https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTFxS8UeJ/

This user appears on my TikTok feed all the time selling some product that she claims helps with acid reflux. As someone who has acid reflux, I have done a massive amount of research, and even read research papers and research studies on the subject to aid in my treatment of the illness. It’s a pretty serious illness, and it’s definitely not easy to treat or come up with a treatment plan, which is why there are so few medicines that are actually FDA approved for it…

But this lady is out here pushing her medicine claiming it’s a miracle cure to acid reflux. There are lots of these nowadays, not only on TikTok but on Facebook as well. People pushing these alternative treatments and making such ridiculous claims, half of them probably false.

What I want to know is this. Why is this legal in the USA? Surely there should be some sort of governing body that prevents people from doing this and makes it illegal to spread this kind of misinformation?

  • Carrolade@lemmy.worldEnglish
    191·
    4 days ago

    The internet creates a bit of a whack-a-mole problem with this one. Reminds me of certain bracelets and other consumer products sold as emitting some sort of “negative ion energy” for health benefits. Testing found they had Thorium, and were significantly radioactive.

    If I recall correctly the Dept of Energy got involved with that one. Since the products came from overseas, though, there’s only so much that can be done.

    Yeah, here we go: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34769689/

    • thesohoriots@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      4 days ago

      And, on whack-a-mole, when one vape import gets banned, another company starts right up doing a very marginally different chemical mixture and ships it out. They can say “well you banned X, but technically not X” and the whole process starts over.

      • almar_quigley@lemmy.world
        10·
        4 days ago

        That’s an issue of not letting oversight agencies have enough teeth. Not a “welp we’ll just never figure this one out I guess” type of situation. We’re not special and other countries have solved many of these problems.

        • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          8·
          4 days ago

          We’re not special and other countries have solved many of these problems.

          I really wish more Americans would understand this. We are looking at the results of several generations of constant bombardment of “American exceptionalism”. This is what happens when valuing the individual over the community becomes a core value of a society.