Teacher who invented airborne

Sneezing, runny nose coughing even mild body aches, were gone and did not come back. I've used it again since that first incident and I've never had to take more than a second dose.

My mother has MS and takes a lot of prescription meds. She gets cold symptoms often and has to be very careful if she takes anything over the counter.

Airborne doesn't affect her meds and it helps her cold symptoms every time. It may make outlandish claims and honestly it doesn't taste all that great it's like a fruity version of Alka Seltzer without the aspirin backwash but as for me and mine it works.

I should also say that this is for mild cold symptoms and you have to catch it early! Wait too long and you're stuck. It's also not going to cure the flu or a really bad cold but it can help with the icky, uncomfortable feeling that the common cold brings. So, count us part of the 40, It's just something you have to experience. I wouldn't say it "cures" a cold but it sure is better than a lot of over the counter remedies and works faster and longer.

I'm glad you're back blogging. I missed reading your posts while you took your brief vacation. One last thing: tag, you're it. Finally, someone took the time to debunk the Airborne myth. No question it's a thinly veiled scam. Because it's a supposed cure for colds and flu?

Want to talk about healthcare scams? How about Heightmax? I wrote ONE blog post about it last year on my scamsafe. It is everyone's inability lack of interest to exercise and stay healthy that creates a subtle paranoia and further encourages us to believe in any thing that can bring us relief.

Every day I hear reference to medicines at work, home or any public place. Everyone seems to be either dependent or far worse addicted to medicine instead of taking a look at themselves and say maybe it is not that hard to stay healthy.

Like my ex used to say I know a doctor who would give a shot and make you feel better instantly. I was like maybe you were bound to feel better irrespective of the shot.

She still swears to this day his shots work everytime. While I would agree that they use some very questionable marketing practices, I have actually used the product during the past 8 months and found it to be very effective, at least for me.

I usually get really bad colds each winter. At least one of those is bad enough that I have to go to a doctor and get strong antibiotics because the cold has gone to my chest. This year, I did not have any bad colds at all. While that is purely anecdotal, I am a happy customer.

Your mileage may vary. If the product actually worked, why would they need to use deceptive marketing practices. This means you were suckered in by the marketing, even though you know it is deceptive. I am not sure what the term for this would be.

I don't really understand your concern. Maybe the vitamins in Airborne are helpful; maybe they're not. Who cares? The statement that the "product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease" is required to put on there by the government. If the company decided to try have the product evaluated by the FDA, it might very well turn out that there are no significant results from using the product, but if the product did actually help prevent or cure the cold, it would have to cost many times what it does now to recoup the costs of such testing and approval.

If people like their vitamin C to be fizzy, so be it. If people think the magic pill will cure their illness instead of seeking actual medical treatment, people should care. Robert, spare us the anecdotal data. Your report is plagued with selective memory and experimental bias.

There's a reason for conducting double blind studies with control populations and statistically significant data points. And Christian, if the product really worked, Knight McDowell Labs would shell out the bucks to prove it.

A scientifically proven cold cure would sell even better. You ask Who Cares? When people put their faith in snake oil, they naturally neglect the more difficult precautions like hand hygiene, exercise, full night's sleep, no-smoking and diet. Even if you value the vitamin C, Airborne customers unnecessarily forfeit their hard-earned savings to Knight McDowell Labs. So is Airborne 42 times as expensive because it also has Sorbitol and Sucralose?? I totally agree that schools should do a better job in teaching about the scientific method People need to know the elements of these things in order to make sane decisions at work, in personal life, and in public policy matters.

I think the only real way to learn the scientific method, though, is in conjunction with an actual substantive discipline I guess my comments about Airborne actually working aren't going to get approved. Well I have two comments about the scientific method. Even though we have all kinds of technology and such, it's only recently that we understand the scientific reason behind how the bumblebee flies.

