You may think
The Detroit Medical Center
is only downtown, but our front
door is right down the street.
Health
Equipment
Claims Weighted
BY JACK 'WILLIAMS
Copley News Service
T
• You don't have to go
far to get world-class
health care.
diagnostic methods and innovative
treatments developed by The
Detroit Medical Center, in
Hundreds of Detroit
partnership with the
Medical Center physi-
Wayne State University
cians practice all
School of Medicine.
around the Detroit
Get a free "good
health" gift for
making your first
office visit.
metro area. So there's no
reason to settle for an
g
less than world-class health
care for yourself and your family.
Call the DMC Physician Referral
No matter what your health care needs
Service today. They'll help you choose the
may be, you can find the right DMC physician for you
right DMC doctor, make an
near your home or workplace. One with convenient
appointment for you, and
office hours. Who accepts your medical insurance.
send a confirmation.
HINTS
You'll also receive a
Our neighborhood DMC doctor
is backed by one of the country's
most respected health care systems.
special gift certificate for an
The combined resources of southeast Michigan's
of Health Hints: 365 Practical
AziovedMVsr
ki .oredgetew
afidavtirew
informative free book, A Year
•
largest health care provider are avail-
able to you through a DMC doctor.
Our physicians have access to the latest
Wayne State University
The Detroit
Medical Center
Ways to Feel Better and Live Longer.
Just bring the certificate with you to
the doctor's office.
To find the right doctor, call the DMC Physician Referral Service.
1-800-666-3466
• Clinical Teaching
• Testing/Evaluation
• Therapeutic Tutoring
545-6677 • 433-3323
9/19
1997
128
Oak Park
Bloomfield Hills
Send Someone
Special A Gift
52 Weeks a Year.
Send a gift
subscrittion to
JrN
(248) 354-6620
he sales pitches usually are
lobbed squarely at a con-
sumer's strike zone: the
waistline.
"I went from a size 12 down to a
size 8" ... "Burn over 1,300 calories an ,
hour" ... "Get a flat, sexy stomach in -1—
just three minutes a day!" ... Sound
familiar?
Driven by competition and the
quick-fix cravings of shoppers in the
body makeover market, the $2.4 bil-
lion exercise-equipment industry is
rarely given to understatement.
Now some of those marketing
curveballs are being slammed back in
the pitchmen's faces thanks to
Operation Waistline, a campaign of
vigilance launched by the Federal
Trade Commission.
The FTC announced recently that
it has prohibited four companies from
making weight-lossand other unsub-
stantiated claims about their products.
One of the companies, San Diego-
based Abflex U.S.A. Inc., which man-
ufactures abdominal toners, was cited
by the FTC for making misleading
statements. Others were:
• Kent & Spiegel Direct Inc. of
Culver City, Calif, one of the leading )
infomercial production and distribu-
,
tion companies in the country.
• Life Fitness, based in Franklin
Park, Ill., which markets such aerobic
equipment as the Lifecycle.
• Icon Health and Fitness Inc., of c
Logan, Utah, whose products include
the Proform Cross Walk Treadmill.
Indirectly, the FTC action brings
attention to an issue that transcends
equipment quality or truth-in-adver-
tising: our national obsession with
weight and body shape.
Roughly 65 million Americans are
dieting at any one time these days,
fueling a $50 billion-a-year weight-loss
industry.
And the more obsessed we become,
the more vulnerable we are to mislead-
ing advertising hooks.
Exercise physiologist Richard
Cotton, editor of the consumer-ori-
ented American Council on Exercise
publication, (beginital) ACE
FitnessMatters, (endital) says, "Fitness
Jack Williams writes for Copley News
Service.