Dr. Lydia Kang, an internal medicine physician at the Nebraska Medical Center, is co-author of the book “Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything.”
Every quack loves a good pandemic.
They look at pandemics or outbreaks as a way to peddle faux remedies to make a quick buck.
Lydia Kang
It’s hard to bring up quackery, Dr. Lydia Kang says, without talking about the first snake oil salesman.
“Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything”
Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen
Release: Tuesday
Genre: nonfiction
What: Kang, an Omaha doctor and popular fiction author, tracks the sometimes hilarious, sometimes disturbing history of medical misfires and malpractices.
For: people who want to learn just how far medicine has come
Kang, an internal medicine physician at the Nebraska Medical Center, is the co-author of the book “Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything.” She discussed the history of medical quackery during a virtual speaker session last month.
Clark Stanley was a “fantastic salesman,” made famous at the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
He sold snake oil liniment, which he said could cure a number of ailments. In a presentation at the expo, he pulled a rattlesnake out of a sack, slit it open and plunged it into a vat of boiling water. Stanley skimmed the snake fat off the top and mixed it into jars of liniment.
Stanley made tons of money selling the product across the country. But authorities eventually found that the liniment didn’t contain any snake oil.
Quackery is still around today. (Just Google “COVID-19 quackery.”) Part of the reason it still exists is because we don’t have the perfect cure for every disease or a full understanding of how the human body works, Kang said.
Quacks often offer a solution that seems safer or cheaper than what’s available. And, sometimes, the side effects of modern medicine frighten patients.
Modern-day snake oil salesmen have the internet to help further peddle their fraudulent products.
Over the course of history, the rise of an epidemic or pandemic has unleashed “real ingenuity” when it comes to finding a cure, Kang said. Often, the resulting treatments touted as “cures” often don’t work. And the creators don’t necessarily know their cures are fakes.
“There are so many different reasons why quackery exists today,” Kang said. “I don’t believe it will ever go away.”
To sift through modern medical quackery, Kang suggests starting by talking to your physician. The worst-case scenario in that instance: They tell you it isn’t safe.
“Be careful, basically,” Kang said. “Don’t be too trusting. Really do your reading and keep your eyes open.”
17 rare and unusual health stories out of Omaha
One rare disease left an Omaha doctor eating a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. A friend said it tasted like cat food. An Omaha man woke up after his family took him off life support. And a Lincoln teen is allergic to almost everything.
Check out the stories on their unusual ailments and sometimes equally unusual treatment plans.
61-year-old Gretna woman gives birth to grandchild via IVF; 'What you're doing is the right thing'
Matthew Eledge and husband Elliot Dougherty plan to explain her out-of-the-ordinary birth to their daughter in terms she can understand: that her grandmother furnished the garden where she grew, and that her aunt, Lea Yribe, generously supplied the seeds.
Pothole jolts man's heart rate back to normal on way to Omaha hospital. Here's how that's possible
One pothole did a passenger a favor when the ambulance he was in struck it, according to first responders. Gretna firefighters were taking a man suffering chest pain and a high heart rate to the hospital. While en route to Lakeside Hospital, the ambulance hit a pothole. The jolt returned the patient’s heart rate to normal.
Doctors took former Creighton announcer off life-support, and a day later, he woke up
Thought to be brain dead, doctors took former Creighton Bluejays play-by-play announcer T. Scott Marr off life support. Before his family settled on a funeral home, they decided to see their dad one more time. When they got there, he was awake and speaking.
54 days after Nebraska woman was declared brain dead, her son was born
Karla Perez was 22 weeks pregnant when she suffered a catastrophic brain bleed and was declared brain dead. Her unborn child was alive, but wouldn't survive delivery. So family and doctors kept her on life support. Angel was born eight weeks later.
Thanks to Snapchat, Omaha woman gets lifesaving stroke medicine with 12 minutes to spare
Darnisha Ladd never imagined Snapchat would help save her life after she suffered a stroke. But needing a precise timeline of events, doctors and family relied on a post on the phone app and were able to give her a needed medication in time.
