Conception, Pregnancy and Parenting After 40

Quackery is a type of health fraud that promotes products and services that have questionable and unproven scientific bases. Quackery is short for quack-salver, which is derived from two Middle Dutch terms that mean "healing with unguents." However, quacken means "to boast," so a kwakzalver might be a healer who boasts about his power or products.

Nutrition quackery is the promotion of false and/or unproven nutrition products and services for a profit. Quacks can include sincere but misguided or deluded individuals, as well as charlatans and impostors. Individuals can avoid being victims of a nutrition rip-off by learning to recognize the techniques used to manipulate consumers.

The claims sound too good to be true, but they are what people want to hear. Nutrition quackery is successful because quacks play on emotions and misinformation. Most people want to believe that there are “magical” alternatives to the prudent diet and physical activity that promote health and well-being. However, they are rarely told of possible side effects or other harm that might result from the promoted product or dietary regimen.

Quacks encourage distrust of reputable health professionals such as medical doctors, registered dietitians, and other nutrition scientists. They ridicule the nutrient content of our food supply and claim that the foods we need to meet nutritional requirements can’t be purchased in grocery stores. They refer to their unproven treatments as “alternatives” to reputable medical care. While choices do exist among current legitimate treatments, the alternatives promoted by quacks can be ineffective and/or unsafe.  They refer to the Reproductive Medicine Industry, making it appear that all physicians who are involved in advanced reproductive therapies are only out to make money.  They fail to admit that their own industry costs consumers billions of dollars annually.

Nutritional quackery is big business, fueled by high profits.  Because of its enormous profitability, it has become a sophisticated, organized, nationwide network of interrelated businesses. Americans spend billions of dollars each year on dietary supplements. Yet, for most healthy adults, supplements are an unnecessary expense. The vast U.S. food supply provides an ideal source of nutrients. Eating a variety of food every day supplies adequate nutrients for most people. 

The promoters of quackery are often people who know little of the intricacies of food chemistry or the complicated metabolic processes of the human body. They sell unproven remedies, advertising them as safe and effective.  They call themselves ''nutritionists.'' But are they?

In medicine and most other professions, educational standards are controlled by state laws to protect the public. Most states have no such laws for the field of nutrition. Anyone who so desires can claim to be a nutritionist.  Legitimate degrees in nutrition represent the completion of a thorough scientific training program conducted by some of the nation's most respected universities.  Because nutrition involves many years of study, unaccredited diploma mills have sprung up, offering shortcuts to a bachelor's, master's or doctoral degree in nutrition.

Legally, anyone may sell food supplements, but the person who is advising and simultaneously selling you supplements may be compromising your health and does not deserve your business.   While the healthfood store salesperson may sound knowledgable, that information is often erroneous.  (Healthfood Store Advice).  The internet is also another venue for those wishing to cash in on the fears and insecurities of people with problems.  A simple Google search for "infertility vitamins supplements" shows over 1.2 million sites, mostly those selling those supplements. 

Take home messages:

1. People who have a financial interest in selling you supplements or their writings about them will make them sound like the answer to your prayers.
2. Infertility is a complex problem.  Complex problems usually don't have simple solutions.
3. If there were a cure for infertility, there wouldn't still be so many infertile couples.  It's discovery would have been shouted from the highest rooftops worldwide.

 How can you save yourself from being quacked? Here are some useful pointers by Dr. Stephen Barrett from his Quackwatch web site.

1. Forget about ‘secret cures’. True scientists share their knowledge as part of the process of scientific development. Quacks often keep their methods secret to prevent others from decisively demonstrating that they don’t work. No one who actually discovered a cure for infertility would have reason to keep it secret. If a method really works, the discoverer would gain enormous fame, fortune and personal satisfaction by sharing the discovery with others.
    
2. Remember that quackery often garbs itself in a cloak of pseudo-scientific respectability and its promoters often use scientific terms and quote (or misquote) from scientific references. Be equally wary of pseudo-medical jargon. Instead of offering to treat your infertility, some quacks will promise to ‘detoxify’ your body, ‘balance’ its chemistry, release its ‘nerve energy’ or ‘bring it in harmony with nature’. The use of concepts that are impossible to measure or quantify enables success to be claimed even though nothing has actually been accomplished.
    
3. Ignore any practitioner who says that infertility is caused by faulty nutrition or can be remedied by taking supplements. Although some diseases are related to diet, most are not. Moreover, in most cases where diet actually is a factor in a person’s health problem, the solution is not to take vitamins but to alter the diet.
    
4. Be wary of catchy anecdotes and testimonials. If someone claims to have conceived after using an unorthodox remedy, there is often a rational explanation. Some patients with long-standing unexplained infertility do get pregnant on their own – and they may erroneously give credit to the treatment. Some testimonials, of course, are complete fabrications!
    
5. Don’t let desperation cloud your judgement! It is true that infertile couples are very susceptible to being quacked, but if you feel that your doctor isn’t doing enough to help you, don’t stray from scientific health care in a desperate attempt to find a solution. Instead, discuss your feelings with your doctor and consider a consultation with a recognized expert.

The best way you can protect yourself from being taken for a ride, is to make sure you are well informed about your infertility. The message is simple: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably isn’t!