Consumer Health Digest, Issue #22-39

October 16, 2022

Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D., It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; other news items; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; research tips; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. The Digest’s primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. Items posted to this archive may be updated when relevant information becomes available. To subscribe, click here.

Alex Jones loses major defamation cases. Alex Jones, who has become wealthy hawking dietary supplements through his Infowars media empire, has been ordered by two juries to pay for the harm caused by his lies that the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history at Sandy Hook Elementary School was a hoax:

A New York Times opinion piece addressing what the Texas trial revealed about Jones’s lucrative business model noted:

The problem lies in the symbiotic relationship between bogus, unregulated health products and bogus political claims. Call it the wellness-conspiracy industrial complex. Jones produces an incessant barrage of outrageous, thinly sourced or wholly mendacious content in the hopes that some of it will go viral. When people click on the stories and land on his site, they are bombarded with ads for snake oil. He claims to be offering people truths that they won’t get in mainstream media, but that’s backward. The conspiracy theories are better seen as a marketing tool for his real products—InstaHard, BodEase, Diet Force and all manner of oils, tinctures and supplements. . . .

Jones was one of the pioneers in connecting out-there cures to out-there political claims, but he is by no means alone. Over the past decade—and especially during the pandemic—the internet has been overrun with influencers who peddle what some researchers have called conspirituality, a worldview that meshes New Age-y ideas in alternative health with a Trump-era penchant for alternative facts.

Current law prevents the Food and Drug Administration from regulating a wide range of supplements, and even where they do have authority, regulators have been lax in enforcing the rules. Jones is a one-man argument for drastic change. By better policing the market for alternative health, regulators can cut down on two scourges at once. [Manjoo F. Alex Jones and the wellness-conspiracy industrial complex. The New York Times, Aug 11, 2022]

Irrationality of conspirituality spotlighted. Jonathan Jarry has called for defenders of science as a force for good in society to push back against the social phenomenon of “conspirituality,” described in a 2011 paper as a hybrid system of beliefs in New Age spirituality and grand conspiracies involving covert control of the political and social order by a secret group. Jarry notes:

  • The Conspirituality podcast has been tracking and commenting on the emerging movement
  • conspirituality influencers include Dr. Christiane Northrup, Aubrey Marcus, Mikki Willis, and JP Sears
  • conspirituality is associated with science denial on certain topics, notably the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines

[Jarry J. Granola and guns: The rise of conspirituality. McGill Office for Science and Society, Oct 7, 2022]

Experts slam Florida surgeon general’s COVID-19 vaccine recommendation. Medical and public-health leaders have lambasted the October 7 guidance statement that was announced by Florida’s top public health official, Joseph A. Ladapo, M.D., PhD. In the statement, he “now recommends against the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines for males ages 18-39 years old.” The statement claims there is an elevated risk of cardiac death for that population within 28 days after vaccination. This claim is based on an analysis of archived state data that has not been peer-reviewed, lists no authors, and warns that its findings are “preliminary” and “should be interpreted with caution.” [Diamond D. Experts slam Florida surgeon general’s warning on coronavirus vaccines. Washington Post, Oct 11, 2022] David Gorski, M.D., PhD, has provided additional perspective. [Gorski D. The State of Florida spreads antivaccine disinformation disguised as an epidemiological “study.” Science-Based Medicine, Oct 10, 2022]

“Sculpted Vegan” weight-loss claims banned. After investigating a complaint it received about claims made at www.thesculptedvegan.com, the U.K.’s Advertising Standards Authority has ordered Kim Constable Ltd trading as The Sculpted Vegan/Menopause Shred to not make claims:

  • as to the efficacy of any of its programs, including the use of testimonials, unless the company held adequate evidence that substantiated those claims
  • that discouraged the essential treatment for a condition for which medical supervision should be sought
  • that people could lose precise amounts of weight within a stated period

The ASA’s ruling came in response to a complaint that objected to claims that most women easily lose 5% of their body fat in the first 14 days and can “drop up to 40 pounds of fat in just 12 weeks. [ASA ruling on Kim Constable Ltd t/a The Sculpted Vegan. ASA U.K., Oct 5, 2022]


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