A short reminder to be very,very careful when encountering published medical and financial advice that seems to good to be true. Hint: because it often is.
Today I was performing routine maintenance on my sister’s computer. Among the megabytes of useless e-mail were repeated attempts to convince her to purchase various and sundry medical books purporting to have solved every condition from diabetes to cancer as well as offering little-known nutritional supplements that could apparently reverse certain underlying diseases. All apparently using the same time-tested format to hook the desperate and the gullible and apparently coming from the same source.
Most of the offers started out with a great headline; a hook explaining that you were about to learn a secret that would soothe your aches and pains as well as make the fundamental underlying condition improve or disappear all together.
To add credibility, some doctor of this or that (sometimes a real medical doctor) was highlighted; claiming to have the same problem or having sacrificed a lucrative career to research these little known secrets. In many cases, fellow doctors have ignored this secret because they couldn’t make money if the underlying condition were cured and the pharmaceutical industry couldn’t make money because the cure consisted of unpatentable, cheap and commonly available ingredients.
All illustrated by a plethora of anecdotal stories and tales of an almost-miraculous cure. Capped with a money-back offer if your purchase the book or nutritional supplements.
Truth: the publication does not vet these advertisements …
Sad, but true, your favorite and well-respected publication often cares more about advertising revenue than they do the health and welfare of their readers. Readers very rarely leave a publication because of a bad experience with an advertiser’s product. Therefore, it is in the publisher’s best interest to take any and all advertising revenue which has the appropriate disclaimers and offers a money-back guarantee.
Weasel words from the publisher …
In addition to requiring the advertiser to have the necessary disclaimers, the publisher often adds one of their own:
“From time to time we find special opportunities we believe you as a valued customer may want to see. Please note that the following message reflects the opinions and representations of our advertiser alone, and not necessarily the opinion or editorial positions of the Publisher.”
Weasel words from the advertiser …
The advertiser knows exactly what they are doing when they craft an advertisement and the last thing they want is a visit from the Postal Inspector or to become the target of a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) or Federal Drug Administration inquiry. Some key disclaimers are …
*Individual results may vary;
*Results not typical;
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration;
*These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease;
and these statements are often found in smaller print next to the individual testimonials or in grey print at the end of the advertisement. The trick is not to make these statements stand out enough to discourage the reader from making the purchase.
Bottom line …
You should be aware that there are normally no long lost secrets that will produce miraculous medical cures, only those which will produce severely depleted pocketbooks and the possibility of incurring further damage as you defer seeking appropriate medical attention. Common sense would tell you that doctors and reporters would see these advertisements and jump at the opportunity to disclose these secrets to their patients or readers.
It is always a safe and prudent policy to check with your doctor before embarking on one of these program as even seemingly harmless vitamins can interact poorly with your condition or existing medication.
And, believe it or not, most doctors care about their word-of-mouth reputations and are not in medicine primarily for the money. Pretty much why I believe that physicians, not politicians should make medical policy and decisions.
In the final analysis, the Better Business Bureau said it best: “Investigate BEFORE you INVEST.”
-- steve
P.S. Avoid volunteering to clean up a family member’s computer.
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