Read about the Allure of Quack Medicine

When dealing with disease, our desperation for improvement can lead us to quack medicine, junk science, snake oil…choose your poison. It’s not a new problem, so why does it continue? According to Tim Harford in “Why Phoney Medicine Has Such Lasting Allure,” “I cannot help but draw a broader political lesson from the long history of demand for quackery. When we feel that things are not going well and that experts have been unable to help, we seek more speculative remedies, even if we do not expect much. When those remedies fail, we become more desperate, and we keep searching. There is always another charlatan around the corner.”

Read the full article on quack medicine here.

One quack told me my disease was in my head. Another quack (at the University of Michigan!) told me being more positive would help. A third prescribed me about a thousand dollars’ worth of supplements — I was swallowing 13 tablets a day — that did nothing, leading him to prescribe me aloe juice.

Quackery is a vicious cycle. Don’t be swallowed by it or swallow everything healthcare professionals give you.

What I take today: a far cry from my previous 13-tablet-a-day ritual

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Darla Nagel is a biomedical copy editor who has an invisible chronic illness. She wants to educate healthcare professionals and encourage patients. If you want to receive quarterly updates from her, email darla.nagel{a}gmail.com.