Is it quackery or real? It's often hard to tell, but sometimes excessive
claims give a clue. It is hard to understand why quacks get carried away with
claims for their nostrums, but it must sell the products. To intelligent
people, though, it is somewhere between amusing and appalling. 

4 responses total.

Bio/tech News is a newsletter promoting the merits of various dietary
supplements. One such is an enzyme supplement, Sustenase, from LifePlus. 
Here is a description of one of the effects of enzyme (unspecified)
dietary deficiency: 

"3. High Urinary Indican - Rotting organic substances in the colon produce
a potent toxin called indican. According to Dr. Lee, 'Indican is extremely
toxic and causes many symptoms including inflammation in the digestive
tract, body odor, halitosis, foul odor of stool/urine, gastritis,
ileocecal valve incompetence, bloating, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation,
mal-assimilation of nutrients, tachycardia, fever, allergies, asthma,
arthritis, cardiac arrhythmias, ear/nose/throat and eye problems,
epilepsy, schizophrenia, memory loss, phobias, depression, delusions,
nightmares, premature senility, low back pain, sciatica, dermatitis and
even cancer.'" 

[Indican - indol-3-yl sulfate - is a normal constituent of urine and blood
plasma in all mammals. I have not yet found any toxicity information, but
the Merck Index does not suggest it is particuarly toxic. Sigma Chemimcal
sells it "off the shelf".]

But aren't there, like, a gazillion *different* enzymes involved in the
affected processes listed above? <otter scratches her head and goes back to
eating a brooktrout>

Well, thats the point. Each of those diseases have their own causes and
while some toxins will cause a variety of *symptoms*, few cause specific
diseases, and certainly not that grab-bag of everything one might fear
getting. Low back pain and schizophrenia, indeed. That sort of thing is
what used to be printed on bottles of "Snake Oil", etc.

Successful sales of "cure-alls" seem to rely on the fact that people are just
plain lazy. It's far too much *work* to plan a healthy and balanced menu,
get regular exercise, and seek medical attention when something is actually
wrong.

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