WILLWI T.JUallS WILLWIT.J\R\TIS Review and Herald Publishing Association Washington , DC 20039-0555 Hagerstown , MD 217 40 Copyright © 1983 by Review and Herald Publishing Association The book was Edited by Gerald Wheeler Designed by Mayo R. Bell Cover by Howard Bullard Printed in U.S.A. R&H Cataloging Service Jarvis, William T. 1935- Quackery and you. 1. Quacks and quackery. I. Title. 615.856 ISBN D-8280-0148-0 Contents What Is Your IQ About Quackery? / 5 Quackery Is Confusing / 9 Quackery Is Costly I 10 Quackery Can Be Deadly/ 12 The Medical Quack / 13 Fountain of Youth Quackery / 15 Food Quackery / 16 The Weight-reducing Quack/ 19 The Phony Express (Quackery by Mail) / 22 Body Beautiful Quackery / 24 The Friendly Salesman Quack / 25 Mental Health Quackery / 26 Where to Tum for Help / 28 What Is Your IQ About Quackery? True or false? I. __ It is easy to spot quackery . 2. __ Quacks suffer severe penalties when convicted in court. 3. _ _ The public strongly opposes quackery. 4. __ Quackery does little real harm other than taking money from gullible people. 5. __ Compared to times past, we have little quackery today . 6. __ Quackery always involves fraud. 7. __ Real medical doctors never engage in quackery. 8. __ A quack's patient never gets well . 9. __ All quackery is illegal. 10. _._ Whether or not someone is a quack is purely a matter of personal opinion. Tum the page for the correct answers. 5 ALL of the statements are FALSE! 1. It is easy to spot quackery. Although this is a common misconception , one can easily spot only Hollywood versions of quackery. Quackery today wears the cloak of science and of legitimate business enterprise. If it were not so difficult to detect, it would not be such a problem and it would not be necessary to write this book. 2. Quacks suffer severe penalties when convicted in court. Not so! The average fine for a quackery conviction over a twenty-year period in California was $200. Conviction for quackery costs less than it does for a legitimate physician to buy malpractice insurance. 3. The public strongly opposes quackery. Actually the public is extremely apathetic about the whole thing. Criminologists have found that quackery convictions carry about the same social stigma as receiving a traffic ticket. 4. Quackery does little real harm other than taking money from gullible people . Quackery kills far more people than we will ever know . One California source estimates that it produces more deaths than all other forms of violent crime. 5. Compared to times past, we have little quackery today. While the nineteenth century earned the title of the "golden age of quackery ,'' the fact is that there is even more now. What makes it worse today is that many illnesses can be cured if properly treated, while in the past even honest medical doctors had little to offer their sick or dying patients. For that reason, we find more needless death due to quackery nowadays. 6. Quackery always involves fraud. Since "fraud" implies an intent to deceive , this is untrue. Many quacks are sincerely dedicated to their nostrums . A number have killed themselves and their loved ones with their favorite remedies. 7. Real medical doctors never engage in quackery. Unfortunately the lure of dollars , notoriety, or egomania causes some physicians to tum to the practice . Anyone can engage in it. 8. A quack ' s patient never gets well. Many diseases--even serious ones sometimes-go away by themselves. Some psychoso­ matic illnesses respond to any meaningful treatment. When a patient does improve , the quack will take credit and use the case as a testimonial to lure more people to his remedy. 9. All quackery is illegal. Sad to say, it is not. More than twenty 6 States have legalized the cancer remedy Laetrile in the past few years. One legislator actually proclaimed that his State should legalize it to bring sick people into his State as tourists! Also , several States license "naturopathic physicians ," and all States give legal recognition to unscientific chiropractors. Although intended to regulate their activities, at the same time it serves to give questionable methods the appearance of validity. 10. Whether or not someone is a quack is purely a matter of personal opinion. The term quackery is derived from the word quacksalver-that is, quack means "to boast," "brag," "promote," "call attention to oneself" (quacks quack!)- salve means to "soothe," "alleviate, " or "cure." Literally , then , quackery is the promotion of questionable health products and services (questionable ­ ness pertaining to safety and/or effectiveness). People who fit such a description are quacks whether they are sincere or fraudulent , medical doctors or impostors, operating within the law or not . 