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American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Herbal Remedies

Aired September 18, 2003 - 08:49   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Isabel in a moment, but first health products. Herbal health products do a booming business online. There are hundreds of Internet sites selling dietary supplements, like ginseng, ginkgo biloba and echinacea. You know these names. But buyer beware. We're told a new study suggests that many of the claims are false. In some cases, they could be illegal.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in between the hurricane coverage, back with us at the CNN center.

What do we need to know, doctor? Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, yes.

Yes, buyer beware, "caliat emptora (ph)" in Latin.

Listen, the herbal industry is about an $18 billion industry, so a huge industry. A lot of scrutiny over this. One of the fastest growing markets of that $18 billion, the Internet. No surprise there. The Internet can be a great source of health information, but also a source of hoaxes, rumors and myths about some of these herbal products. And that's exactly the subject of the new study. Two doctors out of Harvard published their results in the "Journal of the American Medical Association."

Taking a hard look at the herbal industry, some of the things they found -- 81 percent of retail Web sites claim some sort of health benefit. Now if you break that down a little bit further, 55 percent of retail Web sites claim that their supplements can prevent, treat or cure specific diseases. What's concerning about that is that oftentimes there is no data to back them up. It's never actually been studied. And as a result, federal regulations prohibit making such false health claims.

Now there's been a lot of deregulation of the herbal industry really over the last 10 years, since 1994. Those regulations have diminished a significant amount, but there have been now some specific examples of why this is problematic. I guess people sort of understand that if somebody says it's going to cure you on the Internet it may be too good to be true.

But there are some potential dangers in this area, as well. I'll give you a couple of examples. St. John's Wort, for example, something that you can buy over the counter at just about any drugstore can actually somewhat decrease the effectiveness of many other drugs including HIV drugs. Now a lot of people didn't know that. There's also another out there, Metabolife, which you and I have talked about before in the past as well, Bill. Now this medication can actually make it harder for your blood to clot. There have been elective operations that have actually had to be canceled because of drugs like Metabolife. So just because they're over the counter doesn't necessarily mean they're safe.

Really, as you said, Bill, buyer beware of some of these exaggerated health claims.

HEMMER: What's the oversight then for consumers?

GUPTA: You know, it's really interesting. The FDA, with regards to prescription drugs, has tremendous oversight. You have to prove that it's safe. You have to prove that it's effective. You have to prove that it's even more effective than what's already out there before a drug can become a prescription drug. For the over-the- counter drugs in the herbal industry, it's a much different regulation with regards to actually getting the drug out there. The only way it can actually be taken off is if actually someone proves that it's not safe, which is a must higher standard.

Also with regard to these claims, treating and curing diseases and things like that, the FDA has little, if any, say with regards to that. It actually falls under the jurisdiction of the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, with regards to these sorts of things. So much different jurisdiction. Just be careful out there with some of these claims.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Love the Latin lingo, too by the way. Et tu Gupta.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired September 18, 2003 - 08:49   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Back to Isabel in a moment, but first health products. Herbal health products do a booming business online. There are hundreds of Internet sites selling dietary supplements, like ginseng, ginkgo biloba and echinacea. You know these names. But buyer beware. We're told a new study suggests that many of the claims are false. In some cases, they could be illegal.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, in between the hurricane coverage, back with us at the CNN center.

What do we need to know, doctor? Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, yes.

Yes, buyer beware, "caliat emptora (ph)" in Latin.

Listen, the herbal industry is about an $18 billion industry, so a huge industry. A lot of scrutiny over this. One of the fastest growing markets of that $18 billion, the Internet. No surprise there. The Internet can be a great source of health information, but also a source of hoaxes, rumors and myths about some of these herbal products. And that's exactly the subject of the new study. Two doctors out of Harvard published their results in the "Journal of the American Medical Association."

Taking a hard look at the herbal industry, some of the things they found -- 81 percent of retail Web sites claim some sort of health benefit. Now if you break that down a little bit further, 55 percent of retail Web sites claim that their supplements can prevent, treat or cure specific diseases. What's concerning about that is that oftentimes there is no data to back them up. It's never actually been studied. And as a result, federal regulations prohibit making such false health claims.

Now there's been a lot of deregulation of the herbal industry really over the last 10 years, since 1994. Those regulations have diminished a significant amount, but there have been now some specific examples of why this is problematic. I guess people sort of understand that if somebody says it's going to cure you on the Internet it may be too good to be true.

But there are some potential dangers in this area, as well. I'll give you a couple of examples. St. John's Wort, for example, something that you can buy over the counter at just about any drugstore can actually somewhat decrease the effectiveness of many other drugs including HIV drugs. Now a lot of people didn't know that. There's also another out there, Metabolife, which you and I have talked about before in the past as well, Bill. Now this medication can actually make it harder for your blood to clot. There have been elective operations that have actually had to be canceled because of drugs like Metabolife. So just because they're over the counter doesn't necessarily mean they're safe.

Really, as you said, Bill, buyer beware of some of these exaggerated health claims.

HEMMER: What's the oversight then for consumers?

GUPTA: You know, it's really interesting. The FDA, with regards to prescription drugs, has tremendous oversight. You have to prove that it's safe. You have to prove that it's effective. You have to prove that it's even more effective than what's already out there before a drug can become a prescription drug. For the over-the- counter drugs in the herbal industry, it's a much different regulation with regards to actually getting the drug out there. The only way it can actually be taken off is if actually someone proves that it's not safe, which is a must higher standard.

Also with regard to these claims, treating and curing diseases and things like that, the FDA has little, if any, say with regards to that. It actually falls under the jurisdiction of the FTC, Federal Trade Commission, with regards to these sorts of things. So much different jurisdiction. Just be careful out there with some of these claims.

HEMMER: Thank you, Sanjay. Love the Latin lingo, too by the way. Et tu Gupta.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com