Magic Bullets or Modern Snake Oil? #4

Does the Product Actually Work?

At this point in the evolution of dietary supplements, for better or worse, a simple structure/function claim is often enough “evidence” for enthusiastic “early adopters” to take the plunge and start using a new supplement – even though many aspects of safety and efficacy may not be fully addressed. As consumers become more highly educated, however, and learn to ask the “right” questions (about ingredients, dosages, and mechanisms) they will also become more skeptical (of product claims) and more demanding (for the actual clinical evidence from human studies), which will force supplement companies to conduct more research to prove their products to potential customers.

Only a handful of supplement companies take the initiative (and spend the money) to go beyond the basic structure/function claims and support their product or ingredient claims with solid research, including both safety/toxicity studies (in animals) and well-designed clinical trials (randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies conducted in an appropriate population of human subjects). Anything less is clearly of questionable value from a scientific perspective and (hopefully) will soon be of little value from a marketing/business perspective as well.

Achieving the right balance between the business/marketing objectives of a supplement company and the scientific/regulatory considerations of a health professional or government agency is always a difficult task. On the one hand, government regulations are quite flexible in their allowance of claims that can be made for dietary supplements, so most companies are reluctant to commit large financial investments for research that can be “poached” by competitors. On the other hand, consumers of dietary supplements are beginning to ask for (demand) high-quality, well-controlled scientific evidence of a product’s safety and efficacy before they will make a purchase. The very idea of “science” as a compelling marketing tool has become quite popular within the past few years – and it is likely to become a much more important consideration as consumers become further educated about supplements and the supplements themselves become more sophisticated in their mechanism and mode of action.

Continued tomorrow

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