a comment on this blog by chayil got me thinking about wonder cures. someone told her that a daily dose of horse milk is a sure cure for what ails her. companies don't generally use the phrase "miracle cure" these days, what with it being illegal to make such claims and all; but the message of miraculous health is still being promoted in an enthusiastic and compelling way.
someone recently tried to sell me some himalayan goji juice. i guess goji juice is the new tahitian noni juice. or is it the new mangosteen juice? anyway, earl mindell, the doc behind this juice, claims that it is the "ultimate nutritional discovery," and he hopes to "close down one half of all hospitals because we won't need them anymore!" you might say it's a miracle what people can get away with saying. or at over $50 a bottle, perhaps the real marvel is the good doctor's bank account. but i digress.
obviously, anything that is touted as a cure-all should be looked at with a lot of skepticism. this includes grandiose claims made by pharmaceutical companies, by the way. just because a medication has a din number, a corporation and a slick commercial behind it doesn't mean that claims to its transformative properties should be wholly and uncritically embraced. cymbalta just might not radically change your life and make you as well-adjusted, well-dressed and happy as the folks in the ad on t.v.
one no longer has to look at the back of a comic book or trashy magazine for miracle cures. they are on t.v, the internet, in magazines and in books. the miracle of soy, the miracle magnetic cloth, the master molecules of goji, the perfection of the latest anti-depressant... they are all waiting for you.
i admit, i'm as ready as the next person to "look and feel twenty years younger." i would sign up in a minute if i thought that a treatment or berry or drug would safely rid me of my chronic pain and fatigue. but come on, don't try to suck me in.
[if you'd like to watch a investigative report on himalayan goji jiuce check out cbc's "marketplace"]
