Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson / Radium to Cleanses: Why We Still Fall for Bad Science

Transcript

Radium to Cleanses: Why We Still Fall for Bad Science · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: There is a long unfortunate history of
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  people drinking things they absolutely shouldn't.
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  From bleach to celery juice, from
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  detox teas to silver colloids.
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  It all started maybe a hundred years ago
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  when the hottest wellness trend was
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  radioactive water. Yep,
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  people paid good money to drink radium
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  and it was sold as a cure for fatigue,
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  sexual dysfunction, aging, you name it.
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  I'm Dr. Terri Simpson, your chief medical
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  explanationist and this is Fork you
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  fork University, where we make sense of the madness,
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  bust myths wide open and shine a
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  clinical spotlight on medical history's biggest
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  mistakes. Today we're talking about glowing
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  urine, crumbling jaws and the
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  radioactive energy drink that almost got away with
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  it.
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  In the early 1900s, Murray and Pierre Curie
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  discovered radium. At first it was hailed
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  as a scientific miracle. It could shrink tumors,
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  it could power machines, it glowed in the dark.
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  What could go wrong? Naturally, the public
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  didn't wait for peer reviewed studies. Radium
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  quickly became the next big health fading.
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  Companies bottled radium infused water
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  claiming it could boost energy, stimulate
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  digestion, cure arthritis and even
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  enhance, well, let's say vitality in
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  the bedroom. One of the most famous products was
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  Radiodhor. It came in a sleek glass
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  vial and promised perpetual
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  sunshine. Each dose contained
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  radium 226 and radium 228
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  in actual drinkable doses.
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  This wasn't microdosing. This was a one
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  way ticket to your local radiation ward
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  and people drank it by the gallon.
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  Let's talk about Eben Byers. Wealthy
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  Ivy league athlete,
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  industrialist, socialite. After
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  an arm injury, his doctor prescribed Radiathor to help
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  with his general weakness. He loved it.
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  He claimed it gave him energy, boosted his
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  performance and improved his overall health.
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  So he started taking three bottles a day
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  for years. But then something
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  started to happen. His teeth began to fall
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  out, his jaw deteriorated,
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  his bones turned brittle and started breaking
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  and his skull developed holes.
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  When the Federal Trade Commission finally got involved, he was
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  literally falling apart. A reporter from
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  the Wall Street Journal visited him and said the
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  radium water worked fine until his jaw
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  came off. By the time of his
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  death in 1932, his body was
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  so radioactive he had to be buried in a lead
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  lined coffin. So what does that have
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  to do with today? Well, let's look at the formula.
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  Take a new scientific discovery,
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  mix in vague health promises, add a
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  dash of trust in personal testimonials,
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  skip all the clinical testing, package it with
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  buzzwords and celebrity hype. Sound
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  familiar? Today we see the same
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  cycle play out. Colloidal silver touted as a
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  cure all even Though it turns people blue.
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  Alkaline water, which ignores
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  basic human physiology. Detox
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  teas, which actually have no detoxifying
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  ingredients. AI generated
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  liver scams that paste my face on bottles and
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  falsely claim that I endorse them. Yes, someone
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  used my photo to market a fake liver detox
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  supplement. By the way, they're all fake and claimed
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  I supported it. I didn't. And it doesn't
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  actually work because liver cleanses don't
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  work. Your liver cleanses all by
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  itself. So Radiothor may be
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  gone and obvious that it was a problem,
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  but the con and the basis of the con
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  lives on. Just now it glows with
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  artificial intelligence. Instead of radium, we have
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  people calling themselves like the human biologist
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  Dr. Gary Breca, who isn't a doctor
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  who never graduated anything more than a bachelor's in
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  biology degree and claims he can
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  predict your actual date of death.
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  So how did Radiothor get pulled off the market?
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  Only after Eben buyers died and made headlines did the
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  US government step in. The Federal Trade
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  Commission began investigating the so called radioactive
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  tonics and eventually new regulations from the
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  FDA started banning untested radioactive
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  health products. From that point on,
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  radiation exposure limits became part of public
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  health policy. And Radiothorpe, it became
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  a cautionary tale in medical schools and law
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  books. The irony? Radium does
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  have real medical uses, like in cancer
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  treatment, but it's carefully dosed,
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  precisely targeted and medically
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  supervised. Radium wasn't the
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  villain. The villain was selling science without
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  evidence and letting the public figure out the side
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  effects one jaw at a time.
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  We're still doing this. We're still buying
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  natural products with no testing.
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  We're still trusting influencers over
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  physicians. We're still skipping the science
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  for the story. So the next time someone
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  says this tonic gave me energy, ask
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  was it the product or was it Radiothor
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  all over again?
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  This episode was researched and written by me, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson. You can find the blog posts and
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  references@yourdoctorsorders.com and
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  4Q com and while I am a doubly
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  board certified physician, I am not your
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  physician. If you're tempted by a supplement,
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  a tonic or an AI generated detox ad using
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  my face, talk to a real doctor and
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  a registered dietitian. Not your chiropractor,
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  not a celebrity with a skincare line, and
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  definitely not a bottle that cool glows in the dark.
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  The episode was produced, distributed and all things
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  audio by Simpler media and the pod got
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  himself my good friend Mr. Evo
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  Terra have a bright good
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  but hopefully not radioactive week.
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  Hey Evo. If a TikTok guru told you to drink
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  radioactive water for gut health, Would you wash it down with
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  a detox tea or just sign up for the next
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  goop cleanse?
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  >> Speaker B: Yeah, I'm gonna go none of the above. Uh, on that one?
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  I think so. Oh, also, very fun and
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  entertaining episode. Good.