Comment by Raven on May 27, 2011 at 4:13pm

Bull shit. He knows they're useless. The fact that he's still trying to cling to it just makes him more pathetic. He was caught red handed and is still spewing lies. He needs to just admit the truth. And anyone who bought them in the first place were gullible morons who don't the first thing about modern science.

Comment by Dale Headley on May 27, 2011 at 5:10pm

   Mr. O'Dowd should have located his business in the U.S.A.  In 1994, the Republican Congress passed a law that essentially allows charlatans of all stripes to advertise and sell worthless products like "Power Balance" with impunity.  Most store shelves in supermarkets and drugstores across this country are bulging with products that make outrageous health claims despite having little or no evidence to back them up.  In some cases, government testing has shown the products to be not only ineffective, but dangerous.  And the overwhelming majority of these over-the-counter nostrums have not been tested at all (try reading the VERY fine print on the labels and in the TV ads).  

   Two notable examples of Americans' gullibility are gingko biloba and "Airborne."  Government testing has not only provided no evidence whatsoever that gingko improves memory function, it has found a clear link between it and cerebral hemorrhaging.  And no elementary school teacher has ever beat all the world's greatest scientists to a cure for the cold. If "Airborne" actually worked, the common cold would be only a memory.  But it's still here, as sure as the Sun comes up in the morning - and just as robust as ever.   And yet, tens of millions of Americans buy these products, totally convinced by the false and/or misleading advertising; or by the testimony of their Aunt Minnie, who swears by it, even though she catches colds as often as she ever did.

   Another case in point is glucosamine (and chondroitin).  Practically everyone purchases products that have glucosamine and chondroitin in them; and yet the incidence of arthritis is as high as it was before these products existed.  How did these products become so ubiquitous and acceptable by the general public?  Because back in 1994 (not coincidentally) a Republican lady legislator (also not coincidentally) in Maryland managed to get on "Dateline" with her ludicrous claim that her horribly crippling rheumatoid arthritis was completely cured by glucosamine and chondroitin.  She even displayed a picture of herself in a wheelchair all twisted like a pretzel to "prove" she had been crippled.  "Dateline" producers ate it up and millions of Americans went out the next day to buy all they could.  This was 17 years ago, and SURPRISE! SURPRISE! rheumatoid arthritis is still around, just as bad and prevalent as it ever was.  Yet Americans keep chug-a-lugging the pills in the deluded belief that they will get better.  They won't!  And don't even get me started on homeopathy - the ridiculous notion that drinking pure water will cure virtually any disease because some high school dropout says he gave it some kind of magic molecular memory.   

   From time to time, the government watchdogs try to step in, but Republicans always protect these highly profitable companies.  And to make it even easier, they are now trying to kill the Consumer Protection Agency, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency so that the preposterous claims made for products that are even more dangerous and ineffective can be marketed to consumers willy nilly.  When it comes to choosing between the health and welfare of American consumers and the bottom line of dishonest purveyors of health nonsense, the Republicans will always choose the ones who make the biggest donations to their campaigns.  In the U.S., Mr. Dowd would be a hero of the conservatives simply because his obvious lies on late night TV make him a lot of money.  Three cheers to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for standing up for their citizens.     

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