The Internet is a place where you can find a supporting argument for any opinion and you can find a market to buy anything for any price. There’s that guy who sold jars of air, and the 18-year-old girl who sold her virginity on eBay just a few weeks ago.
More recently, however, something less strange but perhaps more disturbing has popped up on the Internet — sites that promise cures for diseases. These sites aren’t just proclaiming that they have cures for the common cold anymore — we know there are many remedies for that, few of which are effective. Even worse than that, they are selling cures for cancer; a disease that science has not developed an over-the-counter treatment yet, let alone a cure that can be bought and sold anonymously over the Internet.
Some of the promised cures sold on these sites are simply drinking water or eating apricot seeds. And it’s not limited to cancer either, but weight loss and anti-aging effects, too. So apparently, not only will you defeat cancer by eating apricot seeds, you’ll also looking young and fit. Somehow, it sounds too good to be true.
Thankfully, however, the Federal Trade Administration (FTA) has recently shut some of these sites down, and has filed serious complaints against some others. However, this dangerously still leaves hundreds of sites that claim they can cure almost any type of cancer with a natural remedy that ultimately might not have any lasting effects at all or, worse, negative consequences.
The problem with sites such as these goes beyond that of false advertising. Pretty much everyone nowadays surfs the Internet. Everyone is vulnerable to these sites, but for people who are suffering from cancer themselves, and desperate for a cure, the result is a dangerous combination. You don’t have to be gullible to believe the wonderful things these sites say they can deliver — in many cases, desperate people are willing to believe anything, and these websites take advantage of this vulnerability. These sites offer false hope not only to people suffering from cancer, but also to their loved ones.
That’s not to say that there aren’t good things to say about alternative or holistic medicine. Healing that goes beyond or doesn’t incorporate Western medication can be effective on its own. However, more often than not, sites go just beyond offering remedies practices by the Eastern traditions. They don’t offer any proof or substantiated evidence by way of peer-reviewed research for the miracle cures that they promise.
It is highly unlikely that while countless people are suffering from cancer, only the ones who know to eat apricot seeds or take a certain vitamin have managed to become remittent. These websites will continue to take advantage of the desperate as long as they are online, and so one can only hope the FTA is successful in shutting them down as quickly and efficiently as possible.
