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Consumer Health Digest #23-09
February 26, 2023
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/william-m-london., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D
http://www.quackwatch.org/10Bio/bio.html. It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; news reports; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. Its primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. To subscribe, click here
http://lists.quackwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/chd_lists.quackwatch.org###
Ivermectin fails again as a COVID-19 treatmentThe anti-parasitic drug ivermectin has been touted as effective against COVID-19 based on positive findings from studies that were later retracted and studies with significant design flaws. No benefit of ivermectin treatment of outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 was found in three large, randomized trials. A newly reported double-blind, randomized clinical trial with 1,206 participants using a higher dose of ivermectin for a longer time period found the drug did not improve time to sustained recovery when compared with placebo treatment.
[Naggie S, and others. Effect of higher-dose ivermectin for 6 days vs placebo on time to sustained recovery in outpatients with COVID-19: A randomized clinical trial
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801827. JAMA, Feb 20, 2023]
An editorial about the trial notes that a Cochrane review of 11 clinical trials
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD015017.pub3/fullpublished in June 2022 found evidence did not support using ivermectin for treatment or prevention of COVID-19. The authors wrote:
At the doses and durations tested in these studies, ivermectin does not appear to be associated with serious adverse effects. However, a generally well-tolerated therapy that lacks efficacy can still be dangerous, particularly if it results in patients forgoing other interventions with proven efficacy, such as evidence-based COVID-19 treatments or vaccination against SARS-CoV-2. Ivermectin has been used throughout the pandemic. Although the current prevalence of ivermectin use in the US and globally is difficult to determine, reports in the lay media as well as our own experience as clinicians suggest that use of ivermectin for COVID-19 has not fully abated, fueled in part by real or perceived lack of access to effective therapies, continued confusion or misinformation, and active disinformation about ivermectin’s efficacy, including by physicians.
[Bibbins-Domingo K, Malani PN. At a higher dose and longer duration, ivermectin still not effective against COVID-19
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801828. JAMA, Feb 20, 2023]
Another editorial notes participants are currently being recruited for 10 clinical trials using ivermectin at different doses and durations. The editorial suggests “stakeholders must consider whether scarce time, resources, and participant effort could be better invested examining other questions.”
[London AJ, Seymour CW. The ethics of clinical research: Managing persistent uncertainty
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2801829. JAMA, Feb 20, 2023]
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Evidence found lacking to support pediatric spinal manipulation or mobilizationResearchers with the International Federation of Orthopaedic Manipulative Physical Therapists [IFOMPT] and the International Organisation of Physiotherapists in Paediatrics [IOPTP] have collaborated to evaluate the evidence related to the use of spinal manipulation and mobilization techniques in the treatment of infants, children, and adolescents with common pediatric conditions. Their systematic search of empirical research, reviews of empirical research, published guidelines for practice, policies and position statements yielded 87 articles that met eligibility criteria.
[Milne N, and others. Spinal manipulation and mobilisation in the treatment of infants, children, and adolescents: A systematic scoping review
https://bmcpediatr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12887-022-03781-6. BMC Pediatrics, Dec 19, 2022]
The authors concluded:
The present systematic scoping review revealed spinal manipulation and mobilisation are utilised clinically by a variety of health professionals to manage many different musculoskeletal and non-musculoskeletal impairments for paediatric populations. A broad descriptive synthesis of the collective evidence (using a levels-of-evidence approach) did not demonstrate evidence to explicitly support spinal manipulation or mobilisation as an effective intervention for any condition in paediatric populations with mild to severe adverse events reported. Strong to very strong evidence exists to suggest spinal manipulation is not effective for managing asthma, headache or nocturnal enuresis whereas, there was inconclusive or insufficient evidence for all other conditions explored. There is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of spinal mobilisation for treating paediatric populations with any condition, with some mild adverse responses reported. Despite spinal manipulation and mobilisation being used to treat infants, children, and adolescents internationally, there is a lack of conclusive high-level evidence providing positive (i.e., favourable) results with paediatric populations.
In his commentary about the study, Dr. Edzard Ernst concluded:
In terms of risk/benefit balance, the conclusion could thus not be clearer: No matter whether chiropractors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, or any other healthcare professionals propose to manipulate the spine of your child, DON’T LET THEM DO IT!”
[Ernst E. Spinal manipulation or mobilisation for kids? No, stay away from both!
https://edzardernst.com/2022/12/spinal-manipulation-or-mobilisation-for-kids-no-stay-away-from-both/edzardernst.com, Dec 22, 2022]
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Dietary supplement marketer prohibited from review hijackingUnder a proposed Federal Trade Commission (FTC) order
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/the_bountiful_company_decision_and_order.pdf, The Bountiful Company of Bohemia, New York, will pay $600,000 and is prohibited from using deceptive tactics involving product reviews. Bountiful’s brands include Nature’s Bounty and Sundown. The FTC describes the case as its first enforcement challenge to “review hijacking,” a type of false advertising in which a marketer steals or repurposes reviews of another product. According to the FTC, Bountiful took advantage of an Amazon.com feature that allows vendors to create “variation” relationships between some products that are similar but differ only in narrow, specific ways—such as color, size, quantity, or flavor. Products with a variation relationship share the same product detail page on Amazon.com and appear as alternative choices, so shoppers can compare similar products. The product detail page of such products displays the total number of ratings, the average star rating, the reviews for all of the products in the variation relationship, and any “#1 Best Seller” or “Amazon’s Choice” badges.
[FTC charges supplement marketer with hijacking ratings and reviews on Amazon.com and using them to deceive consumers
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/02/ftc-charges-supplement-marketer-hijacking-ratings-reviews-amazoncom-using-them-deceive-consumers. FTC news release, Feb 16, 2023]
The FTC alleged in its complaint
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/the_bountiful_company_complaint.pdf that Bountiful:
asked Amazon during 2020 and 2021 to create numerous variation relationships for its supplement products with different formulations
created variations with some new products, according to a company memo, “to try and ramp them faster as they were NOT selling and we wanted to give them a little boost in R[atings]&R[eviews] to gain visibility and allow them to also borrow the ‘Amazon Choice’ badge and best seller badge which worked”
in March 2020, began selling two new products, Nature’s Bounty Stress Comfort Mood Booster and Nature’s Bounty Stress Comfort Peace of Mind Stress Relief Gummies. One internal company email stated: “Unfortunately people d[id] not love the [Stress Comfort] product[s ],” but sales “spiked the second we variated the pages and they continue to grow.”
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Multilevel marketing consumer protection conference scheduledThe College of New Jersey School of Business is sponsoring its third annual conference on Multilevel Marketing: The Consumer Protection Challenge
https://mlmconf2023.orgon Monday, March 13, 2023, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (ET). This virtual conference brings together expertise from regulators, prosecutors, former MLM distributors, social media consumer advocates, researchers, educators, and journalists to discuss ways to improve consumer protection and reduce consumer harm within the multilevel marketing (MLM) industry. The conference is free, but registration
https://tcnj.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEtdOypqDkiEtSLYZpQCYIJ49oRDYOOfc1xis required.
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Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Consumer Advocate
7 Birchtree Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Telephone: (919) 533-6009
http://www.quackwatch.org (health fraud and quackery)
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