In a video I did a few years ago, I talked about how press releases

about the latest science coming out of even top medical centers

were filled with overstatements and omissions.

Medical journal press releases suffered from similar problems,

and press releases from the drug companies themselves

were no different, filled with hype and exaggeration.

What about press releases issued by the supplements industry?

Not even the companies that published the studies,

but like trade organizations

for the multi-billion-dollar dietary supplement industry?

Researchers found that 100% of supplements industry press releases

contained "spin," meaning strategies to hype or denigrate findings

to distort the results of clinical studies.

And here's the crazy part: industry press releases advocated

supplement use in response to more than 90%

of even the studies that reported no benefit or harm.

Here are the harm studies.

A study comes out showing a supplement is actually bad for you,

and the vast majority of independent institutions like

the National Institutes of Health or mainstream media stories

are like "don't take it." Duh. But the industry trade

organizations are like, "Harm? Go for it! Buy an extra bottle."

It is, therefore, likely that the propagation of the spin-enriched

industry press releases contributes to the ongoing, and even burgeoning,

enthusiasm for use of supplements in the face of accumulating evidence

of most of their ineffectiveness and, in some cases, harm.

In some cases, people are paying to make themselves sick.

Sadly, the science may not even matter to many supplement users.

Most dietary supplement users said that they would be minimally influenced

by independent, taxpayer-funded studies contradicting

the efficacy claims of supplement manufacturers.

Only a minority of users said they would stop taking a supplement

if public health authorities stated that it was just a waste of money.

The iconic image of the snake oil salesman was actually a real dude:

Clark "the Rattlesnake King" Stanley in 1916.

Turns out that Stanley's snake oil, in fact, contained no snake oil at all

but rather just like spicy mothballs and turpentine,

prosecuted under the newly enacted Pure Food and Drug Act,

and ultimately fined a lofty sum of $20 bucks.

And a century later, here we are with snake oil coming out our ears,

a vast number of supplements marketed and sold without routine oversight.

Now, the supplement industry bristles at such talk, saying that

the supplement industry is regulated to protect consumers.

And it's true there are definitely laws on the books, but the ability

of regulators to successfully carry out this mission is hampered

by the sheer number of products.

The FDA estimates there are more than 85,000 dietary supplement

products currently available in the U.S. alone.

So there's the sheer number, the under reporting of adverse

side effects, the difficulty of successfully prosecuting

cases against offenders, and the ease with which

suppliers can rebrand products removed from the shelves

have led to a largely unregulated environment.

In the real world, there is little guarantee that a supplement

will even contain what is advertised on the packaging and

not contain unlisted ingredients, potentially leading to significant

harms, resulting in an estimated 23,000 ER visits every year.

Now, of course, prescription drugs don't just sicken but kill many more,

making them perhaps the third leading cause of death,

wiping out more than 100,000 Americans, but still,

the less death and disability, the better.

Dietary supplements are often adulterated

with undeclared pharmaceuticals, which could represent

an enormous risk to consumers, most often found in erectile dysfunction,

weight loss, diabetes, and high blood pressure supplements.

But wait a second. What about

supplement manufacturers who say they have independent,

third-party certification of purity?

There is a practice called "dry labbing," a dirty little secret

of the supplements industry, where quality assurance labs

just rubber stamp fake documents.

And if you think that's outrageous, check out the story of BMPEA.

A researcher at Harvard published a paper replicating prior research

from the FDA detecting a designer amphetamine-like stimulant,

beta-methylphenylethylamine,

in various U.S. supplements sold in the United States.

In response, one of the offenders, Hi-Tech Pharmaceuticals,

manufacturers of weight loss supplements like

Black Widow and Yellow Scorpion,

sued the Harvard researcher for libel, slander, and product

disparagement, originally to the tune of $200 million in damages.

This was all documented in a piece by STAT,

which is an excellent source of medical journalism

that I recommend.

The head of Hi-Tech openly admitted that he was

"hoping that we were able to silence this guy."

And while ultimately unsuccessful in court, Hi-Tech's lawsuit effectively

sent a warning to other researchers.

In fact, Hi-Tech's CEO is attributed as saying,

he "hope[s] that the long and costly legal battle will scare away

other academics from investigating the supplement industry."