Comments on I Knew It!

having just found a weird very read copy of "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About" (or something close to that), this news doesn't surprise me one bit.

the fda, et al want to keep only regulated drugs on the market...they flip out when any individual, organization, company makes any sort of opinion on natural cures and remedies or anything that's not controlled and regulated by the fda and the pharmaceutical companies.

my thought? if airborne works for you, keep using it!

Dang it! I just bought Airborne for the first time ever todayI I thought it might help stave off whatever I do to myself at Young Ones tonight...

I tried that Airborne shit. Didn't work.

Duh.

People are suckers.

And Budweiser doesn't get you laid! Where's my attorney?

Um, it doesn't work because it has no ingredients.

Brandon, the book you're reading, if in fact it is "Natural Cures They Don't Want You To Know About" by Kevin Trudeau, as I suspect, you should be aware that he is nothing more than a scam artist and a convicted credit-card fraudster. He's a crook, the "undisputed king of false infomercial advertising", who is into you for nothing more than your money. And virtually every word of his "book" is a lie.

Trudeau is the veteran of a long string of bogus infomercials hawking pure snake oil. He tried to claim "coral calcium" cures multiple sclerosis, that you could increase your reading speed to 600 words per minute in just a fifteen minute training session; that overeating and drug addiction can be cured by humming; that his Sable Hair Farming System will grow thick luxuriant hair anywhere; and on and on and on. You're being conned. The "feds don't want you to know the truth" line is a load of crap.

damn you, sock puppet! not only are you not me, your opinion is unbelievably lame.

airborne consists of vitamins and alka-seltzer. anyone stupid enough to believe this is going to cure their cold deserves to be hoodwinked.

You must be drinking the Budweiser wrong, Dougsf. It always works for me.

There's a sucker born every minute.

What?! Are you CRAZY?!!

Placebos work GREAT!*

*for things that tend to resolve of their own accord

There's no "secret"; It's just a massive overdose of Vitamin C, 1,670% of your daily value to be precise.

Emergen-C does the same damn thing.

#8 - Is "alone in my living room with the television as my only source of light" the wrong way to drink it? I though, like, a party was supposed to show up at my place if I kept doing it that way.

While we're on the subject (or not at all), anyone know anything about ZICAM? Any science to it?

@12 All I know is the last time I had a sinus thing I squirted that Zicam Congestion Relief up by nasal passages and it was magic.

Actually, placebos are the best thing.

The best ones are the most expensive ones, actually.

(based on scientific studies)

if it made Lloyd Dangle some money, it was all worth it.

i heart Troubletown!

hey, it works for me...everytime i feel the crud coming on, i start slamming it down and it either cuts it off at the pass, or i have a brief cold...if i don't start taking it in time, i get a full-blown cold lasting a week...but i never thought it was a miracle; it's the megadose of Vitamin C that helps

and i AM a super sucker.

It simply proves that second grade teachers are evil.

Airborne is meant to boost your immune system so you're less likely to get sick, it's not supposed to make you less sick if you've already got something. According to the article at one point the company claimed it relieved cold symptoms, but I don't remember it ever being marketed that way. Who thought it CURED colds!? And who was then so upset that it didn't that they SUED? What a monumental waste of time and energy.

@6: You're confusing this with a homeopathic medicine. As Brandon said, it consists of vitamins (A, C & E) and alka-seltzer (sodium bicarbonate & citric acid, but no aspirin), as well as some minerals, a "proprietary blend" of herbs, and amino acids. I bought some for our last airplane trip, but promptly forgot about it and never used it.

I always thought Airborne is an overpriced multivitamin. The thing I found particularly absurd about that product is that they advertise as being created by a schoolteacher. Well, I'm a schoolteacher too, and I can't imagine what qualifies me to create a product like Airborne over, say, a scientist or researcher or whatever.

I thought it was homeopathic. My bad.

The only way to prevent a cold FOR CERTAIN is to bathe daily in the heartblood of sacrificed virgins.

This crap does have it's uses - After a night of heavy drinking, a tall glass of Airborne swill before crashing helps make my hangover less horrible...

I got more sick from Airborne. I didn't know that I was allergic to Elderberry until i took this crap and just about shit my guts out. Damn it they owe me something; I'd take just an apology though.

Aaagh! correction: "its" - Sorry Amy Kate!

I knew it was bad was a naturopath told me to stay away from it.

Why even take Airborne when you can just take multivitamins, practice a sound diet and get plenty of rest instead?

Can I opt for an autographed Lloyd Dangle cartoon, instead of the refund?

I thought Airborne was harmless until I noticed (via an article in a publication that I'm forgetting the name of) that if taken as recommended, you will have exceeded what's considered safe for a daily dose of Vitamin A.

Yeah, ditto about the weird "Invented by a school teacher!" marketing. I love school teachers and they are qualified to do many difficult things. However, curing the common cold is not one of them.

@12

Zicam does in fact have some effect on the common cold. I found their claims dubious at first (mostly due to the Aireborne craze) but it does in fact seem to work.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8942045

Beware of Zicam! Apparently in some cases it may make you lose your sense of smell. Permanently.

http://www.tasteandsmell.com/apr04.htm

Fnarf, have you seen how much the heartblood of sacrificed virgins is going for these days? I'll take my chances on a cold.

haven't tried airborne, but emergen-c in vodka works better for me than the reformulated nighttime cold medicines.

And I do suggest that my laboring moms use it (sans vodka) to stay hydrated in labor, as well as give it to the kids at breakfast as an immune builder.

"I took some airborne before a flight, and I didn't get sick, so it must work right?"

Or maybe you never would have gotten a cold even if you didn't take airborne. There is no way to know. There is a way to determine whether or not Airbornes' claims are true, and that is to do a randomized experiment. Randomly sample a group of people before a flight. randomly assign half to take airborne, half to take a placebo. compare how many people in each group got sick to see if it is there is a statistically significant difference.

This has not been done. As for its ingredients, it has abunch of vitamin C, which has not been shown to prevent sickness, but there is some evidence that it decreases the length of a cold. But, if you taking that much there might have side efects. And if you take that much Airborne, you will be taking an unhealthy amount of Vitamin A, as someone previously pointed out.

Also, in general, if 100% of something is recomended, then 2000% is not going to be better(e.g., 8 cups of water per day good, 160 cups of water amazing!)

a good article

Airborne is meant to boost your immune system so you're less likely to get sick,

I could put dirt in a bottle and legally sell it claiming that it "boosts your immune system." The FDA only regulates structure/function claims on herbal supplements, so "boosts your immune system" is OK and very common on supplements, but "prevents colds" or "cures colds" or "makes you less likely to get sick" is NOT ok without good evidence.

I really doubt Airborne claims it "prevents colds" anymore -- it might have been this claim that got them into trouble.

And I don't think the lawsuit is a waste of time. If what airborne did went unchecked, there would be a flood of snake oil and dirt-in-a-bottle products in the drug store claiming they prevented or cured colds.

Not to mention that having a "boosted" immune system tends to result in conditions like arthritis and allergies...