Does READER'S DIGEST Shill for the Pharmaceutical Industry?

Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, March 31, 2010
Does READER'S DIGEST Shill for the Pharmaceutical Industry?
Or is it Only a Really Bad April Fool's Joke?

Comment by Andrew W. Saul
Editor-In-Chief, Orthomolecular Medicine News Service

(OMNS, Mar 31, 2010) Reader's Digest's editors cannot possibly be as ignorant as their April 2010 article "5 Vitamin Truths and Lies" seems to indicate.

Or can they?

Surely their silly attempt at vitamin-bashing is merely an April Fool's joke.

Isn't it?

Read over "5 Vitamin Truths and Lies" and decide for yourself. It is online at http://www.rd.com/living-healthy/5-vitamin-truths-and-lies/article175625.html Be sure to note readers' comments following the article. You may wish to leave a comment or two of your own.

Reader's Digest's circulation, by the way, is dropping rapidly. Once, it had a circulation of 18 million. (1) Just a few years ago, it had a circulation of 8 million. It is now 5.5 million. (2) The magazine is also no longer published every month, but is down to 10 issues a year.

Furthermore, Reader's Digest posted a loss of $653 million in only nine months of last year, and the company is in debt for a whopping $2.1 billion. (2)

Perhaps they are getting desperate for cash. At least that might explain the 15 pages of pharmaceutical advertising in their April 2010 issue.

Peer-reviewed research shows that pharmaceutical advertising does in fact bias periodicals against vitamin therapy. (3)

A laughably-biased article such as "5 Vitamin Truths and Lies" confirms it.

To send your thoughts directly to the Reader's Digest editors: RDEditorial_RDW@ReadersDigest.com

When you've done so, please feel free to send us a copy of your correspondence with RD: omns@orthomolecular.org. A sampling of your letters will be selected for the next OMNS.

To learn more about how vitamins safely and effectively fight disease: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml

References:

(1) US History Encyclopedia, accessed at http://www.answers.com/topic/reader-s-digest

(2) Flamm M. Reader's Digest cuts circulation, expands digital options. June 19, 2009. http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090619/FREE/906199993

(3) Pharmaceutical advertising biases journals against vitamin supplements. Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, Feb 5, 2009. http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v05n02.shtml

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (Canada)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Gonzalez, D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
Steve Hickey, Ph.D. (United Kingdom)
James A. Jackson, PhD (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, MD, Ph.D (Sweden)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Erik Paterson, M.D. (Canada)
Gert E. Shuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: omns@orthomolecular.org