'It just blew our minds': Identical triplets born to Nebraska couple are one in a million
Lindsey and Derek Teten's triplets are one in a million. Literally. The Nebraska City couple's three daughters, born in late June 2017, are identical and were conceived without fertility treatments. The girls were the second set of spontaneous triplets born at Methodist Women's Hospital. The first set, also girls, was born in 2015.
Nebraska native who's legally blind sees Huskers play for first time thanks to special glasses
What makes Jamey Dougall's health story unusual is his treatment plan. Dougall, who's legally blind, uses a special pair of glasses to see. He's seen his wife Kandice, his two daughters, and now, his favorite college football team — the Huskers.
First trouble walking. Then paralysis. Then horrific pain. An Omahan's West Nile horror story.
Doctors diagnosed the paralysis that was creeping up Justin Chenier's legs as Guillain-Barre syndrome. It would become so serious that the Omaha man would nearly lose consciousness while screaming because of the pain. The syndrome was triggered by West Nile virus.
Lincoln teen is allergic to almost everything — including sunlight, chocolate, citrus and heat
Kenze Messman's been diagnosed with several chronic illnesses. Sometimes her heart rate climbs, seizures send her to the floor and migraines leave her in the dark. And one of the ailments causes the 17-year-old to have allergic reactions to almost everything.
She lost a leg, 4 toes and a heel. Now she's running in the Omaha Marathon's 5K
The skin on Sharan Bryson's leg was black from lack of circulation. She felt nothing but a sharp, stabbing pain. The leg was dead, and her best option was amputation. Bryson bounced back and put her hard work to the test by running a 5K.
6-year-old with amputated arm named honorary Papillion firefighter
Chase Tiemann has had numerous surgeries in his young life, including the amputation of his left arm. The Omaha boy has a condition that causes tumors — sometimes benign, sometimes cancerous — to form on his body. To boost his spirits after amputation, the Papillion Fire Department named Chase an honorary firefighter.
With another new heart, Iowa man gets a second second chance
Wesley Woods battled heart disease for 20 years. He'd racked up nine heart attacks, multiple surgeries and one heart transplant. He was tired of hospitals. Tired of chest pain. Tired of feeling tired. Woods was lucky — he received a second transplant.
UNMC student suffered a major stroke at 30. Three years later, she has her doctorate
Urmi Basu was set to walk across the stage to receive her doctorate. But five days before the ceremony, the then-30-year-old suffered a major stroke. It left her paralyzed on her right side and struggling to speak. After three years of intense rehab, she returned the the University of Nebraska Medical Center for graduation.
'It's a true circle of life': After 2 transplants, kidney recipient fulfills dream of becoming a mom
Amber Kudrna wasn't sure she'd be able to have a child of her own. After two kidney transplants, doctors gave the Omaha woman a laundry list of potential pregnancy complications. Kudrna and husband Adam weighed their options and, in September 2018, welcomed a baby boy.
After transplant chain, donors meet those whose lives they saved
Sue Venteicher started what would be the largest single-hospital living-donor kidney transplant chain in Nebraska history. Nine living donors gave kidneys to nine recipients at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Doctors have to reshape his son's skull constantly. Now dad found a way to share the pain
Joe Nolan couldn't take his son James' pain away. But he could find a way to share it. Nolan got a tattoo that arched across his head, just like his son's scar. James was born with a handful of ailments, including one that regularly requires his skull to be reshaped.
Rare disease meant eating shakes that tasted like cat food, no-cheese pizza. Now Omahan has found new treatment
Dr. Jennifer Harney used to eat pizza sans meat or cheese. She couldn't add milk to her coffee. She had to choke down a shakelike formula to supplement her diet. She was diagnosed with a rare, genetic condition after birth. But thanks to a new therapy, she's been able to eat things she never thought possible.
402-444-3100, twitter.com/kels2
Kelsey Stewart
Kelsey covers health and fitness for The World-Herald. Follow her on Twitter @kels2. Phone: 402-444-3100.
