The appeal of medical quackery: a rhetorical analysis.

Medical quackery has been a pressing issue nearly from the start of the medical profession - whether the nostrums and patent medications of old or the super-foods and miracle supplements of today. Throughout history and into the modern day, the medical establishment has tried to counteract the claims of charlatans in order to protect patients from potentially harmful treatments. Countering today's pseudo-medicine begins with an examination of what makes patients susceptible to the claims of quack medicine. Understanding why patients are susceptible to dubious health claims begins with an examination of the rhetoric used to persuade a demographic toward alternative therapies. This knowledge can then be used to educate patients, and to better demonstrate the benefits of evidence-based medicine while improving patient interactions.

Cancer quackery: the persistent popularity of useless, irrational 'alternative' treatments.

At a time when many readily believe that vaccines cause autism, or that government scientists created AIDS as a weapon of black genocide, it is not surprising that medical quackery, especially cancer quackery, remains a flourishing and lucrative business throughout the developed world. This review provides a brief recap of its history and an overview of the various types of unproven or disproved cancer therapies popular now in the United States and elsewhere.

Alternative therapies, 1990. An overview.

The availability of alternative therapies for many health problems is a well-documented historical fact. Alternative therapies are generally understood to be those therapies outside of the usually accepted medical therapies for disease processes, such as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, psoriasis, lupus, and AIDS. Some other descriptive terms utilized include questionable, unproven, dubious, unorthodox, and unconventional. These alternative therapies vary from active involvement in promotion of one's own health (exercise, diet) to quackery. In today's society, with emphasis on self-involvement with individual health, metabolic therapies have become the most widely practiced alternative therapy. In an antiestablishment, anti-intellectual climate, with an increasingly mobile, rootless population, alternative therapies are in somewhat of a renaissance. Some confusion exists regarding clinical trials and alternative therapies in the general population and in the noninvolved health profession. Various studies indicate that from 10% to 50% of cancer patients use some alternative therapy, with national expenditures ranging as high as $10 billion annually. Better-educated patients with higher-than-average income are more likely to choose alternative therapies and are frequently supported by a physician in this choice. Most cancer patients continue under a physician's care and continue usual therapy while pursuing alternative methods. Approximately 5% of cancer patients abandon appropriate therapy and pursue potentially harmful alternative methods. A variety of sociomedical questions are brought forth by studies of the use of alternative therapies. A great need for public and professional education regarding this subject is evident.