• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

COLD-fX Canadian Study?

Chicken Pot Pie

Bawkbagawk Bawkbagone!
Chicken Pot Pie
Joined
Apr 2, 2005
Messages
15,099
Location
Kentucky
I just heard this on abc news overnight, and googled it, and find a few statements here fishy. Anyone know anything about this?
From this website:
http://www.newstarget.com/z002055.html

"Ginseng-based natural remedy for colds and flu really works, study reveals (COLD-fx)


Overview:

* A new study appears to validate a ginseng-based remedy that claims to cut down on colds.
* Terry O'Neill is one fan of the product, known as COLD-fX.
* As a parent, he used to catch all the colds his kids brought home from school.
* He was a participant in the review of COLD-fX.
* "Last year, I had no colds at all, and the symptoms I had lasted maybe 12 hours," he said.
* The product was put through a test -- the first to be completed under Health Canada's new Natural Health Products Directorate.
* The results have been submitted, but have not been reviewed by the directorate.
* It took a year to complete the study, which was led by scientists associated with the University of Alberta.
* Actually, the makers of COLD-fX are also associated with the University of Alberta.
* There were 323 adults in the study.
* They ranged in age from 18 to 65 and had a history of at least two "upper respiratory infections" (i.e. colds) in the past year.
* They were instructed to take two capsules per day of either COLD-fX or a placebo during a four-month period during the winter of 2003-04.
* Neither the investigators nor the participants knew who was taking what.
* "There was a percentage reduction in the number of colds we saw in the treatment group, so that is some good news," said Dr. Gerry Predy, Edmonton's medical officer of health.
* Users got 26 per cent fewer colds than those who didn't use COLD-fX.
* Those who did get a cold were 56 per cent less likely to get a second one.
* "The science is everything for the long-term success of a consumer-based health product," said Dr. Jacqueline Shan, CEO of CV Technologies and co-discoverer of COLD-fX.
* "It gives the industry credibility for these products," said Croft Woodruff, a past-president of the Canadian Health Food Association.

Source: http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1097018992863_92428192?hub=Health "

These are the statements that make me suspicious:
"* The product was put through a test -- the first to be completed under Health Canada's new Natural Health Products Directorate.
* The results have been submitted, but have not been reviewed by the directorate.
* It took a year to complete the study, which was led by scientists associated with the University of Alberta.
* Actually, the makers of COLD-fX are also associated with the University of Alberta."

Granted I just heard it and haven't totally researched it, but I think those statements speak volumes... of bias maybe?
Kabookie
 
I don't really have anything to say about the study, but I find this statement funny:

kabookie said:
* "Last year, I had no colds at all, and the symptoms I had lasted maybe 12 hours," he said.
Click to expand...
Did he get any colds or didn't he? You can't say that your symptoms were less severe and non-existent at the same time!
 
All I can comment on now is the Natural Health Products Directorate. The lab I work for is currently doing DIN submissions (Drug Identification Number) for products released in Canada. NHP is a branch of Health Canada specifically for natural health products. It's mandate only began recently however and the regulations for NHP's are still coming into force. Since I'm to new to actually post the link to the directorate google Health Canada and then navigate to the NHP directorate. The way I read it is that NHP's will have to show the same information as over the counter drugs (i.e. they are safe to use). So this could be interpreted as the test was just to show that there are no adverse side effects not that it actually works. I'd need to see the test results not just that it was tested.
 
My mother mentioned this to me earlier this morning, and I was immediately wary. She decided to go check it out with the pharmacist, who kind of turned her nose up at the product. She didn't say anything that would indicate her skepticism, but her body language spoke volumes, or so I'm told.

I loaded up google to see if I could find anything that would alleviate my suspicions after visiting the COLD-fX website, and there wasn't much available outside of glowing recommendations. Sure enough, I find a post on the JREF Forum. :D
 
:o Rather embarrassing how much press this is getting. It's ginseng, and North American ginseng at that. Nothing special. Just another supplement that's really not supposed to make such claims.

