In expecting health from food supplements the patient only loses time

If you do not love to see to or go to the doctor, then just trust the advertisements. Practically any ill (if you go by the ads), including cancer, atherosclerosis, and heart disease, can be cured by unique preparations developed in mysterious labs and hitherto unavailable to mere mortals. Judging by the ads, such remedies (or food supplements, to be precise, since most of these miraculous medicines are not registered as medicines) include natural components that not only heal whatever ails you but also regenerate heart cells and the nervous system, something modern medical science has thus far failed to do. Given the situation when similar miracle drugs are becoming more and more popular on the domestic market and Ukrainians showing increasing trust in them, a work group has been set up based at the Strazhesko Institute of Cardiology in Kyiv. The group is headed by Meritorious Physician of Ukraine Valentyn Shumakov, MD and professor. As their main goal, the members of the group intend to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada Committee for Medicine to introduce a bill on unfair advertising of medical preparations.

In early 1960s, the World Health Organization developed its standards for modern pharmaceuticals, with drug effectiveness topping the list and followed by such other criteria as safety, availability, and low cost. To demonstrate the effectiveness of a medicine, scientists proposed a whole range of tests, including, among others, a so-called twin blind test when neither patient nor doctor are aware of what the patient is being treated with, the real drug or a placebo. Only after such tests can a medication be declared as effective against one disease or another. It is quite clear that food supplements are not subject to such tests. Moreover, very often references made by the sellers that their products have been approved by the Health Ministry and their effectiveness confirmed by medical research institutions are open to question, The Day’s correspondent was told in the Strazhesko Institute. According to Valentyn Shumakov, head of institute’s department of myocardial infarction and rehabilitation, the advertising of snake oils having no real medicinal properties is among major causes for Ukraine’s growing mortality rate. By administering highly advertised and expensive but ineffective nostrums, patients lose time which could have been used to secure a complete cure or arrest a disease. In many Western countries, advertising a drug in the mass media is preceded by licensing by medical associations. Often, such advertising is allowed only in special medical publications unavailable to the general public. Despite this, every year about a hundred thousand patients fall victims to drug side effects in the United States alone. Unfortunately, there are no accurate statistics on the number of victims in Ukraine.

There is a provision in the current law on advertising banning reference to any medicinal properties in ads for food supplements unless their presence has been proved by official testing. Similarly, no information which can lead patients to believe that no consultations with medical specialists are needed required prior to administering a preparation can be included in such ads. Any unfair advertising is subject to public retraction, ban, or punitive fine. However, the problem is in the fine print.

COMMENTARY

Isaak TRAKHTENBERG, Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, Correspondence Member of the National Academy of Sciences:

I believe medical preparations should not be advertised at all, especially in Ukraine and given the mindset of Ukrainians. There are educational programs run by doctors where they inform the populace about new drugs and their properties, as well as give advice. If there were family doctors in Ukraine who could observe their patients regularly and thus were able to recommend drugs best suited to them, such advertising could be allowed. But bearing in mind that Ukrainians accept all such ads at face value, such advertising appears very aggressive. Besides, the same products often figure as pharmaceuticals and food additives in various ads. The Americans have set up several committees to monitor food additives and drugs. Statistics revealed by these committees indicate that in a nearly thousand cases the use of hyped food additives containing substances hazardous to humans has led to heavy side effects. European Union experts have also addressed this issue jointly with health ministers. Our legislation lags behind on this plane. It has nothing on whether a food additive containing medicinal components is subject to any expert examination as a drug and not as a supplement. Ukrainian law does not specify the difference between a biologically active additive as a genuine food supplement and a biologically active supplement which is actually a medication. This issue was addressed at the last session of the State Pharmaceutical Committee attended by the nation’s health minister. Until the difference between food supplements and drugs is clearly defined by our law, an expert group including various medical and food specialists is to be formed in the Health Ministry to monitor the issue. The group should define objective criteria to classify some biologically active supplements as food supplements and others as medicines.

Vasyl NETIAZHENKO, Professor, National Bohomolets Medical University:

There is a noticeable trend indicating that the health of Ukrainians is becoming worse. In the first case, this is due to a very simple factor: lack of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals are essential to normal performance of the human organism and the absence of which can lead to serious ailments. Biologically active food supplements aimed at correcting food deficiencies have become increasingly used recently. According to their descriptions, by effecting human cells such additives normalize body metabolism, especially at the carbohydrate and lipid levels, which makes supplements, let me stress, a preventive measure against atherosclerotic changes in vessels and other diseases, but have no curative properties whatsoever. Biologically active additives can be used merely as auxiliary preparations to medical treatment because they improve energy processes in cells by removing metabolic disorders. For example, the use of biologically active supplements containing the L-arginine and Q10 coenzyme are recommended for treating cardiovascular diseases. Long-term clinical research has not confirmed that the symptomatic therapy involving biologically active food supplements had any affect on patients’ recovery rate. The only exception are beta blockers which improved recovery after myocardial infarction.

Still, in the absence of any large-scale study further clinical research is required in order to confirm or refute the effectiveness of biologically active food supplements. In other words, there are no adequate reasons to recommend the routine application of biologically active food supplements for the prevention of diseases.