The U.S. supplement industry generated $69 billion last year.
The FTC has filed over 120 cases in the last decade challenging the health claims used to sell it.
Sit with that for a moment...$69 billion. 120 federal cases. not one of those companies holds a fiduciary duty to the people buying their products.
Their research is bottom line friendly. Their marketing is designed to trick your brain and open up your wallet. The distance from $69 billion dollars, and 120 FTC cases is where real health outcomes could have lived.
Over fourteen years of my life has been spent making clinical decisions. Clinical decisions that I have to be able to defend to a panel of officers, a board of physicians, the Bureau of Navy Medicine, The Defense Health Administration, all the way to Congress if something were to be that egregious. Something is that egregious...$69 BILLION. DOLLARS. WITH. NO. PERSONAL. ACCOUNTABILITY!
I am personally, professionally, and legally accountable for every clinical decision, every prescription, every referral. I. AM. RESPONSIBLE. FOR. EVEN. SUPPLEMENTS. THAT. I. PRESCRIBE. Every recommendation I make can be audited, challenged, and if it harms you, used against me. That accountability is not a burden. It is the whole point. It is what makes my recommendation worth anything. It is what makes ANY recommendation worth something.
A supplement label is not like that. A wellness influencer is held to no standard. A podcast sponsor does not have to ensure their product produces their health result.
I am not telling you supplements are useless. Some of them have real evidence behind them. They are the ones I'll actually prescribe! I am telling you that the system selling them to you has no structural reason to care whether what they sell actually works, or will work for you. You are a revenue opportunity, not a patient. Factor in that placebo response rates run between 35% and 40% depending on the condition. This is an industry where they are the casino, all the games are rigged, and there is no Gaming Commission to verify you get a real shuffle!
That is the difference between a transaction and a fiduciary relationship. It is the only difference that matters when something goes wrong.
SustainablePerformanceMD.com is built on the Fiduciary standard. The one with consequences. Because it is the right way to do things when you are helping others with their health. The best interest of those you are helping, not your bank account, must come first. Otherwise you are a CFO selling stock the day before a bad earnings report.
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