NeriumAD, Fountain of Youth for Skin or Snake Oil?

What is Nerium

According to Wiki: Nerium Oleander is an evergreen shrub or small tree in the Dogbane family, toxic in all its parts. This plant is typically referred to simply as Oleander, from its superficial resemblance to the unrelated olive tree. It is so widely cultivated that no precise region of origin has been identified, though Southwest Asia has been suggested. Oleander is one of the most poisonous commonly grown garden plants. (Something my grandmother warned me of as our yard in sunny Southern California was full of them.) 

What is NeriumAD

NeriumAD is a topical cream, sold via multi-level marketing, MLM. As you may recall from a previous blog, according to FDA guidelines, MLM skincare products fall under the FDA guidelines for OTC products. Click here to review my article on product classifications. The Nerium company claims their products to be “true breakthrough in anti-aging skincare.” The efficacy and safety “studies” provided by the manufacturer were conducted by ST&T Research and have not been submitted for any third party peer-review, which is customary in the world of research. The term study should be used loosely, because when something isn’t published and you can’t read it yourself you are really in a danger zone. A poorly done, unpublished study that no one can access is about as good as saying, “My mom’s friend’s daughter said it’s a great product and helped lots of people.”

The actual effectiveness of NeriumAD isn’t the main problem. Consumers concoct their own DIY skincare products, purchase expensive OTC (over-the-counter) products at Department stores and buy gadgets from Amazon with amazing claims, all in hopes of turning back the hands of time.

 The real problem here Nerium Oleander (oleander), the plant that the company claims is the source for its “patent-pending age-defying active ingredient” NAE-8 is toxic. Not toxic in a poison ivy kind of way, but toxic in a stop-your-heart-and-be-the-cause-of-death-for-people-and-livestock-alike kind of way. Wait, what??!!

As previously stated in the Wiki reference, all parts of oleander are poisonous, meaning: the roots, the bark, the leaves, and the flowers. Smoke from burning the plant is toxic. The product “monograph” from NeriumAD says, “The Nerium Oleander plant has been used for centuries by traditional herbal practitioners, but due to various components of the plant it has also been associated with negative stories.” Masterful white washing indeed. Yes, Oleander has been used for years, and lots of people got sick. Some died. Some still do. People have also used it for years in suicide attempts. It is not safe. In the 90s a company worked to get a Nerium Oleander supplement passed by the FDA and were denied as no safety evidence was submitted, here is what the FDA had to say:

“FDA has carefully considered the information in your submission, and the agency has significant concerns about the evidence on which you rely to support your conclusion that a dietary supplement containing N. oleander, when used under the conditions recommended or suggested in the labeling of your product, will reasonably be expected to be safe. N oleander is well-known to be a poisonous plant. All parts of the oleander plant are poisonous to man and animals and serious adverse effects are associated with ingestion, inhalation, and contact of mucus membranes with oleander or oleander extracts. Adverse effects include, among other things, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cardiovascular symptoms, and peripheral neuritis. The most serious effects that are associated with exposure to oleander result from the cardiotonic actions of the cardiac glycosides in oleander. The main cardiac glycosides are oleandrin, folinerin, digitoxigenin, and oleandringen.”

Where does that leaf us (pun intended)

NeriumAD is made from a highly poisonous plant and there is zero safety data. It is possible like many OTC  products that NeriumAD contains little to no active ingredients and then of course it would probably be safe. It is possible that the makers of NeriumAD have found some unique way to neutralize the cardiotoxic oleandrin, folinerin, digitoxigenin, and oleandringen and still retain some other “anti-aging” benefit from the extract but without published studies it is not possible to know. Believing the company hype about safety is a massive leap of faith considering the medical data regarding cardiotoxicty.

However, it is also possible that NeriumAD contains a cardiac toxin and perhaps it’s relatively safe for a healthy woman who weighs 100 lbs or more to apply to her face, but what if that woman had a heart problem that would make her even more vulnerable to cardiotoxicty?

But what if her toddler got a hold of her product, as toddlers are known to do, and smeared it all over her body or ate it? What if someone accidentally used it as toothpaste, approximately 1% of calls to poison control centers are from people who accidentally used non oral care products for brushing, or as a lubricant for sex…Yes, people have used random creams and liquids, sometimes because it’s dark and sometimes because they are just desperate for lube, and sometimes because they want to experiment…keeping in mind there is no shortage of stupid the list of possibilities is endless so we will stop here with speculative stories.

The point remains, to promote a skincare line that purports to contain an extract of a potentially lethal substance without published safety data, while advertising that it is somehow safe because it was used by “herbal practitioners” and dismissing a wealth of data on poisonings as “negative stories” is so ludicrous it’s beyond belief. Always keep in mind, anything we put on our skin is absorbed in 27 seconds…how fast can you dial 911?