I just watched the new Netflix series, Apple Cider Vinegar, which tells the story of Belle Gibson, an Australian woman who launched a wellness business based largely on the false claim that she had survived “terminal brain cancer”. It is worth a watch, and overall I feel the writers (this is a fictionalized version, not a documentary) captured the industry of fake cancer cures and their victims very well. I have some quibbles, which I will get to, but in the end the telling serves the viewer well.
The series focuses mainly on three young women, including Gibson and two fictional characters facing serious cancer diagnoses. Together they represent different aspects of the wellness industry, and specifically the industry of dubious cancer treatments. David Gorski actually captured this spectrum quite well in his article, True believers, entrepreneurs, and scammers in alternative medicine. All are represented in this show.
Gibson is basically a sociopath, who is manipulative and deceptive. She falsely claimed she had brain cancer to obtain sympathy and then, seeing the power of that claim, parleyed that into a successful social media company. Eventually she launched The Whole Pantry app which had 200,000 downloads in the first month. Eventually her claims unraveled, mainly because of her financial misdeeds. It took a long time for anyone to challenge her false cancer claims.
Apple Cider Vinegar does a good job of showing how Gibson learned the language of wellness to sell her brand and, to exploit her customers, and to garner sympathy for herself. There are some lessons for the viewer from this character. First is that there are con artists out there – you cannot just assume that everyone is acting in good faith. No matter how sympathetic someone seems, they could be lying for profit.
But even more, the wellness industry is almost constructed for deception. The show points out that Gibson’s claims were hard to attack. Her personal medical records were protected, and any medical profession who knew her true story was bound by confidentiality. We see this all the time – health scammers, or just those who are misinterpreting their own medical story, hide behind confidentiality. We are left making general statements about what is probable, but cannot really know the medical truth unless it is made public.
The story is strengthened by the other characters. Milla Blake, who is fictional but based on real characters with very similar real-life stories, finds out she has a rare for of sarcoma. Her doctors recommend that her left arm be entirely amputated to save her life. She finds this advice unacceptable and opts for alternative treatment, a decision which greatly frustrates her doctors and her father, but her mother is on board.
The story of Blake is well done. She is simultaneously a very sympathetic character and an extremely frustrating and arrogant one. She is the true-believer, who comes to “wellness” out of fear and desperation, and then dives in completely. She gets coffee enemas five times a day and survives on “juicing”. This is all at the advice of a quack clinic which is not called Gerson Therapy, but which is very close. She also builds a successful wellness brand around her own journey.
The character is based upon the real person, Jess Ainscough’s. If I tell you how her story ends it is a huge spoiler, but you can probably guess. Ainscough eventually died of her cancer. Along the way her mother developed cancer, also treated it alternatively, and also died. This shows how the wellness industry makes people victims, and then turns those victims into purveyors of nonsense that cause further victims. It’s a pyramid scheme of death.
Blake’s journey also shows the viewer that there is a world of exploitation out there, ready to envelop and consume any who fall within its realm. There is fake research, dubious clinics, ready made conspiracy theories – an entire infrastructure supporting the world of alternative medicine.
The third main character, Lucy, is not a social media warrior, just a young women with breast cancer facing everything that entails. She highlights how absolutely terrifying a cancer diagnosis can be, and how difficult it is to navigate the world as someone battling cancer. Even those around her who want to be supporting don’t really know what she needs.
Lucy highlights how incredibly vulnerable people with potentially terminal cancer can be, and how easily exploited they are by the language, the false hope, the comforting lies, and well-meaning nonsense of the wellness industry.
Here come’s my main quibble with this show – all of the health care professionals are universally portrayed and cold and clinical. They have one note – frustration at the alternative claims harming their patients. This is a useful point to make, and I get for story telling purposes why the writers would do this, but it does not reflect reality, and is the one aspect of the show that I think plays into the wellness narrative.
Of course all doctors and nurses are people with their own quirks and personalities, but on the whole the people who work in oncology are extremely empathic. You have to be to survive in that specialty. I have dealt with many oncologists, and I find that they generally ooze sympathy, and have highly developed skills in dealing with patients facing a cancer diagnosis. They have to tell people something that they do not want to hear, and patients frequently will take their anger at the world and anger at their disease out on their caregivers, who just have to suck it up.
The doctors in this show lacked the temperament and the skills that are common in this field. At least showing one empathic oncologist, just for some balance, would have been nice. It also would be important for the story they are telling. People will fall for comforting lies, even with empathic doctors doing the best they can. The show falls for the simplistic narrative that cold and clinical doctors push patients into the arms of alternative medicine, as if CAM is not actively luring them away with lies.
Despite this caveat, I recommend the show. It’s a good watch, and the core of the story will leave the viewer with a good understanding of the pernicious dark underbelly of the wellness industry.