My mother has MS and takes a shot every week of a medicine calls Avonex. They know that it slows the progress of MS but Avonex was developed to treat another disease and they don't really understand WHY it helps MS patients they just know that it does. I don't know how or why Airborne works scientifically. I don't know why you're so dead set on proving that it doesn't work at all. The only way to find out is to have a cold, take it and see if you feel better and if your symptoms subside.

Knocking it before you try it seems to me as useless as you claim Airborne to be. By the way, tag, you're it. This is too tempting to pass up I will respond on a more serious not later. Now really, how can 40, consumers, and Kevin Costner, be wrong? When you have a healthy immune system, then it allows your body, on its own, to fight off germs. Establish Credibility. As Christian G. Warden stated, the government requires this labeling on such a product.

In fact, anything that is herbal or natural cannot make any health claims, or it will be labeled a drug and be regulated by the FDA, or pretty much be taken off the shelves. Maybe you should consider picking on the drug industry, government, and doctors for producing, funding and distributing synthetic drugs for profit that don't help, but actually hurt people.

There's some science for ya. I have not looked into what AirBorne actually is but I doubt it is anywhere near the top of the list of this world's problems. It is not lack of science knowledge that is the problem with Americans, and people in general. It is the desire for a quick fix and the lack of personal responsibility for our health. All one has to do is read ingredients of a product, do a quick search on the internet, and decide if that is something they wish to consume.

Your quibble should be more about the ingredients of this product than marketing strategy. Airborne contains Sucralose, aka Splenda, aka sugar and chlorine mess , along with some other artificial ingredients, not good for health.

Bottom line is that the drug industry, the FDA, and most doctors in this country are directly tied and corrupt. It is our tendency to question the more natural products that are "unregulated" because we trust the FDA, our doctors, and the drug industry. Sadly, they are not there to protect us. We just need to be more aware.

This is not only a scam, but a potentially dangerous one at that. The amount of Vitamin A in each tablet is IU. According to the National Academy of Sciences, as discussed in a recent magazine article, and FDA guidelines, if taken according to the Airborne website's directions "every 3 hours as necessary," that much Vitamin A could be toxic - enough to cause possible liver disease, dizziness and blurred vision. Harmless placebo? Apparently not.

I do likewise when I pass the Folger's coffee by. Anonymous "It is our tendency to question the more natural products that are "unregulated" because we trust the FDA, our doctors, and the drug industry.

What else can they do? Until people arm themselves with knowledge about how science works, they will be exploited. Christian, See 2 anonynous comments preceding yours to see why airborne isn't as harmless as like a pricy pair of jeans. Anonymous , Clever! Indeed, a good pitch is all Knight McDowell has. Sadly, it still appears to be a good investment. But my partners and investor find life way too short to profit from empty or exploitive ventures.

That's why we passed on all those profitable desktop adware startups. Anonymous pm, One more thing But the shortage of scientific thinking in this world is what exposes mindless mobs to exploitation, jihad, famine, Biblical crusades and war. If only sniffles were the worst of our problems! Brilliant post, David. PT Barnum recognized that "there's a sucker born every minute". The idiom "A fool and his money are soon parted" no doubt preceded Barnum by many years or decades.

My point is that snake oil salesmen who skate at the very edge of dishonesty are not new to this world. It's just that in a scientific age, the scams tend to have a more scientific veneer to them. Little else changes. That Deborah girl wrote: Well I have two comments about the scientific method. Your second sentence is not related to the scientific method at all.

The scientific method is about coming up with a hypothesis, making predictions based on that hypothesis, and using experimentation to prove or disprove those predictions. Read the Wikipedia entry for more. Applied to medicines, the scientific method requires running double-blind experiments to measure the effect if any of the medicine.

Airborne has not done this except for a sham study set up by the company. If you don't do a well-designed double-blind experiment, you simply have no idea if the medicine works or not.

It's not about scientific thinking, and your cultures lack of teaching it. It's about thinking, period, and your cultures lack of it. To one who does the odd bit of thinking and I address this to all who apply none of this could possibly be surpising. Saddening, perhaps I agree with everything you said. But I still use it when I get on a plane. I have always thought that Vit C was helpful, and the bubbles are energizing. I also wash my hands a lot.

