Did you ever find yourself watching TV in the predawn hours? It's worse than a waste. It's an affront to one's intelligence. If you find what's offered in the wee hours of genuine interest, please stop reading right here. You have nothing to say to me and I have nothing to say to you. I doubt that anyone has ever studied this but I wouldn't be surprised to find that extended exposure to late night pitchmen saps IQ points.
Allow me to comment on just two products I saw advertised for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.
The first involves the notion that Asians have been drinking a special kind of miraculous green tea during their Tea Ceremony for centuries and now it's suddenly available to all the nudniks watching television at 3 am.
It's so typical of Americans to want to cut to the chase. Certainly a cup of tea may add to the enjoyment of the day but expecting it to be a magic bullet targeted on your immune system generally or your aches and pains specifically is unwarranted. Like chicken soup, tea seems to ease the symptoms associated with colds and flu but that's about it. As the old saying goes: Do nothing and your discomfort will last a week. Take this or that cure-all and you'll be better in just seven days.
The fact is that any health benefit to be gained from the Tea Ceremony probably results more from the ceremony itself than from the tea. Studies far to numerous to mention have shown that periods of rest and relaxation can do much to counteract the standard stresses and strains of life. Entering into a long established pattern of behavior - such as a tea ceremony - allows both the body and the brain to experience a kind of time-out. So too, there is great satisfaction and comfort to be found in the performance of traditional rituals.
On a personal note, my wife and I thoroughly delight in our evening game of backgammon. Neither she nor I think much of the game itself and wouldn't especially want to play at any other time. But the opportunity to slip into our special rite - complete with candlelight and a glass of wine - is truly salve for the soul. Chasing down some special brand of tea to be gulped while seating in rush hour traffic, on the other hand, misses the point entirely.
The second product, it seems, is equally miraculous. Magnetic insoles are now curing everything from halitosis to osmosis. It would seem there's a lot of that going around.
Interestingly enough, I've received several queries recently referring to the health effects of magnets. Advertisers and sales people will tell you all about "scientific research" and will be all too willing to shower you with testimonials. The problem is that, because of the placebo effect, testimonials are all but worthless. Laymen are known to swear that when plain water is packaged as a hair-restorer it grows hair and that when it's packaged as a pain reliever it cures headaches. And the "scientific research" doesn't add much more to any question of efficacy. Unless it's conducted by creditable teams at established institutions (people and places with reputations to protect as opposed to products to sell) it's meaningless.
This is something the general public doesn't understand...or think much about while staring at their flat screen. I can do an experiment in my garage, apply all the standard statistical techniques and come up with an amazing result that I can then get published in one or more fringe journals. The only way to test what I say would be to repeat the experiment. However, you don't know how and legitimate laboratories don't have the time or the inclination. Bat down one silly claim and two will take its place
A popular infomercial tells of a book (also $19.95) listing a slew of "natural cures they don't want you to know about." According to the author, his tortured English aside, cancer is the result of nothing more than an improper acid/alkaline balance. Fix the fault and BINGO no more cancer. So where's the Nobel Prize? Despite being fined by the FDA on numerous occasions, the guy keeps coming back. His snake oil can be counted upon to bring in more than enough to easily cover all his legal fees and to make a hefty profit.
How those pitchmen manage to sell such a load of Dark Age nostrums before the sun sends them scurrying, I've no idea. What is it about the wee hours that turns TV into an intellectual disaster area?
