As Trust in Health Care Craters, Pharmacist Reveals 5 Biggest 'Scam' Medications to Watch Out For
More Americans than ever are skeptical of the health-care system — and with good reason.
According to data published last month by public health researcher Preeti Vankar at Statista, only 60 percent of Americans had trust in their health-care system — lower than Indonesia, Mexico and Thailand — in 2022.
And this doesn’t just extend to health-care conglomerates or hospitals, either. There are also pharmaceutical companies — including those who sell over-the-counter medications.
One pharmacist has said you have every reason to be skeptical — and in a viral video, he shared the five biggest “scam” medications that consumers should watch out for on shelves.
The video by Grant Harting, a pharmacist licensed in three states, was released a month ago — and has received 6.5 million views on YouTube alone. In it, he went inside a CVS and pointed out the five biggest over-the-counter rip-offs he says consumers should be on the lookout for.
Now, of course, this isn’t medical advice, so make sure to ask your doctor — but if you’re looking at these five products, maybe you should have another look.
First off is a medication that works, just at a hefty price: ZzzQuil, the version of NyQuil that doesn’t have the cough and cold ingredients.
“It’s not really a scam, because it actually is effective,” Harting said. However, the active ingredient in it is diphenhydramine — what was once known under the trade name Benadryl as an antihistamine.
Because it puts you to sleep, though, it does double duty — but that doesn’t mean you need to get the Procter & Gamble version, which was almost $13 for a bottle in this episode.
Instead, he “typically recommend[s] for folks is just the Dollar Tree versions — they’re much more cost-effective.”
Second: Colace, an OTC laxative that sells for $27 at this store. But, hey — if you need relief, cost is no object in that department, right?
Well, that’s part of the problem, according to Harting: It doesn’t provide relief. Don’t believe him, though, believe The Science™, which has found repeatedly that the active ingredient — docusate — is no better than a placebo at softening your stool.
Instead, he recommends a fiber source, psyllium husk, instead.
Third is the brand-name Mucinex, $43 for 42 extended-release tablets.
“My goodness, what a racket,” he said.
Mucinex, active ingredient guaifenesin, is supposed to be an expectorant — that is, it’s supposed to break up phlegm in your lungs and help you cough it up. Aside from being expensive, however, it’s again another “medication” that, while approved for a certain condition, has shown no evidence of being better than a placebo at doing what it’s supposed to do.
You can also just get the generic liquid version of guaifenesin, which is significantly cheaper, if you think it really works — $10 for a bottle.
Fourth is Sudafed PE, which Harting called “complete and total garbanzo-beans trash.”
The issue is that, in the mid-2000s, Sudafed replaced the active ingredient in the medication, pseudoephedrine, with phenylephrine. The reason was because pseudoephedrine can easily be used to produce methamphetamine, whereas phenylephrine isn’t very good at that.
The problem: phenylephrine is also not very good at being a decongestant, either. As Harting pointed out, the FDA might be about to pull it off the market, and you can still get the real thing — but to ensure you’re not the Walter White type, you have to take a tag to the pharmacy counter to get it. However, do keep in mind that there are issues with blood pressure and prostate problems with pseudoephedrine, so know your health and talk to your doctor.
Finally, Prevagen, which promises that it “improves memory.” I’m guessing they’re hoping you forget that it doesn’t improve your memory, since he noted at the end that it “does nothing … no pharmacist recommends this ever.”
So, maybe you don’t trust your health-care system as much as the Indonesians and Mexicans do. However, there is at least one upside this holiday season: a pharmacist willing to save you a few bucks by pointing out five of the biggest scams on the drug-store shelves.
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