As noted in an article featuring ACSH Advisor Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch, research into the efficacy of alternative medicine has run up a government tab of $2.5 billion over ten years and returned predictably dismal results. You expect scientific thinking [at a federal science agency], said R. Barker Bausell, author of Snake Oil Science and a research methods expert at the University of Maryland. It's become politically correct to investigate nonsense.
ACSH staffers couldn t agree more. Our tax dollars are going to evaluating these supplements instead of legitimate medical research, says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Maybe they should be held to the same head-to-head standard as pharmaceuticals, suggests ACSH's Jeff Stier, referring to the federally mandated comparative effectiveness research requirement that pharmaceuticals not only be proven safe and effective, but also superior to other drugs in the same class. Then people will know once and for all what a scam these supplements are.