Since we’ve hit the “pop culture questions from my friends” segment of my science columnist career, they’re getting more colorful. A conversation with a friend last weekend crashed into one of my pet subjects: bullshit nutritional claims, specifically regarding vitamins. This one shot some life into my veins. Or buttcheek.
“Would a vitamin B12 injection really cause the effects in that episode of Mad Men?”
Today’s Moment of Science… It was, and I cannot stress this enough, not just a fucking vitamin B12 shot.
“It’s an energy serum. It’s proprietary, but all you need to know is it’s a complex vitamin superdose. It’s my own combination of B vitamins and a mild stimulant. It’ll give you 24-72 hours of uninterrupted creative focus, energy, and confidence.”
After a death in the office and right before a marathon weekend toiling away on the Chevy campaign, a partner at the advertising firm calls for some unconventional backup: their drug dealer ahem doctor. Dr. Shelly Hecht breezes into the office, takes no records, conducts no real exams, and administers shots of… something. Anyone who tells him they don’t have a heart condition (and at least one Roger Sterling) gets a dose of this fuckery.
Minutes after Don Draper’s injection, his senses are heightened. Keystrokes land with clinks. The phone rings with an assault to the eardrums. Even the silence echoes. Ad execs are throwing together rapid fire incoherent pitches for Chevy. Ken Cosgrove’s cane is supplanted by his sudden overwhelming urge to tap dance.
Hecht’s description of his “proprietary” concoction would somehow have a company of professional propagandists believe the shots were no more potent than downing a can of Red Bull. It was effective; a decade later, my friend only recalled it as a vitamin B12 shot.
Mad Men’s Dr. Hecht was loosely based on Dr. Max Jacobson, aka Dr. “Feelgood.” Jacobson tended to a roster of powerful clients, including reportedly Elvis Presley, Judy Garland, and John F. Kennedy, famously heavy vitamin users. His “miracle tissue regenerator” shots weren’t a miracle and didn’t regenerate much of anything, but they did contain human tissue: placenta. They also served up a mix of vitamins and enzymes.
If only the list ended there.
Steroids, painkillers, hormones, and *double checks clipboard* amphetamine.
According to interviews, the “mild stimulant” in Hecht’s fictionalized witch’s brew was likewise some form of amphetamine. Actor Jon Hamm described it accurately enough as “a pretty pure form of speed.” Though I’m not entirely convinced the behavior of the ad men could be attributed to the drug in my ADHD medication (which I wouldn’t call mild either), the pill I take is carefully measured. It’s not an unknown amount of an iunno which amphetamine injected into the buttock with a side of horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic toad extract.
It’s easy to look at the Dr. Feelgood era in hindsight and consider the possibility that mistakes were made. And while some people were almost certainly looking for recreational fun with a doctor’s note, others likely thought they were receiving legitimate treatment. Amphetamines weren’t all that regulated yet, and though Jacobson’s work was extreme he wasn’t the only one in the vitamin/stimulant injection market. In a time before google, if a trusted friend recommended this doctor, what were you going to say? Not much, especially after the drooling started.
This episode of the show was set in, give or take,1968. In reality, though a patient died under his care due to “intravenous amphetamine poisoning” in 1969, Jacobson’s antics would only catch up with him after amphetamine became a schedule II narcotic in 1971. The following year, his treatment methods were revealed to the wider public in a New York Times exposé. In spring of 1973, he was formally charged with unprofessional conduct and lost his medical license permanently two years later.
In a statement given by his assistant when he was under investigation, it was said that Jacobson only gave amphetamines with vitamins. Which brings me back to the question that led me down this mad rabbit hole-
What exactly are the effects of a vitamin B12 shot? It treats a vitamin B12 deficiency.
This has been your Moment of Science, feeling a bit lethargic.
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