November 6, 2006 – Employees of natural health products (NHP) stores reportedly provide advice that has little or no scientific basis, finds a field study in Ontario.
The objective of this research1 aimed to compare the solutions for mild hypertension offered by retail drugstore workers and NHP store clerks.
To do this, members of the University of Western Ontario research team visited 20 NHP stores and 38 pharmacies in the Ontario cities of London and Toronto incognito. They told them that their 67-year-old father, struggling with mild hypertension, didn’t want to take any more medication and that they were looking for an alternative.
The study authors report that in each of the 20 NHP stores, only supplements were offered to them. These were garlic supplement in 55% of cases, omega-3 (45% of cases), B complex vitamins (30%), coenzyme Q10 (25%), calcium (20 %) and magnesium (17%).
They point out that 65% of employees told them that the recommended products were “as effective as a drug.” Only one clerk said the supplement was more effective than the drug.
In the 38 retail pharmacies, pharmacists answered the researchers’ questions, with one exception. Only 10% of pharmacists presented natural health products as being as effective as drugs (essentially a garlic supplement). Instead, the others insisted that the patient had to take medication to avoid “endangering his life,” according to the authors.
Valid supplements?
According to pharmacist Jean-Yves Dionne, natural health products recognized in the treatment of hypertension are adjuvants to drugs, that is to say, they enhance their effects. “These are not first-line treatments”, specifies this expert in NHP.
Jean-Yves Dionne is offended by the conclusions drawn by Ontario researchers. “It’s a biased study. The authors had a thesis at the start and only sought to prove it! », He drops.
The authors of the study conclude that the advice given by employees of NHP stores is not based on convincing scientific data. But, as Jean-Yves Dionne points out, researchers do not seem to know the proven benefits of fish oils (or omega-3) and coenzyme Q10 offered by NHP store clerks. These two supplements are indeed good adjuncts to drugs prescribed against hypertension, according to scientific studies.
According to Jean-Yves Dionne, the clerks of the PSN shops were not on the wrong track. “The products they recommended are listed correctly,” he says. Garlic, fish oils, antioxidants, and vitamins are legitimate adjuvant recommendations, although Health Canada has not yet approved them for this purpose. “
Note that the results of this study, which hit the headlines of a national daily2, are from a study funded by the pharmaceutical Mead Johnson3, owned by the multinational Brystol-Myers Squibb.
Martin LaSalle – PasseportSanté.net
According to National Post.
1. Koren G, Oren D, et al. Comparison of verbal claims for natural health products made by health food stores staff versus pharmacists in Ontario, Canada, Canadian Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, August 2006, Vol. 13, No 2.
2. Blackwell T, Health-food store claims put people at risk: study, National Post (Toronto), October 24, 2006, page A-1.
3. Mead Johnson is a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Brystol-Myers Squibb which markets the blood pressure medications Avapro and Avalide. At 3e Quarter 2006, sales of these drugs increased 13% worldwide compared to the same period in 2005. For more information, see the Brystol-Myers Squibb news release at www.bms. com.