I started a new job recently and several people had colds, sneezing and coughing. I washed my hands, took Airborne and extra Vit C, tried to get enough sleep. Don't know which of the combination did it, but I didn't get sick, it didn't cost much, so I will do it again. Vitamin A - IU Toxic? According to "their" studies, sure. But it depends on alot of things. What are the vitamin A levels in your body to begin with? Everyone is different.

Being that Vit-A is natural, your body gets rid of the excess. Try it with Vit-C if you want. Take a whole whack of Vit-C tablets. When you urinate, it will be VERY orange because your body doesnt need it all. Did their studies take that into account? Here's a little tidbit that may open some possibilities: Sodium is volatile, and highly toxic. Chlorine is also extremely toxic. But what happens when you put them together? Table salt! Harmless unless you take it by the cup full, like my wife does Ahh, science.

Sorry, one other thing. This is to Shadox: Just because a man is not a high-paid chemist working for a drug compamy, doesn't mean he doesn't know alot about nutrition and health. True there are alot of idiot teachers who only know what is written in their textbooks, but there are briliant teachers. There are briliant plumbers. There are briliant car mechanics.

There are briliant garbage men. Don't judge a man's abilities and intelligence on his profession. Judge him on his deeds. Beware of those who mock the whistle blower and 'kindly' state how they were positively affected by the scam product. You here this crap all the time at ripoffreport. If they go to you before they buy the product and READ, and turn away from the product then good for you man.

I posted about Stores Online 'scam'. The issue with their product is that it isn't really a scam as it is perfectly legal. It is just overly expensive for material they either got for less than a percent of the price they are charging. You can still scam people, even if nothing you do is technically illegal. Within six months, she created the prototype for the cold-preventer that would change her life: Airborne.

It was a hit. Airborne soon became the number-one natural cold-fighting remedy in the US -- and business was about to grow even more. But sales skyrocketed almost instantly.

The computer, Internet, everything was just going nuts. Then, Knight-McDowell sold the company. In , a class action lawsuit was brought against Airborne, citing there was no credible evidence that it prevented colds.

That year, Knight-McDowell decided to buy the company back. We wanted to protect it and kind of take it back to our original vision. How this translates into her ability to concoct an effective viral preventative product is a major leap of logic.

Frankly, I'd have more confidence in the remedy if it were devised by a chemistry schoolteacher such as. I've nothing aganst second grade teachers or screenwriters, but what makes either of them expert enough. I think establishing that they're not experts is actually the point. Sadly, we live in a society where expertise is equated with elitism and ignorance is equated with authenticity. Their marketing message is that this product was not invented by pointy-headed scientists who have their heads in the clouds - or, worse, hidden mad-scientist motives - but by "plain folks" just like you and me so of course we can trust them.

Yee haw. Yes, I think the idea with the "grade school teacher" model is not that grade school teachers are better authorities on health but that they are in the trenches, so to speak. This gives an impression of pragmatism. People seem to like woo-peddlers who say that they didn't waste time with decades of research but instead just made something that works. There is also the anti-elitist thing that Jeff Darcy alluded to. Airborne's marketing suggests that its developer is just like you and me -- one of us.

An ordinary Jane. I think this is effective partly because of the idea that medical researchers are out of touch but mostly because it also speaks to that "in the trenches" view. She didn't make the product because she wanted to develop a medicine and cold remedies seemed like a good choice.

It says a lot for the mindset of the average American that the last sentence above is more compelling than the one before it. It's like how the ads with Robert Jarvik seem more impressive because he gave up his architecture career to study cardiology after he lost his dad to heart disease. The motivation is somehow more important than the actual facts, I suppose because it tells a more interesting story. Just coincidence? There is no data to prove that. Homer: Not a bear in sight.

The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm. Lisa: That's spacious reasoning, Dad. Homer: Thank you, dear. Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away. Homer: Oh, how does it work?

Lisa: It doesn't work. Homer: Uh-huh. Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.