As more Americans turn to unorthodox remedies and preventive medicines, the Food and Drug Administration has begun an accelerated campaign against quackery, which the agency defines as ”the promotion of false or unproven products or therapies for profit.”
The campaign has been welcomed by many physicians, who say it is long overdue though hardly adequate to counter the multibillion-dollar health-fraud industry.
For example, Dr. Robert A. Goldstone, an orthopedic surgeon in Ridgewood, N.J., lamented the fact that ”self-styled groups claim to be able to treat a variety of physical and emotional problems, and appear to be permitted to do so without regard for their education, knowledge, training or the accuracy of their claims or the efficacy of their treatment.”
”Walking through a shopping mall during a health fair shows that the snake-oil salesmen are still with us and that a susceptible public is willing to buy their wares,” he added.
Some other doctors and a few consumer groups have criticized the anti-quackery campaign, expressing concern that the effort may stifle innovative approaches. They maintain that the medical establishment is blind to the potential of alternative methods of health care such as acupuncture and chiropractic.
CONNING THE GULLIBLE
The latest government estimates, however, indicate that quackery is costing Americans a small fortune, both in dollars (several billion a year spent on useless tests and treatments) and in medical consequences, such as failure to get needed therapy when it can be most effective.
A Louis Harris poll conducted for the FDA in 1986 among more than 1,500 adults revealed that 26 percent of Americans had used one or more questionable health-care methods to combat one of several medical problems that are especially prone to quackery.
A third of the people who admitted to using a questionable method described it as highly effective, and only 1 in 10 said it was totally ineffective. This suggests how quackery can survive in an era of increasing medical sophistication: playing on a person`s emotions and beliefs is a potent medical weapon.
The perceived effectiveness of quackery parallels the well-established placebo effect, the ability of belief to bring relief. It has long been known that two-thirds of complaints patients bring to physicians are at least partly based on emotional factors, and one-third of the cure for most physical ailments resides in the patient`s belief in the treatment or practitioner.
Also contributing to the rising prominence of health quackery is widespread consumer distrust of the establishment-be it government or medicine-and concerns about the health and dollar costs of many modern diagnostic and treatment techniques.
A LOT OF BALONEY
The word quackery was apparently derived from the term ”quacksalver,”
which means to boast of a cure. Quackery is just that: a health claim made for a product or method that cannot be justified by scientifically derived evidence.
The product may be highly effective in some situations but ineffective in others. Penicillin, for example, can cure a strep throat and vitamin C can reverse the symptoms of scurvy, but both are useless in treating cancer. The claim for the product may be made by an advertiser, a self-styled health practitioner or a licensed physician. Quackery lies in the promise, not in the product or the promoter.
Critics of the anti-quackery campaign correctly note that many methods used by established medicine, particularly various types of surgery, have never been subjected to a proper scientific test for effectiveness. The critics add that many of these widely accepted methods are far more costly and potentially more harmful than techniques being labeled as frauds.
NO LET-UP
But Dr. John Renner, a Kansas City physician and director of the resource center for the National Council Against Health Fraud, counters: ”Legitimate science may try something for a while, but will eventually abandon it when it`s found to be ineffective, such as freezing the stomach to treat ulcers or inserting a gastric bubble to counter obesity. But quackery never gives up. It keeps using ineffective remedies even when they are known to be ineffective.” Simply put, quackery sells hope, and it thrives best in areas where legitimate medicine cannot offer a certain cure. In addition to cancer, where fraudulent remedies compete with a growing list of therapies that have been proved effective, quackery flourishes among people with such chronic health problems as arthritis, obesity, hair loss, impotence, undue fatigue, and feelings of inadequacy about one`s diet or physical condition.
The modern quack is not nearly so easy to spot as the snake-oil salesman of yore, who touted his wares from the rear of a wagon. Quacks now lace their pitch with scientific terms that may sound authentic to the uninformed. They often boast a string of impressive-sounding professional initials and memberships, often representing unrelated degrees or credentials bestowed by an unaccredited institution. And they purvey their wares on radio and television talk shows, in popular magazines and best-selling books.
The problem is complicated by the limited resources of agencies supposed to protect consumers against fraud. It can take years and dozens of court hearings to prosecute one case of mail fraud, only to have the product reappear under a different name. The FDA and the Federal Trade Commission must concentrate on serious and obvious health threats while dozens of claims for phony tests, diets, hair-restoration formulas, body-reshaping gadgets and wrinkle removers persist.
ON THE RIGHT TRACK
Thus, avoiding health fraud is a clear case of caveat emptor-let the buyer beware. The FDA and other experts on quackery say buyers should be especially careful if they spot any of the following warning signs:
– Promotion of a diagnostic test or treatment as a cure-all for a wide and illogical range of diseases. For example, while chiropractic manipulation may relieve pain in the back or neck, it has no known benefit for epilepsy, diabetes or intestinal disorders.
– Claims that a device or treatment is supposed to bring fast, painless relief or a miraculous cure, especially for conditions that are difficult to treat or are incurable. A lucrative area of quackery is weight-loss devices and formulas that are said to reduce pounds or inches without effort and faster than is biologically possible.
– Money-back guarantees for too-good-to-be-true gadgets sold by mail. Such gadgets include bust developers, potency restorers, electronic flab removers, hair-growth stimulators, wrinkle removers and waist trimmers. Your check may be cashed long before you get the product, and few people who fall for such promises ever ask for their money back.
– Claims that a product or treatment is ahead of its time, or that the practitioner is misunderstood or persecuted by the medical establishment or in possession of a special method known only to a few therapists. The practitioners may tell you that your doctor is not to be trusted or that various self-interest organizations or physicians are trying to suppress the
”cure” because it threatens their existence or livelihood.
– Anecdotes and testimonials that make vague references to ”scientific studies” to support claims. Quacks also tend to use scientific terms, like DNA, enzymes, cell therapy, detoxifier or nerve therapy, that can bamboozle the non-scientific but have no real pertinence to the problem in question.
AVOIDING THE SCAMS
Quacks play on fears about the hazards of modern life, such as the effects of stress or pollution or nutritional deficiencies caused by modern food production methods. Instead of teaching people to avoid the presumed ill effects, they recommend supplements or special foods and often sell the very same products.
The following books, pamphlets and organizations can provide detailed information on specific types of health fraud and what to do about them:
”The Health Robbers,” edited by Dr. Stephen Barrett (George Stickley, $14.95).
”Health Quackery,” by the editors of Consumer Reports Books (Holt, Rinehart, Winston, $8.95).
”The Big Quack Attack: Medical Devices,” Department of Health and Human Services, HHS Publication No. (FDA) 84-4022, Food and Drug Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Md. 20857.
The National Council Against Health Fraud Inc., P.O. Box 1276, Loma Linda, Calif. 92354. –
