One of the absolute worst ideas anyone in the government ever had was letting pharmaceutical companies advertise directly to the public. A public with roughly zero medical knowledge. A public that believes any weird twinge, sneeze, or momentary fatigue is a death sentence. We need that miracle pill, now! For our constipation, insomnia, erectile dysfunction, mysterious rashes, or the inevitable blood clot that we just know is coming.

These ads don’t help. They exploit the most hypochondriac tendencies in America and worsen the single biggest problem in our health care system: It is driven by money. Advertising costs millions, which inflates medication prices. Meanwhile, the commercials themselves make everyone panic just a little more. Big Pharma insists you must know about their “revolutionary new drug” as if your doctor has been hoarding it under a rock.

Here is a newsflash: Moral, competent doctors base prescriptions on evidence, not commercials. When your doctor refuses the shiny pill you just saw on TV, it is usually because they actually know what they are doing. Odds are it is the same as the generic they already prescribed, just 10 times cheaper. Big Pharma is great at small chemical tweaks, re-patenting drugs, and charging $500 for something your pharmacy has been dispensing for $50 for years.

And the side effects! Oh, you have to love how these commercials list them faster than Speedy Gonzales on espresso. Sure, your new drug might fix your constipation, but it might also kill off some neurons, give you a heart attack, and ruin your weekend. Doctors are tasked with parsing all this nonsense so patients don’t end up dead or bankrupt. Concepts like risk/benefit analysis, confounders, or odds ratios? Most people just glaze over.

The supplement snake oil

Supplements are even worse. Ninety-nine percent of them are completely useless. They are the multibillion-dollar industry equivalent of snake oil, dressed in shiny bottles and marketing jargon. If you are eating real food and living in the U.S., congratulations: Your body is already getting everything it needs. Anything else is literally just taking your money.

And the fun fact? Supplements aren’t regulated by the FDA. They tried to pass a law for regulation, but Big Pharma and lobbyists laughed, ran ads convincing the public it was a “government overreach,” and got Congress to pass the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act instead. Now these products can hit the shelves with zero proof of safety or efficacy. You are basically rolling the dice every time you pop a capsule.

A deadly lesson in ginkgo biloba

Which brings me to a story that still haunts me. I was called to admit a young, athletic man in his late 30s. Jaundice. Liver enzymes in the tens of thousands. Fulminant liver failure. Hepatitis? No. Tylenol overdose? No. Gallstones? No. Cancer? Nope. Autoimmune disease? Negative. I was missing something, and it had to be big.

After talking to him and gathering his family’s supplement collection, it hit me: He was taking massive amounts of ginkgo biloba. His liver had been ravaged, and it was too late. He died within days.

Let me reiterate: If these supplements were actually helpful or even slightly beneficial, doctors would prescribe them. If there was money to be made, Big Pharma would have already patented them and charged you an arm and a leg. Stop letting marketing and corporate greed dictate what you shove into your body.

Ads are repeated endlessly, so eventually people start believing them. We are trained to want rather than need. Buying another sweater doesn’t kill you. Taking a supplement advertised as a “miracle” pill just might.

Not everyone can be an expert in medical studies. That is why you have doctors. We read the studies, understand the risks, and stay current. We don’t work for Big Pharma. We don’t care about profits. We care about keeping you alive, and out of the hospital.

So before you grab that bottle of “natural brain booster” or the latest “gut miracle pill,” pause. Ask someone whose job, and ethics, is to actually have your best interest at heart.

George Issa is an internal medicine physician.