A former Olympic boxer who now runs a CBD oil company has sparked widespread condemnation after promoting unproven and potentially dangerous treatments for autism, including products marketed to children despite carrying warnings to keep them away from minors.
Anthony Fowler, who represented Team GB at the 2016 Rio Olympics and now operates Supreme CBD, posted social media content from Italy discussing his son’s autism and claiming that a controversial procedure called chelation had improved his child’s symptoms. The treatment, which involves removing metals from the body, has been thoroughly debunked by medical authorities and linked to serious health complications.
The NHS categorically describes chelation as both “fake” and “harmful” when used for autism treatment.
Multiple scientific studies have documented severe adverse effects including kidney and liver damage, heart failure, and seizures. The procedure was responsible for the death of a five-year-old British boy in 2005. The National Autistic Society states that chelation should “never” be used for autism.
When questioned about his claims, Fowler defended his position, stating: “You are saying I can cure it. I never said that. But I want my son to tell me how his day was and how he is feeling. Let me know if he has any problems.”
The controversy deepened when undercover journalists posing as relatives of an autistic child contacted Fowler seeking advice. He recommended CBD gummies for the child and offered to sell them at a discounted rate, saying: “I’ll sort you the 3200mg gummies for £25 all in, they’d be £50 on the website.” The products in question carried explicit labeling stating “keep away from children.”
This recommendation contradicts guidance from multiple UK regulatory bodies. The MHRA, Food Standards Agency, NICE, and NHS all advise against administering unregulated CBD products to children. Unlike prescription medications, CBD supplements are not subject to rigorous medical-grade quality controls.
Ian Hamilton, Associate Professor in Addiction at York University, expressed serious concerns about the practice. “We don’t really know what the effects of CBDs are on children. It’s a psychoactive product and people take a false sense of security that it’s used in medicine. As a supplement, it is not subject to the same quality check and up to a medical grade. These are sweets. We don’t know who produces them up to what standard and how reliable that percentage of CBD is.”
Hamilton highlighted the particular danger of sports personalities promoting such products. “It’s offering parents and children false hope and that’s the distressing part. What really worries me is the appeal these sports influencers carry. Their former sport status implies, ‘These are people who look after their bodies, they are very astute’. So without even saying anything about the products, it gives that message. It’s not somebody who’s just been on Love Island. It’s someone who has been at the peak of their physical fitness.”
Fowler has enlisted numerous celebrities and former athletes to promote Supreme CBD, including football legends Matt Le Tissier and Paul Merson, former boxer Ricky Hatton, and television personality Katie Price.
Le Tissier and another ambassador, John Hartson, were found to have breached advertising regulations by failing to disclose that they received payment for their promotional activities. Paul Merson, Chris Kirkland, and Mark Crossley currently serve as brand ambassadors for the company.
The former middleweight boxer, who won Commonwealth gold in 2014 and compiled a professional record of 16 wins and 2 losses across 18 bouts, has built his business model around heavy social media promotion, frequently offering discount codes to followers. Fowler claimed during his promotional efforts: “I give the CBD to my own kids. The CBD is brilliant for helping calm the system down.”
Dr Rachel Moseley from Bournemouth University addressed the fundamental misconception underlying claims that any treatment can “cure” autism. “People keep drawing these relationships between doing and eating different things, taking supplements, and autism, but it’s a complete fallacy.”
She explained the scientific understanding of autism’s origins: “We believe people are born autistic – it’s in their genes – but part of the reason people make these errors is we can’t diagnose autism until a child is at an age where you can see social and cognitive differences.”
Dr Moseley continued: “The autism diagnosis often comes a little bit later, usually after they’ve received their infant vaccinations, so people say, ‘Oh these vaccines, dietary differences or whatever, now my child is autistic’, like these things have caused it. Your child has always been autistic, always been developing differently, but you couldn’t detect it until a certain point, which happens to be after the point when they’ve been vaccinated or shown the behaviour that you think is causing autism.”
Fowler has publicly expressed hostility toward media scrutiny, stating: “I hate the media. They try and get me thoughts and all want to interview me to go into their papers. I don’t talk to the media. Don’t message me for me thoughts on this this and this. I don’t care. Me answer is, ‘F*** the media, you are all horrible’.”
While Fowler mentioned consulting “doctors in Italy, London and a fella in Greece,” established medical institutions in the UK maintain clear positions against both chelation therapy for autism and the use of unregulated CBD products in children.
