Thirdly, newspapers and almanacs, then and now, trumpet their own recipes for cure-alls for everything, from the common cold to cancer.

Fourthly, in the 19th and the early 20th centuries, the traveling medical shows made their rounds around both urban and rural America, peddling both their products and their health care advise-today this has been replaced by advertisements on the WEB.

Finally, some physicians, for a fee, have been willing to tell their supposed secrets to the public, either by means of lectures, in newspapers and magazines, or in their own self-help manuals. In this sense, Dr. Art Ulene, who was a regular on the Today TV show in the 1980’s, was just continuing this tradition of physicians informing the lay public about how they could treat themselves at home.