Consumers shrug off studies on supplements

Ben Pratt, a spokesman for the General Nutrition Centers, a national chain of stores that sell nutritional supplements, said sales of echinacea remain strong and were not affected by last summer’s negative study.

Some consumers use alternative medicine because of safety concerns about prescription drugs, including reports of heart problems that doomed the once-popular arthritis drug Vioxx. Others mistrust the medical establishment because it bombards them with contradictory studies.

“You can just wait long enough and someone else will have an opposite opinion,” said Richard Peterson, 62, a Baltimore property manager who says he won’t stop taking glucosamine.

But even if some consumers ignore the results, the rigorous government studies are extremely useful for doctors seeking to rely on more than word of mouth, said Miksanek, the family physician in Benton, Ill.

“We are very much relying now on evidence-based medicine,” said Miksanek. “We’re trying to get away from things like Doc Welby saying, ’I’ve used snake oil for years and it’s the greatest thing around.”’

Miksanek said now he can tell patients with minor arthritis pain that the pills may not work for everybody while offering more hopeful advice to patients with more severe pain.

Straus, of the NIH’s alternative medicine center, says his agency is committed to continuing research on supplements. The center’s research budget has steadily grown to $107.7 million for fiscal year 2005.

“I think that consumers should pay attention,” Straus said, “understanding that a single study may not provide the final answer.”

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