This is not the first product to come out of Alberta schools. There's homeopathic products as well, with equally impressive claims and labels.

As I understand it, supplements aren't supposed to make these claims. Unless these products are being sold as drugs?? Then, and only then are they supposed be allowed to make these claims for treatment of anything.

Basu led the one-year trial along with Dr. Gerry Predy, Capital Health’s medical officer of health. It involved 325 adults from the general population who had contracted at least two respiratory infections in the previous year. They were divided into two groups -- one receiving two capsules per day of COLD-fX during the four winter months of 2003/4, the other receiving a placebo.
Click to expand...

325, not huge, but better than 10.

http://www.tecedmonton.com/news.cfm?story=30895
However the researchers cautioned that the results, while gathered with the same degree of scientific rigour used to test drugs in the pharmaceutical industry, have yet to be peer reviewed. The study has been submitted to the Canadian Medical Association Journal for publication.
Click to expand...
 
It was the fact that it hadn't been peer reviewed that grabbed my attention. I'm waiting to see that review, and to see if they do more testing the right way. I'd never even heard of COLD-fX before this morning.
 
MRWiffen said:
Since I'm too new to actually post the link ....
Click to expand...
You can still post the url. It's only that the forum software won't make it into a link. If you do that, people can choose to paste it into their browser, and find the material easily that way.

I've seen at least one occasion where after a new member had done that, a regular re-posted the url as a link, to make it even easier, having confirmed that it wasn't a trap.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe, before I had fifteen posts it would refuse my entire post if there was a link in someone else's post that I was quoting. I had to rewrite two posts... :(
 
kabookie said:
Rolfe, before I had fifteen posts it would refuse my entire post if there was a link in someone else's post that I was quoting. I had to rewrite two posts... :(
Click to expand...
But wasn't that because they were already formatted as links? Obviously I can't try the experiment, but I think the forum allows a text string that forms a url, so long as it isn't formatted as a link.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
You can still post the url. It's only that the forum software won't make it into a link. If you do that, people can choose to paste it into their browser, and find the material easily that way.

I've seen at least one occasion where after a new member had done that, a regular re-posted the url as a link, to make it even easier, having confirmed that it wasn't a trap.

Rolfe.
Click to expand...

Thanks Rolfe, I'll try by removing the http and www from the front and the html from the end.

hc-sc.gc.ca/dhp-mps/prodnatur/index_e

Also, IIRC the regulations in Canada about 2 years ago were pretty much the same as the US, if the claim was left vague enough (not actually a claim but an anecdote) it was OK, as soon as the company made an official claim it became a drug. Now, I think, anything that claims to be an NHP they need to be reviewed the same as a drug. That said, the review of any drug only has to show that it is safe, or the adverse side effects are less than the demonstrated benefits. I'm not that good at reading the regulations but we do have a number of specialists at work I can check with.
 
from the OP:

"* Users got 26 per cent fewer colds than those who didn't use COLD-fX.
* Those who did get a cold were 56 per cent less likely to get a second one."

If all subjects normally get 2 colds per season,56% of the second colds is just about the 26% total? Sounds like it did little to prevent a cold, but more to prevent a second cold. Does it broaden the bodies ability to make immunity? Like this: take gensing, get the Manila flu, become immune to bird flu?

Comparative percentages are given, BUT, where are the numbers? If only 12 folks of the 325 even got colds, then the overall risk improvement is pretty slim....
 
The only thing that would convince me is if the subjects were actually exposed to cold viruses each time. Cold viruses they hadn't already built up immunity to by catching it before.

I'm quite convinced they were not.

So what if MOST people do get 2 colds every year? Not everyone does. I can go a year without one, and I didn't take anything to prevent it. I probably already had immunity to one going around, and wasn't exposed to anything new.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom