Making Yourself Smarter Through Drugs

Here is another scam that strikes at the heart of two major worries: the fear of Alzheimer’s disease among older Americans and the competition to be the smartest person in the room among the younger. I wrote a couple of years ago about the troubles faced by the makers of the supplement Prevagen when the advertising overstated its effectiveness as a memory enhancer. Now another product with one name, but multiple formulations and sponsors, has been called out by the FTC for questionable business practices and lack of evidence of effectiveness.

The product is called Geniux and sells for about $50 per bottle. The information gathered from their various websites and infomercials on various networks presents a series of very persuasive claims: 

• Clinical Trials have shown that it “boosts brainpower by up to 89.2% and increases focus by up to 121%.” (Note how the false precision of two-tenths of a percent makes it look like real scientific data. But how do you even measure brainpower?)
• Among other things it is said to use “a scientifically engineered stack of maximum strength nootropics, known as ‘smart drugs,’ to help increase brain activity, mental performance, and vigilance.”
• Presumably because your brain “begins to lose sharpness of memory from as early as [age] 30” you must “take a daily enhancer” to prevent a decline in memory and focus.

There are many other examples of their advertising, shown as exhibits in the legal document, but the FTC concludes: “Defendants’ representations that the Geniux Products improve short and long term memory, increase focus, and increase concentration in users; prevent memory loss and increase short and long term memory in persons experiencing cognitive decline because of age; boost brain power, including by as much as 89.2 percent; increase users’ IQ; or improve users’ speed of information processing are false and/or Defendants did not possess and rely upon a reasonable basis to substantiate those representations.” [Emphasis added.]

In addition, the FTC states that there were “no human clinical studies…demonstrating any efficacy in users, including increasing focus, increasing concentration, boosting brain power, enhancing memory recall, or increasing IQ.” In plain language, there is absolutely no evidence that it works.

Whoops! It looked too good to be true, and it turns out that they have exaggerated just a bit – actually it was enough to get them hauled into court by the Federal government for “deceptively marketed ‘cognitive improvement’ supplements using sham Web sites containing false and unsubstantiated efficacy claims, references to non-existent clinical studies, and fraudulent consumer and celebrity endorsements” and forcing them to agree to a settlement barring such brain boosting claims in the future.

But we all know that wild promises, celebrity endorsements and the use of pseudo-scientific language is all it takes to dupe many Americans. Isn’t it ironic that they spend good money on ineffective brain-boosting supplements when a little critical thinking, using the brain power they already have, would help them avoid the problem.