Would You Buy A Car from Dr. Suzanne?

Posted By elissa on Dec 31, 2008 | 19 comments

When we last heard from “Dr. Suzanne” Gudakunst, she was offering to be our very bestest friend and promising to protect us from the perils of thunder thighs, icky parasites and medical/food industry/government conspiracies…all for the low, low price of $37. As I recently discovered (h/t to Paul and commenter “Fee“) she’s hawking her own supplement products too! Her line, “Lotus Purity” is billed as “The Most Effective Colon and Parasite Cleansing Program on the Internet!”

That one sentence alone is almost enough to make my head explode.  In my profession, words have MEANING.  So when I read something like that, I immediately ask questions like:

1. What criteria were used for judging the effectiveness of the product?
2. What other products was it compared to?

But I know there won’t be any answers.  I’m not supposed to ask those questions…let alone questions like:

1. Is colon cleansing even necessary?
2. Are “do-it-yourself” parasite cures really a good idea?

But I don’t even want to go there right now. Let’s stay focused on “Dr. Suzanne” and the claims for Lotus Purity.

And those claims are right up front:

• Contains ONLY the PUREST AMAZONIAN HERBS
• PROVEN to get RID of PARASITES, WORMS, and TOXINS
• PROVEN to BURN FAT and LOSE WEIGHT 3X FASTER
• PROVEN to Reduce STRESS and FATIGUE
• PROVEN to BOOST your METABOLISM
• PROVEN to LOOK and FEEL YOUNGER

The word “proven” litters the page like droppings at the bottom of a bird cage, yet no actual proof – of any kind – is offered. Before you hand your wallet over, don’t you think “Dr. Suzanne” should prove what “proven” actually means? Proven by whom? Under what conditions? Are there any controlled studies? What “toxins” are we talking about here? How do you even measure subjective states like “look[ing] and feel[ing] younger”?

Hell, where’s the data from those “thousands of patient trials”??? She’s supposed to be a DOCTOR, after all. “Doctors” are supposed to keep records. That alone should be enough to make you wary – and we haven’t even looked at the products yet!

So let’s do that now.  Here’s what you get for your $88.00:

Colon Cleanse: contrary to claims, the primary ingredient in this product isn’t anything exotic, much less one of those “purest Amazonian herbs” – it’s magnesium hydroxide, also known as “Milk of Magnesia.”

It’s a laxative that can be easily bought over-the-counter at any drug store. Philip’s Milk of Magnesia is a well-known and inexpensive brand, although generics are even cheaper. The product also contains a couple of proprietary blends, featuring various non-Amazonian herbs with laxative effects, such as rhubarb root and Triphala: an Ayurvedic blend. These look pretty underdosed, but the milk of magnesia is there to do the heavy lifting, so it really doesn’t matter.

Some “cleanse.”

Fiber Cleanse: This features 1200 mg of various soluble/insoluble dietary fiber sources: psyllium, flaxseed, pectin, oat bran, and so on. Nothing wrong with any of ’em, really, but there’s no reason to buy them from “Dr. Suzanne”…you can find them at the grocery store – and for less money, too. Psyllium is the main ingredient in Metamucil, for example.

And heck, you can buy flaxseeds for just a few dollars per pound – grind ’em up in a coffee grinder and add them to a smoothie or a serving of oatmeal…they can even be added to recipes. Ditto oat bran.

Fiber Cleanse looks pretty pointless, if you ask me…

Liver Cleanse: This contains an array of stuff: Milk Thistle, Picao Preto, Chanca Pietra, L-Methionine, L-Glutathione, N-Acetyl Cysteine, Alpha Lipoic Acid, Selenium, Artichoke Leaf, Hawthorn Berry, Dandelion Root + 12.3 millgrams of a probiotic blend.

Wow. Lots to untangle here.

First of all, “cleanse” is a misnomer…”support” is probably closer to the mark. Herbs like milk thistle and compounds like n-acetyl-cysteine are well-known and researched: we know a lot about what they do and how they do it. For example, even the “evil government conspiracy” agrees that milk thistle may have hepatoprotective effects:

Recent NCCAM-funded research includes a phase II study to better understand the use of milk thistle for chronic hepatitis C. Additional research, cofunded by NCCAM and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, includes studies of milk thistle for chronic hepatitis C and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (liver disease that occurs in people who drink little or no alcohol).

