Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13636

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Journal Article

Spence D.
X ray specs
BMJ 2008 Apr 26; 336:(7650):962
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/336/7650/962

Abstract:

The back pages of Marvel comics used to have advertisements for “Dynamic Tension” so you could achieve the body of Charles Atlas “in just two weeks,” “magic” insoles that made you taller than adults, and “amazing” x ray spectacles that allowed the wearer to see through people’s clothes (a truly horrifying thought). A friend bought a pair but found just a scantily clad lady painted on the inside of the lenses-it was just a scam. At medical school I took a certificate in radiology legislation, which made it clear that x ray specs would be not only pointless but downright dangerous.

Recently, anxious patients have attended my clinic clutching cut-out advertisements for amazing computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). I investigated some of the claims…

destwo@yahoo.co.uk