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Prescriptions
The Line on Virtual Health
By Susan Enfield
Could you use an energy boost? want to live longer, and lose that spare tire while you're at it? We all do, of course, and given the far-reaching powers of discovery we have with the Internet, one might surmise that you need not enter the gym — much less leave the house — to do it. The latest, greatest
health-lifting supplements, those allegedly life-transforming nostrums your neighbor-cum-distributor started pushing on you after being downsized, can be had with a few deft clicks of the mouse. And since the FDA has quit regulating claims about such miracle products, both on the Web and on store shelves, companies are free to spin-doctor the benefits of
their goods to health-conscious surfers everywhere. Herewith, four great-sounding examples.
| MIRACLE PRODUCT |
ONLINE PITCH |
THE CATCH |
Super Blue Green Algae
by Cell Tech
www.celltech.com
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Pop two capsules of stuff harvested from southern Oregon's Upper Klamath Lake and you'll feel, as one of 350,000 independent distributors says, "steady energy all day long, every day." Other distributors remark that SBGA relieves allergies and fights
viruses. |
The Upper Klamath may be revered by some, but in 1996 health officials warned locals to keep pets away from the lake, which was infested with another blue-green alga: a potentially fatal, liver-attacking sort. Could you tell the difference? |
Coral Waters
by Body Systems Technology
www.pathcom.com/
~ianw/corald.htm
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Brew up tea from bags filled with the dehydrated "essence" of Okinawan water — ground-up chunks of an ancient coral reef — and among other happy benefits, you'll develop an exemplary immune system, reduce joint inflammation, and live longer. |
Sure, the World War II battle site is home to many a robust islander, but that's because of factors like genetics and diet, says Dr. Ronald Klatz, president of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. "Drinking water from there won't do much except clean out
your wallet." |
Doc's Mineral Rocks
by Higher Ideals
www.higherideals.com
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Gulp down this liquid "Ninth Wonder of the World" — which contains a whopping 70 or more colloidal minerals (including aluminum, mercury, and arsenic) from a 120-million-year-old rainforest deposit in Utah — and it'll "remove unwanted pollutants in
the body." |
More is not necessarily better: Taken in excess, minerals can build up to toxic levels and cause disease; for humans, only 17 minerals are essential. It's also highly debatable whether minerals in colloidal formulations are easily absorbable. Besides, mercury
tastes awful. |
Oxygenated Water
by Life O2
users.ica.net/
ianw/lifeo2s.htm
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Chug a bottle of this agua — charged with five times the oxygen found in pedestrian bottled water — and it'll increase "available oxygen levels in the bloodstream and reduce your pulse rate 2-15 beats per minute within 10 minutes." |
"How can you get extra oxygen absorbed in water?" asks Alan R. Gaby, professor of nutrition at Seattle's Bastyr University, the country's leading multidisciplinary natural medicine school. "It'll just bubble out." |
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Illustration by Michael Bartalos
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