Hardly a day goes by but what I hear about health food elixirs, herbal remedies or new health biohacks that are supposed to improve your life. These often claim to make you age more slowly, reduce your stress levels or provide some nebulous health benefit like detoxing. These dietary supplements are often in the form of capsules or liquids you ingest but sometimes intended to mixed into smoothies.
Plants have a lot of medicinal effects. Many medicines were originally derived and synthesized from plants. In antiquity people turned to plants because medicinal plants were their only options. Using plants medicinally probably dates back to the dawn of time:
In the history of medicine, there is no distinction between medicine and plants. “Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” is a quote often ascribed to Hippocrates, who lived in 400 BCE, studied between 300 and 400 plants, and is considered the father of Western medicine. An ancient Egyptian scroll listing herbal remedies dates to 1500 BCE.
In 2700 BCE, Shen Nung, considered by many to be the father of Chinese medicine (and the originator of acupuncture), experimented on his own body by self-administering hundreds of plants. He recorded 113 different prescriptions, and allegedly died by consuming a poisonous yellow flower — an occupational hazard if there ever was one.
Indeed, history is replete with numerous anecdotes of harm done by the elixirs that were supposed to convey health benefits or extend life.
In ancient China, alchemists concocted “longevity elixirs” that promised immortality and eternal youth but, because they often contained metals like mercury and arsenic, resulted in the opposite. During the Tang dynasty alone, five emperors died from these potions… An English doctor named Robert James patented his “fever powder” in 1747, made from a compound of antimony and phosphate of lime, which was not only ineffective, but may have contributed to the death of Irish poet Oliver Goldsmith.
The Clean Label project tested various collagen powder brands and found that consumers have an 86 percent chance of purchasing a collagen product contaminated with heavy metals. Is it possible that, like Chinese emperor Shen Nung, we are shortening our lives by attempting to prolong them?
The author reports that much of the appeal of wellness products is predicated on feelings of insufficiency. Wellness products are selling the notion that “you can feel better than you do.” These promise the benefit of living longer, thinking more clearly, having more energy or leading a healthier life.
That most of these health hack elixirs are ineffective and possibly harmful is without question. The most intriguing question is why do consumers fall prey to their promises? Maybe it’s because we too have few other options.
Over and over again, our healthcare system fails us. As a country, our outcomes don’t match the high cost of healthcare. I don’t even need to cite statistics here, because Americans are well aware. I recently had a video call with a doctor that was one measly minute long.
Regulators have given us lots of reasons not to trust them. We’re at the mercy of companies whose bottom line is money. So picking and choosing what we ingest feels like some semblance of control.
A primary reason for the growing popularity of herbal remedies and dietary supplements is accessibility. They’re not sequestered behind a wall of bureaucratic regulatory restrictions. They’re marketed on YouTube with their promoters seemingly superhuman. Often the prices are out of this world too. A study from years ago found that placebos were effective even after patients found out they were placebos. Furthermore, in studies an expensive placebo worked better on people than a cheap one, when test subjects were told the price. We can assume an expensive dietary supplement works better than a cheaper one, while making the promoters rich.
A related reason for the growth of wellness and biobacking is empowerment. People want more control over their lives, health and moods. In addition, many people assume that an herbal remedy sold over the counter on Amazon is inherently safer, more natural than pharmaceuticals. This is often not the case.
Americans are not willing to sit idly by and rely on the health care system. The health care system is reactive, mostly only able to respond to sickness, rather than producing wellness. That is the nature of an insurance-based system. Thus, the primary market for wellness is consumers and their only avenue is through dietary supplements since longevity drugs require FDA approval and costly clinical studies. In a perfect health care world consumers would discuss health & wellness with their doctors but instead they watch YouTube videos of superhuman promoters of health products.
Read more at: From adaptogen powders to AG1 and collagen, why are so many of us self-medicating with supplements?
