Oxypowder is a scam.

This morning, I received an email from a supplement company trying to get me to give them free exposure:

Hello

I’ve really enjoyed looking through your website, especially the “organic vs conventional food on health not enough data”. I’m the editorial assistant for an established health supplement company. We have a couple of industry experts that are available for interviews or to provide catchy original guest posts.

We would be interested in writing a piece for you (topics could include something like Organic vs. Conventional: Which is Better for Me?, or The Raw Food Diet: What Can I Eat?), and would certainly appreciate the opportunity to write a guest post in exchange for a link back to our site. We would love the opportunity to promote your Web site as well. Please let me know if you’re interested.

Tarundeep
Production Coordinator
oxypowder dot com

Global Healing Center
Natural Health and Organic Living
2040 N. Loop West Ste. 108
Houston, Texas 77018

Normally, I would simply trash it. But minutes before, they had the gall to spam one of my posts:

Clearly they didn’t actually read my post about the recent analysis which suggests conclusions about organic food vs. conventional are premature, since all over their website they claim a need for organic foods.

Since they took the time to graffiti my blog and fill my inbox, I thought I would return the gesture and take some of my time to critique their product, “Oxy-Powder.”

The first thing I see on the site is that their product is featured on NaturalNews dot com and endorsed by Mike Adams. Mike is one of the biggest quacks you can find and the whole site is scientific ignorance at its finest. Not a great start.

Next, I see:

Oxy-Powder is a scientifically formulated, all natural oxygen colon cleanser used to safely relieve the bloating, gas and constipation associated with an unhealthy diet.

There is of course no evidence that the ingredients fulfill any of these claims. Here they are with short comments:

“Ozonated Magnesium Oxides” – ozone is unstable and toxic, so I hope not. Magnesium oxide can be a mild laxative so this product may make you poop if they have enough in there. But they claim that this form is able to release “nascent oxygen” into the digestive tract and bloodstream. This form of oxygen is a potent oxidant and would damage tissues. You certainly would not want to ingest it.

“Organic Germanium-132″ – they say:

Organic Germanium-132 oxygenates living tissue for improved physiology and performance. Because this specific form of Germanium is the only non-toxic variety, it should not be confused with other types that have proven detrimental for ingestion by humans.

There is no credible scientific evidence for this that I can find – not that oxygenating tissue would improve physiology anyway. While Germanium-132 has been studied, the company cites irrelevant studies that are done in vitro or in disease contexts, and have nothing to do with the gut. There are concerns in the literature about the safety germanium supplements, and I see no reason why this would be safer.

“Citric Acid” - the company makes the illogical leap by inferring that since citric acid is in one of our energy producing processes, you need to consume more. Then they somehow jump to this:

Many factors of a modern, highly industrialized lifestyle contribute to the incidence of disease, a lessening of overall health quality, and especially to impaired digestive function. Besides the prevalence of chemical toxins in our natural environments, any processed foods you eat likely contain a variety of pesticides, artificial flavoring agents and preservatives, fillers, unnecessary additives, unfiltered minerals, and even intentional modifications (such as fluoride in drinking water). All of these non-natural substances function as just extra toxins for the body to remove.

This is why it’s so important to consume only organic foods such as raw vegetables, fresh fruit, and purified water. Your colon creates mucous as a defensive measure to these harmful foods. Over time, the mucous can build up to such a degree your colon becomes impacted, constricted, or weakened and thus physiologically impaired and then you can no longer absorb enough nutrients from your food to maintain proper health.

Toxins toxins toxins. It is a fear mongering technique. You don’t need only organic foods or raw vegetables (in fact an all raw diet is risky for a number of reasons), and the colon does not build up a mucous. This theory still pervades because of quacks like these – the theory of “autointoxication,” that a buildup of junk in the intestine is a cause of disease, has been debunked for about a century. These companies are 100 years behind in realizing this.

“Organic Gum Acacia” – worthless at the amount they can fit in there.

Looking at their “Instructions” page, it recommends a colon hydrotherapy first (which is dangerous), then recommends a bunch of dietary changes. While I don’t agree with all of them, a transition toward healthier choices will most certainly be the reason why someone “feels” better after doing this “cleanse.” The product will only at best give you diarrhea, and $45 less in your wallet.

There are many other comical claims on the website but I will end here.

