Ten Of The Strangest And Least-Effective Health And Fitness Fads
Every year there seems to be a ‘miracle’ new diet, or health fad that promises instant results and often enjoys support from a celebrity or two. Over time, these miraculous cure-alls are often proven to be nothing more than a fad, and often a particularly ineffective (and occasionally, dangerous) one at that.
In this article, we’ll examine ten of the strangest health and fitness fads that have enjoyed widespread support in the past but which now, thankfully, are only followed by a small few who refuse to accept that the best way to total fitness, is a healthy diet and regular, balanced exercise.
1. Stanley Burrough’s Master Cleanse
Body detoxification programs were really popular until very recently and indeed, many people remain advocates to this day of one form of program or another. Stanley Burrough’s Master Cleanse is the body detox forefather. Developed in 1941, the user simply drinks a somewhat vile sounding mix of lemon or lime juice, water and maple syrup, laced with spicy cayenne pepper for between 10 and 45 days to rid the body of toxins.
What actually happens is that the user is permanently hungry, lethargic, constipated and tormented by headaches and loses a lot of weight, which is then all piled back on quickly, the moment that they start to eat normally once again.
2. Q-Ray bracelet
The Q-Ray Bracelet was advertised as being a breakthrough product for pain-relief, but also that the wearer would then find they had improved balance, would perform better athletically and would be full of energy and zest for life. The cause of this was the fact that the bracelet was “ionised”. Unfortunately, tests showed that the bracelet had none of these properties and was not even ionised at all and a court ordered Q-Ray to return $16m in profits to customers due to misleading advertising.
3. Colonic irrigation
While colonic irrigation does have a place in medical science, such as before an colonoscopy, the practise of regular colonic irrigation can actually do more harm to the body than good. Indeed, many experts feel that cleansing the colon regularly can have particularly detrimental effects upon health.
4. The tapeworm diet
This really is as horrific as it sounds and was introduced in the early 20th century to help weight loss. The user would swallow several beef pills containing tapeworms which would then grow inside your digestive tract and would partially consume the food you ate. Once you’ve lost weight, you take a pill to kill the worm. This is a hugely dangerous diet, not to mention particularly nauseating and has been banned across the globe.
5. Cow Urine Drink
In India, cow urine is being promoted by one particular Hindu nationalist group, the RSS, as the next great soft drink, offering a wide range of health benefits to the consumer. These outlandish claims have seen the RSS state that drinking cow urine can help cure a wide range of illnesses, as well as eradicating liver infections and even cancer. While the cow may be sacred to many in India, we’re prepared to bet it’s urine doesn’t really have such startling medicinal properties and may taste even worse than it sounds.
6. Aerial Aerobics
The antics of groups such as Cirque du Soleil have drawn amazement and wonder for many people, however for some, merely watching is not enough. Several high profile gyms began to offer aerial aerobics programs, where the average man or woman from the street could come in and try to perform similar acrobatic stunts high in the air. Unsurprisingly, this kind of expertise was way beyond the ability of most keen amateurs.
7. Asana Wind-Relieving Yoga
Yes, you did read that correctly! Asana Yoga classes involve people lying in a room filled with other people and adopting a wide range of poses. Among other things, these poses are supposed to help with flexibility (which they may do), lower back pain (which again, it may help with) and perhaps most disturbingly, encourages the relief of excess wind by adopting a range of body positions that allow the practitioner to pass gas more easily. You do have to ask, why people would go and secondly, why would you want or need to?
8. Bee venom therapy
While not popular in the western world, there are many in the Far East, China especially, who believe in the miraculous healing properties of bee venom. Whether it is a cure for arthritis, tendonitis and perhaps more painfully, herpes and even breast cancer, practitioners believe that by applying bee venom to the affected area, yes in the form of a direct bee sting, can help reduce the symptoms or even cure the ailment. While some bee products, honey for example, does have some use in medicinal terms, there is absolutely no evidence this practise works and in the case of those who have a severe anaphylactic reaction to the sting, it can be life threatening.
9. Biotape
Like the Q-Ray Bracelet, Biotape is another health fad that quickly lay claim to being able to help reduce pain by reconnecting broken neural circuits responsible for pain. Unfortunately for Smart Inventions Inc, the Federal Trade Commission in North America showed that this mylar tape did no such thing and the company was forced to issue $2.5m in refunds to misled customers. The tape is still available, but now only claims to fix our bodies chi, although how it came to be broken in the first place is still a mystery.
10. Malariotherapy
Malaria has killed millions more people in history than any other pestilence, plague or natural disaster. So only a real lunatic would willingly inject someone with malaria, however that is what Dr Heimlich (who invented the more useful Heimlich manoeuvre) has been suggesting since the 1980s. He claims it can help eradicate diseases such as Lyme’s disease, syphilis and even AIDS. Medical experts across the globe have unsurprisingly condemned the practise arguing that giving someone a disease that has killed billions willingly, is perhaps not the best form of healthcare available.