Ideal Health International, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, would like you to believe that its custom-made nutritional supplements" provide a rational way to ensure getting "a daily supply of high-quality nutrients your body needs to function at its best." [1] The company's program is centered around its PrivaTest, a urine test it claims will "uncover your nutritional status and metabolic trends" and "find out how well your body is using the nutrients you are eating." [1] In March 2003, The test cost $79.95 and the "customized" vitamins (called "Custom Essentials") retailed for about $50 plus shipping.
According to its Web site, Ideal Health began "official operations" in March of 1997 and markets its products through tens of thousands of distributors nationwide [2]. The PrivaTest was developed by J. Alexander Bralley, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of MetaMetrix Clinical Laboratory, a lab that caters to chiropractors and other offbeat health professionals.
Illegal Health Claims
The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) allows supplement products to bear "statements of support" that: (a) claim a benefit related to classical nutrient deficiency disease; (b) describe how ingredients affect the structure or function of the human body; (c) characterize the documented mechanism by which the ingredients act to maintain structure or function; and (d) describe general well-being from consumption of the ingredients. To be legal under DSHEA, a "nutritional support" statement must not be a "drug" claim. In other words, it should not suggest that the product or ingredient is intended for prevention, cure, mitigation, or treatment of disease.
Under DSHEA, manufacturers who make statements of "nutritional support" must have substantiation that such statements are truthful and not misleading. Ideal Health's 28-page "Opportunity Presentation" makes claims that I believe are illegal. Page 13, pictured here, states or implies that taking Custom Essentials will improve mental alertness, memory, emotional balance, concentration, tension levels, and vitality; improve the appearance of skin, hair, and nails; and "support" the functioning of the liver, kidneys, heart, lungs, eyes, prostate, and joints. To substantiate these claims, Ideal Health would have to prove that Custom Essentials users fare better than nonusers with respect to each claim. This would require evidence that people who already consume adequate amounts of the ingredients would be better off by ingesting more. I doubt that the company has any such data. |
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Another of Ideal Health's sales aids is a CD-ROM that includes an "exciting 7 to 10 minute video of inspiring testimonials from top marketers" who say or suggest that taking Custom Essentials has relieved symptoms of fibromyalgia; improved irritable bowel; stopped them from having colds; improved digestion; stopped hair loss; stopped acne breakouts; caused nails and hair to grow faster; increased their energy, increased sex drive; improved memory; relieved aches and pains; improved their appearance; reduced stress levels; drastically decreased their allergies; lowered their blood cholesterol levels; improved sleep; and healed fractures more quickly [3]. Most of these problems are not caused by nutrient deficiencies. Moreover, claims that Custom Essentials can prevent, mitigate, treat, or cure any of these diseases are illegal without FDA approval, which, of course, the product does not have.
Toward the end of 2003, Ideal Health announced that it had teamed up with ITV Direct, which marketed products mainly through cable TV infomercials. For several months the Ideal Health Web site promoted "Supreme Greens with MSM," an herbal product with about 35 ingredients. The Web site claimed that (a) modern lifestyle tends to make the body too acidic; (b) stress, environmental toxins, refined foods can leave you "vulnerable to the often-serious health consequences of a 'too-acid' body"; and (c) the product contained "vital alkalizing nutrients to help support your body's proper acid/base balance." [4] These claims were sheer baloney. Meanwhile, ITV Direct infomercials were making similar assertions plus claims that Suopreme Greens is effective against cancer and many other diseases. In April 2004, the FDA ordered ITV Direct to stop making the disease-related and "acid-base balance" claims [4]. In June, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged the company with false advertising and obtained a temporary injunction [5]. Although not implicated in these actions, Ideal Health appears to have stopped marketing Supreme Greens about the time that the FTC obtained its injunction.
Financial Risk
Ideal Health appears to have more potential for big losses than most multilevel companies. Several people have described to me how they were persuaded to purchase customized television infomercials that they hoped would generate sales for them. They spent thousands of dollars to make the infomercial and additional money to broadcast them on local television channels, but the broadcasts resulted in few or no customers. Some also reported investing in a company-designed mass-mailing program that was also unsuccessful. By August 2004, the FTC had received seven complaints from people who lost from $5,000 to $25,000 using one or both of these systems [7].
The Bottom Line
Neither the PrivaTest nor the nutrients that Ideal Health markets offer good value. Urine tests do not provide a legitimate basis for recommending that people take dietary supplements. Moreover, even if they could, the nutrients in Ideal Health's so-called customized formulas can be obtained far more inexpensively in retail stores.
[Note: The Privatest™ Drug Test System is a drug-screening
test offered
by a different company
and has no relevance to this article.]
References
- The science behind the product. Ideal Health Web site, accessed March 9, 2003.
- Commonly asked questions. Ideal Health Web site, accessed March 9, 2003.
- Product stories. In Major Breakthrough: An Opportunity for You and Your Family. CD-ROM ©2003, Ideal Health.
- Supreme Greens with MSM: An alkalyzing dietary supplement. Ideal Health Web site, archives
- Costello, GT. Warning letter to ITV Direct president Donald Barrett Jr., April 19, 2004.
- Marketers of "Supreme Greens" and "Coral Calcium Daily" come under fire from the FTC. FTC news release, June 3, 2004]
- Federal Trade Commission response to Freedom of Information Act request for complaints about Ideal Health, Aug 4, 2004.
This article was revised on November 19, 2004.