Contemporary Quackery

Quackery is alive and well in the new millenium!  Our contemporary quackery case includes:

1. Magnetic insoles - an idea that's been around since at least the turn of the century
2. Elekiban and ACU-DOT magnets
3. ACU-STOP 2000
4. The Stimulator (aka gas grill igniter)
5. The Dental Potentiometer, and
6. Ecobite - the battery powered charge that cures snake bite!

[Large image 640 x 480, 27K ]
Photos by B. and J. J. Gankel.

ACU-STOP 2000

Lose weight magically with ACU-STOP 2000! The nubs atop this 1 3/8" by 1 3/4" rubber device allegedly align with the pressure points which control appetite.  Several times daily, the user inserts the device into the ear and massages it for several minutes. This device which cost 17 cents to manufacture sold for $39.95. Small cloth envelope, aqua or pink, included. Outlawed in 1995. Below: an ACU-STOP device.

Weight Loss Links

• 1998 Slim Chance Awards

• Advertising Cases Involving Weight Loss Products and Services, Federal Trade Commission 1927 - April 1997  

• FAT CITY - Your diet and weight loss fraud headquarters

• Questionable Healers: Quackery, "Healing Arts," Supplements and Fad Nutrition

Dental Potentiometer

After a "scare" about mercury leaching from amalgam dental fillings, this device was used to persuade dental patients to replace amalgam fillings with new expensive materials. The device is a meter available at local electronics stores. When the probe is applied to a surface, the meter displays a digital number.  (The surface does not have to be a dental filling!). Then, the unscrupulous practitioner avered that the numeric reading represented the electrical activity caused by leaching mercury!?! With the data, the patient could prioritize fillings for removal and replacement. Photo by B. and J. J. Gankel.

On Dental Quackery

• American Dental Association: Fillings *
• Dangerous Blather by William J. Bennetta
• DentalWatch.org *
• FDA: Amalgam Fillings F.A.Q. *
• "Holistic Dentistry": A Brief Overview by Stephen Barrett, M.D. and William T. Jarvis, Ph.D.
• The "Mercury Toxicity" Scam by Stephen Barrett, M. D
• Nature: Latest Research on Mercury Fillings - (free registration necessary)
• Sixty Minutes Offers Toxic Television
• Unconventional Dentistry: Part I. Introduction by Burton H. Goldstein, DMD, MS, FRCD

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