Bottom Line Health/World's Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets

Factual Questions
1

Last week when I was at the gym and toiling away on the cardio machines, I noticed that one of the televisions was showing a really long infomercial. It was an old guy with false teeth “interviewing” a horse-faced guy wearing spectacles about a book called The World’s Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets and another one called Uncommon Cures for Everyday Ailments. I concluded fairly quickly that this stuff was pure quackery – they just made all sorts of claims without giving any details about their “techniques” and talking down the “for-profit” health-care industry.

I was extremely disappointed that a health club would be showing this kind of crap. I have half a mind to send the company an E-mail message requesting that they ensure that they keep this kind of crap out of their gyms.

I remembered that within the last week or two there was a question on this board about another guy (whose name I can’t remember) who had a similar M.O. Does anyone know whether these infomercial guys are related to that guy? Because the whole thing seemed extremely similar, almost identical in description.

After Googling a bit, I found out that the publisher for these books is Bottom Line. I remember my dad used to subscribe to the Bottom Line Financial newsletter and even got a couple of their annual tax advice books. Are all of Bottom Line’s publications as phoney as their health stuff seems to be?

Unfortunately, my Googling didn’t successfully identify the two guys in the infomercial. Anyone know who they are?

2

My grandmother gives me copies of a lot of those books. One of them that they publish is a household-hints book which had some pretty good tips, and another book is one that tells you how to save a little money on daily expenses. (Though nothing that an already-savvy penny pincher wouldn’t know.)

The health stuff is mostly home remedies. I’ve never read through one of them completely, but it doesn’t seem to be over-the-top quackery like some books you see. Mostly stuff like gargles you can make instead of buying cough syrup, and healthy concoctions which seem to reduce cancer risks. I’ve never seen it tell you to avoid doctors for serious ailments-- it’s more along the lines of avoiding going to the doctor for minor things you can cure at home. Its marketing hints at more quackery than is actually present.

3

This observation intrigues me for some reason. It seems almost like a backwards bait-and-switch. Buy our book and get a lot of dangerous nonsense! But when you get the book, it’s just unremarkable common sense. Is that the bottom line?