All of this is common for supplement companies:

they use technical language to lure naive consumers
they are too incompetent to realize they are delusional, as discussed in this post
they claim that modern eating and lifestyles cause a greater accumulation of “toxins” which their product will protect against, which is unsubstantiated
they misinterpret the limited clinical evidence on their ingredients

We desperately need more regulation on dietary supplements.

http://twitter.com/eurogene keith grimaldi

Great stuff – can't believe they thought you would give them space on your blog. Completely agree on the regulations, there is too much of this stuff. This Oxycrap sounds a bit like http://www.cellfood.com/ (apparently it even cured the inventor of a fatal radiation dose). We know and they know it's all crap, yet it sells. One reason it sells is because they give big margins to the practitioners who recommend the products.
http://www.recomp.com Colby

I hadn't seen Cellfood before, funny stuff. I wonder how many people these websites turn away from conventional medical treatments or non-evidence based diets, very worrying to think about.

glo937

Conventional medicine is QUACKERY. I do not give a crap about so called “studies” that are bought & paid for by the ones that stand to gain financially…big PHARMA & the FDA… THEY WORK HAND IN HAND TOGETHER TO MAKE SURE WE ALL STAY SICK & THEY MAKE HUGE PROFITS! whats needed is a little common sense…something clearly lacking coming from you! Our bodies are designed to work with mother nature…not with man made crap.

Wbauske

The theory of autointoxication has not been “debunked”, it is well known that bacteria produce toxins that can and do enter the blood stream as well as the whole bacteria themselves, the scientific term is known as bacterial translocation. However whether of not this has anything to do with diseases is yet to be determined, meaning we do not know with absolute certainty. One thing to note is, klebsiella pneumoniae is believed to play a causative role in ankylosing spondylitis, a condition which affects the spinal column. In some ways, this could prove a link to intestinal bacteria and other diseases in the human body. Breast cancer is now believed to be connected to intestinal bacteria as well. As far as possible explanations for some disease go, autointoxication is a still a some what valid theory. the only way to really debunk it is to know everything about everything, which we do not yet, science is in no way “done” with its workload. its workload is massive.
Emilycarter1208

Many medical doctors have written extensively about colon cleansing, and although all caution one to be careful and make wise choices about these products with your doctor – many also offer praise for this product which you’re trashing without basis.

http://www.recomp.com Colby

Without basis? Science does not support colon cleansing, and nothing about this product is legit. Sensible medical doctors would not praise this product.

Another Researcher

See “Evaluation of Safety, Tolerability and Efficacy in Treating Chronic Constipation” in the International Journal of Pharma and Bio Sciences, V1(2) 2010. I found this through the Google Scholar search engine (http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en).

equsnarnd

“We desperately need more regulation on dietary supplements.” No, we don’t. In fact, it’s exactly what we don’t need. What we need is a more educated public and blogs like this are of great value. We do not need to have another section of our lives captured by government bureaucrats who ultimately to more damage than good. To that end I suggest you read ‘Simple Rules for a Complex World’ by Richard Epstein. I’ve been thinking on and off for a few years about a site where I could list all foods and rate them according to their health factor. Rather than going after supplemental snake oil sales people, of which there are many, I think it would be more useful to go after food manufacturers (when I say go after I mean making information available to counter claims by companies like Kraft and by government nutritionists) in an effort to make foods that we buy at the grocery store more healthy. Replacing high fructose corn syrup and neurotoxins with Stevia in all soft drinks might go further to help in the general health of people than more regulations.

http://www.recomp.com Colby

Education just doesn’t seem to work on a large scale. Scientific evidence on supplements should be required if they are going to make health claims. Most people don’t study nutrition or health, and don’t have the background training in science (or do but suffer a lack of metacognition) to be able to decipher what is true and what isn’t. Our brains seem to be wired toward that quick and easy fix, and supplement companies prey on this by using strong, confident language. There are simply too many people that will reject the education you put in front of them. I used to peruse various fitness forums and countless times when I would layout reasons why supplements (intended for weight loss or building muscle for example) will not do as they say, people just ignored them for positive anecdotes, which could easily be attributed to a placebo effect. Freedom is abused to make way too many claims that are simply false, and the only way to stop it is to regulate it better.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1730124167 Crystal Esteras

I am only commenting to your opinion because I need to tell you that you may know what you are talking about but I know that this product works. My husband uses it daily, with his chronic pain doctors advice, because of the level of pain meds he ingests cause so much constipation. The only other product that has worked is Miralax. Which was once a prescription med. After trying dozens of products, hoping for little side effects, the only one that worked regularly and consistantly well, is Oxy-Powder by this company. All the others we tried did not work. So I want you to understand, we have used this product for years now and have had exceptional results. I would recommend this product to all my friends. My doctors support the product as well.

http://www.recomp.com Colby

Please list the names of your doctors who you claim support this.

