Whatever happened to truth in advertising?

I just happened to tune into CNN, and of course, one of their bigger advertisers is HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead! HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead! HeadOn. Apply directly to the forehead! Urge to kill increasing.

What many people don't know is that on top of having extremely obnoxious commercials, HeadOn's products are snake oil. HeadOn's claimed to be a homeopathic remedy, and I'm sorry if I offend people, but I find homeopathy to be absolute baloney. To quote from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HeadOn



So why isn't anyone if the FDA or elsewhere calling CNN on advertising snake oil? Not only do they broadcast right-wing-biased garbage news, but they also advertise garbage products.

How much of that crap do you think they have to sell to be able to afford commercial time on CNN?

No channel will ever turn down money, unless of course it is to promote an alternative point of view. But if a company is willing to pay their ad prices, that means that other companies staying away can't force CNN to reduce what they charge advertisers.

The FTC won't go after them because they don't actually say what they do in their commercial. If they made claims that couldn't be substantiated, they would be in trouble. So they just repeat something 5 times and know that's enough to make some people run out and buy it.

How about vitamins and herbs? A lot of people say their effects are baloney, too. Right now the FDA is trying to ban all of them, mainly so that people only have drugs to rely on and have to buy from the drug companies. Would you agree with the FDA and Big Pharma that we should only rely on drugs?

It's a natural substance found in food.

I think that's what the poster meant.

Some people have the quaint notion that taking "too many" vitamins will kill you. My husband took 25,000 units of Vitamin C in an IV for years--people kept telling them it would kill him. Isn't it interesting that instead of killing him, it saved his life? He was diagnosed with Hepatitus C, an incurable disease. As of today, liver tests show all liver functions normal.

But Big Pharma is trying to close down all supplements, because they want people to only use their drugs.

Or at least really screw up your health. Vitamins are not panaceas, they are essential biomolecules will well known and specific biochemical functions. Too much and too little will disrupt cellular and bodily function.

Vitamin C (Ascorbic acid) is a water-soluble co-enzyme that has two functions, a role in collagen production and as an anti-oxidant Those mega-doses of vitamin C your husband consumed was just excreted in his urine without doing anything, that is a proven biochemical fact. I think your husband just got lucky, it had nothing to do with vitamin C.

I have no problems with vitamins and herbs - the beneficial effects of vitamins are widely documented - they're why people don't routinely get scurvy and other similar diseases anymore. With herbs, the effects aren't really known, YET. There are lots of beneficial effects from herbs, that have yet to be scientifically studied.

The treatment theory of homeopathy is literally impossible to be true. With homeopathy, you're diluting and diluting and diluting until there's literally not a single molecule of the medicinal substance left, all that's left is water (or wax in HeadOn's case.) To quote Wikipedia again:



I'm sorry. Vitamins and herbs certainly have beneficial uses. Homeopatic medicine is snake oil. You're getting nothing but the placebo effect.

That it is older than "modern medicine"--that the Royal Family has used it since Queen Victoria.

It is based on the idea of subtle bodies and energies.

If you don't want to use it, fine. But if it is "nothing",as you say, it can't do any harm if it doesn't work--and it works rather rapidly. I know from personal experience. I had recurring bladder infections, and went to an MD, who gave me drugs that made me sick and caused complications that were worse than the infection itself. And I kept getting the infections. I went looking for something that I could try that would give me relief with no complications and help me from getting the infection again. I decided to try homeopathy--and it worked. Right away. No complications--and, better yet, no recurring bladder infections, either. They simply stopped. Placebo? I don't know. I do know my mother suffers from recurring bladder infections and has chosen to go the "cut and drug" route. She's 88, and still has the problem, which is almost continuous now. She's had bladder surgery and may have to have more--so how have conventional drugs helped her with this problem? And if the tendency to have bladder problems is genetic, how come I don't have the problem any more?

You don't have to use it, but I'd hesitate calling it "snake oil", since I know it works, and doesn't have side effects like drugs do. And if it doesn't work right away, you are to stop using it, so you can't say that it hurt someone by making them wait until it was "too late" before they went to drugs.

The placebo effect and nothing more. I want to see actual, peer-reviewed, double-blind statistically valid studies. There are none because it IS snake-oil.

What happened to you was pure coincidence, nothing more. The problem went away on its own.

When everyone else in my office got sick from flu and I didn't, it wasn't because my doctor prescribed a homeopathic remedy.

