10 Things People Once Believed To Be Healthy

10 Things People Once Believed To Be Healthy

Throughout history, individuals have been looking for new ways to be healthy, look better, live longer and treat illnesses. The search for health items continues to this day with the newest diet fads and medications. However, perhaps we all need a reminder that newest health fads have not been carefully investigated, and may not be the treatment all we hoped. The claims made by whoever is promoting said diet fad or health craze may be untrue and even harmful. This list contains 10 things people used to believe were healthy, but aren’t.

Radium

In the 1900’s, people thought that radioactivity was good for them. Radioactive products were sold such as radioactive water, anti-aging radioactive cosmetics, uranium blankets for arthritis and radium pendants for rheumatism. However, it was discovered that prolonged exposure to radium caused bone cancer, bleeding gums and anemia.

Shark Cartilage

In the 1950’s, John Prudden, a surgeon, started investigating the use of shark cartilage as a medical treatment. The surgeon said that he was able to reduce tumors and cure cancers using shark cartilage. The results of his research have never been repeated. However, after the book ‘Sharks Don’t Get Cancer’ was published back in 1992, shark cartilage became famous in alternative medicine. The concept was that if sharks do not get cancer and their skeletons are completely made of cartilage then there may be something in the animal cartilage that protects against the disease. However, the concept of sharks not getting cancer is not correct as there have been over 40 recorded cases of sharks having tumors.