Don't Fall For Quacks

Despite great advances in science and medicine, many Americans continue to be victimized by quacks. Millions of dollars are spent by consumers on useless and sometimes dangerous products.

To protect yourself, here are some practical tips from Paul Insel and Walton Roth taken from their book Core Concepts in Health. They list seven factors common in quacks:

Secrecy - The machine or product has been developed by a special formula. Purchasers of the Drown radio therapeutic device had to promise to have their machines repaired only at the Drown offices. The actual circuit was so simple that a junior high school science student would have recognized its simplicity.

Cure. - While orthodox medicine uses the term cure guardedly, the quack sometimes guarantees a cure for many or all diseases.

Spurious degrees - The quack's offices are covered with degrees that the unsuspecting victim believes are legitimate indications of special skills in medicine.

Scare tactics - The quack speaks of horrible medical consequences if treatment is delayed for as much as an hour. Be wary of signing any contracts for a specified number of treatments. Such contracts are a sure sign of quackery. Any time speed is emphasized, the patient should become immediately suspicious.

Testimonials - “Case histories" depicting a long line of successes appear as advertisements, as planted stories in newspapers, or on television talk shows. Talk show hosts like to interview quacks because they tend to "liven" things up. This gives the quack instant exposure to millions of people. There is little incentive for giving equal time to scientists to refute the quack's claims because the scientist must be more cautious in his or her statements and is therefore a less entertaining figure.

Medical conspiracy - Quacks are quick to claim that they are being persecuted by the medical community because their cures will cut into the incomes doctors make "by keeping people sick." They are also quick to state publicly that they are willing to make their substances, machinesnor other products available for testing, but the material is rarely delivered.

Law suits - Many quacks are legally belligerent and travel with an entourage of lawyers. Whenever someone challenges the quack's claims, he or she threatens to sue.

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