TRACY KING / SCEPTICAL ANALYSIS
OPINION
Gamer and science enthusiast Tracy King dissects the evidence and statistics behind popular media stories surrounding tech and gaming @tkingdot
I
t’s been a year of pandemic. A year is a short time in
science, and a huge number of amazing medical
advances have been made very quickly that would
otherwise have taken a decade, or perhaps never been funded
at all. If governments and private pharmaceutical companies
(Big Pharma) throw enough money at a problem then positive
things happen, such as the vaccines. In this case, Big Pharma
is providing an expensive light at the end of a long, dark tunnel.
Big Pharma does lots of amazing, life-saving or life-improving
things that cost a fortune to research, develop and test, and I
fully support that.
But they also do some ugly, profiteering, cynical
or outright dangerous stuff (Ben Goldacre wrote
a great book about this called Bad Pharma). Enter
the supplements industry.
Supplements, vitamins, tonics and other
general health pseudo-medicines aren’t new.
While we’re doing reading lists, HG Wells wrote a satirical
novel called Tono-Bungay in 1909, which demonstrated that
the industry and culture around wellness are as old as modern
medicine itself. It’s quite straightforward: humans get fatigued,
achy or slower as we age, and getting regular exercise, water,
sunlight and a healthy diet, as well as abstinence from fun-
but-unhealthy stuff, isn’t always easy.
Okay, drinking water is easy, but I’m on my third coffee
today anyway. Coffee is a mood and performance enhancer
(and tastes delicious), and I feel optimised when I’m fully
caffeinated. Of course, the crash afterwards takes away more
energy than I would have otherwise lost, but that’s the cycle
of addiction for you.
My point is that I quite often feel like crap and would like
a magic pill to not feel like crap. I would like an Exhaustion-
Be-Gone, a panacea with none of the caffeine side effects. I’m
ripe for being sold what’s called a ‘nostrum’. Tono-Bungay, in
the HG Wells book, is a nostrum, a tonic drink that makes you
feel more focused, energised and enhanced.
Or so the sales pitch goes, and because those symptoms
are experienced by pretty much everyone, the product sells
well. Sadly, it’s snake oil, and while snake oil has many more
contemporary names, it’s always going to sell well because
humans are always going to want a magic pill for being
knackered or stressed.
Twitter recently brought my attention to an
advert for supplements specifically for gamers.
I won’t name the supplement in question
because there are many such products – a pill
or powder that claims to enhance video game
performance has nothing to do with the product
and everything to do with marketing.
They are snake oil in fancy packaging and gamers are being
exploited for profit. Sometimes relying on mystical Eastern
inference (if they’ve used this leaf or root for thousands of
years in India then it must work, amirite?! Hint: no), sometimes
comparing the brain to a server or computer, these supplements
all have one factor in common: we don’t need them and they
don’t work as claimed.
If I have symptoms of a vitamin deficiency or inefficiency
then I speak to my GP and get a blood test, and only then do I
take vitamins in line with medical advice. Taking a supplement
that I don’t need just creates expensive pee.
There’s a caveat, as always. I broadly support the right of
anyone to put whatever they choose into their body. But the
caveat to the caveat is this: if it’s not an informed choice then it
isn’t really a choice. Beware the snake oil in modern disguise.GAMER SNAKE OIL
Tracy King takes aim at nutrient supplements being
marketed at gamersTaking a supplement
that I don’t need just
creates expensive pee