Here are 25 Snake Oil Products That Have Ruined Lives.
Larry Stowe’s miracle treatment includes herbs, vitamins, vaccines, and stem cell injections. Not only does his program not have proof to back up its claims, it also scams people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. XGrey claims to PREVENT grey hair. The investors on the show tore the product apart, mainly because of the lack of solid evidence that it works. The product raised a lot of safety concerns during efficacy studies and is tested on animals. It had such a low level of lithium salts and didn’t cure anything that the company was sued and eventually closed down. While some creams help smooth out the appearance of cellulite, they don’t address the root causes. These creams are not as dangerous as some other products on this list, but they can put a serious dent in your bank account. These ingredients are corrosive to the skin and cause infection, tissue necrosis (aka cell death), and irreversible disfigurement. The main danger of this product is that when mixed with citric acid (as directed), it creates a strong chemical used as, drumroll please, BLEACH. Don’t drink this product! You are drinking bleach. See if this sounds familiar: Lemon juice, cayenne pepper, maple syrup, and laxatives. Consume this, and only this, for 10 days. You’ll lose weight…water weight, that is, and gain a good case of dehydration and a weakened immune system. This scam also puts a lot of stress on your heart. At that time, public trust in doctors was very high, and big tobacco took advantage. One company even claimed that prescribing their cigarettes to patients cleared throat irritation in “every case.” This isn’t too surprising, given the mixture of amphetamines (read: stimulant), diuretics (which make you have to pee), and digitalis (aka foxglove plants – which can cause irregular heart beat and death). If you are going to “taste the rainbow,” stick to Skittles. In 1998, Frito-Lay launched Doritos WOW! Chips, which used this fat substitute. Unfortunately, Olestra comes with a couple unfortunate side effects – mainly diarrhea and stomach cramps. Despite being banned for use in weight loss treatment in 1938, there are still illegal diet pills containing the chemical DNP, or 2,4 dinitrophenol. DNP has also been used as an ingredient in explosives and pesticides. Probably should be a red flag right there. Sadly, it’s not something that just makes people ill. Even in small doses, it can be quite lethal. Several people have died from using pills with this chemical in it. Back in the 1940s and 50s, they even drove around in trucks spraying DDT. Kids would run behind these trucks and play in the smoke as they drove down the streets. This spray supposedly protects you by using a “Magnetic Defense Complex”. Its makers have not able to or have been unwilling to provide any research to support their product claims. At the time of its release in 1979, adding natural food ingredients to health care and cosmetic products was a big trend. The problem? A lot of people were confused about how to use the product and thought they should eat it. It probably comes as no surprise that it made a lot of people ill. The moral of the story? Don’t eat shampoo. While coffee can pack 60-80mg of caffeine, energy drinks contain more like 160mg. This may be tolerable to some people’s bodies, but for some, chug a couple of these, and you’re likely to end up in the hospital with tremors or a rapid heartbeat. Deep, golden tans were all the rage in the 70s and 80s, and Coppertone used this trend to their advantage. Their tanning oils only had an SPF of 2 to 4 and used oils to intensify sun exposure. What’s really bad, though? Their claim was that increased sun exposure made skin look younger and that the products only let in safer UV rays – UVA rays, that is. You know, the ones that cause skin cancer. However, Danie Krugel’s “quantum box” failed to meet that mark. This DNA search device claims to combine “complex and secret science techniques” with GPS to find anyone on the planet. While it doesn’t work to find missing people as it claims, it does a great job of tricking grieving loved ones into wasting valuable time and money. Shockingly, Krugel won’t let anyone examine the device. They make foam ones now that are a lot safer for tots that want to pump some “iron” with mom or dad. In 1988, R.J. Reynolds, the second-largest US cigarette company, came out with Premier Smokeless Cigarettes as a safer alternative to smoking regular cigarettes. The true safety of the product was questionable, but there were several reports of an unpleasant chemical taste like “burning plastic”. R.J. Reynolds pulled it off the market within a year, after spending $1 billion on the product. Does it work? According to Consumer Reports, if you do get any relief from it, it’s probably a placebo effect. It also uses the ingredient potassium dichromate, known to cause serious symptoms like dermatitis or cancer when used on skin in high doses. Additionally, in the US, Chinese immigrants believed that snake oil had anti-inflammatory properties and shared it as a way to relieve aches and pains. Regardless, of where it started or how valid the claims, snake oil was sold from several companies as cure-alls. Sometimes, snake oil wasn’t even an ingredient. Other oils were used as substitutes. Since these medicines were not curing people, the term snake oil took on a negative meaning and came to represent scams for more than just medicine. On each page of this publication, there were prominent figures singing the praises of a medicinal product named after the publication. They claimed this product, Peruna, cured hearing loss, rheumatic pains, and many other ailments. The truth? Peruna was 28% alcohol and cured…nothing.
