The more things change, the more they stay the same

Miracle cures: Online conspiracy theories are creating a new age of unproven medical treatments

Part motel, part new-age clinic, the facility offers nightly rentals in rooms that come equipped with “BioHealers” –- canisters that the company claims exude “life force energy,” or biophotons. Testimonials from the company’s patients speak to the devices’ power to treat cancer, dementia, chronic pain and a long list of other ailments.

Deja vu.

Almost exactly a century ago (some kind of cosmic pattern?) one Dr. John Harvey Kellogg (yes, that Kellogg) established a health care enterprise in Battle Creek, Michigan — a "national holistic wellness destination" — attracting celebrities from around the world (and giving us, in the end, corn flakes).

As described by the History Channel…

[Kellogg] seemed willing to try anything to cure his patients’ ills, experimenting with countless treatments and inventing dozens of his own. Some of his ideas, particularly on nutrition and exercise, have proved remarkably prescient; others now seem goofy or even barbaric. Here are some of the latter. (Warning: This is going to get pretty gross.)

The Road to Wellville, a 1993 novel by T. Coraghessan Boyle, mentioned in the History Channel article, is a hilarious (and also gross) take on the whole affair, and worth a read. (It was also made into a movie currently showing on freevee.)