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Supersalesman of the Seventies

Stephan Barrett, MD

Arch Intern Med. 1978;138(7):1065-1066.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

Business is booming for the health quack. He plays on your fears. He caters to your hopes. And once he has you, he keeps you coming back for more.. and more.. and more. Seldom do his victims realize how often or how skillfully they are being cheated. Does the mother who feels good as she hands her child a vitamin think to ask herself whether he really needs it? Does the buyer of "extra-strength pain reliever" wonder what's in it or whether an unadvertised brand might cost less? Do subscribers to health food publications realize that articles are often slanted to stimulate business for their advertisers? Not usually.

Most people think the modern health quack is easy to spot. But he isn't. He wears the cloak of science. He talks in "scientific" terms. He writes with scientific references. And he is introduced on talk shows as the "scientist ahead of . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Author Affiliations
Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud, Inc PO Box 1602 Allentown, PA 18105

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