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Quackery is the practice of fraudulent medicine, usually in
order to make money or for ego gratification and power. Those who practice quackery are called "quacks" and are
in the business of selling false hope to gullible people who may be genuinely suffering. Most would consider such a practice
highly unethical.
It is often difficult to distinguish between practitioners who are knowingly fraudulent and those who are merely deluded as to
their own effectiveness. In libel cases in US courts against people who accused others of
being guilty of quackery, the courts have ruled that accusing someone of quackery or calling him/her a quack is not equal to
calling him/her a fraud — that in order to be both a quack and a fraud, the quack has to know that the medical services
provided are unproven and ineffective.
History
Quackery has existed throughout human history. In ancient times, theatrics were sometimes mixed with actual medicine to
provide entertainment as much as healing. This mix of quackery with actual medicine has varied in its usage throughout different
cultures. This is not to imply that all shamanism is quackery. The
differentiation is real healing versus false hope, regardless of the medical tradition. Often it is difficult to tell the
difference.
The nineteenth century era of the rise of mass marketing of
patent medicines is usually considered to have been a "golden age" of
quackery. These medicines often had little in the way of active ingredients, or had ingredients designed to make a person feel
good, such as what came to be known as recreational drugs.
Morphine and related chemicals were especially common, being legal and unregulated in most places at the time. False medicines in
this era were called by the slang term snake oil. The quacks who sold them were
called "snake oil peddlers," and usually sold their medicines with a fervent pitch similar to a fire and brimstone religious sermon. They often accompanied other
theatrical and entertainment productions that travelled as a road show from town to town, leaving quickly before the falseness of
their medicine could be discovered.
Quackery today
Quackery is still found today in the form of heavily-marketed so-called "miracle cures," and "miracle" diet, weight-loss and fitness regimes. Once again, what makes this quackery is the sale of false hope,
leading to unrealistic expectations on behalf of the consumer. Quackery can be found in any culture and in every medical
tradition, as long as gullible consumers can be found.
A variety of medicines with heavy marketing campaigns may fall under the term "quackery." Full-page ads in "health" magazines
and publications that cater toward a desperate, gullible, or otherwise needy demographic are popular places to sell the miracle
product of the moment, as well as web sites where bizarre medical claims might be easier to get away with. Huge billboard ads for
the latest pharmaceutical medication cannot by law make claims about the drug, but still perpetuate the desperation to try the
newest pill to fix the problem, regardless of the nature of the problem. To add to the confusion, many heavily-marketed products
may actually have real therapeutic benefit. However, what is the right remedy for one person may not be right for another. There
is no panacea.
Many people cause their own health problems through poor lifestyle choices. To expect some pill, be it herbal or pharmaceutical, to address the problem
without a lifestyle change is unrealistic. Poorly educated consumers take pills or request them from their doctors because of ad
campaigns, without really understanding anything about how medicine is ethically prescribed.
People with no medical education often try to bypass professional medicine by self-prescribing over-the-counter remedies for problems that may need professional
treatment. Most people with an e-mail account have experienced the strong-arm marketing
tactics of spamming — the current trend for miraculous penis enlargement, weight-loss remedies and unprescribed medicines of
dubious quality sold on the internet are perhaps the most common current form of
quackery.
Many of the problems associated with the increasing ineffectiveness of antibiotics to treat many of the infections they were designed to treat comes from such a faddish approach.
Antibiotics were heralded as the "magic bullet" when they were new, which caused abuse of antibiotics on behalf of both doctors
and consumers. Some consumers insisted on getting antibiotics at every doctor visit, regardless of the problem, while some
doctors have been all too willing to dispense antibiotics for viral
infections for which antibiotics are known to be ineffective, simply because they had nothing else to offer their patient.
Unethical prescription according to fad is a form of quackery, regardless of the nature of the medicine.
In the field of natural medicine, many practitioners prescribe
natural remedies which they sell at a profit. This common practice could be viewed as a conflict of interest. Natural medical practitioners also run the risk of prescribing pills
because patients ask for them, or out of faddish popularity. The profit motive is everywhere, in every aspect of medicine. A potential conflict always
exists between the desire to make a decent living, the desire to make huge sums of money, and the desire to help others. The
wealthiest corporations in the world are in the pharmaceutical industry. Herbal medicine has also become big business in recent
years. Profiteering from the suffering of others is clearly unethical,
yet it is also big business, with a long history.
In the field of alternative medicine, many professions
are regulated, but some are not. Unregulated areas of medical practice can be particularly prone to quackery.
Reasons quackery persists
- The epidemic of obesity, especially in affluent countries, which continues to increase.
- Ignorance: Most people really do not understand how medicine works, how their body works, or how to
distinguish between real medicine and fraudulence, and can be duped again and again into spending their money for a supposed
"miraculous" solution to their problems. The easy fix is a great temptation to a great many people, even though the easy fix is
rarely effective. Also, a great deal of ignorance about traditional and natural medicine has made it difficult to distinguish
between what is outside of the mainstream but effective, and what is simply quackery. Quacks know this and exploit this ignorance
for their own benefit and perpetuate the confusion. Unfortunately, many doctors in the past have unwittingly perpetuated this
misunderstanding by labeling all natural medicine or
traditional medicine as quackery, which is simply false.
Some doctors have been all too willing to present themselves as experts on all medicine, regardless of their ignorance on the
subject of natural and traditional medicines throughout the world. This has made the situation confusing almost beyond hope for
many people. It is difficult to know who to trust when it is clear somebody is lying, but everyone is pointing their fingers at
someone else.
- The placebo effect. Medicines or treatments,
known to have no effect on a disease, can still affect a person's perception of their illness. People report reduced
pain, increased well-being, improvement and even total alleviation of symptoms. For some, the presence of a caring practitioner
and the dispensation of medicine is curative in itself. The placebo effect is extreme in the treatment of clinical depression. Some studies show up to 80% of people will
report an improvement in their condition after taking a sugar pill.
- Side effects from mainstream medical treatment. A great variety of pharmaceutical medications can have very distressing
side effects. Many people fear surgery, often for good reason.
- Distrust of conventional medicine. Conventional medicine does not have a clean history. Much of medicine's past was in fact quackery.
Doctors are often paid a very large salary, much more than many of their patients may consider ethical. They often receive money
for a consultation without giving any treatment, as well as receiving valuable perks from pharmaceutical corporations who want to indirectly reward the heavy prescription of their drugs. Mistakes made by
doctors are also reported extensively by the media. Iatrogenic disease is not
uncommon. The regulatory committees of medical doctors are doctors themselves, which some would consider a conflict of interest.
- Cost. Pharmaceutical companies and medical practitioners often charge a lot of money for their services.
Quacks can easily undercut them, by providing what they call a better treatment for much less money, though often there is
deception involved about the actual cost of treatment.
- Desperation on the part of people with a serious or terminal disease, or who have been told by their
practitioner that their condition is "untreatable." This also may include patients who want to be rid of less severe conditions
like perceived penis size issues, baldness, or skin aging, that medical science cannot treat or cannot treat cheaply.
See also
External links
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