The National Advertising Division has recommended that Evolution Nutraceuticals discontinue challenged advertising claims for the company’s “Cardio Miracle” dietary supplement, including claims that the product will “Prevent or Reverse Heart Attack and Stroke.”
 
NAD is an investigative unit of the advertising industry’s system of self-regulation. It is administered by the Council of Better Business Bureaus.
 
NAD requested substantiation for certain claims made for “Cardio Miracle” following a challenge by the Council for Responsible Nutrition. Claims at issue included:
 

• “Cardio Miracle improves your body’s ability to produce the powerful health molecule Nitric Oxide.”
• “Nitric Oxide is scientifically proven to relax your blood vessels, effectively lowering your blood pressure.”
• “Depending on your condition, you should notice a difference in a few weeks or even days.”
• “Relax and Dilate Your Blood Vessels: Nitric Oxide relaxes your blood vessels, dilating them and making them more flexible.”
• “Optimized Blood Flow: Nitric Oxide helps support a healthy cardiovascular system, getting oxygen rich blood to your cells.”
• “Recent studies have found that this can also help with Neuropathy (loss of feeling in your fingers and toes) as well as dizziness.” 
• “Better Dental Health: Dentists have long known there was a connection between your gums and your heart.  People who have suffered from Periodontal Disease have seen amazing improvements in gum depth in just a matter of weeks by taking a Nitric Oxide supplement.”
• “Prevent or Reverse Heart Attack and Stroke”

 
Cardio Miracle is a powdered supplement, containing more than 20 ingredients, that may be added to water or juice and consumed as a beverage.
 
The advertiser’s initial response focused primarily on the roles of arginine, citrulline, and beet powder and the powders of other nitrate-rich vegetables in stimulating the production of nitric oxide (NO) production. Increased NO production, according to the advertiser, will result in the cardiovascular health benefits promised in its advertising.  
 
Further, the advertiser noted that Cardio Miracle also contains Astragin, a proprietary formulation of astragalus root and panex ginseng, that is marketed as an enhancing ingredient to support the absorption of amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
 
As NAD observed in its decision, there is a scientific consensus that NO is in every organ and essential to cardiovascular and overall health. NAD’s inquiry did not challenge the scientific understanding of nitric oxide. Rather, the issue before NAD was whether the advertiser provided evidence sufficient to demonstrate that Cardio Miracle, or the ingredients in Cardio Miracle, would deliver the advertised health benefits to consumers.
 
The advertiser did not submit any studies on the Cardio Miracle product itself or any studies examining the health-related effects of any ingredient in Cardio Miracle. NAD determined that the advertiser’s evidence was insufficient to support any claims regarding the Cardio Miracle product and recommended that the advertiser discontinue all the challenged claims.
 
The company, in its advertiser’s statement, said it “agrees to comply with all of NAD’s recommendations.”
 
The company noted that it believes “our statements regarding nitric oxide benefits and statements are scientific, factual, and supported by two decades of research. We will clarify and differentiate Cardio Miracle as a possible supporting product with clinically acceptable ingredients in meaningful amounts, to support the body’s natural signaling process of nitric oxide with such.”