You may have noticed quite aggressive advertising campaigns for the last few years for a drink called POM Wonderful.

POM makes several types of juices and their flagship is the pure pomegranate juice. What is the difference between POM’s advertising and their juice and soft drink competitors? The clear statements about the curing power of POM.

And they have the research to back the statements up (maybe, more on that in a bit). In about one hundred studies funded by POM Wonderful, pomegranate juice has been found to drastically improve, even CURE diseases such as Erectile Dysfunction, heart disease, cancer and more.

….and they’ve been selling the heck out of their products- $248 million to be precise!

Recently, however, their high flight might have come to a haltering stop. After being sued by the FTC (federal trade commission), a judge ruled in May that despite all these studies, executed by top class doctors and scientists, there was not enough evidence to back up POM’s claims.

What’s frightening to me is that the main method POM used and was considered flawed is the same methods all the big pharmaceutical companies use to get their medications approved by the FDA.

If the same standard would apply to the pharmaceutical giants as what is required for natural juice manufactures, 90% of all drugs would probably never be put on the market.

So what was the main thing POM did that the judge ruled was unethical? They funded their own studies!

Let’s have one thing totally clear. The studies funded by POM Wonderful were not any mom and pop garage studies. POM has spent over $35 million on their research. The studies have been executed by 44 different institutes.

And out of the 100 studies funded, 70 have been published in respected peer-reviewed journals. Meaning they were clearly available for criticism.

As one critic of POM Wonderful put it: “They’re getting the best research money can buy.”

So the mere fact that POM funded the studies was the main red flag in the judge’s rulings and the reason the FTC went after POM Wonderful. In over 265 pages of rulings the judge stated that it’s very easy to manipulate research to get the desired results required by sponsors.

To be honest with you, I agree in parts with the ruling that POM went overboard in their advertisements. I’ve yet to meet anyone who completely cured anything from erectile dysfunction to cancer by only drinking POM Wonderful. I think, however, it’s a great health product that can be a part of overall natural health reform.

If you want an all-natural method to overcome erectile dysfunction that really works without drugs, check out our erectile dysfunction exercises. They’ve helped hundreds of men without causing any side effects. Learn more here…

And POM is actually not the focus of my article today. I’m only using them as an example to point out the inconsistency of FDA, FTC and the imbalance of regulation in health and wellness industries.

You see, every single drug that is approved by the FDA funds its company’s own studies. Who else is going to do it?

Can you imagine anyone wanting to rush out and fund a study on a drug Pfizer is coming out with unless they’re going to make billions on it? “Hey- we’ll assume all the cost of testing your drug and approving it, and you get all the profit!”

The process of approving a drug is almost solely made on studies funded by the drug companies themselves. The government agencies then go over the studies and try to nit-pick any problems with them. But sometimes the problem may not be obvious in the studies; or, problems are even hidden by the researcher to please their funders.

One example of manipulation in a study is the use of a placebo pill in a double blind study. Half the participants are given the drug tested, the other half placebo pill – a pill that is supposed to have no effect on the subject. When conducting a study for FDA approval there is no requirement to share what was in the placebo pill. You could, for example, be testing drugs for Type 2 Diabetes and then have a sugar pill as the comparison. Obviously, that will affect the results.

Doctors and scientists who want to get funded again in the future by medical companies are going to conduct their studies to please their funders. Even if they don’t conduct direct frauds, they’re going to be biased. There is nothing we can do about this.

The big pharma companies are also so rich and powerful with their strings tightly tied around senators and congressmen and women that even the best studies are not going to give natural solutions any leeway with the FDA and FTC. $250 million in sales from POM Wonderful is nothing compared to the profit from big pharma.

So what’s the solution?

Apply your common sense. Be aware that ALL medications cause side effects and should only be used when all other methods run out. Also be aware that most studies supporting these drugs are bought by the pharmaceutical companies dependent upon their outcomes, and therefore the results should be take with caution.

Then make your own tests. Try out different natural health approaches and feel if they really have positive effects on you. Guides for many of the most effective solutions for many of the most common health issues can be found on the right hand side of this page.

Some of the most popular guides by our readers are:

The High Blood Pressure Exercise Program…

The 3-Step Diabetes Solution…

The 21-day plan to cure arthritis naturally…

But before checking out these guides or doing anything else, please leave your comment on this issue below.