FDC Shuts Down Coral Calcium

Are You A Victim Of One Of The Biggest Scams on Television?

Written and Researched by Ronald J. Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O

I can�t tell you how many times I have seen this so-called �popular infomercial� on Coral Calcium.. I get at least 5 e-mails a week asking my opinion on this product. Well, I have some news for everybody.. The Federal Trade Commission is �closing� them down!!

If there is one thing that gets me upset and that is the �outrageous� claims made on infomercials on various health related products and supplements without providing documented clinical support research.

U.S. regulators are cracking down on the ring leader, Robert Barefoot and his spokesman Kevin Trudeau for making false claims about Coral Calcium. In this action, the FTC is seeking a finding of contempt, monetary relief, and other injunctive relief, as well as a temporary restraining order that would prohibit Trudeau from making the challenged claims, and would freeze his assets

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sent out warning letters to dozens of people who sold the supplements over the Internet. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also sent out warning letters.

The infomercials made claims that Coral Calcium Supreme pills could cure cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other diseases. The FTC is asking that the infomercials be taken off the air.

The men behind the infomercial, which was one of the five most widely aired since it was first broadcast, said that published research in medical journals could support their claims, however experts say that there is no such evidence.

Here is the actual FDC ruling:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/06/trudeau.htm

Facts You May Not Know About Coral Calcium

Coral calcium" is a dietary supplement said to be derived from "remnants of living coral that have fallen from coral reefs, as a result of wave action or other natural processes." It is also said to be mined from the old ocean beds at the base of the coral reefs in Okinawa, Japan.

Simply put, "coral remnants" are limestone. Limestone has no unique health properties. It is merely calcium carbonate, with some magnesium and trace amounts of many other minerals.

Many of you may be familiar with Robert Barefoot, the man behind the Coral Calcium Money Machine. Thousands of Web sites refer to Barefoot as "Dr. Robert Barefoot" or Robert Barefoot, Ph.D. However, he is not a medical doctor and does not have a Ph.D. degree. Mr. Barefoot has had little (if any) training in health sciences and has conducted no studies involving human health or disease. Although his sales pitch is preposterous, he has gained a wide audience.

Here is a Quick Summary Of Mr. Barefoot and his Circle of Influence

In 2000, a civil court judge ordered the defendants to pay millions of dollars in restitution and $3.7 million in civil penalties. One of the defendants received a 46-month prison sentence in a parallel criminal case

Web sites also describe Barefoot as a "world-renowned chemist." His curriculum vitae states that between 1968 and 1972 he published six scientific research papers on analytical chemistry. Searching Medline, which is the most comprehensive database of medically-related journals, I located no articles with Barefoot listed as author.

Carl J. Reich, M.D., who co-authored The Calcium Factor with Robert Barefoot, is a Canadian physician whose license was canceled in 1983. According to Barefoot, Reich had a thriving practice in Calgary, Canada, but the Alberta College of Physicians and Surgeons considered his practices "potentially dangerous.

During the early 1990s, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, Trudeau, the host of the Coral Calcium Infomercials, served nearly two years in prison. In 1990, he pled guilty to larceny in a Cambridge, Massachusetts, state court in connection with $80,000 in worthless checks he had deposited at a bank. The sentencing memorandum said that he had posed as a doctor to increase his credibility with bank officials. In 1991, he pled guilty to credit-card fraud in Boston federal district court. Among his misdeeds in the federal case, he misappropriated for his own use the credit-card numbers of customers of the memory-improvement courses that he offered at the time.

Misleading Statement May By Barefoot About Coral Calcium: (Please make note of the comments in red)

Over 200 degenerative diseases are caused by calcium deficiency. That includes cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's, you name it." These diseases are caused by acidosis -- acidification of the body -- lack of minerals, especially calcium. When you start taking coral calcium, your body alkalizes and drives out the acid.

The Truth:

All of these statements are incorrect. Calcium deficiency can weaken bones (osteoporosis), but it does not make the body more acidic or cause a wide range of diseases. The idea that calcium supplements (or dietary strategies) can change the acidity of the body is nonsense.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot:

"There are seven major cultures in the world that never, ever, ever get sick. They never get cancer, they never get heart disease, they never get diabetes. They have no doctors. These people live 30, 40 years longer, and they don't grow old. What's the common denominator? One hundred times the RDA of everything. So they're taking 100 times the RDA. They take so much, they get all they need and the body passes what it doesn't need."

