“Alternative” or “quack” medicine, the likes of which hasn’t been seen since the classic traveling salesman selling snake oil out of a cart, has been making a comeback. With the internet now a factor, the ability to spread and create false information has become infinitely easier.

This medicine doesn’t work. It is dangerous, yet it is accepted by people around the world. These people then end up paying for youtubers, book-writers and disgraced doctors, who sell their garbage full-time.

There are many popular alternative medicines. These medicines often focus on “natural” remedies for almost all diseases. Perhaps the most disgusting of these medicines is urine therapy.

Urine therapy involves drinking one’s own urine, massaging it into the skin and washing one’s eyes out with it. It’s been reported to have cured cancer, AIDS, chronic pain and basically every ailment/disease there is.

There has been research done on urine therapy and all studies have concluded there are no beneficial effects of urine therapy. These studies have, however, warned about the dangers of infections that can come from applying urine to the skin.

Another alternative medicine is Miracle Mineral Solution (MMS), a product that creates a bleach when combined with a weak acid.

This bleach is said to cure malaria, HIV and autism. This is false, however, and unlike urine therapy, it has some real negative effects. Small doses cause diarrhea, nausea, puking, etc. And in large doses it can kill you.

Turpentine, which is paint stripper, is suggested to be taken orally and topically.

These are a few of many alternative medicines that are being promoted throughout the internet today. Most are largely ineffective but safe, some promote being sick as being healthy and some can lead to downright death.

There are a few reasons why I think this is. For one, most of the medicines make you sick because they are dangerous and made from materials not meant to be ingested. However, the makers and promoters of said medicine will tell you that the pain and sickness is your body expelling the waste. They say that being sick means it is helping.

You can see this in MMS. The maker of MMS said that a person with lyme disease took MMS, and their face peeled off. Instead of saying that’s a negative side effect, he claimed that the lyme in the face had been killed. Black Salve literally melts whatever it comes into contact with even though untrained individuals promote it as a cancer cure to be applied topically. This is the danger of alternative medicines.

I think the solution to this problem is simple. There should be extensive regulations put on people who promote unreviewed panaceas online. These policies have begun, as some people who promote these cures have been run out of their countries, but this does not stop them from promoting their remedies online. Regulations should be made.