It’s no secret that in today’s world, the mainstream media and the celebrities that inhabit it are really nothing more than puppets for the highest bidder. Kim Kardashian is a perfect example of this fact: The reality TV star and socialite has come under fire multiple times for her advertisement of a controversial morning sickness drug. Even the FDA sent out a warning letter due to the misleading nature of her previous social media posts regarding the drug, Diceglis. You know it’s bad when the federal government actually intervenes.

While Kim K first felt the backlash for her unscrupulous advertisement of a product that can cause birth defects in 2015, it seems that Kardashian is taking another swing at promoting the controversial drug. While two years have gone by, opinions about the drug and her endorsement of it haven’t changed.

When Kim K first promoted the product in 2015, she used her Instagram account to showcase the morning sickness drug to millions of fans — but the FDA didn’t take too kindly to the fact that she failed to include an explanation of the risks and side effects associated with the drug. In fact, Kardashian even claimed that Diceglis posed “no increased risk to the baby,” which is quite simply, untrue. Kardashian also reportedly described how “happy” she was with the drug and how it made her “feel a lot better” — so much so that she also announced she would partnering with the company.

The FDA was quick to crack down her post, calling it “misleading and irresponsible.”

Just a few decades ago, Diceglis was taken off the market due to overwhelming complaints and hundreds of lawsuits claiming that the drug caused birth defects. Now, for some reason, the drug is back on the market. Manufacturer Duchesnay USA claims that these fears about the product’s safety were unfounded, and it is now considered “safe.”

Just a few months ago, a medical report also showed that the drug was essentially ineffective and nothing more than a waste of money. And yet, Kim Kardashian has chosen, once again, to advertise the product on her Instagram feed. She posed along with a picture of the previous, highly contested, post, and wrote, “Remember this?” She went on to describe the benefits of the drug — but this time, she included a link to the FDA website and warned of a potential side effect: Drowsiness.

Diceglis was originally on the market as Bendectin thirty-some-odd years ago, but a series of lawsuits alleging it caused birth defects led to the product being pulled from the marketplace in 1983. Then, Duchesnay stepped in and began selling their product made with the same two active ingredients. But a new study to review data from the original research on the drug, from the 1970s, has left doctors with more questions than answers. (RELATED: Learn more about other harmful effects of medications at DangerousMedicine.com)

Study co-author Dr. Navindra Persaud, a researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital and the University of Toronto in Canada, says that there is little evidence the drug is effective — and that some of their findings have provoked questions on whether or not the drug should have even been approved. While the initial trial claimed that the drug was 14 percent more effective than placebo, the validity of this finding may not be up to par. Thirty-seven percent of the placebo group dropped out of the study before its completion, and data for 30 patients were excluded from analysis. Supposedly, this was because the data was recorded without a record of patient visits. The Daily Mail reports that Dr. Persaud said, “women prescribed this drug should stop taking it and speak to their doctors about other options to treat morning sickness.”

If nothing else, the take away from this is that just because a celebrity is willing to use their face to sell you a product doesn’t mean it’s worthwhile.

Sources:

DailyMail.co.uk

Mirror.co.uk

NBCNews.com