"Are “Clean Meds” the Next Big Wellness Frontier?" - Rina Raphael
The concept of “clean” has taken over food (organic) and beauty (natural), before migrating to a host of other categories, like household products (non-toxic), but what about the medicine cabinet? Why has our Tylenol and cough syrup seemingly gone unnoticed? A recent study found that 75 percent of common pills are filled with inactive ingredients like fillers, dyes, parabens, phthalates, talc, lactose, and gluten. So, entrepreneur David Johnson launched, Genexa, which bills itself as the “cleaner, healthier” alternative for run-of-the-mill medication. However, according to Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, assistant clinical professor of pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Just because something is natural doesn’t mean that it’s safe, or that it even works. It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work, but it also doesn’t mean that it does. There is just no oversight.” She added, “Oftentimes, parents are spending all this money on something that’s probably not any better than a placebo.”
— Jennifer Trachtenberg, MD, Assistant Clinical Professor, Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai