02x17 - Crazy Cures

[bunniefuu]

- Do you remember

when a cure for deafness
came with a window seat?

- Pilots take you thousands

of feet in the air doing
crazy vertical dives,

corkscrew turns,
and loopty loops.

You might get sick
but passengers say

that it does work.

- You provide a urine sample.

It's put through a centrifuge

and then injected
back into your body.

- On one side it says
dose, one tablet.

On the other side, it says
poison, which one is it?

- I'm not a doctor,

- These are the
things we used to do.

For fun, for money,

Were they dangerous? Certainly.

Deadly? Occasionally.

But boy, wasn't it exciting?

and painless as seeing a show?

except maybe for
the painless part.

- In the 1890s, dentistry
is very, very painful.

There's really no
anesthesia, no antibiotics,

so you could walk in there
to get a tooth pulled

and walk out with a very
dangerous infection.

- Most people just avoid
the dentist altogether.

he's got a problem.

No patients.

with a very unique
dental sales pitch.

- He will pull your
tooth out for 50 cents,

and if you feel pain,
he'll pay you $5.

Well, Parker is the house.

He's placing the bet,

It's actually seen as
a very effective cure-all

for everything from
stomach issues to fatigue.

It's a great painkiller.

You used to even be able

to buy cocaine
capsules at a pharmacy.

- [Hakeem] Plus, cocaine is
pretty cheap.

In today's money,
that's like $18.

you're getting a box of cocaine.

and inject it directly
into the patient's gums.

It's going to k*ll the pain.

- [Hakeem] And if the pain
returns,

just top them off
with a bit of whiskey.

into a traveling show.

are a thing.

Why not have a
traveling dental circus?

in completely
unsanitary conditions?

- [Austin] Parker's circus
has everything.

Dancing ladies,
contortionists, show girls

Tooth pulling with
cocaine and whiskey.

- [Lance] Parker is dressed
to the nines.

He's wearing a top hat,
he's wearing tails,

and he's wearing a necklace

- [Adam] He's like the
ringmaster at a

three-ring circus.

And he's selling dental hygiene

and products like Painless
Parker's mouthwash.

- [Adam] He gets a volunteer
from the audience.

He takes out his tools.

No wincing, no winging,
no yelping, nothing.

Painless Parker.

and it's not the cocaine.

- So the person who
volunteers is a plant.

to pull out.

- Painless Parker
is Billy [bleep]

but his spectacle is flawless.

- [Henry] But the extractions

for real patients
aren't always painless.

of squirting the cocaine
into the cavity rather

than injecting it into the gum.

And that doesn't work the same.

- [Lance] Injecting the cocaine
directly

into the cavity can
cause infections.

If you swallow it, it
can cause other problems

like heart attacks.

And it doesn't really
get rid of the pain.

has a way to cover it up.

- [Austin] He just cues the
band to play louder.

Drown out the screams.

- [Henry] After
each performance,

Parker hits the road,

leaving behind some
pretty irate customers.

- Dental boards are furious.

Dentists and states
start to sue him.

to the dignity of
the profession.

- In California,
he's actually banned

from calling himself Painless,

which obviously is
his whole brand.

- [Adam] So he know what he
does?

He legally changes his
first name to Painless.

Just using my name, folks.

and lawsuits.

Parker's down, but he's not out.

and dental hygiene.

He makes educational films.

He hosts a call-in radio show,

and he even helps the
animal's teeth at the zoo.

- You know, his methods

but I appreciate a man
like Painless Parker trying

to make it better for all of us.

until you meet Clark Stanley.

He had a cure that
would leave you rattled.

- In the 19th century,

America is building a
vast railroad network.

And so the typical
worker suffers from a lot

of physical aches and pains.

- For thousands

of Chinese immigrants
working on the railroad,

there is a cure.

Oil derived from their
native water snakes.

and it actually relieves
the symptoms of arthritis,

bursitis, and rheumatism.

- [Don] Sounds crazy, but
it really works.

which deliver
actual pain relief.

Suddenly,

There's only one problem.

America doesn't
have those snakes.

to make a lot of money.

- Clark Stanley, he's a cowboy,

but it sounds good.

I mean, what's more
potent than a rattlesnake?

And that's good
enough for Stanley.

at the world's Colombian
Exposition in 1893.

Millions of Americans
come to this thing

to see fascinating
new inventions.

to Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer,

- [Jason] Stanley, he rises
to the occasion,

dressed in full cowboy garb

with a crowd
gathering around him.

He slices open a
live rattlesnake,

drops it in boiling water.

He calls it Clark Stanley's
Snake Oil Liniment.

- He claims he was
taught this recipe

by a Hopi medicine man.

He said it cures
basically any ailment.

- [Jason] Clark Stanley's
snake oil liniment

will k*ll your baldness.

This will solve
your male impotence.

Do you have rheumatism
or arthritis?

omega-3s

His snake oil cure is a sham.

- [Henry] Stanley launches
a nationwide blitz

of newspaper ads and live shows

featuring his phony
rattlesnake cure-all.

- [Rutledge] It's pretty insane,

but the product is
actually so successful

one in Massachusetts
and one in Rhode Island,

neither of which are known

for having rattlesnakes
in that area.

because the only time

that Clark Stanley's snake
oil liniment contains

Once it went to market,

- [Don] So what's really in
Stanley's snake oil?

liniment, and they
find that what's inside

of it is a little bit alarming.

And here people are rubbing
Stanley's concoction

onto themselves like baby oil.

- [Martin] Stanley's
eventually fined $20.

It's a meaningless
amount of money,

but that destroys his reputation

and causes his
empire to collapse.

We now have the expression
snake oil salesman

to describe someone
who's trying to scam you.

- We all know the
importance of being regular,

but one man built
an empire taking

that idea a little too far.

The Kellogg family
is a big family,

but sadly, it's also
riddled with illness.

- He himself suffers
from tuberculosis,

severe constipation,
and hemorrhoids,

- [Edward] Kellogg goes on
to become a doctor,

and in 1876, he takes
over the management

- [Adam] People will hear
sanitarium

and they'll think crazy people.

It actually has more

to do with the word
sanitary being clean,

and it was a place for
people with all kinds

of different
illnesses to get well.

into the main focus
of the sanitarium.

- [Kavitha] Kellogg's work leads

to a theory that all
this disease is caused

by food sitting too
long in the intestine,

And he calls it
auto-intoxication.

- His solution for
auto-intoxication is simple.

More bowel movements.

And not just like one a day.

We're talking at
least four a day.

because your doctor
tells you to.

It's not how it works.

that can pump 15 quarts of fluid

into your intestines per minute.

Now imagine four of those shot

into your colon every minute.

Four of those.

- [J Mack] This is not a
relaxing day at the spa.

This is a fire hose
in the outhole.

at getting people to poop.

He would invent things
like a chair that vibrated

and made you had to clean out.

This guy's a mad scientist.

He's like the Willy
Wonka of poop.

- [Announcer] The
machines do everything.

They beat you and pummel
you and shake you.

- [Adam] And after all the
flushing,

Kellogg's going to
give you a yogurt enema

to basically replenish
bacteria in the gut.

- [Kavitha] By the early 1900s,

of its day.

paying 45 to $60 a week.

at the time.

- [Brian] From where I'm sitting
now,

I could look at these
things and be like,

"That's so stupid, and
who would do that?"

But if you look at who did it,

it was like influencers
of the time.

Celebrities would hear
about these things

and then go and do them.

to be.

It cleans out waste,

but it also can tear
away parts of the colon

and cause a lot of damage.

- [J Mack] Ironically,

or even k*lled by this
dangerous procedure,

but we do know that there
were several suicides,

to go get medical care.

until the Great Depression.

- [Kavitha] After the stock
market crash,

people don't have money anymore

for recreational
colon cleansing.

So in 1933, the sanitarium
is put into receivership

and it ultimately
closes in the 1940s.

the end of Kellogg's ideas.

as what comes out.

- He created a sort
of cereal porridge,

but one night it happened
to dry on the rollers.

And suddenly these
flakes appeared.

Changing the Kellogg
family fortune forever

with the iconic
Kellogg's cornflake.

there was another miracle
cure that was even more

of a stretch.

Much like today, height
equals confidence,

authority, and power.

of the pendiculator.

with leather straps.

You lay down, you strap
your head on one end,

and then your feet on the other,

and then you start to crank.

- [Jason] The crank slowly
stretches your body.

and restore inches
lost to gravity.

and a half inches,
two and a half inches.

and looking them in the eye.

the health and
vigor of a soldier.

Sounds like it would work.

and back, or you want
to gain a little height.

health invention of the century

- It's a cool idea,

but there's no safety
mechanisms on this thing.

for paralysis, and
on and on and on.

the rack.

and the promise that
you'll be taller.

But it's literally
ripping your spine apart.

- [Hakeem] People start
complaining.

- [Don] The pendiculator
doesn't meet its end

by getting pulled
from the market.

And that was it.

- So in the end,

the pendiculator didn't
quite measure up.

- What do you do when
you're feeling tired?

Reach for coffee
or an energy drink?

You won't believe what
doctors used to prescribe

for a quick pick-me-up.

- In the late 19th century,
Americans are tired.

Industrial work is grueling.

- [Rutledge] So doctors had
a little something

that could put a little
pep in your step,

and they called it strychnine.

- [Brian] Now, you may have
heard of strychnine

Does it help with
energy? I don't know.

I'm not going to try it.

Ultimately, it
doesn't help the rats.

You ever seen a
rat on rat poison?

They don't look very
energetic to me.

and as a medicinal tonic
in very small doses.

- [Rutledge] Advertisers promote
the drug

as this kind of
cure-all du jour.

Whatever you've
got, it can fix it.

revive masculine vigor,
cure the despondent.

It'll do everything.

and in some versions,

they're in tiny little
chocolate morsels.

You could buy little pieces

of it and just chew on
it throughout the day.

- [Henry] But its
most memorable use

- [Martin] In 1904,

He collapses in the middle

of it as a result
of his exhaustion.

His trainers then
rush to the scene

and give him a
formula of egg whites

and Strychnine that
brings him back to health.

- Later, he gets a second
dose mixed with Brandy.

What a treat.

He does finish, Andy wins Gold,

but it's not really
doping at the time.

It was more like nutrition.

- [Henry] This is a time

- In 1894, in a
newspaper column,

What should we do?"

And the doctor said,

"Oh, just give them a half
a teaspoon of strychnine

before each meal."

What?

That's a ton of strychnine.

- [Brian] I'm not a doctor.

I haven't gone to any
fancy medical schools,

for them.

- [Henry] In fact, the
line between therapeutic

and toxic is razor thin.

- On one side, it
says dose, one tablet.

And on the other
side, it says poison.

Which one is it?

- [Austin] Just a few milligrams
too much

of strychnine will cause
your back to seize.

Arch like a bow.

- [Dan] As the 20th century goes
on,

reports of accidental
strychnine overdoses

are flooding the
medical journals.

for candies and dying.

It's a bad situation.

on human beings is
completely banned.

that's right

at about the time that
instant coffee takes off.

they went mad for an
equally curious remedy.

for basically anything,
syphilis,

gonorrhea, tuberculosis,

a cold, you would probably leave

with this small pill
called Blue Mass.

- [Edward] Most of the
ingredients seem pretty

harmless, licorice, rose
water, honey, sugar,

but also something
called quicksilver.

At the time,

they though mercury was
kind of like a cure-all.

- [J Mack] Mercury is this
mesmerizing,

- [Henry] Blue Mass
is used by everyone

and anyone, including
future presidents.

to manage melancholy.

Today, we would call
that depression.

to figure this out.

You know, he starts in
1841 and stops in 1861.

- [Natalia] Lincoln was
irrationally angry

and having these mood swings.

patient and thoughtful
and contemplative.

Is it a coincidence? Maybe.

But mercury is known
to cause mood swings.

vomiting, and trouble breathing.

But doctors at the time
take these symptoms

as signs that the
medicine is working.

- What doctors though was
a therapeutic reaction

to this medicine was
actually just early signs

of mercury poisoning.

- [Negin] The modern analysis

So people were getting
like real crazy hits

of mercury back then.

- [J Mack] By the early 20th
century,

and Blue Mass goes away.

- [Negin] It's just funny

But the medical profession
at that time though,

it's easy guys.

We just need one pill.
Let's not complicate it.

was a little unstable.

- At the dawn of aviation,

airplanes weren't
just thrilling.

They were mysterious and
powerful and magical.

And when something
new feels magical,

people start to believe
it can do anything.

Like maybe even curing the sick.

America becomes
obsessed with airplanes

and airplane technology,

the number of airplanes
grows exponentially.

for shipping, for warfare.

- [Henry] Then a
story hits the news

that seems almost impossible.

loses the ability to speak.

and coming up with nothing,

he goes to the US
Public Health Service.

