Download Marketing Tactics for Weight-Loss Supplements: 'Doctor-Recommended' and 'Clinical Studies' and more Schemes and Mind Maps Nutrition in PDF only on Docsity!
Photos: Nick Waring.
If you can’t trust a pharmacist, who can you trust?
Example: Nature
Made Calcium Citrate and Advanced Cal- cium with Vitamin D and Magnesium are “Recommended by Pharma- cists.” Yet accord- ing to the most recent industry survey, less than 2% of pharma- cists who recom- mend calcium supplements rec- ommend Nature Made. In contrast, 37% recommend Os-Cal and 25% recommend Citracal. (Nature Made is first on the list, however, when it comes to vitamins A, C, D, and E.)
Example: GNC’s PharmAssure
herbal supplements are “phar- macist recommended.” By pharmacists at Rite-Aid, GNC’s business partner since 1999, that is. That must have been a tough endorsement to get.
Want to make your pills sound powerful? Piece of cake.
Example: Nutrition
21’s Chromax 1000 Chromium Picolinate is “doctor strength.” The 1,000 micro- grams of chromium in Chromax 1000 may be more than 25 times what’s considered an adequate daily intake, but there’s little rea- son for doctors to prescribe chro- mium supplements—at any dose. Most studies show that it doesn’t control weight or blood sugar in people with or without type 2 diabetes.
Example: Efacor fish oil and
Certiphene rapid weight-loss formula are “now available with- out prescription.” Now? Neither supplement ever needed one.
Add instant credibility. Hire an MD to recommend your pills. Or at least come up with a photo of a trustworthy-looking per- son in a white lab coat, stethoscope over his or her shoulder.
Example: Advanced Formula Shen Min Hair Loss Solution
is “Doctor Approved, Doctor Recommended.” Boomer Care Anti-Aging Formula is a “doctor’s formulated blend.” The companies may know who those doctors are, but their Web sites sure don’t let on. Neither firm responded to our e-mails asking for the doctors’ names.
Example: The president and “formulator” of Doctor’s Best
supplements isn’t a doctor. And an advisory board of six people—none a medical doctor—decides which supple-
ments are sold by Doctor’s Trust Vitamins (“every product we offer you is one that doctors trust”).
Example: For $2,488 this
summer, you could have bought the Web address Doctor-Approved.com. And who wouldn’t trust a supplement sold by an outfit with that name? (You don’t need to be an MD, the salesperson assured us.)
Recommended by Pharmacists
The World’s Most Powerful
DOCTOR-RECOMMENDED
PatentedNow Available
Without a Prescription
AS-SEEN-ON-TV
SUPPLEMENT
Without a Prescription
“Recommended by Pharma-
Doctor Recommended
what’s considered an adequate
SUPPLEMENT
ant to start your own supplement company? Inventory is the easy part. Whether it’s sex pills, weight-loss pills, or energy pills, the Internet is crawling with companies that will sell you just about any formulation in bulk at wholesale prices. What to charge? Multiply what you paid by 5...or 10. License? S-u-r-p-r-i-s-e! You don’t need one. The tough part is figuring out how to make your pills look better than the scores of others being hawked by like-minded entrepreneurs. The possibilities are endless. Here are some success stories. And don’t worry about getting caught. No one’s watching.
B Y D A V I D S C H A R D T
W
CLINICAL STUDIESCLINICAL STUDIESCLINICAL STUDIESCLINICAL STUDIESCLINICAL STUDIES
Patented
Even if studies show that your pills don’t work all that well, you can still boast.
Example: “22 clinical studies can’t be
wrong,” says Natrol in the ad for its Promen- sil red clover pills for women. The supple- ment is “clinically proven to safely relieve hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, and mood swings while promoting breast health, heart health and emotional well-being.” Here’s Natrol’s “can’t be wrong” math: (1) In six studies, Promensil showed some benefits, like decreasing arterial stiffness and cutting the number of hot flashes. (2) In five studies, Promensil had mixed results that sometimes contradicted the six studies that found benefits. In one, for example, Promensil didn’t relieve hot flashes or other menopausal symptoms, but slowed bone loss in the spine (though not the hip). (3) In six studies, Promensil flopped. It didn’t ease menopausal symptoms, build memory, lower cholesterol, or do just about anything else. (4) In two studies, researchers simply traced the absorption and metabolism of Promensil. They neither looked for nor found any benefits. That makes 19 studies. How did Natrol get to 22? It counted one of the 19 three times and another one twice. Bottom line: The jury is still out on whether red clover can help women going through menopause. But one thing is clear—Natrol’s math is no better than its research results.
This one will cost you a little time and money, but it could pay off big. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awards patents to inventions that are “new” and have “a useful purpose.” But the federal courts have ruled that inventors don’t have to prove that their creations work, because “the associated costs would prevent many companies from obtaining patent protection on promising new inventions.” In other words, a dietary supple- ment is eligible for a patent “well before it is ready to be administered to humans,” says a Patent and Trademark spokesperson. Bingo! Get a patent for your pills and watch the bucks roll in as con- sumers mistakenly assume that the stuff actually works.
Example: “B1 Better is the ONLY
PATENTED product with the purpose of improving age-related memory loss,” says the Web site (b1better.com/B1BetterFacts.pdf). “Beware of inferior products; other supplements that CLAIM to reduce age-related memory loss are not patented in the United States.” In his patent application for B Better, which is a fat-soluble form of vitamin B-1, the inventor conceded that no studies had ever tested his supplement. And none have been conducted since then.
Example: The weight-loss supple-
ment MiracleBurn contains “the
only patented form of Bitter Orange, Advantra-Z…to stimulate your me- tabolism.” The idea of using bitter orange, also known as Citrus Aurantium , to stimulate weight loss was patented in 2001. The patent application described three unpublished, short, poorly controlled trials on a total of just 11 people. No published studies show that taking bitter orange leads to weight loss. Don’t feel like a patent? How about a trademark? That’s a symbol or phrase that companies use to help brand their products. Here, too, you may be able to get by with no evidence.
Example: In 2004, the manufac-
turer of Garlique garlic pills trade- marked the slogan “Cholesterol’s Natural Enemy.” According to the official record of the trademark pro- ceedings, the company didn’t have to prove its claim. The trademark examiner “may” consider scientific evidence when determining whether to approve a trademark application, says the Trademark Office. “However, the examiner’s resources, both in terms of time and technical research materials, are limited.” Too limited to ask the company for its evidence, or to even figure out that Garlique has never been tested for lowering cholesterol? Too limited to go online and learn that the U.S. Depart- ment of Health and Human Services concluded, following an exhaustive review of the scientific evidence, that it is “unclear” whether garlic can lower cholesterol levels?
Clinical Studies
or other menopausal symptoms, but slowed bone loss in the spine (though not the hip).
didn’t ease menopausal symptoms, build memory, lower cholesterol, or do just about anything else.
traced the absorption and metabolism of Promensil. They neither looked for nor found any benefits.
to 22? It counted one of the 19 three times
PATENTED product with the purpose of improving age-related memory loss,” says the Web site (b1better.com/B1BetterFacts.pdf). “Beware of inferior products; other supplements that CLAIM to reduce age-related memory loss are not patented in the United States.” In his patent application for B , which is a fat-soluble form of vitamin B-1, the inventor conceded that no studies had ever tested his
out that Garlique has never been tested for lowering cholesterol? Too limited to go online and learn that the U.S. Depart-
Clinical Studies
