Public warned vs food supplements

DAVAO CITY -- Members of this city’s medical society warned the public Monday against advertisements that promote food supplements as herbal medicines, saying these products have no proven effects.

"These advertisements expressly claim that medically-approved drugs can be replaced by food supplements in curing diabetes and other fatal ailments. But the fact that there are indications on their containers that it has ‘no approved therapeutic claim,’ means it has not been approved as an herbal product," said Dr. Suzette Quiaoit-Alegarbes at Kapihan sa SM media forum on Monday.

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Dr. Francis Ho, who also registered his disapproval on the promotion of food supplements that allegedly can cure diseases, said herbal products take a longer process before they are approved.

"Not being approved by BFAD (Bureau of Food and Drugs) means it has no proven effects, has not undergone rigorous studies and experiments," Ho said.

Alegarbes said a movement headed by Philippine College of Physicians-Southern Mindanao Chapter is now doing measures to inform the public on the matter.

"We posted posters in hospitals warning the public to avoid misconception. Kung informed ang public eh hindi sila mauuto," she said.

The medical organization has also passed a resolution to the City Council in October to craft an ordinance that would regulate the promotion of food supplements as herbal medicines.

The resolution is now in first reading under the City Council committee on health, said Alegarbes.

She admitted that their actions are limited to these as it is the Philippine Association of National Advertisers that can sanction misleading advertisements.

The two doctors, as epidemiologists, also promoted a health forum on February 26 at Marco Polo Lotus Court that will be open to the public for free but will only entertain 100 guests.

The forum will tackle topics on cholesterol, goiter, diabetes, and osteoporosis, Ho said.

He said data from World Health Organization (WHO) in 1998 showed the projected prevalence of overweight population in the Philippines.

According to the report, the number of overweight men will increase from 23 percent in 2005 to 24 percent in 2015. The number of overweight women, on the other hand, will increase from 34 percent in 2005 to 44 percent in 2015.

Ho said the international health group also projected that in the Philippines, chronic diseases accounted for 57 percent of all deaths in 2002, which is 253,000 out of the total deaths of 449,000.

Of all risk factors to cardiovascular diseases (CVD), smoking was the highest prevalence with 46 percent.

CVD is now the number one cause of death and the seventh leading cause of morbidity in the country, Alegarbes said.

She said interested participants to the forum may contact her in her office at the Davao Doctor's Hospital. (JCZ/Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)