Radioactive quackery
Encyclopedia
Hormesis
Hormesis is the term for generally favorable biological responses to low exposures to toxins and other stressors. A pollutant or toxin showing hormesis thus has the opposite effect in small doses as in large doses...
, that is the alleged property of many toxic substances, including radioactive ones, to have a beneficial effect on health when applied in small dosages.
Notable examples
- RadithorRadithorRadithor was a patent medicine that is a well known example of radioactive quackery. It consisted of triple distilled water containing at a minimum each of the radium 226 and 228 isotopes.-History:...
, a solution of radiumRadiumRadium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226,...
salts, which was claimed by its developer William J. A. BaileyWilliam J. A. BaileyWilliam John Aloysius Bailey was a Harvard University dropout who falsely claimed to be a doctor of medicine, and who promoted the use of radioactive radium as a cure for coughs, flu, and other common ailments...
to have curative properties (the industrialist Eben ByersEben ByersEben McBurney Byers was a wealthy American socialite, athlete, and industrialist. Byers earned notoriety in the early 1930s when he died from radiation poisoning after consuming a popular patent medicine made from radium dissolved in water.-Biography:The son of industrialist Alexander Byers, Eben...
died from ingesting it). - Many brands of toothpasteToothpasteToothpaste is a paste or gel dentifrice used with a toothbrush as an accessory to clean and maintain the aesthetics and health of teeth. Toothpaste is used to promote oral hygiene: it serves as an abrasive that aids in removing the dental plaque and food from the teeth, assists in suppressing...
were laced with radioactive substances that was claimed to make teeth shine whiter, such as Doramad Radioactive ToothpasteDoramad Radioactive ToothpasteDoramad Radioactive Toothpaste was produced until 1945 in Germany by Auergesellschaft of Berlin. The toothpaste contained small amounts of thorium, though later analysis showed its radioactivity levels to be very low....
. - Bath and bathing waters were advertised as being "highly radioactive". (e.g. this report in 1912)
- RevigatorRadium Ore RevigatorThe Radium Ore Revigator was a pseudoscientific medical device consisting of a ceramic water crock lined with radioactive materials. It was patented in 1912 by R. W...
pots, which added radonRadonRadon is a chemical element with symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colorless, odorless, tasteless noble gas, occurring naturally as the decay product of uranium or thorium. Its most stable isotope, 222Rn, has a half-life of 3.8 days...
to drinking water.
See also
- History of radiation therapyHistory of radiation therapyThe history of radiation therapy or radiotherapy can be traced back to experiments made soon after the discovery of x-rays , when it was shown that exposure to radiation produced cutaneous burns...
- Shoe-fitting fluoroscopeShoe-fitting fluoroscopeShoe-fitting fluoroscopes, also Pedoscopes, were X-ray fluoroscope machines installed in shoe stores from the 1920s until about the 1960s in the United States , and into the mid-1970s in the United Kingdom. In the UK, they were known as Pedoscopes, after the company based in St. Albans that...
- Electrical quackery
- Snake oilSnake oilSnake oil is a topical preparation made from the Chinese Water Snake , which is used to treat joint pain. However, the most common usage of the phrase is as a derogatory term for quack medicine...
- QuackeryQuackeryQuackery is a derogatory term used to describe the promotion of unproven or fraudulent medical practices. Random House Dictionary describes a "quack" as a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or...
- Magnet therapyMagnet therapyMagnet therapy, magnetic therapy, or magnotherapy is an alternative medicine practice involving the use of static magnetic fields. Practitioners claim that subjecting certain parts of the body to magnetostatic fields produced by permanent magnets has beneficial health effects...