the ad is alarmist…it features kids, after all and - in reality - colorectal cancer in children is actually quite rare.  According to the National Cancer Institute, the incidence is one in a milliion (younger than 20 years old) in the United States annually, and is usually linked to family history/heredity.  The tag line at the end of the ad, “…can lead to adult cancers” doesn’t really clarify things either, since most people diagnosed with the disease are in their 50’s and 60’s.  Thus, the link between childhood consumption of processed meats and adult cancer is more than a little fuzzy.

Know what?  I don’t care.  While I’m no vegetarian, I’m also no fan of hot dogs: roughly 80% of the calories in your typical wiener come from fat…basically, it’s a cylinder of seasoned, meat-flavored grease.  One of my buds from graduate school went to work in a local firm that made processed meats and quit after 3 months in disgust - after seeing how they were made, she swore she’d never eat another hot dog again. 

In other words, I can’t think of anything positive about them, nutritionally speaking.  They’re just nasty.  And they’d still be nasty even if there wasn’t a strong correlation between increased risk of colorectal cancer and intake of processed meats.  Thus, while this ad may be over-the-top, it may just make kids - and their parents - think a little more about the connection between diet and long-term health.  From where I sit, that can’t be bad.

BetaFuel happens to be an ephedra-based product, containing 10 mg of ephedra derived from Ma Huang.

Ephedra, of course, is illegal in the U.S., where MarqiLife is based, and where BetaFuel is marketed.

Now let me be clear; I do not intend to make this into a discussion on whether ephedra should or should not be illegal, and whether the ban is just or justified.

This is about BetaFuel.

If you review the product page you’ll see the text (should the page be down by the time you read this, I’ve taken screenshots here and here) …

“On April 14, a federal Judge in Utah reversed the short-lived ban on Ephedra. Also known by its Chinese name “Ma-huang”, ephedra burns fat while you sleep and gives you the energy of a teenager. The Ma-Huang supplement is now back on the market.”

Seems reasonable enough, right?

Well no.

What they fail to mention is that although the ephedra ban was overturned in April, 2005, that same ban was re-instated in August 2006. In other words, they are presenting the product as legal, when in fact it is ILLEGAL. By advertising in this manner, the retailers of BetaFuel are encouraging you to break the law. It may actually get you into trouble should a over-zealous postal worker or customs officer open the BetaFuel package.  

And that, in my opinion, is a sneaky, rotten, underhanded, dirty trick.   

Now, I like a good pre-workout booster - which is usually some combo of caffeine with nootropics (heck, even a stiff shot of coffee and a couple tyrosine caps will do in a pinch).  I think they really do help with focus, and the ability to dig just a little bit deeper to get that last rep or two out.  The bottom line, however, is that the best general energy booster I know of, is activity. I sit at my computer for long hours each day - and there are times when I find my forehead sinking towards the keyboard.  When that happens, a brisk walk, or a few short minutes of more intense exercise (i.e., wall squats, pushups, rope jumping), perk me right back up again.