Supports Brain Function

We've all heard and seen the marketing hype of supplements and alternative medicine in various media. They promise so much, how could anyone survive without them? The global supplement market alone is was worth USD $96 Billion in 2017 according to Research and Markets July 2018 report. The global Complementary and Alternative Medicine Market is estimated to be worth $196.9 Billion by 2025 by Grand View Research in their November 2018 report. In the same report they claim nearly two thirds of the developed and developing world have used one form or another of complimentary or alternative medicine.

Looking at the blurbs for vitamins sold in NZ you would believe they are a miracle cure. Take the below description for Turmeric Root Extract available at Health 2000:

“Solgar Turmeric Root Extract provides high quality curcumin that offers antioxidant protection and also helps support joint health, brain health and supports the liver and digestive tract.”

Let's unpack the medicinal claims of this brilliant piece of marketing double speak.

“offers antioxidant protection”

First, a scientific response: “research has not shown antioxidant supplements to be beneficial in preventing diseases” (NCCIH, 2013). Surely these products are medicine and covered by Medsafe as they offer such amazing results. Well, no. Medsafe only regulates things that have a therapeutic purpose, i.e. medicine. What is a therapeutic purpose then if supporting the health of so many vital organs isn't one?

“Therapeutic purpose - means any of the following purposes, or a purpose in connection with any of the following purposes:

preventing, diagnosing, monitoring, alleviating, treating, curing, or compensating for, a disease, ailment, defect, or injury; or

influencing, inhibiting, or modifying a physiological process; or

testing the susceptibility of persons to a disease or ailment; or

influencing, controlling, or preventing conception; or

testing for pregnancy; or

investigating, replacing, or modifying parts of the human anatomy”

(NZ Ministry of Health, 2018)

Notice the use of language? Preventing, alleviating, treating or curing. I would at least expect alleviating my symptoms of my ailment when I see ‘supports liver function'. But therapeutic claims are not permitted for dietary supplements (NZ Ministry of Health, 2018).

That's right, these products are specifically excluded from making a therapeutic claim. So how can they make, what on the surface, looks like a therapeutic claim without it being one? Turmeric Root Extract and like products are classed as a ‘Health Service' by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). A health service is a very broad definition and includes everything from surgery to homeopathy. If homeopathy is included then the term health service is pretty broad and weak. It also means that there does not need to be any provable health benefit to be a health service.

What does the ASA define as a health service? These services don't actually have a definition. They are services that MAY provide a health benefit (Advertising Standards Authority, 2018). Key word here is “may”. The ASA goes on to define the health benefit that may be provided which is redundant if a benefit doesn't have to be provided. So a product ‘may' ‘offer' ‘support' for your health. But in order for something like homeopathy to be included then these words do not mean an actual benefit to your health as you or I understand it.

The pertinent part of the definition of a health service as defined by the ASA is:

“…OR services that offer support for normal healthy body functions...”

(Advertising Standards Authority, 2018)

The key words in that sentence are “offer” and “support”. These two words allow almost anything to be classed as a health service.

Down at the supermarket wondering why these items exist at all.

So what really constitutes a health service? By my understanding anything that wanted to be counted as one. If I made any suggestion that my product, interacts with the body to provide a service of some description then it would be classed as one. Literally you could class Tic Tac mints under this definition.

Let us unpack the word ‘offer' in relation to dietary supplements. You and I would take the common meaning of the word ‘offer' and assume that it is offering the benefit to us like someone would offer a drink. There is a tangible thing that we can consumer upon accepting. However, in the world of advertising offer means virtually nothing. There may not be a drink available even though you have offered it to me. I am giving you the opportunity for antioxidant protection; the product may play no part in the protection. This gets to the key in advertising, unless it uses a word like ‘prevent', ‘control' or ‘treats' no claim of efficacy is being made. It suggests that there is no medical trials to back up the claim.

“helps support joint health, brain health and supports the liver and digestive tract”

The key word here is ‘supports'. Water supports the liver and digestive tract by it being essential for life. This is how most people would interpret the word supports as meaning ‘required for', i.e. ‘the beams support the roof'. How ‘supports' is used here, in relation to health services, is entirely different and far more diluted. For instance, I can support your dream of becoming an astronaut, but do nothing other than say I support you. As long as I don't hinder your efforts, I can still claim to support you. Even better, in this marketing double speak is the further qualifier of ‘helps'. It doesn't even claim to be the actual supporter, it just claims to help it.

If I came to your house, I could offer to help support the beams holding up the roof. If I belonged to a group (like the Sceptics Society) and all members went to lots of houses and made the offer, we could claim that we offer support to beams holding up roofs (or rooves for those still using old English) or even, as we support the beams, we support the roofs.

I could do nothing, other than not hinder the beams, and I could claim to be supporting them. So by a bunch of opportunities for support being made and by not hindering the efficacy of the beams we can claim to support roofs. And yet we have done nothing other than not collapse the structure.

Here we see that what on the surface, and to what most people would interpret as a strong health claim, is nothing more than words on a bottle that mean nothing.

So Turmeric Root Extract is not a medicine and does not provide a therapeutic effect. It is taken orally so could that make it food? Well anything that says it pertains to your health and is presented in a “therapeutic type” dose form (this simply means that the product presents like a medicine) falls under some regulation. That regulation is the Food Act 1981. Yup dietary supplements and food supplements are basically food. Dietary supplements have their own regulation that is covered by the Food Act. Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985 (New Zealand Goverment, 2016) Clause 10 outlines what would constitute a misleading statement. This is broadly the same as with any other food. It must contain what it says it does and in those quantities. It can't make any misleading statement about its effects.

But ‘supports' and ‘offers' does not, as I think I have shown, constitute a claim about effects. What about it containing what it says it does? Between 2007 and 2016, the FDA issued warnings about unapproved pharmaceutical ingredients in 776 dietary supplements, according to a new report in JAMA Network Open (Dreyfuss, 2018). So we have an entire industry that makes borderline false claims. But due to their lobbying power and the slow nature of law changes is within the law. But then is shown to not even adhere to the single requirement that they face.

After that winding path what conclusion are we left with? Turmeric Root Extract and other such products are food. In defense of actual food, there is a correlation between eating healthy and better health, which dietary supplements can't even claim. Their health claims should be placed next to those of fast food chains in the believability rankings. Dietary supplements at best benefit from the placebo affect and some people may feel better in some way after taking them. Remember if a Tic Tac can be classified as a dietary supplement then they can't offer much.