There is no way this product would do anything for pain (no plausible mechanism) unless there was something in there not on the label, or it is simply a placebo effect.

Gia

Colby, regulations need to come into place for the food available on the supermarket shelves which poison our bodies beyond imagination. You are what you eat, Digestive disorders is pretty much the link to all disease in our body. These disorders come from the food and medications prescribed by your hero’s “the doctors” (who are only out to make a quick buck by promoting meds the pharma companies are pushing towards them). Regulations and legislations need to start with the crap being made today and fed to us. Education is of next priority. While I agree that the vitamin/supplement companies are a billion dollar scam organisation to a degree they are not the real threat bc at the end of the day these supplements or oils wont kill you. Its a matter of people investigating and researching on the net what is for e.g a legit fish oil capsule as opposed to one of your so called ‘scam companies’.
Remember that all these vitamin/herb/supplement companies are based on fact and naturopathy which is a lot older than modern day medicine. Maybe you need to open your mind up a little bit and realise that most of the scams that are harmful are those right in front of your face nd fed to you by your governments.

http://www.nutsci.org Colby

I’ll address all of these logical fallacies I suppose.

Colby, regulations need to come into place for the food available on the supermarket shelves which poison our bodies beyond imagination.

This has nothing to do with supplements with no scientific backing behind them.

You are what you eat, Digestive disorders is pretty much the link to all disease in our body. These disorders come from the food and medications prescribed by your hero’s “the doctors” (who are only out to make a quick buck by promoting meds the pharma companies are pushing towards them).

Um, no, digestive disorders is not the link to all disease. Many medications are effective and there are studies on them demonstrating this, because they are required, unlike for supplements.

While I agree that the vitamin/supplement companies are a billion dollar scam organisation to a degree they are not the real threat bc at the end of the day these supplements or oils wont kill you.

So even though most supplements do nothing we should allow them the freedom to scam people? Even if it were true that they were benign (many could definitely have acute and chronic effects and because quality control isn’t usually a high priority there are many tainted products), how does this make sense?

Remember that all these vitamin/herb/supplement companies are based on fact and naturopathy which is a lot older than modern day medicine.

This is the appeal to antiquity fallacy. Modern day medicine is the only effective medicine because it is based on scientific evidence, and naturopathy is not. Also, how is it “natural” to extract vitamins, herbs, and other things?

Hawthorne

Someone should give you a red nose so that everyone can identify you from a distance as an assclown. This product that you call a placebo completely emptied my colon and saved me from intense pain from my previously over expanded colon while I was down range. CT scans visibly showed the reduction of the size of my intestine as well as the giant piles of poo I flushed down the toilet. I don’t care what verbage the supplier uses, the product works great. And if you spoke to a doctor they would tell you that over expansion of the colon causes extreme pain. Reducing the expansion relieves pain. Oxy Powder reduces the expansion and thus, relieves the pain. If you would have posted sooner, I bet your assclownery could have earned you a spot as an extra in the movie Idiocracy.
Another Researcher

Colby, you say, “There is no way this product would do anything for pain ….”

The author of the comment did NOT make the point you just referenced. Instead, the author made a different point: the product gave her husband “exceptional results” relative to “so much constipation” he suffers from pain meds.

Colby, you missed the point completely! When you cannot track such a simple point, what should intelligent thinking people make of the rest of your assessments?

Danny

Global Healing Center also sells other quackery like detox foot pads which are backed up by vague and unconvincing “clinical studies”. I really wish people would do their research before buying pseudo-medicine. They would find out pretty quickly that “detoxification” has been disproved for a long time and has no place in real medicine.
Getsomefresh

See I read this thinking you were someone that actually tried the product before bad mouthing it. Apparently not. The companies web advertising tactics aside, I have used it and the product works very well. Be as negative as you want, but in the future I suggest you actually try a product (or consult someone who has) before trashing the product.

http://www.nutsci.org Colby

So I need to try it before I consider the lack of evidence for it to work? What you experienced is likely a placebo effect- we know from research that this can happen with GI symptoms.

