What’s it Like to be Part of a Clinical Trial?
I thought this video from MedPage Today was rather interesting…It’s about the experiences of a subject in a placebo-controlled clinical trial for a new obesity drug. The subject also happens to be the staff member who wrote the accompanying article: contributing writer Joe Sussman. Several points leaped out from the vid… 1. How powerful the placebo effect can be. He still has no idea whether he was given the...
False Confidence (I Hope…)
I was reading an online industry article this morning: “The Invincibles – Recession Proof Food and Healthy Eating“, and winced when I read this part: Other food categories that are expected to be virtually immune to the economic storm include French fries, candy and beer, while those expected to suffer include organics and carbonated beverages. But in an interview the Financial Post, published last week, Wallace...
QVC to Pay 7.5 Million Fine for Deceptive Supplement Claims
Another FTC action against unsubstantiated claims… “QVC aired ads that weren’t true and violated an FTC order,” said Eileen Harrington, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Simply put, we aren’t going to let QVC get away with this. The company is responsible for the product claims made on its programs, and we expect that going forward, QVC will do a better job for its audience and make sure that its...
Exercise and Calories: Reality Check
WebMD has a nice little online feature: the Fit-O-Meter, which calculates the calories burned for 600 different activities. You pick the activity, plug in your weight and the duration, and voila: you get an estimate of the number of calories you’ve burned. There are a few caveats, of course…for one thing, this sort of calculator can’t account for the metabolic benefits of exercise (such as improvements in insulin...
Everything I Loathe About Women’s Magazines…
…is captured in a slide show – “10 Reasons You’re Not Losing That Weight” – from “Women’s Health.” For starters, it was trite and poorly thought out… For example: Roadblock number 1: Always a go-getter, you work out at 6 a.m. This made no sense to me…I know plenty of very lean people who workout at the crack of dawn. Sure, there are a few precautions they take,...
The List Keeps Getting Longer…
The FDA list of fat loss supps adulterated with pharmaceuticals keeps growing. Initially, it was 28. Then it grew to 69…now it’s 72 – enough to trigger a new alert message. On Dec. 22, 2008, the FDA warned consumers not to purchase or consume 28 different products marketed for weight loss. On Jan. 8, 2009, the FDA expanded the list of tainted weight loss products to include 41 additional tainted products. The FDA...
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