The public’s desperation for cure has brought about the development of quackery in modern medicine.

I have thought about this post for a while, torn between posting what is right and morally responsible and not making waves.  Choosing the public’s health and safety overrides my fear of making waves.  An obvious charlatan prompted this post by commenting on one of my blog posts in an attempt to mislead out of outright ignorance or for financial gain. People who are ignorant of a subject really can’t help it.  They are desperate, uninformed and have been mislead.  The snake oil salesman (out for financial gain) is another breed entirely.  They are truly evil individuals riding on the coattails of the public’s misery and misfortune.

Definition of Quackery from Wikipedia:

Quackery, synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices.   A quack is a “fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill” or “a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman”

Methods of picking charlatans out from the crowd:

If it seems too good to be true then it usually is.  This is a key tenet to remember in medicine that pertains to quackery.  There are many spurious claims out there.

Paying to enter into a clinical trial? Run away!  This is a sure sign that something is amiss.  Legitimate clinical trials do not change a patient and often times will pay you for your time.  Paying a participant contaminates the trial and invalidates any results.

Beware of people that sell books on their products or methods.  This is particularly true if they would rather quote their book than bonafied scientific studies.  Writing a book is an easy way to avoid that pesky peer-review process!

People that say, “I help your body heal itself”.  What are they really saying?  That they don’t actually do anything.  That they just stand by, take all the credit and charge you for it.

Claims that they need to free the body of toxins.  There are toxins everywhere and the liver is the greatest toxin eliminator there is.  Chelation therapy (ridding your body of one toxin by adding another) can be outright dangerous.

People that sell their own “branded” vitamins and supplements.  There is nothing wrong with taking some vitamins or supplements.  I will prescribe them if they are medically necessary.  The hard, cold truth though is that the average diet provides all the vitamins you need in most instances.  Vitamins and minerals are not benign substances and they can be dangerous or even fatal if taken incorrectly.  The FDA regulates dietary supplements under a different set of regulations than those covering “conventional” foods and drug products. Under the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA)

Celebrities or Celebrity doctor experts.  Misinformation on nutrition and health seems more prevalent than evidence-based information. Being a well known person, does not make them an expert on anything, any anecdotal claims, need to be backed up by evidence and scientific studies.  If they can’t provide this, beware.

Verify all quoted studies.  There are millions of “studies” out there but if they are in obscure journals, have poor design or are not verifiable then they are worthless.

Avoid claims that most diseases are due to faulty diet that can be treated with “nutritional” methods.  While this is sometimes true, not all diseases are caused or cured by nutritional alteration.

The use of multiple, misleading, medical pseudo jargon.  These can include words like:  detoxify, purify, revitalize, or  balance your body chemistry or  it’s electromagnetic energy, bring it in harmony with nature, stimulate or strengthen your immune system, support or rejuvenate various organs in your body, and unlock your body’s healing ability.  Terms and phrases, such as these, may sound good but, are not grounded in medical science.

Frequent diagnosis of their favorite diseases in just about everyone they “treat”.  Some of these are actual diseases or conditions but, they are used at an alarming rate without proper verification.  Included are: Lyme disease, hypoglycemia, candidiasis hypersensitivity, vertebral subluxation, multiple toxins, hypothyroidism, and chemical sensitivity among others.

They are being persecuted by mainstream medicine because these practitioners “know the truth” about disease and mainstream medicine is trying to cover it up.  A common claim among these people is that the government (for some reason) is trying to prevent them from telling the “truth” about different illnesses.  It is very telling that for you to get their version of “the truth” you have of pony up vast sums of money or consent to multiple sessions of their “treatments”.

I know how it is to suffer from diseases that often seem untreatable; I’m not entirely a skeptic but I think I do know where to draw the line.  I go to a chiropractor but I go to one with integrity; He limits himself to his standard scope of practice. Including sports injuries and other ailments of the joints and spine.  He cannot cure ADD, Diabetes, Depression or Cancer nor does he claim to be able to.  We have profound mutual respect for each other’s practice of medicine.  Additionally, I have considered acupuncture,  I think marijuana is an unexplored drug that has much potential for pain relief, symptom relief in cancer and neurologic disease.  I try to listen to all new claims and treatments but, I am able to step back and look at them with a discerning eye.

If you have a question about any treatment or practice you are unsure of, don’t hesitate to contact me.  I live by a dictum, stressed in medical school:  Primum non nocere – First, Do no harm.

If you find this topic interesting and would like more detailed reading check out Quack Watch.