PERRY BUCHANAN: Plenty of ‘snake oil’ exists in health market

Webster defines snake oil as “a quack remedy or panacea.” But what, exactly, is snake oil and why does it have a bad rap?

First, a little history. According to historian Richard White’s book “Railroaded,” the 1800s saw thousands of Chinese workers arriving in the United States to work on the Transcontinental Railroad. Among the items the Chinese railroad workers brought with them were various medicines, including snake oil. Made from the oil of the Chinese water snake, the workers would rub the oil on their joints after a long grueling day. Used for centuries in China, many claimed it helped reduce inflammation, especially when used to treat arthritis and bursitis.

So how did a legitimate medicine become a symbol of fraud?

In the late 1800s, Clark Stanley, a former cowboy, claimed he had learned about the healing power of rattlesnake oil from Hopi medicine men. He never publicly mentioned Chinese snake oil at all. There were two major problems with Stanley’s claim about his oil. First, rattlesnake oil was far less effective than the original Chinese snake oil, containing almost none of the omega-3 acids that were thought to be the effective ingredients in the Chinese snake oil.

Secondly, Stanley’s “snake oil” didn’t contain any snake oil at all. After seizing a shipment in 1917, federal investigators found that it primarily contained mineral oil, beef fat, red pepper, turpentine and NO snake oil! Hundreds of consumers discovered they had been had. Stanley was fined $20, which is a little over $400 in today’s dollars. It was probably around then that snake oil became symbolic of fraud, and quackery medicine men became known as snake oil salesmen.

Modern day quackery and “snake oil” sales still exist today in the diet and food supplement industry. Being in the fitness business, you may think that I would be a big proponent of the use of vitamins and supplements as preventative medicine. I do believe we should rely more on exercise and proper nutrition instead of medicine, and if medicines are needed, it’s best to avoid possible side effects by using the lowest effective dose for the shortest necessary period.

Regarding vitamins, and supplements, first let me state that I believe there is no doubt that for people who are low in key nutrients, appropriate supplementation can restore health. Other than a high-quality multivitamin supplement, I don’t encourage supplement use by healthy people. Why? I advocate for evidence-based medicine and there is very little proof that vitamins and supplements work as well as they claim. The evidence does not support the belief that use of supplements can improve or lengthen life for healthy people.

Why do smart people ignore good research? There are many readily available research publications including articles in the Journal of American Medical Association.

Even though various supplement claims have been debunked, more than 50 percent of U.S. adults take supplements on a regular basis. The public either seems to ignore research facts or move along to the next hot supplement. For example, a large study published in JAMA in 2006 on the arthritis “remedy” glucosamine/chondroitin had negative results. Yet, years after the article was published, sales of the supplement have not declined.

From 1999 to 2012, the National Institutes of Health spent approximately $300 million studying supplements. In general, the results failed to show any benefit.

Some might say what’s the harm in trying? In addition to having expensive pee from nutrients not absorbed, you risk ingesting pills that may not actually have the ingredients on the label, or ingesting substances not listed on the label. You also risk supplements interacting with medicines that are effective.

The FDA has limited power to protect us from dangerous or useless products. The law allows supplements to advertise benefits based on “structure/function” claims. An example is gingko biloba. It continues to be sold “to support mental sharpness” despite a large, high-quality NIH-funded study that found evidence to the contrary.

Furthermore, supplements do not have to go through the extensive testing prescription drugs do to demonstrate their safety and efficacy. A company can slap almost any claim it wants on the label.

The FDA typically only gets involved if there are complaints about a product or a pattern of serious side effects. I think science will eventually develop safe substitutes for many medications, but stay skeptical until then. The best advice may be to believe the following claim if you see it printed on any product. “These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.”

Perry Buchanan, owner of PT Gym, is certified as an exercise physiologist through the American College of Sports Medicine, and as a fitness nutrition specialist through the National Academy of Sports Medicine. Email him at [email protected]. Follow @ptgym on Twitter.