America’s long, embarrassing history of quack medicine

[JacksinPA]

America’s long, embarrassing history of quack medicine

Thanks to the Internet and people’s predilection for self-diagnosis, it’s perhaps easier than ever to trick the population.

nypost.com

In the 1950s, Oklahoma pastor Charlie Shedd’s book convinced readers it was possible to “Pray Your Weight Away,” while in the 1920s, men paid North Carolina native John Brinkley $750 to have goat testicles sewn into their scrotums in the hopes of boosting their sexual prowess.

Then there was the Hager Medical Company in Indiana, which told women “they could cure any ailment of the vagina with a generous application of Oak Balm suppositories (which consisted of boric acid, alum, cacao, and butter, with a side of scorn),” as author Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling writes in “If It Sounds Like A Quack: A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine” (PublicAffairs).

Indeed, there’s a long — and not exactly noble — American tradition of the pursuit of revolutionary medical breakthroughs, with each new advocate shunning accepted science in favor of something new, different and often very dangerous.
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Anything you see on TV that's frequently advertised as improving your health with testimonials is quackery. Two bottles of dried fruits & vegetables cost $90. Prevagen & Balance of Nature are quack cures intended to separate you from your money.

 

[Hari Seldon]

America’s long, embarrassing history of quack medicine

Thanks to the Internet and people’s predilection for self-diagnosis, it’s perhaps easier than ever to trick the population.

nypost.com

In the 1950s, Oklahoma pastor Charlie Shedd’s book convinced readers it was possible to “Pray Your Weight Away,” while in the 1920s, men paid North Carolina native John Brinkley $750 to have goat testicles sewn into their scrotums in the hopes of boosting their sexual prowess.

Then there was the Hager Medical Company in Indiana, which told women “they could cure any ailment of the vagina with a generous application of Oak Balm suppositories (which consisted of boric acid, alum, cacao, and butter, with a side of scorn),” as author Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling writes in “If It Sounds Like A Quack: A Journey to the Fringes of American Medicine” (PublicAffairs).

Indeed, there’s a long — and not exactly noble — American tradition of the pursuit of revolutionary medical breakthroughs, with each new advocate shunning accepted science in favor of something new, different and often very dangerous.
============================================================
Anything you see on TV that's frequently advertised as improving your health with testimonials is quackery. Two bottles of dried fruits & vegetables cost $90. Prevagen & Balance of Nature are quack cures intended to separate you from your money.

This topic always reminds me of The Outlaw Josie Wales. He runs into the guy selling an elixir that cures everything. So he spits tobacco juice on the guys suit and asks him how is it with stains. Always liked that scene.