2:09pm
Saint Paul
My uncle’s memory is slipping.
It’s not as bad as it could be. Yet.
But it adds a lot of stress to the family, especially for my mom (his sister).
So when my mom and dad were recently sent a Video Sales Letter (VSL) about a miracle cure for Alzheimer’s , they were interested in what it had to say.
They watched the full hour or so.
And then they sent it to other family members before one wrote back with a warning:
“It’s a SCAM. Look up Dr. Sanjay Gupta…”
Mom and Dad were familiar with Dr. Gupta, a CNN celebrity.
Which is why they first bought into the VSL’s promise…
And it turns out, Dr. Gupta’s likeness was used against his will –– falsified with AI –– to push bad health advice.
They were telling us about this over dinner a few weeks back, frustrated that they’d been duped.
“We’re not exactly supporters of Big Pharma,” my dad told me.
“But I started to think about it. And if this cure really works, wouldn’t these drug companies be all over it?”
Ah, the curse of Alternative Health.
Because, while this specific cure might not be real, there are certainly alternative health options that are real.
Solutions Big Pharma can’t patent. Can’t profit from. Can’t gatekeep.
And how do we, the customers, know which solutions are real… which are harmless… and which are terrible?
Honestly, we don’t.
Not really.
The FDA can’t audit every health claim.
And many of Big Pharma’s solutions don’t hold up to scrutiny, either.
Testimonials can give us a hint of a product’s effectiveness –– if those are real.
Research into ingredients and their effects are more helpful, which most people probably don’t attempt…
But the copywriter does.
It’s the copywriter’s job to find everything possible to support the case that this works.
And, hopefully, they’re doing it ethically.
(One copywriter I know said he feels so dirty that he needs multiple showers a day. To me, that signals a dishonest business. No thank you.)
When I wrote a VSL for a weight-loss supplement, I spent weeks researching the ingredients and the mechanisms on how those ingredients function inside the body.
I wanted proof of the product’s potential to help people.
Here’s one cool thing I learned:
Your liver not only removes sugar from your body. It also produces sugar, for as long as it has access to stored glycogen.
Which means, for some people, any attempt at dieting can result in basically no change in weight for a long period of time. Because the liver keeps releasing sugar, which the body uses for energy.
But with the right herbal supplements (including dandelion root), that blood sugar can get bound up and removed, reducing blood sugar levels and speeding up ketosis (aka fat burning).
Back to Dr. Gumpta.
It was a fascinating conversation to hear how my parents felt about the VSL and their thought process behind the dementia cure being something worth pursuing.
And it’s a sad reality that our healthcare system is known to be a profit center more than a source of cures.
If you’re interested, here’s a CNN video of Dr. Gupta’s reaction to these falsified health offers:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/31/health/video/gupta-fake-ai-health-ads-digvid-16×9
Stay vigilant out there,
Jeffrey