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UNIT 3: Quackery Table of Contents

Introduction 2

Lesson 1: Quackery 4 Learning Targets 4 Health Check 4 Learn about It! 6 Check Your Understanding 9 Health Care 10

Pro-health Challenge 12

Self-Check 13

Bibliography 15

Glossary 15

1 Copyright © 2018 Quipper Limited

GRADE 10

UNIT 3 Quackery

Fig. 1. Quackery.

Introduction Health is also considered as wealth. It is true that having a healthy mind and body is a prosperity one must take care and keep. Many health products can help to maintain a healthy body. However, some health products are not benefiting a person. Fraud health products are circulating in the market. Most of them are actively advertised attracting more


consumer. Instead of keeping one healthy, these deceitful products cause further harm. Thus, one must be vigilant to avoid scams with health products. Such health products quickly spread among consumers because they are publicized dramatically. The products claim labels of miracle solution or instant recovery of health that can genuinely attract people to buy them. This action is labeled as quackery. Quackery originated from the term “quacksalvers,” which later on shortened to quack. It is a form of promotional health fraud. They are advertising the sale of a product claiming that it can do so much good for your health but was not scientifically tested and proven. In this unit, the nature, forms, and dangers of quackery are discussed in detail. At the end of this unit, it will help you to identify and report fraudulent health products and services.


Lesson 1: Quackery Learning Targets

In this lesson, you should be able to: ● explain the nature and dangers of quackery; and ● report fraudulent health services.

Health Check

Quack! Quack! Quack came from the term quacksalver, described as the wandering peddlers during the Renaissance era. They are the people who claim to cure any diseases using their ointment. But later on, it was found out that the ointment was made of mercury, a heavy metal harmful to the body. This coined the term quack, which became the symbol of evil medical practice. In this activity, you will identify the forms of quackery as shown in a concept cartoon below. Materials:

● pencil ● paper

Procedure:

1. Below is a comic strip on quackery. 2. Identify the forms of quackery shown in the comic strip.


Fig. 2. Forms of quackery.

Guide Questions:

1. What form of quackery is represented by the duck? 2. What form of quackery is represented by the necklace? 3. What form of quackery is represented by the juice and potion lotion? 4. If you were a customer, will buy the necklace? Why or why not? 5. Why do you think the clinic was to be regulated?


Learn about It!

Health is the primary concern of everyone. Medical practices and treatments have advanced as time progressed. Alongside, diseases also leaped to increase resistance against current medical treatments available. There are still no cures for chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and leukemia. Some people are suffering from these diseases that hope for a miracle to happen. However, some people took advantage of their situation. They fool the people into giving false hope for their cure. As discussed previously, they are called quack and what they do is deception. The quack is an individual with little or no professional qualifications to practice medicine. He purposely uses meaningless medical jargons to promote their fraudulent products and services. A quack employs scare tactics and quick fix propaganda to sell. Health quackery can be characterized as a vast business fastly growing due to the support of people diagnosed with incurable diseases. Quackery has three forms - medical, device, and nutritional. Each differs in the purpose of the products and services offered.

Fig. 3. Forms of quackery.


Forms of Quackery

1. Medical Quackery: The promotion of cures, treatments, and remedies of numerous illnesses that are drugless or bloodless. These are inappropriately labeled products, not citing the specific substances present. Most of the time, the packages have no approval seals from certified government agencies that check product quality.

2. Device Quackery: These form of quackery refers to inexplicable instruments that

claim to cure any medical condition or help in quick fixes. For example, an armband being promoted to normalize the blood sugar level of a patient by just wearing it in his arm.

3. Nutritional Quackery: It includes the food fads, and nutritional practices that claim to be organic and toxin-free as a variety of plants are contained in the item. It can be an herbal supplement, a dietary fluid, or traditional health practice.

