Dr. Ben Carson endorsed CBD gummies to treat high blood pressure.
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Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson arrives onstage at a former President Donald Trump commit to caucus rally Oct. 29, 2023, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP)
No, Ben Carson isn’t hawking CBD gummies to treat high blood pressure
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A spokesperson for Dr. Ben Carson said the retired neurosurgeon and former Housing and Urban Development secretary, has neither endorsed nor heard of the CBD product advertised in social media posts.
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The screenshot of a CNN article appearing to show Carson endorsing the product was edited. No such CNN article exists.
Social media users are claiming Dr. Ben Carson has backed a new treatment for high blood pressure: CBD gummies.
A Dec. 11 Facebook post shows a screenshot of what appears to be a CNN article with a photo of Carson, a retired neurosurgeon and former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary who ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. The post’s caption reads, "Dr. Ben Carson discovered 3 completely natural ingredients, and as a result, blood pressure disappeared forever. Headaches go away, blood cholesterol levels decrease, and symptoms caused by increased blood pressure disappear."
The post links to a webpage that claims Carson has endorsed CBD gummies to "cleanse" blood vessels and lower blood pressure.
This Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
(Screengrab from Facebook)
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However, Carson’s endorsement of this CBD product was fabricated. Brad Bishop, a spokesperson for Carson, told PolitiFact, "Dr. Carson has never endorsed or even heard of this product. This is a scam and completely fake."
The Facebook post’s image appears to show a CNN article headlined, "72-years-old Dr. Ben Carson: Do not kill the heart with chemistry! If your blood pressure is higher 140/80, drink two tablespoons of … " But we searched for this headline and found no articles from CNN or other credible news outlets that contained this information.
The photo of Carson below the fake CNN headline is neither recent, nor related to this CBD product. A reverse-image search found the photo was taken in March 2016 at a Conservative Political Action Conference in Oxon Hill, Maryland.
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The webpage linked in the Facebook post has been similarly edited to look like the British scientific journal Nature. But the URL doesn’t match Nature’s website. The inauthentic webpage was registered in October 2023, according to website domain search engine Who.is.
Clicking on the Nature logo atop the webpage redirects to another site unaffiliated with the journal that advertises BioHeal CBD gummies.
We searched for "BioHeal CBD," the product Carson supposedly endorsed, but found no articles or announcements about the product from Carson, news sites or medical journals.
We rate the claim that Carson has endorsed CBD gummies to treat high blood pressure False.
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived), Dec. 11, 2023
Email exchange with Brad Bishop, spokesperson for Dr. Ben Carson, Jan. 3, 2024
Reverse-image search through Google, Jan. 3, 2024
Nature Journal’s website, accessed Jan. 3, 2024
Getty Images, Photo of Dr. Ben Carson at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference, March 4, 2016
Who.is, "Website domain search for 'icoras.autos'," Jan. 3, 2024
Lead Stories, "Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Ben Carson Endorsing Blood Vessel-Cleaning Gummies -- Audio Is Fake," Dec. 21, 2023
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No, Ben Carson isn’t hawking CBD gummies to treat high blood pressure
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