Interprofessional Health Claims

An increasing number of people are using products to enhance their diets. A recent estimate indicates, “Americans are spending some $6 billion annually on nutritional supplements, and the market is growing by 20% every year” (Zahn, 1997). Of these supplements, the increase in herbal remedy use is most dramatic. Zahn holds that the increase can be attributed to the widely held belief that herbal substances are healthy and harmless because of their natural origins (1997). Unfortunately, research on these supplements, herbal or otherwise, has not transmitted to the public as quickly as the diet enhancers themselves. The phenomenon leaves many consumers misguided by skewed advertising and

"When evaluating claims for dietary supplements, be wary of products that include promises for quick remedies."

The lifecycle of physician-based claim (CMS 1500) is something that we not only need to know, but also how to do from start to finish.

There are certain establishments citizens should be able to trust. Most citizens aren’t suspicious of ulterior motives from medical professionals, or results of research studies. Yet deception in these ways is more commonplace than we might think. Big food companies are smart, so when they fear they might be criticized, they find ways to team up with their critics. For example, Coca-Cola teamed up with the American Academy of Family Physicians. This resulted in the public resignation of twenty doctors. These doctors felt

The product more or less receives a seal of approval without the consumer ever really knowing whether the “expert” is truly an expert at all. The professional’s actual doctorate may not even be in the medical field, but in a completely different field and unrelated all together. This is done because viewers ask fewer questions about a product or information when backed by a professional. This tactic is used to gain the trust of the viewers. Once they have the viewers’ trust in hand, Iovative Health Sciences, Inc., persuades these young female viewers to believe almost anything that they want them too. These women become inclined to believe that Hydroxycut will work for them; fast, easy, and with no hassles. This method of gaining the female consumers trust coupled with Hydroxycut ads’ other advertising fallacies for example, the airbrushed and digitally enhanced photos along with Hydroxycut’s over exaggerated or falsified statements; make their already vulnerable female audience more susceptible to their deceptions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an agency created to protect America’s consumers, drew up a report called, “Weight-Loss Advertising: An Analysis of Current Trends,” which investigated weight-loss advertising. In 2001, a content analysis found that over half of all advertising for weight-loss products used fabricated, unsupported claims. In an investigation of 300 ads from

In other words, it is like “sell whatever you want, but don’t get yourself caught”. These seems to be so irresponsible especially for profit-driven manufacturers. Furthermore, even though the FDA (in cooperation with the FTC) have already regulate product advertisement, there are still so many false advertising claiming that their product somehow could be used for diagnosis and curing certain diseases. In this matter, we could not give the consumer full responsibility to determine on their own which ones are safe as most of the people lack the related knowledge. In other examples, even though the advertising is ‘properly-written’ and acceptable under FTC regulations, they still provide us with some scientific facts that the products showed indication of diagnostic and curing effects, but even the source-reliability could still be questioned. Nevertheless, most people will still get fooled easily by these claims, especially from products sold online that also provide pictures of random celebrities as if they are consuming these products (in fact they are not!) and/or some un-reliable testimonial photos. Robert Longley from about.com reported that in 2014, the FDA have sent warning letters to 16 dietary supplement distributors that made false and

There are many methods and tricks marketers, journalists, nutritionists or let’s say pseudoscientists use to impress people. The key one is their reductionist attitude; that is to ignore the placebo effect, make intervention claims by referring to observational data and even give claims by leaning on untested theories without conducting a well-controlled experiment (Goldacre, page 87); and if they do an experiment, it is not the

Branding – Marketing within the industry and the profiled consumer on the benefits of alternative health methods, its safety and efficacy is essential.

Collaboration, within interprofessional teams, is fundamental in a maternity setting. The framework of interprofessional care provides an avenue for women and their families, potentially with complex needs, to receive holistic and individualised care (D’Amour et al., 2009; The Royal College of Midwives (RCM), 2014). RCM (2014) suggests that the responsibility of managing the interprofessional relationships between specialist health care professionals, such as neonatologists, belongs with the midwife. The reason for this is that the role of the midwife embodies the care of women throughout their pregnancy, in order to create a level of continuity, in addition to facilitating the client’s primary care through the use of guidance and plans created

Using appropriate literature this paper will examine Interprofessional collaboration care and critically analyse interprofessional working. An introduction to the area of subject will be given and Interprofessional care will then be examined using various sources of literature. This paper will conclude by looking at implications raised and aspects of development needed throughout interprofessional working, developing an action plan to proceed with into future practice.

