Dr. Brinkley's Controversial Impotence Cure

Today’s new generation of health buffs probably don’t know him. But is his time, Dr. John R. Brinkley was a popular “physician” who attracted both publicity and controversy. Aside from being a promoter of a quack impotence cure that was sought by many celebrities, the enterprising Brinkley was also a radio talk show host, aspiring politician, and Nazi sympathizer among others.

Brinkley’s rags to riches to rags story is truly remarkable and clearly illustrates how far men will go to treat impotence – the constant inability to have or sustain an erection to perform sexual intercourse. Experts say about 30 million Americans are suffering from this condition.

Brinkley’s colorful career began in 1917 while working as a house doctor in the Swift meatpacking company in Kansas. It was there that he observed the energetic mating activities of goats. A year later, a farmer approached him and complained about his poor sex life. Brinkley jokingly replied that the farmer needed goat glands to perk him up. The man agreed and Brinkley got his first patient for a controversial cure that would soon make him a millionaire.

“Most doctors would have ignored the bizarre request, but Brinkley was not like most doctors. In fact, he wasn't a doctor at all. Although he had spent three years at Bennet Medical College in Chicago, he'd never graduated. He called himself a doctor on the basis of a $500 diploma he had purchased from the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City, Missouri. As absurd as it sounds, this piece of paper gave him the right to practice medicine in Arkansas, Kansas, and a few other states,” revealed Dr. Joe Schwarcz, director of McGill University's Office for Chemistry and Society.

What made Brinkley stand apart from the other quacks was his well-oiled publicity machinery that consisted of press releases, advertisements, and direct mail campaigns. Though scorned by the medical community, his goat gland operations became an instant hit with many men who were charged $750 dollars per transplant. When the demand for the operations increased, Brinkley offered human gland transplants for $5,000 that he obtained from death row inmates.

The testimonials Brinkley received from “satisfied” patients helped advance his lucrative career. One of them was Harry Chandler, the owner of the Los Angeles Times who rewarded Brinkley with lots of free publicity. What made the questionable operations even more attractive were Brinkley’s bold pronouncements that they not only made men fertile and virile but could also cure acne, insanity, influenza, and high blood pressure.

Seeing the potential of radio as an advertising tool, Brinkley built his own radio station KFKB in 1923. Aside from the usual radio fare of live performances by local performers and musicians, the station dished out Brinkley’s brand of crazy advice to listeners. He gave prescriptions on the air that were filled at the National Dr. Brinkley Pharmaceutical Association that was run by pharmacists who made lots of money selling colored water. The kickbacks Brinkley received from this operation made him a wealthy man.

In 1930, Brinkley’s medical and radio station licenses were revoked by the Kansas State Medical Board and the Federal Radio Commission respectively for fraud. But that didn’t stop him from continuing his shady operation. In retaliation, Brinkley ran for governor of Kansas as an independent candidate. That would enable him to appoint his own members to the medical board and regain his medical license. He organized a massive write-in campaign where he said he was being persecuted by the medical establishment and promised to set up free clinics and cure all diseases if he won. Although he received a lot of votes, Brinkley lost due to invalidated and “misplaced” ballots.

Stripped of his medical and radio licenses, Brinkley moved to the Roswell Hotel in Del Rio, Texas where he continued his medical practice under radio station XER (later called XERA). Between 1933 and 1938 he supposedly made $12 million which he used to buy diamonds, cars, aircraft, a yacht, and a mansion where he relocated his clinic. In spite of his huge fortune, Brinkley couldn’t cure himself. He suffered three heart attacks and his leg had to be amputated due to blood clots. As a result of numerous lawsuits, he died penniless in 1942.

Brinkley’s radical operation certainly sounds absurd in today’s medical marketplace that offers a lot of safe and effective treatment options for impotent men. One of them is Erectasil, a lotion that acts on the source of the problem to help men rise to the occasion. For details, visit http://erectasil.com .