Patent medicines had their snake-oil salesmen, their on-air shills and tycoons. The "goat gland doctor," Dr. John R. Brinkley, was a very famous one, claiming from his headquarters on the US-Mexico border that he could restore virility. I've read about him, but my favorite fictional snake oil was Vitameatavegemin, which Lucy Ricardo hilariously advertised in a famous episode of I Love Lucy.
In that episode, a TV station technician read the Vitameatavegemin label, discovering the tonic to contain not only "vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals" but also alcohol, 23 percent. It's the perfect pitch: "Here's a supplement that will make you feel great! (We have one ingredient that will guarantee it!)"
The current paradigm in health seems to be focused on lifestyle: if you just eat THIS and do THAT, you'll be healthy! This paradigm completely ignores the dangers that lurk in one's genes and in the environment. Genes are a scary paradigm for many because, if illness is inherent in one's genes, there's the threat of eugenics. If illness comes from the environment, then corporations must be liable for billions, governments will want to regulate all over the place, and that scenario is terrifying for a big segment of the population.
But with the lifestyle paradigm of illness, if you're sick, it's your own fault.
That is why I bristle at the suggestion that my hemochromatosis and cirrhosis are my own fault. That suggestion came with the reminder that Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Ingalls family had survived an entire winter on a diet of nothing but wheat kernels. I read the "Little House" books as a child and thus, it was suggested, I should have known it was unnecessary to take a daily multivitamin tablet and especially not the "good, strong women's multivitamin [with iron]" that a physician assistant told me to take when I said I was trying to conceive.
Yes, in hindsight, I should have ignored the PA's advice--just like I should have ignored the comment about Laura Ingalls and The Long Winter.
In that episode, a TV station technician read the Vitameatavegemin label, discovering the tonic to contain not only "vitamins, meat, vegetables, and minerals" but also alcohol, 23 percent. It's the perfect pitch: "Here's a supplement that will make you feel great! (We have one ingredient that will guarantee it!)"
The current paradigm in health seems to be focused on lifestyle: if you just eat THIS and do THAT, you'll be healthy! This paradigm completely ignores the dangers that lurk in one's genes and in the environment. Genes are a scary paradigm for many because, if illness is inherent in one's genes, there's the threat of eugenics. If illness comes from the environment, then corporations must be liable for billions, governments will want to regulate all over the place, and that scenario is terrifying for a big segment of the population.
But with the lifestyle paradigm of illness, if you're sick, it's your own fault.
That is why I bristle at the suggestion that my hemochromatosis and cirrhosis are my own fault. That suggestion came with the reminder that Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Ingalls family had survived an entire winter on a diet of nothing but wheat kernels. I read the "Little House" books as a child and thus, it was suggested, I should have known it was unnecessary to take a daily multivitamin tablet and especially not the "good, strong women's multivitamin [with iron]" that a physician assistant told me to take when I said I was trying to conceive.
Yes, in hindsight, I should have ignored the PA's advice--just like I should have ignored the comment about Laura Ingalls and The Long Winter.