Filenews 29 October 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
Competent authorities and scientific bodies throughout Europe and internationally are on their feet. The easy-to-earn industry is also attacking diabetes mellitus and selling, uncontrollably, pills, drops, injectables and even devices from the internet that promise, among other things, to "disappear" for a chronic condition with which tens of millions of people live on the planet.
More and more advertisements on the internet promise "natural solutions" that make diabetes disappear. Some talk about miracle pills, others about drops or devices that "regulate" blood sugar without medication.
The barrage of misleading advertisements has taken over the internet in Greece as well. In fact, some of these advertisements pose serious risks to diabetics who may succumb to temptation. "Throw away your insulin! Two drops of this inexpensive drug eliminate diabetes of any type within 12 hours. It is available in every pharmacy."
Another message that has also been circulating in recent months calls on patients to use pills: "I took two pills and forgot about diabetes for 10 years. They sell them everywhere..." while a third message promises to make diabetes disappear: "Do it before you go to sleep and diabetes will disappear forever."
The links/e-mail addresses to which these advertisements refer differ, although the result is almost always the same. By paying online you can secure the product that is being marketed.
Even worse in some cases these products appear to have the approvals of competent national authorities or, in some cases, regulatory authorities, such as the European Medicines Agency or the American FDA. The truth, of course, is somewhere in the middle since a regulatory authority can approve the marketing of a preparation (most of them dietary supplements), without of course the approval covering its "miraculous" action.
In the last two years and with greater intensity in the last six months, this phenomenon has occupied the press internationally, while competent Organizations have issued relevant announcements warning of the possible dangers.
On September 29, 2025, the Medscape medical network revealed the use of artificial intelligence (deepfake) in videos showing fake doctors promoting "natural cures" for diabetes, prompting patients to abandon their treatment, a phenomenon that has been labelled a "dangerous new form of deception."
Health Canada, on June 27, 2025, warned of a plethora of unauthorized glucose meters and "smart devices" sold online, pointing out that they may give incorrect readings and lead to risky diabetes management decisions.
Similar cases were found in New Zealand, where a June 1, 2025 report revealed deepfake ads featuring "doctors" promoting non-existent products as treatments for diabetes.
Diabetes Canada, in a statement on May 22, 2025, denounced websites that illegally used its logo to promote "approved" herbal products, which have no scientific documentation, while on March 5, 2025, the tech medium Engadget presented an extensive report on the emergence of AI-tampered videos using the voice and image of well-known scientists to promote supplements that promise "diabetes reversal".
Finally, it is recalled that the World Health Organization issued a warning on June 20, 2024 about counterfeit medicines used in the treatment of diabetes and obesity, stressing that they may contain the wrong substances or doses, causing serious health risks, while on September 3, 2025, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) announced a "dangerous increase" in illicit diabetes and weight loss drugs traded online, pointing out that most websites operate without permission and without being controlled by competent authorities.
The general message of all the Organizations that have already reacted refers to patient safety. "No independent research has confirmed the effectiveness of formulations marketed online, while some contain substances that may interact dangerously with diabetes-regulating drugs."
"Attention: Some invested in the problem"
Diabetes does not disappear – There are medical methods that delay it that are certainly not available and are not offered online
In the last decade, pathologist-diabetologist Panagiotis Demosthenous explained to "F", "due to the large number of new diabetes diagnoses recorded internationally, the pharmaceutical industry has been engaged in a race to discover and then make its preparations available to patients. Inevitably, many others followed the same path, either by promoting simple dietary supplements, herbal for example, which may in combination with drugs to help regulate diabetes since they contain substances such as plain cinnamon or almonds, etc., or by manufacturing devices of dubious quality that promise full regulation, mislead ordinary citizens."
Unfortunately, Mr. Demosthenous continued, "when a person suffers from diabetes, he looks for easier solutions to get rid of it. Indeed, medicine and science have developed some methods, invasive and non-invasive, that can delay the development of diabetes, such as bariatric surgeries which help reduce weight in a person and act as a protective shield by delaying its onset. Of course, they do not eliminate predisposition, they do not change a person's heredity or genes."
This, however, "cannot be achieved with drops or pills or anything else that circulates uncontrollably on the internet. A dietary supplement with mainly herbal substances can help, depending on these substances, in a person's effort to regulate their diabetes. But it is not possible to rid him of insulin dependence, nor to eliminate diabetes when the person has already developed it and lives with it."
Warning
"Many of the advertising messages circulating on the internet and social media invoke the "refusal" of doctors to "reveal" how miraculous the products promoted are because in this way they will lose out on the profits they make by administering drugs. This is a well-established myth that distances the patient from his doctor."
A citizen "can turn to his pharmacist to be properly informed and we can certainly use technology. If you run such an electronic link in a simple Artificial Intelligence application, it will automatically tell you that it is a misleading message without scientific documentation."
The interruption or replacement of medical treatment with such products, stressed Mr. Demosthenous, "can lead to a sudden and serious deregulation of sugar" and the basic principle, for everything related to our health "we do not obtain anything from the internet, from unapproved websites (recognized online pharmacies) or without a doctor's suggestions and recommendations.