And there,

- [Don] The fact that a
doctor could even think

of using an airplane

So why not give it a try?

you will actually reset
their nervous system.

or merely a placebo
effect, when Renz lands,

they ask him if he can talk

Which says everything.

and soon curative
flights start taking off.

- [Adam] In 1922,

a World w*r I veteran
by the name of

Augustus S. Harris

is dismissed from
a military hospital

as being hopelessly deaf.

at high altitude can help,

the American Legion
arranges a flight.

- [Adam] The plane takes
Harris to 16,000 feet,

and then suddenly he
regains his ability to hear.

by taking a flight,

- [Natalia] In 1925, two years

before his big flight, for $50,

Charles Lindbergh
will take you up,

spin you around 28 times.

You might get sick,

but his passengers
say that it does work.

- [Henry] But these
miracle flights come

with multiple risks.

- [Natalia] These pilots are
using

these decommissioned
World w*r I planes,

and some of them
have been in combat

and they're really
beat up and old,

and now they're pushing
them to their limits.

Doing crazy vertical
dives and corkscrew turns

and loopty loops.

The plane crashes into a
swamp, kills the pilot,

and the person that
was hoping for a cure.

Another deaf flight in
Massachusetts results

in the deaths of three people.

and these flights are
ultimately grounded.

who knows?

But it definitely wasn't
the plane ride itself.

it should have made
them much worse.

- [Lance] Rapid changes in air
pressure

to damage your hearing
than to heal it.

- [Jason] At the beginning
of the 20th century,

Streetlights glow, homes
hum with appliances,

and factories roar to life.

some begin to wonder,

can we use electricity
to improve our health?

with a device called the
Violet Ray Generator.

voltage through a glass tube
filled with gas.

When activated, it glows purple,

hence the name
Violet Ray Generator.

to 80 different conditions.

and even hemorrhoids.

This thing sounds
like a miracle.

Consumers are buying it.

over your body,

of thousands of volts.

- [Hakeem] Some of them
generate 50,000 volts.

That's the same as a stun g*n. .

electrical shocks, other
electrical injuries.

It's really dangerous.

tissue and worsen the condition
that you're trying

to treat in the first place.

If people are using this
to treat hemorrhoids,

- [Henry] But the
most interesting thing

about the violet ray generator

is even more shocking
than electricity.

- The device also
generates ozone,

but is toxic.

into a molecule
rather than just two,

which is what we breathe.

and long-term exposure can lead

to chronic respiratory
failure and even death.

- [Kavitha] It's one thing to
emit ozone,

to treat lung disease
of all things.

and it files multiple lawsuits

for decades and people
had the scars to prove it.

but one popular cold remedy came

with a little more kick
than anyone expected.

their options aren't very good.

Most people just
suffer through the cold

without any treatment at all.

- [Don] Then in 1932,

an American pharmaceutical
company introduces

an over-the-counter
cure that's small,

sleek, and revolutionary.

The Benzedrine inhaler.

and you just inhale it
through your nostrils,

and it clears your
sinuses in seconds.

- [Dan] Doctors love them,
drugstores stock them

everywhere and by the late 30s,

nasal passages.

- Inside of it was
200 to 300 milligrams

of amphetamine.

- [Jason] And you don't
need a prescription.

You can just go to
the corner drugstore

and get a massive dose of speed.

And while you're at it,

you get the equivalent

of 40 Adderall coursing
through your system.

today because if you
buy enough of it,

you can actually
manufacture methamphetamine.

But back in the 30s and
40s, sky's the limit.

Buy all you want.

truck drivers who need
to do a long haul.

There's musicians who
want to just be able

to riff all night
long on the stage.

cracking so many inhalers
during his performances

- [Don] The stuff is so
potent that militaries

on both sides give
it to their spies

Problem is,

paranoia.

By the late '40s, it's
become rampantly clear

that addiction is
a huge problem.

One newspaper puts it perfectly.

They say Benzedrine
inhalers start dope craze.

- The proper thing to do
is to just take this thing

off the shelf, but
there's no profits there,

so the company's not
going to do that.

So they decide to monkey
with it a little bit

and they put dye inside.

and everybody knows
what you're doing.

That's the stuff that
makes hot peppers hot.

- [Brian] The problem is
people who are using it

for the right reasons
also dealt with that.