Hawthorne

Someone should give you a red nose so that everyone can identify you from a distance as an assclown. This product that you call a placebo completely emptied my colon and saved me from intense pain from my previously over expanded colon while I was down range. CT scans visibly showed the reduction of the size of my intestine as well as the giant piles of poo I flushed down the toilet. I don’t care what verbage the supplier uses, the product works great. And if you spoke to a doctor they would tell you that over expansion of the colon causes extreme pain. Reducing the expansion relieves pain. Oxy Powder reduces the expansion and thus, relieves the pain. If you would have posted sooner, I bet your assclownery could have earned you a spot as an extra in the movie Idiocracy.

Bonecrusher

Hahahaha. Hold on there Hawthorne, he will come back and say that there is no conclusive science based evidence proving he’s an assclown. What doctor has stated that he’s an assclown? Therefore him being an assclown is obviously a placebo effect. Him mom still combing his hair before school at 17, however, was not a placebo.

Anonymous

“… my post about the recent analysis which suggests conclusions about organic food vs. conventional are premature …” So pesticides in my food are just fine. Thanks for the heads up. Nut Sci indeed.

http://www.nutsci.org Colby

At the small amounts that they are present (nearly 1/5 of organic foods have pesticide residues, by the way), they are well below levels of concern.

ghc_health

Oxy-Powder has actually gone through phase III clinically testing, if you did your research you would have found this out. Oxy-Powder was tested with people dealing with IBS, which is a bowel disorder, and it does show to be effective in dealing with this concern. I find it interesting that you sound so recklessly upset with every one in each of your response posts Colby. You may consider going to CureZone.com to find real people that have used this product and ask them what they find to be the benefit, instead on waiting for every one else to do the research for you, why dont you try to do some on your own, gather your own opinion rather than the one that is force fed to you. All the clinical data for main stream drugs are manipulated, as are most studies on our food, but hey, believe what you will… The drugs will save you right!
Ewla-la

I have always said that I could use some dynamite to blow it out..and that’s exactly what oxy powder does (in a gentle way). It’s the only thing that consistently works for chronic constipation. You may not personally have this problem; so you wouldn’t even know how to appreciate such a product. The people behind Oxy Powder do not need me to defend their case. It’s a great product and it speaks for itself.
Gus

I am currently using Oxy-powder and feel it is a tad unfair to label it as a scam. It certainly works as a laxative and doesn’t appear to have the side effects of many of the pharmaceutical laxatives which I have tried before. Websites such as yours will always be used by alternative medicine manufacturers to publicize their products as they dont really have much choice.

Colby, I am very interested to kow your views on the small intestines wrt cleansing etc. I will briefly explain my condition.

I last ate pineapple 2 months ago but remnants of it have definitely got stuck in my bowels as it continues to come out of my body. I dont believe diverticula, motility issues will explain my condition. The pineapple residue appears to compact my stool resulting in large clumps of stool which are too large to pass without enemas, digital evacuation etc. I have yet to find a western doctor who believes this can happen. The inevitable suggestion of fiber makes the situation far worse. I have been on a very restricted diet for 6 months and have eaten nothing else which remotely ressembles pineapple.

I can only believe that the pineapple – the insoluble fbrous bits – has got stuck to the sides of my small intestines and will eventually come out. The last 6 months have shown me that western medicine definitely isn’t too knowledgeable when it comes to bowel issues other than claiming fiber as the remedy for everything. Dont you feel food is the cause of far more conditions than our pharmaceutical world wants us to believe?

As a nutritionist who appears to believe colon cleansing is quackery what would you suggest? Please feel free to email me.
Lola

I used to use a colon cleanser that had herbs in it but I
found this website
http://starttolivehealthy.com/GHC and found oxy powder, after
researching and reading reviews of others. I decided to try it and it actually
works better for me. As far as regular use, I only cleanse twice a year so
that’s no where close to abusing it so I not afraid of those extreme side
affects. And that works well for me.