This allegation was obviously worded in such a way as to mislead and anger the consumers and pit them against the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC, like the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), has the Congress-mandated obligation to protect the public from fraud and abuse, just like the BFAD (Bureau of Food and Drug) in the Philippines. The FTC was simply doing its job of protecting the public by weeding out international and domestic manufacturers and traders who sell unproven products – herbal drugs and "food supplements" in the various forms: pills, juices, potions and lotions – they claim to be a cure for cancer, etc.

Unfortunately, 99 percent of these "natural cures, food supplements," or non-prescription products, have not undergone the strict scientific tests and detailed scrutiny of the FDA. Every medical substance or drug used in the United States today has been exhaustibly tested in the laboratory and in clinical settings (randomized, double-blind studies, etc.) for its efficacy, safety, proper dosing, side-effects, etc. before its gets the stamp of approval by the FDA.

If these herbal products could really cure cancers as their vendors claim, then all cancers would have been eliminated from the surface of the earth and those manufacturers long awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Unfortunately, nothing in their claims could be farther from the truth.

When the Philippine Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD) warned the public that the pharmaceutical claim that the Ampalaya capsules and related products (purportedly was effective, alone and in themselves, for the treatment, or a cure for, diabetes) was false, its proponents, who stand to lose millions, if not billions, also assailed the BFAD.

The government warning came after some diabetics, who abandoned their physician-prescribed anti-diabetic medications and replaced them with the Ampalaya pills after reading or hearing the infomercials, developed complications of uncontrolled diabetes (visual, cardiovascular, and kidney problems, etc), some even lapsing into diabetic coma and others dying.

As we reported in this column a couple of years ago, eating the vegetable ampalaya (bitter melon) had been found to lower blood sugar. Taking a cue from this medical discovery, enterprising companies marketed these ampalaya pills and similar products in various forms, and advertised them as they did, confusing the ignorant and gullible consumers into replacing their prescription medications with the ampalaya capsules, many of them subsequently adversely affected.

While ampalaya vegetable can lower blood sugar, it is not effective enough to be used alone, and in itself, to treat diabetes. It is no substitute for the time-tested proprietary medications available today in drug stores. As an adjunct to the FDA/BFAD approved medications, eating ampalaya is safer, tastier, more enjoyable, healthier, and at least 95 percent cheaper than those ampalaya capsules on the market. Alone and in themselves, these capsules are beneficial only to the vendors’ financial health, dangerous to diabetic patients who abandon their medications in favor of these ampalaya capsules.

But the greater tragedy to the thousands of unsuspecting consumers is inflicted by manufacturers of herbal and "food supplements" because they sell false hopes, victimizing cancer patients who are so desperate they would cling to anything, even to a knife’s edge, just to find a possible cure for the deadly malignancy that ails them. This act of greed is most cruel and unconscionable. Medical statistics have shown that all patients who resorted to these unproven alternative "cures for cancer," did not lose their fatal illness. All they lost was their life and part of their savings. The anecdotal herbal (or "food supplement") treatment successes reported were nothing but cases of benign or non-malignant conditions misdiagnosed (intentionally or otherwise) as cancers to begin with.

Scientific researches are being done in universities and medical schools around the world. As a physician who wants the best cure for my patients, I, too, wish that medical science will someday soon discover and prove all herbals to be safe and effective in treating diseases that afflict mankind, especially cancers.

Meanwhile, let us wait for the final results of the laboratory and clinical investigations on the many promising herbal and natural cures, before we start using them. It is prudent to be careful with our health. It would be a disaster to find out a few years down the line, after ingesting some unproven herbals or "food supplements" being marketed today as "effective and safe," that they caused serious adverse effects on our brain, liver, kidneys, or were cancerous agents.

Today’s great mind-boggling advances in medical diagnosis and therapeutics, and in science as a whole, are indeed heaven-sent and awesome. They provide promising opportunities for better health, more enjoyable life, and greater longevity. It behooves all of us to take full advantage of the wonders of modern medicine if we could, and not succumb to charlatan claims. In taking good care of our health and the only one life we possess, we have to be well-informed and wisely cautious and vigilant in protecting ourselves by adhering to what is scientific and proven, and to heed the sage advice, "consumer beware."

May God bless you and your loved ones with a safe and joyous Christmas and a brighter new year, our nation with a new direction, dignity and pride, and the world, with love and peace.