NAD Recommends Health Club Diet, LLC Discontinue Health-Related Advertising Claims for Androzene Supplement Following CRN Challenge.

New York, NY – Nov. 14, 2018 – The National Advertising Division determined that Internet advertising claims made by Health Club Diet, LLC for its Androzene dietary supplement were unsupported and recommended that the advertiser’s claims be discontinued.

NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation. It is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. As part of NAD’s initiative with the Council for Responsible Nutrition designed to expand NAD review of advertising claims for dietary supplements, NAD requested substantiation from Health Club Diet, LLC for advertising claims made for its Androzene® dietary supplement that included:

• “…nourishes cells so you have maximum size, maximum hardness, and maximum stamina.”
• “…faster, bigger, and harder erections.”
• “Improve your sex life naturally”
• “Boost sex drive and increase blood flow.”
• “Androzene uses clinically tested ingredients that will increase blood flow to the genital region in response to sexual stimuli.”
• “Physical arousal – A quicker and bigger reaction to intimacy.”
• “Androzene is an all-natural scientific breakthrough that uses patented technology to increase a man’s desire, firmness, stamina, and sensitivity.”

NAD determined that the advertising reasonably conveys the message that Androzene will provide male consumers substantial, if not complete, relief from erectile dysfunction (ED) such that they will experience pre-ED sexual performance and satisfaction.

Health Club Diet, LLC failed to provide any product testing in support of its claims.  Instead, it relied on a medical expert’s report assessing numerous studies on two ingredients contained Androzene’s proprietary blend—yohimbine and caffeine. Health Club Diet, LLC also relied on the ingredient studies themselves as support.

NAD found that the opinions of the advertiser’s expert did not relieve the advertiser of possessing competent and reliable scientific evidence to support its underlying claims.

NAD noted several flaws in the ingredient studies including, but not limited to, the fact that most of the studies tested a different doses of yohimbine and caffeine than in the Androzene proprietary blend and others tested ingredients that were not found in the product.  Some studies employed irrelevant study populations such as individuals with depression, abnormally slow heart rate, neuropathy, women and animals. Other studies, NAD observed, had no placebo controls, were pilot studies or had very small sample sizes.

Only one study in the record assessed yohimbine alone in the amount in which it is found in the actual product. The primary efficacy results showed no statistically significant differences between the yohimbine and placebo groups with respect to improvement in erectile function.  The secondary treatment outcomes contained missing data points and yielded inconsistent findings.

NAD recommended that all of the challenged health-related performance claims be discontinued for lack of supporting evidence.

Health Club Diet, in its advertiser’s statement, said that while it disagreed with many of NAD’s findings, it accepted NAD’s decision in its entirety. In the spirit of supporting self-regulation, Health Club Diet had already taken steps to discontinue some of the challenged claims during the proceeding and agreed to discontinue any remaining challenged claims. It also stated that it will endeavor to consider the NAD conclusions in any potential future advertisements.

Note: A recommendation by NAD to modify or discontinue a claim is not a finding of wrongdoing and an advertiser’s voluntary discontinuance or modification of claims should not be construed as an admission of impropriety. It is the policy of NAD not to endorse any company, product, or service. Decisions finding that advertising claims have been substantiated should not be construed as endorsements.