- [Don] Imagine, you're all
congested.

Your eyes are watery,
your nose is stuffy.

The last thing
you want is a shot

of hot pepper up your nose.

- [Negin] But none of these
measures work.

So by 1959, the FDA steps in

as a controlled substance.

And just like that,

people who have a cold
are left out in the cold.

- When one miracle
cure disappears,

it leaves an opening in
the market for a new one.

some doctors had a
more personal solution.

you would be treated
with an antihistamine,

but they caused drowsiness.

but what they find isn't
sold in drugstores.

It's urine.

Dr. George R. Burrell runs

the allergy control
medical clinics.

They're based in
Southern California

Dr. Burrell has a better idea.

- You don't drink
liquids for 12 hours.

You're then exposed
to an allergen.

You then provide a urine sample.

The urine sample is
taken by the clinic

and it's put
through a centrifuge

and then injected
back into your body.

had had a little
too much to drink

and they were like,

"You know, I bet your
pee could heal you."

And they're like,
"You wouldn't dare."

- [J Mack] You would think with
all

of the ridiculous
cure-alls we've had

throughout human history,
we'd be done with that.

But it just keeps happening.

is basically then
resubmitted into your body.

So it's almost like your
own little mini vaccine

to help you fight
those allergies

and over time overcome them.

When you say it out
loud, you go, "Oh,

you're like, "So my
pee will cure me?"

That's a tough sell.

- [Henry] Although
unconventional,

it seems to work.

- [Martin] Newspapers began
running testimonials

and they're singing its praises.

It has helped with
their hay fever,

their asthma, their eczema.

It has even relieved headaches,

and they make it sound
like urine therapy

is the best thing ever.

your own cure, but it's
a cure with a catch.

- There are so many problems

rid of.

It contains urea and ammonia

Injecting it back into the
body forces your kidneys

to filter it all over again,

leading to dehydration
and kidney stress.

clinic and they find no evidence

that these treatments
actually work.

of the '70s where people
were a little fast

and loose with their own health.

- There was a time
when Americans believed

And one doctor took
that philosophy

to truly thunderous extremes.

- [Natalia] In 1793 in
Philadelphia,

there is this sense of
promise and hopefulness.

America has waged its

revolutionary
w*r against Britain.

This is literally a moment

that a new nation
has just been born.

And then yellow fever strikes.

What begins with flu-like
symptoms soon spreads

throughout the body,
causing organ failure

and yellowy, sallow
skin and eyes.

And it gives the fever its name.

- [Henry] But one of
Philadelphia's most

respected doctors stays behind,

He's a signer of the
Declaration of Independence,

- [Hakeem] Like a lot of
doctors at the time,

he believes that the
human body is composed

of four fluids
called the humors.

Black bile, yellow
bile, blood, and phlegm.

If there is a disease,

- [Henry] But Dr. Rush
thinks purging one humor

is not enough.

- Dr. Rush is a maximalist.

a lot is really good for you.

So he creates his own tablets

called Dr. Rush's Bilious Pills.

than anything else
on the market.

And as if that's
not extreme enough,

They launch them
from every direction.

You've heard of
extra strength pills?

- [Austin] It basically takes
the colon,

which ordinarily
moves at a trot,

and turns it up
to a full gallop.

they resemble thunder.

So they get the nickname
thunderclappers.

you likely are dehydrated,

that are making you
more dehydrated.

You're getting
electrolyte issues.

You go into kidney failure,

of these pills are so extreme

that they would
likely k*ll you way

before the mercury
poisoning could.

until the 1940s.

And we're still finding
traces of them today.

- [Austin] In 1804, Dr. Rush
equips the Lewis

and they take them prolifically.

but it's very good for
modern historical research.

We're able to retrace their path

because every time
they took these pills

and went to the bathroom,

they would be excreting
mercury deposits.

- A lot of it ends up
in the latrine holes

that they make
throughout the journey.

- [Don] 200 years later,

And what they discover is
it has way more mercury

than in the surrounding soil.

So thanks to Dr. Rush
and his thunderclappers,

we can definitively say Lewis

and Clark were here.

- Looking back at
the cures we trusted,

whether it was snake oil
or electric generators,

or a little strychnine to
get us through the day,

some of our remedies may
have been hard to swallow,

but hope has always
been powerful medicine.

And that's why our
hazardous history was just

what the doctor ordered.