These products and services are not proven to work effectively through scientific research and studies. But quacks make claims that are not scientifically proven yet. They find ways to promote these products even if they were not tested yet through tv and radio commercials. Thus, victimizing particularly ill people as the most vulnerable and usually trust quackery due to despair. Believing quackery and consuming their products can bring danger to an individual. It could lead to worsening the health condition, postpone cure and relief, or death. It can be that the product contains toxic chemicals harmful to the body. Vigilance is essential to avoid being a victim. Knowledge of examining and evaluating the products or services is a crucial skill to prevent further harm these frauds could cause. Philippine government agencies like Department of Health (DOH), Bureau of Food and Drug (BFAD), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Philippine National Police (PNP) keep regulations against these products.


Below are some warning signs a product or service is quackery.

● Claims that it can cure any chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and the like. ● Gives vague statements without much detail on how it works. ● Suspicious testimonials ascertain only for the claim. ● Diagnose your health condition without proper laboratory procedural examinations. ● A dietary product or plan that works its magic in just seven days or shorter period to

lose weight. ● Recruits their victims to sell the products as well. ● Focuses on the monetary gain from the product.

However, one can check on the claims of a quack by interrogation. Ask questions on how the product really works and what are its contents. One should check the credibility of the manufacturer and the person promoting it. Also, look for disclosure, which tells the purpose and caveat of the product. Also, the interactivity of the product or service must be presented for feedback mechanism and means of information exchanges between the consumer and manufacturer.


Check Your Understanding

A. Write true if the given statement is correct, otherwise, write false.

1. Quack are licensed medical professionals that sell fake health products. 2. Quackery can be medical in nature. 3. Nutritional plans from quacks are always reliable. 4. Quacks can also use some gadgets for health fraud. 5. Quack products lack information on their content.


B. Classify if the quackery is a form of medical, device, or nutritional.

1. A bracelet that can relieve stress. 2. Diet plan to lose 100 pounds in 3 days. 3. Bottle of medicinal plants cures cancer. 4. Ring to instantly gain strength. 5. One bottle of pills for super white and flawless skin.

Health Care Oh No! Quack! In this activity, you will list five reasons why people go to quacks and believe them. Also, you will record the dangers of consuming quack products and services. Materials:

● pencil ● paper

Procedure:

1. In the diagram below, list five reasons why people believe and consume quack products and services.


2. In the table below, list down the dangers of consuming quack products and services.

Dangers of Quack Products and Services

Guide Questions:

1. What will you do to avoid quackery? 2. How will you help others to avoid quackery when they are desperate to improve their

health?


Pro-health Challenge

No more Quack-Quack Raise awareness about the quackery by making an infographic and post it to your social media account. Make sure that it can quickly catch the attention of the public and is efficient in providing information about quackery. Standards and Criteria for Success:

Criteria Beginning (0-12 points)

Developing (13-16 points)

Accomplished (17-20 points)

Score

Content (Focus on details/events are clearly evident; it is clearly related to the topic.)

Content is incomplete and not organized

Content is complete but not organized

Content is complete and organized

Creativity (artistic output)

No creativity and rushed output

Minimal creativity and effort in the output

Well creative and much effort exerted in the output

Key Guide Question

What is quackery?

Reflective Questions

1. Why there are people who fall for quackery? 2. What are the forms of quackery? 3. What are the dangers of quackery? 4. How will you avoid quackery?


Self-Check

Check I can…

Explain the nature and dangers of quackery.

Report fraudulent health services.

Reflect

I find __________________________ the most interesting because ______________________. I got ____ checks because _______________________________________________________. I need to improve on _______________________because _____________________________. I need to practice _________________________ because _____________________________. I plan to _____________________________________________________________________ .


Wrap Up

Forms of Quackery


Bibliography

"10 Ways to Spot Health Quackery." @berkeleywellness. Accessed February 14, 2019. http://www.berkeleywellness.com/herbal-supplements/self-care/home-remedies/over-counter-products/article/10-ways-spot-health.

Concordia, Ronalyn. "Health 10 Learning Material." LinkedIn SlideShare. June 03, 2015. Accessed February 14, 2019. https://www.slideshare.net/ronalynconcordia/health-10-learning-material.

Glossary

Credibility The quality of something or someone to be trusted and

dependent.

Scientific Based and characterized on the principles of science.


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