7 Quackery Is Confusing As we have seen, most people think that quacks are obviously dishonest. Some quacks fit such a description, but most do not. The quack may be sincere, whether from self-delusion, insanity, or simply ignorance. A medicine or treatment may have value for conditions other than the ones for which the quack employs them. For instance, chelation therapy (a process that transfuses EDTA through the bloodstream) helps detoxify victims of lead poisoning. Quacks use it to attempt to reverse coronary heart disease. Quacks may have spurious credentials that they themselves created or obtained from a diploma mill. On the other hand, others have legitimate degrees (medical, dental, nursing, physical therapy, osteopathic, Ph.D ., and others), but have abandoned the rigorous scientific disciplines of their training and turned to cultism, pseudoscience, and/or fraud. Any combination of the foregoing is possible. Add the personality and psychological skill of a quack and you have enormous potential for confusion and deception. 9 Quackery Is Costly The amount of money Americans spend each year on quackery staggers the mind . According to consumer health expert Dr. Stephen Barrett , it annually exceeds $10 billion. Quackery has a way of making its products and services seem like a bargain , which is not difficult because of the high cost of regular medical care . However, in the long run its price can run extremely high. Once the quack has the patient's confidence and trust, he can keep his victim coming back again and again. A Pennsylvania woman underwent ten years of treatment for what her chiropractor called "tilted spine ." Then he told her she had arthritis of the spine and needed $10,000 of additional treatments, including stretching, a special diet, and "blood cleansing " on special machines. Six months after treatment began , her chiroprac tor informed her he was moving to California. Afraid she might become a cripple without further treatments , she sought medical advice. Doctors determined that her arthritis was not nearly as bad as she had been led to believe and that the chiropractic treatments had been of no real value. In addition, the physician found that she had osteoporosis (a skeletal weakening), which actually made the chiropractic treatment s dangerou s for her. After she filed criminal charge s of theft by deception , the chiropractor agreed to return her money if she would drop the suit. The woman in the case above was lucky. She recovered a substantial portion of the money she had needlessly spent. Also she didn 't suffer the possible spinal fracture chiropractic treatment could have inflicted upon her weakened spine. Others have not been so fortunate . Quack s demonstrate great creativity in their financial schemes. One self-styled healer accepts the victim's money as a loan. '' If ,'' he says, '' I fail to cure your cancer, I' II return your money with interest. '' Once he has the money , he can think of many ways to stall the victim while cancer eliminates him. Others work for "fre ewill " donations. 10 Of course, the expectation that the patient will donate assures compliance, and an accomplice usually suggests the amount. P. T. Barnum said, "Never try to beat a man at his own game." That's good advice . Trying to match wits with quacks will only make you poor. 11 Quackery Can Be Deadly "The highwayman used to say, 'Your money or your life,'" Dr. W. W. Bauer once stated. "The quack says, 'Your money and your life.' " Dr. Bauer is right. Quackery kills. It can either keep a person from proper medical treatment (as it often does in cases involving cancer); substitute a worthless remedy for an effective one, as it may do with diabetes; or actually poison the patient or upset the body's metabolism, as it has with improperly employed arthritis medications. The path of quackery lies littered with the bodies of children killed by well-meaning parents who listened to quackery's siren call; dieters who tried programs recommended by physicians in popular books; food faddists who adhered doggedly to bizarre diets; or victims who practiced herbalism on themselves guided by books and pam­ phlets obtained from self-proclaimed' 'nature doctors.'' The list could go on. In matters involving health and disease what a person believes and in whom he places trust and confidence are life-and-death issues. The hapless victims of quackery have one thing in common: they bought the quackery's lie that they could not trust the scientific community including organizations such as the American Medical Association , the Food and Drug Administration , the U.S. Public Health Service , the American Cancer Society , and so forth . Quacks dislike such organizations because they have responsibility for educating the public about proper health pract ices and medical care . In addition , such agencies help patrol the health marketplace again st quackery.