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Despite the advanced state of medical science, many people with health problems turn to dubious methods. Faced with the prospect of chronic suffering or a terminal illness, many individuals are tempted to try anything that offers relief or hope. They are thus especially vulnerable to health frauds. Victims of quackery usually have at least one of the following vulnerabilities:
1.) Lack of suspicion: Many people believe that if something is printed or broadcast it must be true. The mass media provide much false and misleading information . Reports are often sensationalised, stimulate false hopes and arouse fears. Some people are too easily taken in by the promise of an easy, painless, drugless solution to their problem.
2.) Despair: Patients faced with a serious health problem that doctors cannot solve become desperate enough to try almost anything that arouses hope. Many victims of cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS are vulnerable in this way. The more threatening the condition, the more susceptible the sufferer may be to the promise of a cure.
3.) Scepticism: More an more people feel deeply antagonistic toward scientific medicine but are attracted to methods represented as "natural" or otherwise unconventional.
Alternative promoters are reaching people emotionally. What sells in not the quality of their products, but the ability to influence their audience. Their basic strategies are to promise the moon: they offer solutions for virtually every health problem. To those in pain they promise relief. To the incurable they offer hope. And they have an arsenal of ploys for defending themselves against criticism. Beware of the following statements! Just one may be enough to hook you.
1.) We really care about you: Although being cared about you may provide a powerful psychological lift, it will not make a worthless remedy effective. It may also encourage over-reliance on an inappropriate therapy.
2.) No side effects: Alternative methods are often described as safer, gentler, and/or without side effects. If this were true their remedy would be too weak to have any effects.
3.) Backed by scientific studies: Since most people regard scientific evidence as a plus, unscientific promoters claim to have it when in fact they do not. The references they cite may be untraceable, misinterpreted, outdated, irrelevant, non-existent, and/or based on poorly designed research.
4.) Take charge of your health: This is probably the most powerful slogan in the quack's bag of tricks. People generally like to feel that they are in control of their life. Quacks take advantage of this fact by giving their clients things to do - such as taking vitamin pills, preparing special foods, meditating and the like. The activity may provide a psychological lift, but believing in a false thing tends to carry a high price tag.
5.) We offer alternatives: Quackery promoters are adept at using slogans and buzzwords. "Natural", "holistic" and "alternative"; these words were popularised as magic sales words and leading buzzwords. Correctly used the word "alternative" refers to methods that have equal value for a particular purpose. The term is misleading because methods that are unsafe or ineffective are not reasonable alternatives to proven treatment.
Homeopathic products are made from minerals, botanical substances, and several other sources. If the original substance is soluble, one part is diluted with either nine or ninety-nine parts of distilled water and/or alcohol and shaken vigorously. One part of the diluted medicine is then further diluted, and the process is repeated until the desired concentration (potency) is reached. Those homeopathic remedies have not been proved effective against disease by double-blind clinical testing. They are placebos, but placebos can be powerful of course.
Victim of quackery. Conventional treatment might have saved her, but she rejected the advice of her oncologist and went to "natural healers". Didn't have any examination for 10 years and when she had it showed a cancerous lump in her breast. She had the lump removed, but she refused the additional treatment her doctor recommended. Instead she went to a naturopath who gave her some "Pesticide Removal Tinctures". Side effects occurred but the naturopath said that this was merely the effect of the herbal remedies he was giving her and not to worry. Once again she refused the recommended treatment. She continued to patronize "alternative healers". The naturopath told her she was feeling bad as a result of this medicine and to get more sleep. When the imminence of her death was obvious the naturopath blamed her turn for the worse on "giving up".
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