I keep getting spam

[james_davis_nicoll]

For techniques guaranteed to cure diabetes (which I do not have). I wonder the body count for that particular scam is? I doubt it is zero.

Comments

[oh6]

Probably higher than from advance fee fraud. Weight-loss scams would be tougher competition, but maybe that's an overlapping category.

[brooksmoses]

Yeah, I've been getting them too. Also "milk is as dangerous as smoking" spam.

Sigh.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I've been getting diabetes spam, but not anti-milk spam.

[(Anonymous)]

No diabetes spam, and I almost qualify. But not quite.

Checking my spam filter I see a surprising amount of Cialis and Viagara spam. Seems so 2000s, somehow.

William Hyde

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

About the only kind of spam I'm getting these days is from someone who is Very Sadly Mistaken about me wanting to sleep with someone's wife.

But the diabetes person? Needs to go to jail for attempted murder, IMHO.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

But the diabetes person? Needs to go to jail for attempted murder, IMHO.

Along with much of the rest of the alt-med industry.

Science saves lives; hippy woo bullshit kills. Even if the pseudo-medications are harmless in themselves, the interference they provide with science-based treatment can be lethal.

Defrauding gullible or desperate sick people is hardly a victimless crime. Quacks are scum.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

I do have a soft spot for homeopathy in its early days, as the alternative was so often some mercury-based crap that would have made matters much worse. It's a different matter now. I'd also be interested to know how many people end up buying homeopathic remedies BY MISTAKE, given how they're labeled and displayed in stores. I think it would be rather difficult to run a grocery store or drugstore and NOT stock homeopathic remedies these days.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Yup, the 20th century was the first time in history that going to the doctor actually reduced your chance of dying, instead of the reverse.

But homeopathy's one saving grace was that it did absolutely nothing, so therefore couldn't directly cause harm. That's borderline defensible in the mid-19th century. In 2014, it's inexcusable. Particularly as there are people selling homeopathic "cures" for lethal things such as malaria and asthma.

Ben Goldacre's work is worth a look. Actually, you'd probably get a kick out of this: http://youtu.be/O1Q3jZw4FGs

[resonant.livejournal.com]

I was given a "calming" homeopathic cure once. Just a dozen CCs of it would relax you, I was told. Repeat as needed.

After hacking and coughing, I checked the label. It was 40% ethanol.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

"Rescue Remedy" by the sounds of it.

That's another problem with alt-med: no quality control. Quite a few "natural" remedies have be found to contain dangerous levels of real pharmaceuticals.

"Big herbal" is just as much run by scumbag corporations as anything else is these days.

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

That's a huge dose for Rescue Remedy. Usually it's a few drops.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it's homeopathy, so less is more. Perhaps Resonant's friend was worried about the risk of overdose. ;-)

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Incidentally, the mercury-based crap did kind of work after a fashion.

Mercury was commonly used as a treatment for syphilis. The mercury dosing won't do anything to cure the syphilis (and will eventually kill you if the syph doesn't get there first), but the symptoms of mercury poisoning are vaguely opposite to the symptoms of early syphilis, so the two in combination roughly cancel each other out. It was the most effective symptomatic treatment they had at the time.

(not endorsing, just sharing trivia)

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Mercuric oxide is still used for treating styes, I think. Putting mercury in the eye doesn't sound like a great idea to me, but apparently at that level it's relatively safe (I won't use the stuff any longer myself, though).

Louisa May Alcott's health was much affected by mercury compounds she was given when she had typhoid fever. I don't actually know whether it's possible that they saved her life, but it seems pretty clear she was wildly overmedicated, even if the stuff did kill the typhoid.

[dbdatvic.livejournal.com]

One of my quartet members did once. I pointed out what the language on the label actually meant; he had had no idea. His opinion of its possible utility changed markedly.

--Dave

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

When did we decide that selling people snake oil that definitely endangers their lives was okeydokee, anyway? We don't tolerate the selling of glasses that stab you in the eye or hearing aids powered by plutonium.

[aboutlikepleats.livejournal.com]

See, there's that "reality-based community" thinking again.

More seriously, it would be very difficult to legislate against this kind of murderous lies in any way that didn't also affect the tobacco industry. Which is Big Money for Important People.

Also, too busy with the very serious and important War on Drugs to give a shit about a War on Dangerous Bullshit Lies that Do Not Feed the Prison Industry. Which is also Big Money for Important People.

Color me cynical.

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

Tonight a chiropractor told me that if I'd gone to a chiropractor when my scoliosis (curvature of the spine) was first diagnosed, they could have 'balanced' my spine (or somesuch BS) and somehow fixed or alleviated it.

Yeah, right.

[pauldormer.livejournal.com]

The big spam in the UK at the moment is asking for payments for invoices.

It became big news last month when one of the false invoices that was prevalent was for the Peter Pan pantomime in Bournemouth, a real event.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/11081602/Undetectable-Peter-Pan-computer-virus-threatens-UK-businesses.html