I am a fan of you and your site, but in this case you appear to be writing about a subject you have not studied deeply. Just one example: Even the US government, generally beholden to the drug industry and protecting its monopolies, says that the US public is woefully lacking in magnesium, potassium, vitamin D etc. If so, how can you make a sweeping statement that most non-drug treatments are ineffective. It is also false that supplements ” are not sequestered behind a wall of regulatory restrictions.” They are, it is steadily increasing under drug company political pressure, and this has greatly added to cost.
You make a good point. It’s not that I think all dietary supplements are bogus. It’s that there are a lot of hucksters out there. Consumers need to do their own research and know what they are getting. The above statement also applies to the FDA approved medicine and medical treatments.
Devon, you wrote, “In a perfect healthcare world, consumers would discuss health & wellness with their doctors, but instead, they watch YouTube videos of superhuman promoters of health products.” Setting in your Ivory Tower, I can understand how you can always be wrong, as you always are. You amaze me. I ran six Richard Simmons Anatomy Asylums (RSAA) in Metro Denver with 30,000 members, so you can trust me. I understand exercise like I do insurance.
Plus, when we sold the Richard Simmons and the 300 employees, I was switched to the big clubs, Holiday Health’s 40,000-foot clubs in Denver, and then we ran the Richard Simmons out of business. This is 1984, one year before COBRA, and my wife was pregnant. In Texas, we were called President; in NYC, we were the Vertical Club; in some places, Jack LaLane. It all started with Chicago Health Clubs, so you know it’s the Mafia. Today they’re called Bally, they suck.
Anyway, we sent every MD in Denver Free Memberships at the nicest facilities in Denver. I ran Aurora with 2,000 workouts a day, and the Broncos’ wives had free memberships. The physicians didn’t claim their memberships, and we had the nicest facilities. There are exceptions. I insured an anesthesiologist in 2000 with an MSA, and he exercised and survived bone cancer that would have killed anybody else. But doctors are not exercisers and don’t tell people to exercise.
It would absolutely be a waste of time to discuss exercise with an MD when they give you 7 minutes, and they don’t make money on that. I wouldn’t take a doctor’s advice on health insurance either; they know nothing like those in Congress. Trust me, doctors don’t care if their employees have worthless insurance. They only care about cheap insurance and always treat their employees like second-class citizens. Even if the employee is their son. They are all cut from the same piece of cheap wood.
Of course, you know, when clients have success and get strong and in shape, they change their minds. It’s brainwashing (sales) to achieve habit modification. Women think their men will notice when they have the best figure of their lives. The truth is men aren’t motivated to look better when working out because we already look good; just ask us. We have different minds and think differently. The men had no idea that their wives could achieve success, and they always said stupid crap like she already looks good to me!
Average woman exercising 4 times per week will lose 1 1/2 inches in their upper thigh in 6 weeks; even if they don’t lose one pound, it looks like they are. I told them to exercise 4 times a week until they hit their goal. Then, 3 times a week, they will maintain their physique. Men could hit their goals 3 times a week, and maintenance was only 1 time a week. It’s easier for men to maintain their shape. Men should exercise because they die and should be in shape and exercise three times a week for health and their heart and mind.
My sales presentation was trained to all Aurora, Colorado Holiday salespeople, and Aurora was the number one club in America out of 700 large clubs for profit in 1986. I was tortured and had to watch the 1986 Super Bowl in New Orleans and watch the Chicago Bears beat the Patriots; it was too disgusting. My boss was a woman who owned the 38 Chicago Health Clubs, so I was rooting for the Patriots. She hated men and made her boyfriend ride second class as she rode in first. Richard Simmons was so stupid he lipped off to her in front of hundreds of employees. Dorothy decided on the spot to sell all 80 Richard Simmons Clubs nationwide. Thank you, Richard, for my family losing insurance when my wife was pregnant.
Reagan and Republicans gave us COBRA in 1985, one year too late for me. Employer-Sponsored Insurance sucks even if you love it, Devon. It’s deadly losing insurance because of the Eligibility Requirement of 30 hours per week actively working to REMAIN eligible. Blue Cross considered that rule, and you have never said a word in 28 years. Talk about slow!