Extreme Weight Loss Cures

I realize that three posts in one day might cause my aunt's head to explode but nonetheless I am feeling inspired by the knowledge that my post won't disappear when Netscape crashes.

I am a random watcher of Oprah, and this week she had a doctor person on the show talking about tapeworms. He even pulled one out of a jar and had Oprah hold it up so that the viewers could see its length. He described one of the symptoms of tapeworms as drastic weight loss as the tapeworm consumes food energy from the human host. Other than the ewwww! factor this wasn't so weird but I was disturbed by Oprah's reaction. A rush of emotions crossed her face when he said this but the dominant one was interest. She did not ask him whether people inflicted themselves with tapeworms to lose weight but it was inferred. I hadn't really thought that people could/would/should go to such extremes but according to Diet Blog this indeed had been a weight loss cure in the early 1900's. The image above is actual advertising for sanitized tapeworms.