Snake Oil
There is money to be made, giving people what they think they need.
In the 1800's Chinese workers, came to America with an oil made from Chinese water snake as a cure for pains for those who toiled building the railroads. This was being used as a treatment for arthritic pain in traditional Chinese medicine. It had a high concentration of omega 3 fatty acids, and might not have been a sham, after all. As the fame of this spread, a local business man by the name Clark Stanley began selling his own Snake oil Liniment. Allegedly made from American rattle snakes, as a cure for all. This was analyzed in the early 19th century and was found that it did not have any snake derived oil, Stanley was taken to court and was found guilty of selling under false pretensions and was fined 20$, thus began a tradition of medical cons.
The euphemism “snake oil” is used often in medicine to describe a treatment of no value, but promoted as a cure for a given illness or illnesses. 2020: Year of Covid, as I would like to call it, has generated a huge interest in such treatments. Fear of unknown and unfamiliar methods to control this pandemic, lack of a definitive cure, has given rise to such many unproven treatments. Advent of social media and easy dissemination of fake news has led to a toxic atmosphere, where even before the content of the message is read and understood, it is forwarded. Most of these messages had some sort of concoction to cure or prevent Covid-19, which later got toned down to boosting immunity. Two factors need to be taken into consideration, when taking such pseudoscience into cognizance.
The second factor being, a sense of false security, if a person starts to believe that a particular home remedy prevents or cures an infection, he/she is more likely to indulge in risky behavior, that will eventually lead the person to get infected. This has been proven repeatedly in the present Covid times.
Even more dangerous are the peddlers of snake oil, practicing modern medicine. The most recent I have come across is the use of “stem cells” for, name it, any disease. Hundreds and thousands of rupees are being swindled of patients, who are looking for these miracle cures. Have seen patients who have severe arthritis, with deformities getting injections of some sort done, hoping for a cure. Somehow the professional bodies and medical associations ignore these practices, instead of calling them out. I am of the strong opinion, that it is our responsibility to protect these gullible patients from such. I am not against for trying new therapies or methods, but there should be a scientific way to perform these and the patient should be made aware of them being experimental. The patient should also be provided complete information about such.
How do we protect ourselves from the peddlers of snake oil?
Every disease is different and can even behave differently in each individual, if you come across a cure that says it can do it all, be wary of it. There is no panacea available in the nearest future for humankind.
If there are only personal testimonials, be suspicious of such, these can be easily made up and cannot be verified. If something really works, why is not being picked up by the doctors, why are they not studying it and why is it not appearing in scientific journals. When a doctor claims hundred percent success rate for a procedure, which is not mainstream or even if it is mainstream, there cannot be a procedure, which is always successful or without complications.
Quick fixes, are attractive but also lead to heart ache quickly. You can learn the basics of a language in 30 days, but not lose 30kgs in 30 days. Such tall claims, should be looked at with the greatest of trepidation. If it worked, all of us would have adopted it?
Then comes the so called “natural,” there is nothing natural about many of these. A common claim among many alternative medicine therapies. Many a time it has been proven that these natural remedies contain, hidden synthetic substances or they are mixed with chemicals used in other therapies.
Calcium supplements are needed for post-menopausal women. There is enough research to support that. There have been conspiracy theorists saying that it is not required. They say that this is a conspiracy by the governments, hand in glove with pharma companies for maximizing profits. Some have even gone to the extent of saying that a cure for cancer has been found and it is being suppressed by the industry. Whenever you come across such conspiracy theories, remember that it is not easy to defraud the entire world at one go, by a handful of people with vested interests. A mathematical formula has been used to explain the non-viability of such a proposition. It has been proposed that it would take 3.2 years for such a conspiracy to get exposed due to the sheer number of people required to keep it a secret.
Miracles just do not happen. What we don't understand is a miracle, even then there is science and logic behind it, we only have to wait for it to reveal itself. Wasn’t it a miracle, that we didn’t fall off the edge of the earth, even during the pre-Socratic times.