 Yes, as we've seen, studies have shown over and over again that health food store employees on average didn't know what the heck they were talking about, but maybe nobody does when it comes to supplements. Two North American studies were recently published, one in Canada, one here in the States, comparing the advice gotten from health food stores compared to community pharmacies. In Canada, research went in and asked questions like, will ginseng give me more energy? Will beta carotene help me prevent cancer? Will shark cartilage help cure my cancer? What percentage of visits to 192 different health food stores were researchers given advice considered accurate or at least fairly accurate based on the balance of available scientific evidence? 100% of the time? Half the time? No. 7% of the time. Pharmacists did about 10 times better. In the U.S. study, they got actors to walk into pharmacies and health food stores feigning classic symptoms of type 1 diabetes, excessive thirst and fatigue, unexplained weight loss despite overeating, peeing like crazy all the time. They asked the health food and pharmacy staff what they thought they had, what they should take, and whether they thought they should go see a doctor. Given that type 1 diabetes can be fatal if untreated, the answer to that last question is yes, they should indeed go see a doctor. And all 8 out of the 8 pharmacists got that right. Good for them. But only half. 6 of the 12 health food store employees thought it necessary. And 2 of the 6 naysayers explicitly advised against going to a doctor, the rationale being that the physician would, quote, just give them riddle in or missed the true diagnosis, which they felt was something like mold infestation or adrenal exhaustion, which luckily they had just the right supplements for at a bargain for only up to $200 a month.