Radium water cures disease

Radium water cures disease
	FALSE
	"Drinking water infused with radium, such as the patent medicine Radithor, restores energy and cures a wide range of diseases."
Domain	Health & Medicine
Tactic	Fraud or Scam; Pseudoscience / Junk Science;
Era	Historical
First seen	1918
Origin	Radium health products marketed in the United States and Europe after the discovery of radium; Radithor sold from 1918 by Bailey Radium Laboratories, East Orange, New Jersey
Last reviewed	2026-10-26
	Further reading: books on Health & Medicine

In the early twentieth century, radium was marketed as a miracle health ingredient. Radium-infused water, creams, toothpaste, chocolate and other products promised energy, vitality and cures for many diseases. The most notorious, Radithor, was a bottled solution of radium in water. Its best-known customer, the wealthy American industrialist and sportsman Eben Byers, drank around 1,400 bottles and died of radiation poisoning in 1932, after his jaw and parts of his skull had disintegrated. His death helped end the radium health craze and strengthened calls for tougher regulation of drugs.

The claim

Radium products were sold as tonics that would restore "pep," cure fatigue, impotence, arthritis, high blood pressure, mental illness and much else. Radithor was advertised to physicians and the public as "Perpetual Sunshine" and as a cure "for the living dead." Its promoters described radioactivity as a natural source of energy that the body needed.

Origin

Marie and Pierre Curie discovered radium in 1898. Its glow and mysterious energy captured the public imagination, and early research suggested radiation could destroy tumors, which it can, in carefully controlled doses. At the same time, some natural springs believed to have healing properties were found to contain radon, a radioactive gas, and promoters claimed radioactivity explained the springs' benefits.

These associations created a market. By the 1910s and 1920s, products containing radium or radon were sold widely in the United States and Europe, including devices that added radon to drinking water.

Radithor was produced by Bailey Radium Laboratories, founded by William J. A. Bailey, a businessman who presented himself as a doctor but had no medical degree. Each half-ounce bottle contained small amounts of two radium isotopes dissolved in distilled water. Unlike many products that claimed to contain radium but did not, Radithor genuinely did, which made it far more dangerous. Bailey offered rebates to doctors who prescribed it.

The case of Eben Byers

Eben Byers was a Pittsburgh steel industrialist and socialite who had won the US Amateur golf championship in 1906. In 1927, after injuring his arm, he was advised by a doctor to try Radithor. Byers felt that it gave him energy and began drinking it regularly, sometimes several bottles a day, and sent cases to friends and associates.

By 1930, Byers had become seriously ill. Radium is chemically similar to calcium, so the body deposits it in bones, where it continues to emit radiation. His bones began to deteriorate; he lost most of his jaw, and holes formed in his skull. In 1931, he testified, too ill to travel, to investigators from the Federal Trade Commission, which was looking into Radithor's advertising. He died on 31 March 1932 and was buried in a lead-lined coffin. Decades later, a Wall Street Journal retrospective summed up the case with the headline "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off."

How the record changed

Byers's death made front-page news and brought the dangers of radium products home to the public. The Federal Trade Commission ordered Bailey Radium Laboratories to stop selling Radithor. The case contributed to support for stronger federal drug regulation, culminating in the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, which required manufacturers to demonstrate the safety of new drugs before selling them.

Byers's case paralleled that of the "Radium Girls," young women who painted watch dials with radium paint and were taught to lick their brushes to a fine point. Many developed severe illnesses and died. Their lawsuits in the 1920s and 1930s helped establish workers' rights to sue employers for occupational harm.

What the evidence shows

Ingesting radium is dangerous. Radium accumulates in bone and causes bone necrosis, anemia, and cancers, including bone cancer and leukemia. There is no evidence that drinking radium water cures any disease. Radiation can be used therapeutically in carefully targeted and measured doses to treat certain cancers, but that bears no relation to drinking radioactive tonics.

Why it fooled people

Scientific glamour. Radium was the most exciting scientific discovery of its age, and associating a product with it suggested modernity and power.
A grain of truth. Radiation really could shrink tumors, which made broader claims sound plausible.
Felt effects and slow harm. Users often felt better at first, while the damage accumulated invisibly over years.
Fake credentials. Bailey's presentation of himself as a medical authority, and payments to doctors, gave the product false legitimacy.

Lessons for readers

A new scientific discovery is often followed by products that exploit its prestige. Today's equivalents include products marketed with "quantum," "nano" or "stem cell" claims that bear little relation to the science.
Some harms take years to appear. Short-term feelings of benefit are not evidence of safety.
Check credentials. A title is not a qualification.

Sources

"The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off," The Wall Street Journal (1990, retrospective).
Roger M. Macklis, "Radithor and the Era of Mild Radium Therapy," Journal of the American Medical Association 264, no. 5 (1990).
Federal Trade Commission, proceedings regarding Bailey Radium Laboratories (1931–1932).
Kate Moore, The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women (2017).