The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "herbals" ...
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Selling the Fountain of Youth
The book takes readers inside the modern anti-aging industry, where doctors prescribe human growth hormone (HGH), "bio-identical" estrogen and progesterone, and an infinite medicine chest of herbal supplements such as resveratrol and acai.
Tags: anti-aging; supplements; drugs
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Poison Pills
This investigation exposes the dark side of the commercial weight loss pill industry. It chronicles the rise and fall of ephedra products, and pays special attention to the corrupt businessmen who profited from the dangerous drugs. The article also covers more recent trends in the industry and discusses the new drugs' potential for harm.
Tags: Weight loss drugs; doctors; herbal supplements; FDA; Food and Drug Administration; Metabolife
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Are these diet pills deadly?
Glamour reports on a decade-long lack of action by the FDA against the drug ephedra. The writers charge the drug industry with stalling the government on both state and federal levels. The story also exposes the ways in which some manufacturers purportedly proved their products were safe and effective, documenting how little research had ever been done on ephedra-based supplements and debunking the single study most often cited by the industry. The story also talks about how marketers continued to use flimsy evidence to make claims about their products efficacy....claims that were unanimously voted to be false and scientifically impossible by the Federal Trade Commission.
Tags: ephedra; diet supplements; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; ephedra-based supplements; Federal Trade Commission; Rand Corporation; Health and Human Services; herbal supplement; FDA; National Football League; National Collegiate Athletic Association; American Medical Association; consumer-advocacy groups; Xenadrine; Hydroxycut; Metabolife International Inc.; Metabolife; fen-phen; Dietary supplement Health and Education Act; DSHEA; Public Citizen's Health Research Group; Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders; diet pill; Ephedra Education Council; AER; adverse event report; Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
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Science Fiction
Even after considerable money has been spent into research on various alternative medicines, there is still no evidence that they work. Still, taxpayers' money continues to flow towards research into these techniques, such as leech therapy, herbal medicine and reflexology.
Tags: alternative medicine; health; guru
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Herbal Remedy Ripoffs
D Magazine found that "nearly half of the forty supplements we pulled from Dallas store shelves failed laboratory tests. In some cases capsules contained no active ingredient at all."
Tags: herbal; remedies; health food; FDA; herbs; natural medicine
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Sports-supplement dangers
Consumer Reports examines three dietary supplements marketed to enhance athletic performance, creatine, ephedra, and androstenedione. Looking at scientific studies available on the supplements Consumer Reports found that the supplements are often ineffective and potentially dangerous. Androstenedione, used by former St. Louis Cardinal Mark McGwire, was shown to cause hormonal imbalance in some cases, and ephedra is a herbal stimulant with a combination of ingredients that acts like an amphetamine. Metcalf and Sandroff also show that many of these nutritional supplements are marketed towards youths.
Tags: sports; supplements; nutrition
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Unlocking the Green Pharmacy
"Initially they call it absurd. Then the call it obvious." The article seeks to show a missing concilience between modern Western medicine and "plant medicine." The article says that of the 5,000 prescription drugs approved by the FDA since the 1960's, "fewer than a dozen are based on plants or the chemical formulas derived from substances found in plants." The author blames the complexity of plants (and plant genomes) for science overlooking them. "If we are to embrace the complexity of plants while maintaining the precision and the virtues of modern science, we need a new conceptual framework and a new approach."
Tags: plant medicine; genome; U.S. Food and Drug Administration; pharmacopeia; herbs; herbal therapy
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Relief for the Rx Blues
This special report seeks to explain the rising costs and partially decreased access to prescription drugs, in the process exposing through an undercover investigation loose standards on the part of pharmacists who sometimes fail to protect consumers against drug interactions. The report also investigates the murky and at-times hazardous world of on-line drug purchases.
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1999 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #8
1999 IRE National Conference (Kansas City) Show and Tell Tape #8 is the eighth of a nine-part series. This tape includes: 1.) Diane Charles (WDIV-Detroit) Water drainage system causes high erosion, leaving houses on the brink of a cliff. County refuses to fix the problem...even though the erosion was predicted 30 years earlier. 2.) Mark Lagerkvist (News 12 - Long Island) Questionable campaign finance contributions. Starts at race track and continues horse analogy throughout. 3.) Deborah Sherman (WFXT - Boston Fox) Costa Rican trips for child sex. Actually spoke with girls who used to get paid by American tourists for sex. Focuses on one area man charged with this crime. 4.) Jennifer Krause (WTVF-Nashville) Feed the Children rip-off. employees taking home thousands of food items and boxes filled with clothes that were supposed to go to the needy. 5.) Miguel Sancho (Inside Edition) Carnival cruise ship come-ons. Staff on these cruise ships hitting on passengers and even having sex with them, sometimes consensual. Against policy to interact with passengers this way. Hidden camera of crew coming on to Inside Edition interns. 6.) Rich Fuentes (KVBC-Las Vegas) Safety test of cheaper, replacement after-market auto parts covered by most insurance companies instead of parts made by original car manufacturers. Not as safe and will cost more in the end. 7.) Phil Archer (KPRC-Houston) Employees steal and take home items donated to a local shelter. 8.) Deb Fountain (KSTP-Minneapolis) Another herbal supplement piece focusing on the dangerous ingredients in some products. Metabolife comes up again as a problematic substance known for causing high blood pressure.
Tags: TAPE; Kansas City; conference; no transcripts; IRE
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1999 IRE National Conference Show and Tell Tape #1
The 1998 IRE National Conference (Kansas City) Show and Tell Tape #1 is the first in a nine-part series. This tape includes: 1.) Darcy Spears (KVBC-Las Vegas) "Taken for a Ride". Taxi drivers getting kickbacks for taking clients to certain bars/stripclubs. 2.) J.W. August/Valerie Stapes (KGTV-San Diego). A follow-up investigation about university diplomas for sale. Documents passed off as though they're from Columbia University in New York City. Finds prominent city official using one as a reference. 3.) ?... Credit card lenders - Providian Visa 4.) Ken Miguel (KGO-TV - San Francisco) "Herbal Supplements" Investigation into supplements such as "Metabolife" that use ma huang and other harmful ingredients in these supposedly safe, natural pills. 5.) Chris Cantergiani (WSB-Atlanta) Investigation into Dekalb County employee who's getting paid by taxpayers to spend large portions of his day at home or on personal business. 6.) Julie Jacoby (WCCO-Minneapolis). After an accident, a taxi driver files lawsuits against the other party, then pays others to falsify documents that would notify the person of the court date. The driver ends up winning thousands of dollars when his opponent fails to show up in court. They don't even know about the lawsuit. 7.) David Schechter (WDAF-Kansas City) Focuses on Missouri's Methamphetamine problem by showing how easy it can be to buy drugstore ingredients despite recent restrictions.
Tags: TAPE; Kansas City; conference; no transcripts; IRE