Skeptologic

Last month the makers of Airborne settled their lawsuit with the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. The suit charged that the company used deceptive advertising, implying that their concoction of herbs and vitamins was a cure for the common cold, or that it would protect you from a “germy” environment. Their so called clinical trial turned out to be a two person operation set up specifically for this product, involving no doctors or scientists. This got me to thinking about another product I had seen sitting on the shelf at Walgreen’s when I was picking up my prescription of real medicine. The product is Wal-Borne, the generic Walgreen’s version of Airborne. I wondered what would the impact be on their product, could Walgreen’s be sued as well? I checked their website for Wal-Borne and could not find it. Could Walgreen’s be taking the high road and voluntarily stop selling this fake cure? I decided to stop by my local Walgreen’s to check. I didn’t even have to go in the store, as I walked by, there was a huge display in the window of Wal-Borne, on sale for $5.99.

I thought to myself, how can they get away with this? Then again, Airborne was still on the shelves, so what gives? Well, it turns out that they can still sell it because they have changed their claims. Under the Dietary Health and Supplement Act (DSHEA) manufacturers of herbal supplements are allowed to make vague “structure and function” claims about their products. And that is exactly what they did. They now make the vague and medically meaningless claim that it “boosts the immune system.” That phrase has become rather ubiquitous in our society these days. Unless you have a disease or condition that compromises your immune system’s proper function, good nutrition, exercise, and rest are all that are needed for a healthy immune system. For an excellent explanation about how “boosting your immune system” is bunk, click here and listen to what Dr. Mark Crislip has to say about it on his podcast.

I have heard a lot of people posting to message boards that they are not going to seek refunds from Airborne, and that they stand by the product and will continue to use it because it has worked for them. They say things like “I took it and I did not get a cold!” or “If I take Airborne my cold lasts only three days instead of five!” This is an example of confirmation bias from uncontrolled tests. How do you know you would not have gotten a cold if you didn’t take it? How do you know how long your cold was going to last? How do you account for the placebo effect? You can’t. These personal testimonials are no better than Airborne’s fake clinical trial. In order to test if it really works, a double blind trial with an adequate sample size and proper scientific controls it needed. But Airborne will never submit to a proper test, because they know the product will fail. They will be content to keep making their millions on the immunity boosting nonsense.

Many will contend that there is no harm done by the product, it’s just herbs and vitamins they say. First of all, herbs are drugs. They can have side effects like any other medicine. Don’t be fooled into thinking that they are somehow safe because they are natural (Blah, all natural is the most misleading marketing buzzword ever, but that is a subject for another post). As far as vitamins, large doses of vitamins can be toxic, especially vitamin A. One pill of Airborne contains 100% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin A, two pills will get you up to the safe limit 10,000 IU, and the instructions tell you to take three a day. Combine this with the Vitamin A from your food, and possibly a multivitamin which a lot of people take, and this can be very dangerous. Please be careful of what you put in your body. Your doctor can tell you if you are deficient of a certain vitamin or mineral and need to supplement that. Don’t waste you money on supplements if it is not medically necessary.

The fact that any schmuck, oh excuse me, school teacher (as if that gives it any credibility) can throw together a bunch of vitamins and crap, with no scrutiny from the FDA, make vague claims and take your money for a useless and unnecessary product is ridiculous. The real problem is that this is allowed under the DSHEA. This act seriously needs to be looked at by congress. As for Walgreen’s, they are a legitimate pharmacy and should know better. They ought to ashamed of themselves. Then again, I shouldn’t be surprised as they do also sell homeopathic “remedies,” but that is a subject for another time.