More Junk Science

Almost everyone is interested in making money and possibly even becoming rich. One way to do this is to offer others a product or service that makes their lives easier.  We buy bread at the store or at a bakery because we save the time it would take to bake the bread and the people who work there are usually better at it. The same general concept applies to almost all grocery items, entertainment, furniture and household appliances, vehicles, and everything else we buy. By exchanging goods and services in this way, we are really exchanging talents, each doing something for others thereby allowing them to use their talent to our benefit.  We use money to keep track of most of these exchanges.

Economic understanding leads to the conclusion that we can all be better off, enjoying a higher standard of living. By this talent exchange, everyone playing his or her role, the economic “pie” gets bigger and everyone benefits.

Another way to get rich is to fool people into thinking that a product or service will make their lives better, selling them something of little or no value for a price that is justified only by the hype. This is widespread, but is particularly common in the areas of health and diet. It is also not new. Medicine men and snake oil salesmen date back centuries.

When we patronize these businesses, we are parting with money that could be used for a real benefit and getting nothing of value in return. How can the standard of living improve when people are spending on lies and false hope? Somebody is getting rich, but they are not doing it by making lives better. Their talent is persuasion, and they employ all the tricks.

I am reminded of this when I see articles represented by this series of headlines from a newsletter called Consumer Health Digest, which is published weekly to warn of medical frauds and to expose some of the wrongdoers.  Here is just a sample:

• “Former holistic nutritionist confesses" that what she had learned in school and practiced for many years was based on “limited education” and a “lack of respect and understanding for real science.”

• “QLaser marketers sentenced” to 12 years in prison for selling “medical devices with false and misleading labeling in order to defraud consumers,” in one case to the tune of at least $16,669,015.

• “Funeral homes failing to disclose pricing information” – some do not offer the information as required by the FTC intended to keep them from taking advantage of grieving families.

•  “Beautician sentenced for illegal buttocks enhancement injections” to 24 months in jail for “receiving and delivering an adulterated and misbranded medical device” while charging thousands of dollars per treatment.

• “Studies Show that Liberation Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis Doesn't Work.”

•  “Discredited, alarmist HPV vaccine study retracted” – A journal retracted an article incorrectly blaming the vaccine for side effects such headaches, fatigue, and poor concentration based on a few anecdotal reports.

This is just a sample from 3 weeks of newsletters, but should serve as a reminder of the importance of critical thinking in the area of healthy living and medicine.  There are people out there, just as there have always been, more than willing to take your money based on false promises and magical answers.  As technology moves forward we get more real cures and procedures that seem miraculous, but that opens the door for even more sophisticated charlatans ready to take advantage of the desperate, the lazy, the unscientific and those who put their faith in unproven methods.  We can’t and shouldn’t expect the FDA or the FTC or some consumer protection organization to have our backs in every case. Sometimes critical thinking is nothing more than looking out for yourself.