A couple of days ago a friend told me that one of his cousins had just passed away at the age of 42. Today, he gave a bit more details on how his cousin died. Apparently his cousin had been suffering from diabetes and hepatitis for quite some time. A little more than week ago his health took a turn for the worse until he eventually succumbed to complications from his diseases. My friend said that his cousin had started to develop a skin rash so he went to see a dermatologist. Additionally, instead of taking medicines that have proven efficacy and backed by clinical trials and years of study, he opted to self-medicate with these so-called “herbal medicines”.
Immediately two things jump out in his case: 1.) he went to what he thought was the “right” doctor, but because of his history, it was the wrong doctor; 2.) he decided he could cure himself by taking “herbal medicines” that made dubious claims about their effectiveness.
He should have gone to see a physician first, given that he was already under treatment for diabetes and hepatitis. The rash was probably because of his hepatitis medication. Had he gone to his doctor instead of going directly to a dermatologist, his doctor would have given him different medication or modified his prescription.
Regardless of whether or not he went to see the right doctor, it would have all been pointless anyway. He decided to self-medicate and he chose to take some of these “herbal medicines”. I can’t say I blame him. Real medicines are expensive and they can have nasty side-effects (like unbearably itchy skin rash). If you tune in to your favorite local TV station, you will be bombarded with ads for “herbal” concoctions that claim to be effective against a wide range of illness. You will also see local showbiz personalities peddling all this crap as well. There is even one noon-time show that has a couple of these “herbal medicine” companies as one of their primary sponsors. After all, you can never go wrong with scantily clad women who basically tell you to take some pills that will cure you of all your afflictions.
I know that we have ancient herbalists to thank for much of what we call “real” medicines these days. But right now, there is simply too much of this “herbal medicine” gunk is in our airwaves. It must be a pretty lucrative business since the companies that make these things seem to have more than enough money to pay local celebrities to endorse their products. The ads and packaging for most of these high-profile “herbal medicines” are pretty slick as well, meaning they have a good (read: expensive) marketing agency behind them. Despite all the glossy claims made by the ads or the celebrities that endorse these “herbal medicines”, there is something that these companies just barely tell you: NO APPROVED THERAPEUTIC CLAIMS.
What the hell does that even mean?!? You bombard me with ads that tell me that your 7-herbs-in-one capsules effective against arthritis, high-blood pressure, kidney problems, chronic fatigue and it can give me an erection that lasts for 10 hours. Then you tell me, just for half a second in very small print, that you are making no approved therapeutic claims? It turns out that the BFAD (just like the US FDA) classifies these things as “food supplements” and companies must label their products to indicate that there are “no approved therapeutic claims”. There seems to be nothing specific as to how these things should be labeled. Which is why there are times when the disclaimer is barely even readable. They could also care less if the people who watch these ads even know what this disclaimer even means.
Basically this means that they can make dubious claims about the effectiveness of their products but they are cannot be held liable(?) if the product works for you or not. If the product works for you, cool! You can probably send them a letter telling them how effective their product is and they will probably put you in their next ad. If the product does not work for you, too bad for you, they made “no approved therapeutic claims” after all.
I can only wonder how many people, like my friend’s cousin, took these things thinking they will get better soon only to succumb to complications of their disease. If this were a perfect world, the disclaimer will be prominently displayed and explained, in layman’s terms, before and after the glossy ad is shown. But that’s probably asking too much. After all, who in their right mind would buy this crap if we all understood that it may or more likely may not work as advertised.
R.I.P. Steve.