The Truth:

This statement is preposterous. There is no culture in which nobody gets sick. And nobody ingests 100 times the Recommended Dietary Allowances of everything. That amount of iron, for example, would probably be fatal within a few days.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot: 

"The body can cure itself of all disease if given the nutrients it needs." Ninety percent of the disease in America can be wiped out if people get on appropriate nutrients.

The Truth:

Not true. Although nutritional strategies can help prevent and manage some diseases (most notably cardiovascular diseases), they are rarely curative.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot: 

The Truth:

Barefoot doesn't say what "totally deficient" means or where he gets this figure. Calcium's relevance to high blood pressure may play a small role in the incidence of heart disease, but lupus and Parkinson's disease are not caused by calcium deficiency. Keep in mind that low calcium intake has very little impact on calcium blood levels. Most of the body's calcium is stored in the bones, which can release whatever amounts are needed to maintain adequate blood levels. Over a period of many years, this can produce osteoporosis, but it has little or no effect on other disease processes.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot:

The two most important things people can do to be healthier, live longer, and disease-free are to take coral calcium and get a minimum of two hours of sunlight on their face every day -- without sunscreen.

The Truth:

Barefoot presents no data to back either of these claims. Even worse, two hours a day of unprotected sun exposure -- particularly in warm climates -- would place the person at high risk of getting skin cancer.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot:

The Truth:

Barefoot doesn't cite the article, but I searched the journal site for "calcium" and "colon cancer" and found it. In 1998, researchers at the Strang Cancer Prevention Center and another prominent medical institution reported that increasing the daily intake of calcium by up to 1,200 mg via low-fat dairy food in subjects at risk for colonic cancer reduced growth characteristics thought to be associated with the development of cancer. The study indicates that increased attention to calcium may find a role in cancer prevention, but the study had nothing to do with either calcium supplements or the "reversal" of an established cancer.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot: 

Barefoot claims to have seen "millions" of testimonials, had a thousand people tell him how they cured their cancer, and witnessed people with multiple sclerosis "get out of wheelchairs just by getting on the coral."

The Truth:

He doesn't say how he could possibly have received and read millions of testimonials, investigated a thousand cases of alleged cancer cures, or determined that patients with multiple sclerosis were actually helped by coral calcium.

Claim Made By Robert Barefoot: 

The Calcium Factor contains hundreds of scientific references that back up what it says.

The Truth:

If it does, they are well hidden. I found fewer than 100 citations, many of which were to magazine articles and quack books. The normal way to report journal references is to list the author, journal, volume, page numbers, and year of publication. Although I looked carefully, I only found a few that were specified in this way, and some were written by authors I know to be untrustworthy. However, many of these were outdated, some were quoted out of context, and none appears to support any of the claims I have challenged in this article.

Okinawans do not get cancer.

The Truth:

This is easy to explode by doing a Medline search for articles about cancer that mention Okinawa in their title. I found at least ten that describe the incidence of various cancers.

Government Action Against Coral Calcium Promoters

The outrageous nature of Barefoot's claims has triggered regulatory action here and abroad. In June 2003, the United Kingdom's Independent Television Commission (ITC) announced that it had levied a �60,000 fine on the television shopping channel, Shop America (a subsidiary of Trustar Global Media) for several breaches of the ITC's Advertising Code. The main offense was an ad which claimed that Bob Barefoot's Coral Calcium Supreme could help reverse cancer and other serious diseases and could benefit everyone, including babies. One week later, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission charged Barefoot, Trudeau, Shop America (USA), and Deonna Enterprises with making unsubstantiated claims that "go far beyond existing scientific evidence regarding the recognized health benefits of coral calcium." The FTC has filed suit in Chicago federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and an asset freeze. In addition, the FTC and FDA are sending warnings to many Web site operators who are making similar claims.

The Bottom Line from Dr. Grisanti

Your best bet is to completely ignore what Barefoot says. Coral calcium products are a waste of money, and some are irrationally formulated.

Clinical Scientific Research is the ONLY way to measure the credibility of a health claim. Unfortunately, my research has unveiled corruption on "both sides" of the fence. On one side you have "con" artists like Barefoot ripping the public off selling them a bag of lies about Coral Calcium and on the other foot you have the "powerful" pharmaceutical industry "withholding" the peer-reviewed research on proven natural treatments for many of the major illnesses.

I am committed to review "ALL" the research and present an "unbiased" viewpoint on the "BEST" treatments for many the major health challenges facing people throughout the world..