BTW, did you know that many actual, peer-reviewed, double-blind statistically valid studies have shown that the placebo effect is as great as the effect from many drugs tested? Does anyone really understand the placebo effect and what it is actually doing or what causes it to take effect?

Like the "science" that "proved Jews, Negroes, Homosexuals, and all dark-skinned people" are, in scientific fact, inferior sub-species. Or the countless instances of other scientific faux pas that have been foisted on us throughout the industrial age.:sarcasm:

Funny thing is that real scientists work very hard to overcome these prejudices and false assumptions.

Oh well, placebo effect or experiential observation, the bottom line is they work with little to no risk of harm. I'm sure the fact that they cannot be exploited for obscene profits has nothing to do with it either.:eyes:

and scientists always keep in mind that we are most likely wrong. That is why there are so many theories and so few laws. Just one example, when I was in pre-med it was taught as a certain fact that a severed nerve was irreparably destroyed and could never function again, a few years later that is proved to be wrong, science of all types is littered with such examples.

Broad based, definitive pronouncements like "homeopathy is snake oil" are not made by scientists, but by degreed hacks out to make a point and keep their paychecks coming in, and their uneducated, or dull-witted, followers. These true believers are always quick to jump on the latest bandwagon, it is easy and requires no thought, and that is very appealing to those with such limited intellect and imagination.

The fact is that neither you nor I know for certain, the difference is I acknowledge it.

The Alternative "Medicine" kooks use BS rhetoric about "corrupted science" to scare naive fools and woo woos into buying thier crapand get around having thier snake oil tested.

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

If you can come up with others that refute these, I'll be glad to look at them.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/#a1

This chart includes studies done from 1998-2002, and includes randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trials.

Snake-oil indeed.

drank what she called a homeopathic martini. Fill a glass with gin while the vermouth bottle is open on the same counter.

Snake oil is what you get when you can't afford a doctor or the meds they would prescribe. Head on is not food, not a supplement and if you read the disclaimers closely says it doesn't cure anything. The FDA has no purview over it.

is snake oil?

How interesting. Then I supposed willow bark is "snake oil" even though that is what aspirin is made from. And chamomile tea is snake oil because when a person needs to calm down they should take some sort of pill.

Sorry. In my case, I have been nearly killed by drugs that doctors prescribed, starting with an antibiotic for tonsilitis when I was twelve. That antibiotic, which I took according to doctor's directions, put me into a coma for three days. My fever was so high that they couldn't move me to the hospital because the new doctor my mom got said it would kill me. He recommended icing me down and hoping for the best.

My grandfather was an MD--in fact, was a member of the AMA for 50 years. He was an MD from 1906-1959, when he died. HE had no problem using remedies other than drugs when they worked. But then maybe Rush Medical School in Chicago only turns out snake oil salesmen. The modern MD is brainwashed in medical school to NOT look at vitamins, herbs, and, yes, homeopathy but to only use drugs. Of course the brainwashing is supplied courtesy of the drug companies, who help fund hospital via "free samples" and other goodies.

How many of the "wonder drugs" prescribed by doctors have turned out to have long term, if not deadly, side-effects? And yet so many say they are "safe" and that alternatives like homeopathy are "snake oil". If you can show me statistics that list the number of people who have died from taking homeopathic remedies prescribed by their homeopathic physicians, I'd like to see it and compare it to the number of people who have died from drugs that their MDs have prescribed.

'remedies' is how many people have died from taking them INSTEAD of evidence based medicine. Drinking water that's had the name of some medication whispered over it isn't going to kill anybody. Using it INSTEAD of the antibiotic that could have killed the raging infection, will.

Sure, lots of drugs have turned out to have bad side effects for a portion of the people who take them. I can't take antibiotics of any kind because of a doctor who overused them on me when I was a kid. If my child gets pneumonia, meningitis or tuberculosis I'm sure as hell not going to trust some water that's been left in the same building with something that might actually work.

however, homeopathy works very quickly, and if you don't get relief within a day, you are urged to try something else. And also, homeopathy isn't someone whispering over water. To quote:

Most homeopathic remedies are derived from natural substances that come from plants, minerals, or animals. A remedy is prepared by diluting the substance in a series of steps (as discussed in Question 2). Homeopathy asserts that this process can maintain a substance's healing properties regardless of how many times it has been diluted. Many homeopathic remedies are so highly diluted that not one molecule of the original natural substance remains.12,21 Remedies are sold in liquid, pellet, and tablet forms.

http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/#q5

See? No whispering over anything. I don't mind debating someone over the merits of homeopathy, but I do insist that they understand what it is about. To say something that is incorrect about a basic tenet of the process shows a lack of understanding that weakens any argument you make about the subject.

