If Oprah jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?
The proverbial bridge in question is Airborne, the
Alka-Seltzer-like herbal concoction that was developed by a
second-grade school teacher who just couldn�t
shake the sniffles.
Her theory was simple: design a nutritional supplement to
safeguard against illness.
The end product is a tablet that, when dissolved in water, will
deliver a flavorful blend of vitamins, herbs and amino acids to
guard against the germ-ridden wilderness we call daily life.
The alleged cold-buster is already in the arsenal of flight
attendants, hospital workers and Hollywood has-beens. And with its
most recent backing by talk-show idol Oprah Winfrey, Airborne has
been flying off the shelf of cold-and-flu aisles to an altitude of
$17 million in 2004.
I succumbed to the hype last December. Amid preparing for
finals, my mom handed me an Airborne tablet to thwart impending
illness.
While the skeptic in me said
�no,� the germ-a-phobe in me
shouted, �Take the stuff.� So I
did, the cold still came, and I felt duped.
Airborne�s previous success stories
didn�t mean much to me as I braved through a week
of nasal congestion. Perhaps this fruity amalgam of effervescent
goodness wasn�t the upper-respiratory panacea that
I anticipated.
To be fair, the makers of Airborne never actually claim that
their product will cure or prevent colds. Moreover, every package
carries the asterisked statement: �This product
has not been evaluated by the FDA. It is not intended to diagnose,
treat, cure, or prevent any disease.�
Nevertheless, the widespread frenzy for nutritional miracle
supplements, like Airborne, in an environment of shaky science is
risky. Blind enthusiasm for an outcome � like good
health � can be the breeding ground for
nutritional faddism or even fraud.
For Airborne, in particular, the jury is still out. The product
does contain many ingredients that have individually achieved
popularity for their health-inducing effects. In fact, it makes a
good multivitamin.
As a cold cure, however, doctors so far agree that there is no
conclusive evidence that Airborne works.
That�s probably because the common cold is a
tough case to crack. Colds, or rhinoviruses, come in many strains.
Once you have a strain, your body becomes immune to that viral
form.
Many different cold viruses exist, and so we keep catching colds
(even though your body recalls how to fight the ones you already
caught).
So without a surefire solution for the rhinovirus, what is the
poor cold sufferer to do?
Keeping a healthy immune system is the best prevention. Airborne
may be a part of your strategy, but the answer is more basic.
Eat right. Sleep. Wash your hands.
This advice may not be the miracle drug you hoped for, but then
again, it may be easier to swallow.
Ghassemi is a second-year graduate student at the UCLA
School of Public Health.