This morning I woke up and turned on the TV. I flipped over to Good Morning America to see what was going on this morning and they were talking about some big class action lawsuit with Airborne. So I listened watched and was pretty amazed at the info they had on why it didn’t really work. I travel a ton and have friends that use it and it seems to help them. Here’s an article below from GMA…but what I want to know from you is on this Works For Me Wednesday is…Have you used it and does it work for you?
Does Airborne Really Stave off Colds?
An ABC News Investigation Found That the Product Might Not Work
Feb. 27, 2006 —
Americans catch a billion colds a year in this country and spend triple that — almost $3 billion — trying to treat them.
But a “Good Morning America” drugstore investigation raises questions
about one of America’s favorite cold remedies — a product called
Airborne.
Victoria Knight-McDowell, the schoolteacher who developed
Airborne, appeared on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The popular talk-show
host even endorsed it as a cold fighter. The product’s ads are
everywhere, and the company says its sales exceed $100 million.
But now Airborne’s CEO, Elise Donahue, is saying that the pill is not a cold remedy.
“I would never sit here and tell you that it’s a cure for the common
cold,” she said. “We don’t know if Airborne is a & cure for the
common cold. What Airborne does is it helps your body build a healthy
immune system. When you have a healthy immune system, then it allows
your body, on its own, to fight off germs.”
Donahue said the best proof that the product works was that
40,000 customers contact the company every year. But a number of
medical experts and watchdog groups are skeptical that Airborne
prevents or cures colds.
“Simply washing your hands during cold and flu season is a much
more effective way of preventing colds,” said David Kroll, a
pharmacologist at Duke University Medical School.
Yet the Airborne box tells users to take the product at the
first sign of a cold. An Airborne ad testimonial called it a miracle
cold buster. And the company said in a news release Airborne would get
rid of most colds in one hour.
“I’m not commenting on that particular press release,” Donahue said. “I wasn’t with the company then.”
Airborne
said that a double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted with
“care and professionalism” by a company specializing in clinical trial
management, GNG Pharmaceutical Services.
GNG is actually a two-man operation started up just to do the
Airborne study. There was no clinic, no scientists and no doctors. The
man who ran things said he had lots of clinical trial experience. He
added that he had a degree from Indiana University, but the school says
he never graduated.
“I would not define that then as a clinical trial,” Kroll said.
Airborne insists the results are valid, but the company is removing all references to the study from its Web site and packaging.
“We found that it confused consumers,” Donahue said. “Consumers
are really not scientifically minded enough to be able to understand a
clinical study.”
Now, Airborne is phasing in new packaging. Before, the box said
that Knight-McDowell had created it because she was “sick of catching
colds.” Now, it says she created Airborne because she “needed help
supporting her immune system.” The word “cold” no longer appears on the
new package or in the advertising.
All the new packages will be on store shelves by this summer.
