From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: Vitamin Advice from Pharmacists
Date: 14 Dec 92 20:27:01 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada


Let's consider just one example of the vitamin hype and quackery
that is now quite prevalent.  We've all seen the ads for so-
called stress vitamins aimed at the well-nourished general
population.  Well, it turns out that if somebody were under
sufficient stress to cause a vitamin deficiency would likely be
so sick as to require hospitalization!  Indeed, there is no
evidence that emotional stress raises physiologic need for
vitamins.  Now, starting in 1985 the FDA and the Pharmaceutical
Advertising Council began major public service campaigns rightly
attacking medical quackery.  They encouraged people to ask
their doctor or pharmacist about any much touted health claims.

Now, this advise to consult with your local pharmacists was
actually tested by Consumer Reports who sent reporters to 30
pharmacies in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and California.  Posing as
potential customers, the reporters complained either of feeling
tired or of feeling tense or nervous.  They asked the pharmacist
in each of the 30 stores if a vitamin product might help.  Even
though vitamins are not appropriate treatments for stress or
tiredness, they were not told this.  Only 30%  properly
recommended that the person see a doctor.  Almost 60% of the
pharmacists recommended vitamins as a solution for stress or
tiredness, and one even went so far as to recommend an amino-acid
preparation.  This is actually quite shocking when 51 deans of
U.S. pharmacy schools report that this very situation is covered
in their courses. Half of these deans thought that pharmacists
should attempt through questions to identify possible causes of
tiredness or nervousness and should ask whether a doctor had been
consulted.


Here are some of the kinds of outrageous answers given by two
pharmacists:

Reporter:  "I've been feeling kind of nervous lately and I was
     wondering if you have a vitamin that I could take for
     something like that?"

Pharmacist1:  "The best I could give you in a vitamin would be a
     B-complex that's supposed to help rebuild your nervous
     system.  that's the only vitamin that would be of any
     benefit to your.  It isn't going to work overnight.  you're
     going to have to take it for a while.

Reporter:  "Do you feel something like this would be good for
     nervous-type tense feeling?"

Pharmacist1:  "It's the only thing in a vitamin that's going to
     do any good. . . . Take 2 a day for about a week, and then
     you can reduce it to one a day. . . . Try not to forget to
     take them, that's the most important thing."


Reporter  "I've been feeling rundown lately and feeling nervous a
     lot lately.  I was wondering if you have a vitamin that I
     could take for something like that?"

Pharmacist2:  "well, I'd try one-a-day vitamins, 'cause I don't
     eat necessarily right, 'cause I don't have the most stable
     hours, and all that.  It depends.  Has it been long, like a
     chronic thing, or just lately?

Reporter:  A couple of months.

Pharmacist2:  "The only thing I can suggest is like a high
     potency vitamin. . . That's the type I take.

Reporter:  That should do the job?

Pharmacist2:  "Say this way, it should help.  If it still
     maintains a feeling of a little bit of dragginess, it might
     be something else that you might want to talk to the doctor
     about.  But that is a very good product".



Now, here is how the first situation was properly handled by a
more competent pharmacist:

Reporter:  "I've been feeling nervous a lot lately.  Is there a
vitamin I can take for that?"

Competent Pharmacist:  "Not really.  what's causing your
     nervousness?  Are you taking any medication?  . . . I don't
     mean necessarily for nerves, but are you taking  any kind of
     medication?

Reporter:  No, I'm not taking anything at all ...

Competent Pharmacist:  you can try a vitamin, but a vitamin's not
     going to cure it. You really should see a doctor to see
     what's causing the nervousness.  When last did you see a
     doctor?

Reporter:  Oh, I go in for annual checkups.

Competent Pharmacist:  Are you drinking a lot of coffee?  . . .
     Caffeine could be doing that.

 Reporter:  You mean there's no vitamin that I should take?

Competent Pharmacist:  I wouldn't want you to pin your hopes on a
     vitamin to cure it, because you really should see what's
     causing it.


REFERENCE:    "The Vitamin Pushers: From Drug Company to Drug
     Store, Sellers Tell You That you Need Vitamin Supplements.
     Do You Really?"  CONSUMER REPORTS, 1986,