Stupid Videos & Marketing Ploys

BY HARRIET HALL, M.D.

Purveyors of so-called Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) don’t have any credible scientific evidence.

If they did, their treatments would not be called “alternative” but would have been accepted into mainstream practice and would just be called “medicine” (as in the old joke, “Do you know what you call alternative medicine with evidence? Medicine.”). They tend not to appreciate science or even to understand it. They don’t need or want scientific evidence. For them, testimonials are all-powerful and are all the evidence they ask for.

There are many bogus dietary supplements on the market. In the absence of scientific evidence, all they can do is resort to dishonest marketing ploys.

And they have been offering some real doozies. A typical example just popped up in my email today, claiming that a simple trick you can do every morning will eliminate your need for eyeglasses and will cure every kind of eye disease, from cataracts to diabetic retinopathy to macular degeneration. Marketers claim to have discovered miraculous cures for all kinds of diseases that have eluded mainstream medicine. My husband asked, “If they could really do all that, where are their Nobel Prizes?”

Don’t hold your breath!

Recently, I have noticed a recurring pattern of stupid videos. They keep intruding on my social media feeds and my email inbox. Some imaginative advertising agent must have created a recipe for others to follow. Among the products I have seen featured in these videos, in addition to the aforementioned way to eliminate the need for eyeglasses and a cure for all eye diseases include: a cure for prostate disease, a treatment for erectile dysfunction (perhaps they thought “Harriet” was a man’s name?), weight loss (52 pounds in 28 days without dieting or exercising!), tinnitus (which allegedly has nothing to do with the ears and is 100% curable!), and a penis enlargement scam (of course).