Seriously, I don't care what you do. But I feel that it is my right to use homeopathy on my own body if I wish to. I do not want to ever be forced to use only one type of treatment. However, I do think our government wants to limit my treatment choices. Big Pharma would like nothing more than to close down the supplement/herb industry forever because they don't have a lock on the money to be made there, and they hate the competition.

No, I take that back...there's at least some substance to the shit.

I find it very interesting that you are so strongly opposed to this when you didn't know anything about it really.

Seriously, I wouldn't want you to try it, and would never force it on you--why such hatred toward it then? If I choose to use it, and it doesn't work, the only one hurt is me, not you.

You, obviously, don't recognize sarcasm without the smilie for it.

My mother-in-law is dead because she used homeopathy instead of evidence based medicine...in a country where she didn't have to worry about paying for treatment or drugs. By the time she realized that the water wasn't doing her any good, it was too late for the doctors (REAL doctors) to help.

And...if homeopathy actually worked, you wouldn't have to buy any of their nostrums. You'd only have to go into the kitchen and open the tap. Anything you needed would already be there by the laws of dilution, considering what goes into our water sources.

As for the only one being hurt by using it being you, that's only true if you aren't pushing it as an alternative to real medical care...which is what you are doing. Anyone who takes your advice could end up like my mother-in-law.

but I am flabbergasted that you would say I'm "pushing" it as an alternative. Please cite in any of my posts where I say anything about making anyone else use it. The most I said was that I felt it should not be made illegal for those who wish to use it, and that it worked for me. I hardly call that "pushing" it on anyone.

"Whatever they make a big deal of telling you something is, it probably isn't."

to find out how many of the posters here have ever used the product? Personally, if I see it advertised on TV, I tend NOT to go out and buy it. For anything medical, I go to my MD, who is a holistic physician.

It was the big slogan during a time of the worst shitty quality they have probably ever put out. I can't tell you how many times the people working in the Ford plant in Atlanta were telling me they wanted to strike over quality issues.

Notice Toyota never mentions quality. They don't have to.

But after years of giving head massages I have learned that manipulating the scalp, forehead, neck and shoulders will temporarily ease almost any headache. Combine that manipulation/massage with an aromatic like menthol and yes, I would imagine that this product does provide some relief.

that the regulations that were passed were unenforceable.

Second, your pronouncement that homeopathy is snake oil is nothing more than your uninformed opinion.

Here in my area of the country, the cable channels are saturated with these darn commercials.

Yet, when I am at the various drug stores and shopping centers that the advertisers claim carry these products, I cannot find any display, or even any on the pain relief shelves of these stores. This goes for Walgreen's, Rite Aid, even Wal mart and K Mart.

Seems curious to me.



:eyes:

I've never seen it, either. I rarely get headaches, and when I do, I use aspirin. I also frequent health food stores, and haven't seen it there, either. Do you suppose they only sell it over the TV, like the Pocket Fisherman? :)

It's here and there in local grocery stores and drugstores.

It doesn't have a huge sales display there though...

Brought to you by the chief herb peddler himself, Orrin Hatch.

was probably in in the 50's , well before all the corps joined forces and became merged into a few mega corps .

Car commercials used to show the car and it's benefits not a car flying at 250 MPH in some graphic scene or when GE used to have the bird with the body of a light bulb talking little bill and they actually gave free light bulbs if you brought in the burnt out ones .

We have gone along way from those days , to med adds and flying graphics in this surreal mix of swill and endless lies and of course 24/7 news that tells you absolutely nothing other than to brainwash the unwary through flash flowing graphics and subliminal sound waves racking our tiny ear drum membranes to their breaking point .

http://www.acsh.org/healthissues/newsID.632/healthissue_detail.asp

The final words:

Several rigorous trials of homeopathy in human medicine have been performed in recent years. According to these randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trials, homeopathic "remedies" are not effective:

* in the treatment of adenoid vegetations (abnormal glandular growths) in children,
* for controlling pain and infection after a total abdominal hysterectomy, and
* for preventing migraines.




Furthermore, none of the studies that have generated positive findings has been replicated with such findings, the methodological quality of these studies has been questionable, and the better studies of homeopathy have tended not to generate positive findings.

And waited. And waited. Nothing. I get migraines and am tethered to a bottle of excedrine, so I thought it was at least worth a shot. Nothing. Complete waste of money for me anyway. Your mileage may vary.