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.