Welcome to Straight Talk on Health. I’m your host Dr. Chet Zelasko. Straight Talk on Health is a joint production with WGVU in Grand Rapids MI. I examine the practical application of health information. Nutrition. Exercise. Diet. Supplementation. I look at the science behind them, and let you know whether it’s something to consider or not. You can check out other things that I do on my website Drchet.com and sign up for my free emails.
I learned a fascinating new word the other day: scienceploitation. As it has been defined in various journals and articles by scientists and lawyers, scienceploitation uses new ideas and research to develop products that will “solve” whatever issue you have; examples are stem cells, microbiome, and lately mitochondrial dysfunction. Wellness gurus and social media influencers take advantage of the hype to get consumers to buy such products and services.
The problem is that test-tube, animal, or small human trials aren’t enough to suggest the product or service is safe nor effective. The hype websites and social media are always filled with testimonials but not with substantial research. We’ve all bought something that sounded too good to be true—and it was. We just have to be wise consumers.
I think back over the years I’ve been in the health business. One magic fruit juice after another that made claims that bordered on the unbelievable—because they were. Noni juice. Mangosteen juice. Moringa juice. There is no question that these exotic fruits have been used for years in various cultures for medicinal benefits. There are plenty of phytonutrients and other nutrients in them as evidenced by the research on those fruits and their ingredients. Antioxidants, antibacterials, and a whole lot more. But there is a distinct lack of human clinical trials to prove the benefits compared to controls. Immune boosters. Okay so how do they work? Making any change in the diet could provide some benefit, especially if someone doesn’t eat much fruit. But you have to quantify the changes in markers in the blood stream like using one of the T-cell markers or inflammation with hs-C reactive protein. You just can’t use testimonials from users. There is very limited data on enough subjects that show clear beneficial results.
What I’ve never understood was this: No one ever stopped to consider that if you’ve increased your fluid intake, that alone could make a difference in how you feel. So many people walk around every day dehydrated that it’s no wonder fluid—any fluid—might help them feel better. That’s beginning at the very beginning but it has to be done.
Here's another one. Years ago, a very popular drink supposedly had anti-microbial properties. You may have heard of it Colloidal Silver. It was promoted just about everywhere and by everyone—even religious shows promoted it for its anti-microbial activity. And the hype worked. People drank so much that their skin turned grey first, and then, blue. Problem? You bet—because once it’s set in connective tissue—and skin is connective tissue—it stays there permanently. I decided to do a little more checking on it.
The first thing I found was that silver is not used in any metabolic process in the body. In other words, it’s not necessary for any hormone to be made or muscle to contract. Nothing. But the body can process it for storage and at least some elimination depending on the amount consumed.
Why was colloidal silver ever considered as a product? Before antibiotics, silver was used in skin treatments for its antibacterial activity. Why was it being consumed in the first place? I mean, what was the research on which it was based? Nothing on humans. Surgical instruments that are coated in silver have been used for years because, as I said, silver has anti-bacterial properties. That’s the basis for millions of gallons being consumed by people hoping to feel better.
Here's another update from the NIH in August of 2023: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that colloidal silver isn’t safe or effective for treating any disease or condition. Additionally, the FDA and the Federal Trade Commission have taken action against a number of companies for making misleading claims about colloidal silver products.
If you remember the last episode, I talked about a study that examined oral bacteria to see which were linked to Mild Cognitive Impairment promoting bacteria. One of the ways to reduce the negative bacteria was to increase the amount of nitrates in the diet by eating more vegetables. That would be a perfect time to exploit products that contain nitrates in pills or powders to increase nitrate levels. In checking the references for the review of that paper, did someone take that research and create a product for sale? Turns out, those researchers had already done that research using a beet root extract as a known source for nitrates. Did it have an impact on the oral NO pathway? It did. But they also acknowledged that there were at least two other pathways that can use dietary nitrates which could have a much greater impact on NO production than the oral route. Those pathways were more likely to have an impact on cardiovascular issues and athletic performance than the oral pathway. I couldn’t find that any of those scientists were involved in the promotion of beet root extract for this expressed purpose.
How about one more example that is recent. There are many products on the market that say they enhance brain health. There is one that has made claims that it helps memory and may even stop MCI. There is only one problem. There is only research done by the company to show that it’s effective. Other than that, it doesn’t exist So you have one of the most highly marketed products for memory enhancement that hasn’t been confirmed by rodent research or human clinical trials done by other laboratories to confirm the results. Yet the testimonials flow freely.
Speaking of brain health, I was recently asked about online memory-building apps. The question is Do they really help your memory and learning ability? I’ve done a couple of them myself for a couple months each. The answer, based on independent research, is no. They will help with the specific task on hand, whether it’s memorizing a sequence or increasing visual focus but nothing more than that. In my opinion, it’s always about specificity of training. From an exercise perspective, you don’t train to run faster by using swimming training. You might increase shoulder strength depending on the stroke you use but you don’t specifically train to run faster. If you want to run faster, you’ve got to run faster. If you want to learn to juggle, you’ve got to juggle. There may be different techniques to learn that but you have to train the patterns of any movement in your brain.
Whatever the benefit you seek, whether from a diet, a supplement, or the next best thing a guru is selling, it still has to pass muster in clinical trials in order to find out whether there is a benefit in humans or not. We don’t live in an isolated system like a test tube and we are not rodents or monkeys. Keep scienceploitation in mind the next time an ad or commercial suggests something that seems to be too good to be true. That’s because it probably is! That’s it for this episode. If you like this podcast, please hit the like button and tell your friends and colleagues about it. Until next time, this is Dr. Chet Zelasko saying health is a choice. Choose wisely today and every day.
Cell Metabolism (2025), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2025.01.006
Redox Biology 41 (2021) 101933
