Quackery :: essays research papers

QuackeryThis year, we Americans will spend billions of dollars on products that do postcode for us - or may level harm us. And well do it for the same reason peoplehave done it since ancient times... We indirect request to believe in miracles. We want tofind simple solutions and shortcuts to better health. Its hard to resist. Allof us, at one time or another, have seen or heard ab come to the fore a product - a new andexotic pill, a device, or potion - that can easily solve our most vexing problem.With this product, were told, we can eat all we want and still lose weight. Wecan grow taller or have bigger breasts. Or we can overcome baldness, age,arthritis, even cancer. It sounds too good to be aline - and it is. But weretempted to raise the product in spite of all we know about modern medical science- or perhaps because of it. After all, more treatments we take for granted todaywere once considered miracles. How can we tell the difference?     Not all advert isements for health products are false, of course. In fact,the vast majority arent .So exclusively what is quackery? Simply put, quackery is thepromotion of a medical remedy that doesnt work or hasnt been proven to work.In modern times, quackery is known as health fraud. But call it quackery or callit health fraud, the result is the same - unfulfilled wishes, wasted dollars,endangered health. Often quack products are fairly easy to spot, like the magicpills you are supposed to take to stay forever young. But sometimes the productsare vaguely based on some medical report that you may even have heard about inthe news. In general, when looking over ads for medicines and medical devices,watch out for those that seem to promise too much too easily. Quack cures rob usof more than money. They can steal health away or even take lives. Quacks maylure the seriously and often desperately ill, such as people suffering fromarthritis and cancer, into buying a bogus cure. When people try quack r emediesinstead of getting effective medical help, their illnesses progress, sometimesbeyond the treatable stage.     Quacks have always been quick to exploit current thinking. The snake-oilsalesmen a few generations can carried an array of "natural" remedies to sellto a public that was still close to the frontier. And today, quacks takeadvantage of the back-to-nature movement, capitalizing on the notion that thereought to be simple, natural solutions to nearly any problem.