FTC Stops False Claims about Fountain of Youth Oral Sprays
By FTC News
Oct 19, 2005, 22:46

Sprays Do Not Contain, or Cause the Body to Produce, Human Growth Hormone as Claimed

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court issued a temporary restraining order against marketers of oral sprays that supposedly contain human growth hormone (HGH) to stop them from making alleged false and deceptive claims and from sending illegal spam. The temporary restraining order also freezes the defendants' assets. The FTC charged that the sprays, marketed on dozens of Web sites and through spam, do not cause weight loss, reverse the aging process, or prevent or treat diseases as advertised.

The FTC alleged in a complaint that the sprays do not contain HGH or cause the body to produce it. The complaint charged that the defendants made false and deceptive product claims, misrepresented the security of their online ordering pages, and sent hundreds of thousands of illegal spam messages advertising the sprays. The defendants are Pacific Herbal Sciences, Inc. and its president, John A. Brackett, Jr., and Natural Health Product, Inc. and New Star Marketing Group, Inc. and their president, Lei Lu, also known as Lei Li, also doing business as IE Marketing, Inc.

According to the FTC complaint, the advertisements for "HGH Revolution" and "Natural Rejuvenator HGH-R" made incredible claims such as:

"LOSE WEIGHT WHILE YOU SLEEP without DIETING or EXERCISE"

"Experience up to an 82% IMPROVEMENT in body fat loss while erasing 10 YEARS in 10 WEEKS!"

The marketing pitches for the sprays referred to clinical studies and prestigious publications to give credibility to their claims.

In its complaint, the FTC alleged the defendants made false claims about their products, lacked substantiation for those claims, and falsely stated that scientific studies validate their claims. Specifically, the defendants' ads made false or misleading claims that the sprays:

* contained HGH or increased the body's production of HGH;
* caused users to lose weight, without dieting or exercise;
* would turn back or slow the aging process, including increasing strength and energy, restoring the size of "bodily organs that shrink with age," and improving memory; and
* would prevent, treat, or cure diseases and medical conditions, such as strengthening the immune system, lowering blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, increasing bone density, improving vision, quickening healing from injuries, acting as an antidepressant, and stabilizing mood swings.

The defendants also claimed their Web site ordering pages were secure, saying, "NOTE: To ensure your personal privacy, all of the information that you submit to us after this point will be secured using SSL encryption technology." The FTC charged that the Web sites were not, in fact, encrypted, and consumer information transmitted was not secure.

The FTC alleged that the defendants drove traffic to their Web sites through spam, sent by marketers they paid. Consumers forwarded more than 200,000 of these e-mails to the FTC in 18 months. The FTC's complaint contends that much of the defendants' email violated the CAN-SPAM Act by using falsified headers and deceptive subject headings; leaving out an Internet-based mechanism to opt-out of receiving future e-mails; and omitting required information, including the sender's physical postal address, identification of the e-mail as an advertisement or solicitation, and an opportunity to decline receiving further e-mails from the sender.

The FTC is seeking a permanent ban on the defendants' false and misleading claims and illegal spam, as well as money back for consumers.

The Commission vote authorizing the staff to file the complaint was 4-0. The complaint was filed under seal in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California on October 6, with an ex parte temporary restraining order and asset freeze granted on the same day.

NOTE: The Commission files a complaint when it has "reason to believe" that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has actually violated the law. The case will be decided by the court.

Copies of the complaint are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC's ConsumerResponseCenter, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C.20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish (bilingual counselors are available to take complaints), or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.

Growth Hormone Products Don`t Contain Enough Ingredients

A new report by ConsumerLab.com says that many supplements that claim to boost levels of human growth hormone (hGH) actually contain only trace amounts of the substances needed to achieve this. Dr Tod Cooperman and colleagues reviewed the ingredients of around a dozen products that claim to boost hGH levels. These supplements typically fell into three categories: products that contain amino acids designed to temporarily boost hGH, homeopathic hGH products that contain an extremely diluted amount of the hormone, and "nanogram-strength" hGH, which contains roughly 1/1000th of the prescription-strength dose of the hormone. After reviewing the ingredients of the supplements Cooperman et al found that all contained nowhere near the dose of amino acid or hGH needed to have the effect of boosting hGH levels. Cooperman also says that the way these products are administered, for example orally or by a nasal spray, makes it impossible for the body to absorb what little of the hormone is there. Such hGH supplements are sold with the promise that the products will produce the same effects as when hGH is injected directly into a vein, however that is clearly not the case.

Growth hormone is a protein; it is destroyed if given by mouth. Even so, knowing that injections aren’t popular people began to market sprays, sprays that do not work. They are either homeopathic or they are sublingual amino acids.

Before we get in to how Homeopathy works or more how it doesn’t. I just want to mention that nowhere in Dr. Klatz’s Book Grow Young With HGH does he mention (or any other expert) anything about homeopathic products. Yet the people who are selling homeopathic product quote his book. He does, however go in to great detail about amino acids and how they work through oral dosages, Not Sprays. All the studies that have been done use real hGH or amino acids to help release hgh.

Homeopathy was created by Dr. Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843) on the assumption that like can be cured by like. “Like cures like” in some ways is like a vaccination. He developed his "law of similars" -- a notion that symptoms of disease can be cured by extremely small amounts of substances that produce similar symptoms in healthy people when administered in large amounts. Now here is how it works, if the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously (succussed); if insoluble, it is finely ground and pulverized in similar proportions with powdered lactose (milk sugar). One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration is reached. Dilutions of 1 to 10 are designated by the Roman numeral X (1X = 1/10, 3X = 1/1,000, 6X = 1/1,000,000). Similarly, dilutions of 1 to 100 are designated by the Roman numeral C (1C = 1/100, 3C = 1/1,000,000, and so on). Most remedies today range from 6X to 30X, but products of 30C or more are marketed. A 30X dilution means that the original substance has been diluted 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times. Here is an example: Imagine placing a drop of red dye into such a container so that it disperses evenly. Homeopathy's "law of infinitesimals" is the equivalent of saying that any drop of water subsequently removed from that container will possess an essence of redness. The principles underlying the concept of potentizing (diluting) are highly questionable and deserve nothing but ruthless scrutiny.

On March 3, 1998, at a symposium sponsored by Good Housekeeping magazine, former FDA Commissioner David A. Kessler, M.D., J.D., acknowledged that homeopathic remedies do not work but that he did not attempt to ban them because he felt that Congress would not support a ban. 

Bill Phillips said,“Sublingual Amino Acids – The contention here is that sublingual amino acids will be absorbed more quickly, thus, increasing blood concentrations more effectively.  Once again, this has never been shown to be true.  To my knowledge, there are no studies looking at sublingual amino acid delivery.  If you look at it from a strictly biological point of view, amino acids are rather large molecules with very poor lipid solubility and are probably not absorbed very well at all sublingually.  Not only that, but typically effective dosages of even important free-form amino acids, such as glutamine and taurine, in gram quantities.”(Sports Supplement Review.)

Sources:

Sports Supplement Review

www.reutershealth.com

foodconsumer.org

Carl-Erik Boman Chemist and Ph.D.

Stephen Barrett, M.D.