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You've seen them demonstrated on television. You've read the ads in magazines. You've heard the promises of quick weight loss without exercise, younger looking skin, pain relief without drugs—and countless other claims that nearly always are too good to be true.
Although the exact figures aren't known, Americans spend tens of billions of dollars annually on fraudulent health and medical products. Some of those products have little or no effect. Others, however, can pose a serious threat to your well-being.
Bogus health promotions, scams, and cures are enforcement priorities for both the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration. In a recent enforcement effort, the FDA and the FTC joined forces to identify potentially fraudulent advertising that targeted Spanish-speaking consumers.
The FDA's role in the project, which scoured the Internet, Spanish radio and television broadcasts, and print media for deceptive ads on credit, work opportunities, and health, was to examine unapproved claims to cure, prevent, or treat serious diseases such as diabetes, cancer, HIV/AIDS, and heart disease. To learn more about this and other government efforts to fight health fraud, see our cover story titled "Cracking Down on Health Fraud."
Debilitating, chronic diseases such as diabetes, arthritis, asthma, and heart disease gradually wear down the quality of life for people because of associated fatigue, pain, and mood changes, according to the National Institutes of Health. The usual measures of treatment outcomes, such as X-rays and lab tests, won't tell your doctor how you slept, how bad your pain is, or whether you're still feeling sluggish.
Researchers and others are working to develop ways to objectively measure these and other patient-reported symptoms, dubbed "patient-reported outcomes," or PROs. The FDA is encouraging medical researchers to use questionnaires to collect PROs in clinical trials to help determine how well a new drug or medical device is working. For more on this initiative, read our feature titled "The Importance of Patient-Reported Outcomes … It's All About the Patients."
If you have a dog or cat, you've probably seen advertisements online and elsewhere for discounted pet drugs. According to the FDA, however, you may get more than you bargained for if you buy unapproved animal drugs. To learn more about this risky practice, see our feature titled "Purchasing Pet Drugs Online: Buyer Beware."
We also take a look at a newly approved test that makes it easier—and faster—to test children and adults for lead poisoning, and an outreach program to teach school students how to safely use over-the-counter medicines.
Raymond Formanek Jr.
Editor