Do you believe in magic?

It happened again, that oh so subtle Facebook message from someone I knew years ago. Did I know about the magical product they sell that can cure me? So many people with insert any disease here have had their whole lives changed! The scientists haven't cured it but the Native Eskimo Tribe from Antarctica has done it! And even better the product only costs $99 a month (for 10000 months, see product for details). It's a steal at that price and everyone, absolutely everyone is trying to get their hands on it!

Essential oils, shakes, vitamin supplements, organic produce, goat turds, rare water from an unknown spring in the Bermuda Triangle, you name it and someone has tried to sell it to me. Because apparently I look like I have ten thousand dollars to spare on a treatment that is based on no research whatsoever. Many of these people are genuinely trying to help me out and I appreciate that. They have a friend of a friend of a cousin who has "health problems" like I do and it worked for them. That's great for them it really is, but I need proof before I waste what little money I don't already spend on healthcare on magical cures. And of course there are the sales people who are not genuine at all. They hear through the grapevine that I have "health problems" and they jump at the chance to sell me their product. Essenial oils reps are the worst at this.* I like EOs, you will have to pry my peppermint EO out of my cold dead hands, but I use it to lesson headaches and not as a cure. The salesmen have gotten so bad I want to tattoo on my forehead "Essential oils can not cure my disease." The FDA has had to actually stop essential oil companies from claiming they could cure Ebola. This is the kind of nuttery I have to deal with.

I'm not completely against natural options for health, I will go to the grave swearing of the awesomeness that is gripe water for babies with colic. As I've admitted before I am skeptical of wild claims of magical cures, but I do think there are natural options that can help me cope with my disease. The problem is finding the legitimate ones. Since the body of real research is a bit thin, natural treatment often involves trial and error which of course involves spending lots of money.

Once again it seems that the loser in all this is the sick people. We've been abandoned by the health system and we don't know what to do. Doctors refuse to help us, insurance companies don't want to pay our bills, emergency rooms think we are drug addicts, what are we supposed to do? People are so desperate to get better that they will try anything. It's sad and infuriating and makes me want to scream about the injustice of it all, until I go get my orange essential oil and then I'm all good, because essential oils fix everything.

Thanks to my sister who also suffers from the attack of the natural cure salesmen. Our conversation inspired this post.

* There are exceptions of course. I know one rep for EO who has been super helpful and not pushy at all. She's merely made the information available to me and let it at that. If only the rest were so respectful.