August 12, 2003 – Consumers of natural health products would benefit from being well informed since the advice they may receive from employees of specialty retailers is not necessarily reliable.
This is the conclusion reached by a researcher from the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine.1, Edward Mills, who sent eight fake customers to 34 natural health stores nationwide. These bogus customers were instructed to wander the aisles until approached by an employee. They then had to ask what was recommended for their mother, whom they said had breast cancer.
In 68% of the cases, the employees never asked what drugs the pseudo-patient was taking. And only 23% of them warned that the recommended product could have a dangerous interaction with a drug prescribed by the doctor. In one case, an employee even recommended stopping treatment with tamoxifen, a drug commonly used to treat breast cancer, claiming it was a “poison.”
Recommended products ranged from vitamins and mushroom extracts to shark cartilage, and cost from $ 5 to $ 600 per month.
From there to concluding that all employees of natural products stores are incompetent, there is a step that should not be taken. Mr Mills says most stores ask their employees not to make any recommendations, but admits this is difficult to put into practice. Rather, he would like to see employees receive appropriate training.
It also emphasizes the responsibility of patients to educate themselves, and to ask the right questions of the right people. Rather than blindly trusting an employee’s words, it would be in the patient’s interest to do their own research, or to consult a specialist, whether it is a doctor, a naturotherapist or other.
A similar survey conducted in the United States a few years ago yielded similar results.
The most recent survey findings are published in the British journal Breast Cancer Research.
Jean-Benoit Legault – PasseportSanté.net
According to the Canadian Press, August 6, 2003.
1. Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine website: http://www.ccnm.edu/
