Another "Wellness" Alternative To Medicine (That Might Be Deadly)

"Today we're going to have a look at an alternative wellness therapy, plagiarized from an indigenous Amazonian ritual practice, and today sold profitably to gullible westerners intent on blending the ever-popular ancient wisdom with the modern wellness fad. It's called kambô. Kambô is a paste made from the secretions of poison tree frogs, and when a very small dose is spread into a break in the skin, it causes severe vomiting, diarrhea, and other adverse (and potentially dangerous) reactions. Consequently, it has quickly become a favorite method of virtue signaling — a way to shout "Look at how enlightened I am, participating in an indigenous Amazonian ritual" among a very select demographic in the United States and other comfortable western nations. But regardless of the social implications, kambô is still pharmacologically active; and that means that it may indeed provide the benefits its devotees believe it does… and it also might mean that it's deadly."

Click on the link below for the details:

Kambo: Let It Go

Wellness: Another Word That Should Raise The Skeptical Antenna

"I read two books about the wellness industry this year: Rina Raphael’s The Gospel of Wellness and Colleen Derkatch’s Why Wellness Sells. These two tomes pull the façade off of this $4.4-trillion wellness economy to interrogate the self-empowerment it sells. Raphael’s book, meant for a lay audience of women, weaves her own adventures in wellness with quotes from experts, who shine a scientific light on the chemophobia of the beauty product business and the supplement recommendations of wellness influencers. (Full disclosure: I was interviewed for a tiny section of the book that deals with functional medicine and have two sentences quoted in there.) Derkatch’s volume, meanwhile, is aimed at an academic audience. It analyzes the language and arguments of wellness and how, for all of its posturing against pharmaceuticals, wellness often relies on the same sickness model and marketing style that medicine uses."

Click on the link below for more:

Why the Gospel of Wellness Sells

Wellness: Be A Skeptic

"From productivity hacks to primal screams, from magic crystals to manifestation, wellness has become a juggernaut industry promising to provide not just health and happiness, but meaning, purpose, and belonging. What happens when those promises aren’t met?

"Our guest is Rina Raphael, author of the new book The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care. She’s been reporting on health, wellness, and women’s issues for outlets such as Fast Company, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and many others, and she’s brought all of her experience—both as a journalist and as a consumer—to this important investigation into the wellness industry, particularly its influence on women. In a conversation with Free Inquiry editor Paul Fidalgo, Raphael discusses how, for many people, wellness has become akin to a religious faith, complete with its prophets and heretics, as well as how the failures of the medical establishment to address the needs of women creates an opportunity for wellness marketers to fill the void with their own solutions, ranging from the medically dubious to outright quackery."

"Wellness" is a term that is like popcorn: there may be a kernel of truth, but most of it is hot air. Click on the link below for a podcast that presents the details:

The business of Wellness