The National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Nursing Research are also studying milk thistle, for cancer prevention and to treat complications in HIV patients.

So, we can score one for Dr. S, here – right?

Then again, maybe not. Milk thistle’s protective effects appear to be derived from “flavonolignans,” like silymarin. Preparations of milk thistle used for medicinal purposes, such as Madaus Legalon 70, are concentrated extracts standardized for the active compounds.

Is the milk thistle in Dr. Suzie’s product standardized? Is it even an extract, for that matter? For all we know, it could just be dried, ground, unconcentrated plant material. Not terrible, perhaps, but not something I’d want to pay a premium price for, either.

This goes double for the probiotic blend. Ever picked up a container of a good probiotic supp or functional food and looked at the label? They tell you how many “CFUs” (colony forming units) you’re getting. How many are you getting in the “Liver Cleanse”? – No idea. 12.3 milligrams means nothing in terms of viability or potency.  You can do better, elsewhere.

Oh yeah…what about those pure Amazonian herbs? 

“Picão Preto” (Bidens pilosa) and “Chanca Piedra” (Phyllanthus niruri) are both interesting plants that contain a variety of bioactive compounds.  But the majority of research to date has been in rodents and cell cultures.  What’s a “proven” therapeutic dose in humans?  I have no idea…and neither does “Dr. Suzanne,” but one source suggests 2g – 4g doses of each.  That’s a lot more than you get in this product.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that these, along with a majority of the other compounds in this blend, are little more than “label decoration.”

I’ll skip lightly past the question of whether one even NEEDS a liver support formula in the absence of any evidence of liver damage or disease…and simply note that there are lots of similar – and better quality – products out there.  It will pay to do some comparison shopping, if you want a supplement of this type.

Parasite Cleanse: What I wrote in my earlier post bears repeating:

Sure, people can get parasites: and if you think you have this problem, then you should schedule an appointment with your doc: intestinal parasites are easily found under the microscope. Parasitic infections can be serious: do-it-yourself cures are no way to go about getting rid of them.

Indigenous people (in the Amazon Basin and elsewhere) didn’t resort to herbal remedies for parasites because they were more effective…they resorted to them because THAT’S ALL THEY HAD. And they had no way to know if the treatments were 100% effective, either. If you really have intestinal parasites, which would you rather use?  Safe medical treatments that are KNOWN to work…or untested ones that we think might work because they’ve been used for that purpose in various folk medicine traditions?

I don’t know about you, but I know what I’d choose…

S88.00 is a good chunk of change…and it’s a lot to spend when economic times are tough. You don’t want to trust it to someone who hasn’t proven she’s worthy of that trust.

For what it’s worth, “Dr. Suzanne” hasn’t even proven that she exists!

Think about that for a second: what do you know about her, except what you see in her ads?  The ads feature pictures of an slim, attractive woman, but how do you know she’s the real “Dr. Suzanne” – or if there’s a real “Dr. Suzanne” at all?

Here’s a not-so-trick question: Would a medical doctor dedicated to your health also try to sell you on a system for buying luxury cars on the cheap?

Doesn’t that strike you as a bit odd?  It seems incongruous to me too.

According to Louis Edwards’ Ninja Report (h/t to commenter “Doc Bunkum“), Dr. S’s book and product sites are part of a much larger, and very intricate sales network that includes “free Google ads”  and other internet marketing gimmicks, diabetes and cancer prevention programs, and the aforementioned “Top Secret Car Secret” – all operating under the aegis of a company called “Web Business Secrets LLC.”

Who’s behind Web Business Secrets LLC??? No clue. But it’s pretty obvious they’re in it for the money. It’s tough to say for certain, but it raises the possibility that “Dr. Suzanne” is nothing more than a fictional character, created strictly for marketing purposes.  Other internet sleuths have found no trace of her at the Arizona addresses listed on her pages – or the rest of the state, for that matter.  It’s an intriguing question.

So what’s the bottom line here?

It’s this: “Dr. Suzanne’s” pitch – whether she’s real or not – isn’t aimed at your health…it’s aimed at your wallet. You don’t need “cleansing” products to lose fat and improve your health. If you’re constipated, over-the-counter products will be just (if not more) effective. And if you’re exhibiting some of the other symptoms mentioned in the Lotus Purity ad, like:

A healthy, high-fiber diet and workout program will do the trick, and far more effectively, too.