“The Alternative Medicine Racket” talks about how a few people tried to introduce alternative medicine into American Culture. The National Institute of Health took supposed “mystical” therapy from what they called fraud sources, and implanted them directly into the heart of the medical establishment. In 1984, the government released a report on fraudulent medicine in America and concluded that billions of American taxpayer money was being swindled by untested herbs and energy therapies that filled the aisle of stores and pages of magazines. These were aimed towards a vulnerable population: the elderly, desperate, and terminally ill. Fifty experts called for a crackdown (or should I say “quackdown”) on the alternative therapies (that we’ll refer to as “quackery”). In the late 1980’s, a senator named Tom Harkin was positive that bee pollen had cured his hay fever and wondered “Why isn’t anyone funding this?”, leading him to establish the Office of Alternative Medicine.

The title of the article published about the lawsuit on Coca-Cola was titled “Lawsuit Over Deceptive Vitaminwater Claims to Proceed”. In the beginning of the article, the author touches a bit on what Coca-Cola did to make someone sue them for their health “scandal”. “The company claims that Vitaminwater variously reduces the risk of chronic disease, reduces the risk of eye disease, promotes healthy joints, and supports optimal immune function, and uses health buzz words such as “defense,” “rescue,” “energy,” and “endurance” on labels” (CSPI, 2010). Of course these buzz words are stated in the claims that Coca-Cola makes about Vitaminwater because they are words used to draw people’s attention and to get the public to want to buy their product. Any good sales company would do the same thing as Coca-Cola did. This argument from Coca-Cola alone did not satisfy CSPI, or their spokesperson Steve Gardner. He continued on to argue “for too long, Coca-Cola has been exploiting Americans’ desire to eat and drink more healthfully by deceiving them into thinking that Vitaminwater can actually prevent disease,” said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner. “In fact, Vitaminwater is no more than

According to the World Health Organization “The global pharmaceuticals market is worth US$300 billion a year”(WHO2014). It is coming more common in this industry for pharmaceutical companies to invest billions into advertisements that make their products household name, allowing them to increase the demand and the prices of their products. Over the last 40 years the marketing practices of the pharmaceutical companies have changed the direction of marketing towards physicians to marketing directly to the consumer. This has transformed the pharmaceutical market and has brought out on foreseen profits to the companies. This form of marketing has also brought forth ethical debates that question a pharmaceutical company’s responsibility to communicate risk of their products to consumers and the Learned Intermediary Rule.

Although the presenter is not a professional in the field, everyone she consults about the veracity of ‘superfoods’ and their properties are experts and an extremely reliable source. These episodes, each focusing on roughly three ‘superfoods’ demonstrated why most superfoods were just a myth and why others could technically be labelled as a ‘superfood’. For example, grapefruits claim to aid weight loss, although in order for the fruit to be this effective, approximately forty grapefruit need to be eaten, which includes 1kg of sugar and 1000 calories. The documentary was my main source of information when writing about the benefits of superfoods and augmented the quality of the content greatly. When cross-referencing the information with other reliable sources, the knowledge was correct, which was extremely important when applying it to my

While health foods stores attract consumers to purchase health supplements, many manufacturers use health food stores to promote their bogus products. In March 1999, the FTC filed a complaint in federal court against the makers of Vitamin O. The company ran false ads claiming the Vitamin O supplement prevents cancer, heart, and lung disease by adding an extra oxygen supplement to the bloodstream. With no scientific evidence to prove the benefits of Vitamin O, the two companies from Washington agreed to a settlement of $375,000 for consumer compensation. The settlement prohibited the Vitamin O manufacturers from making claims that were unsupported about the Vitamin O health benefits. Testimonials and endorsements of product represented through previous experience from members of the public who used the product were also prohibited in the settlement. In conclusion, marketing agents with false science beliefs have one common goal: To sell! We as consumers must be aware and informed of unknown supplements that claims to have a great deal of impact to your life. These products are known for its testimonials by doctors and actors that make claims of using the product. Pseudoscience supplements have caused serious illnesses and even death due to consumers lack of knowledge when purchasing these products. It is strongly recommended that consumers research the companies and the product that advertise false products very carefully before purchasing a supplement that claims to