Category: Health Fraud
The Mercola Tapes: One of the wealthiest antivaxxers in the world is scammed
Dr. Joe Mercola embraced "alternative health" in the late 1990s, including quackery and antivax, and has since become very wealthy. Lately, he's fallen under the spell of a psychic grifter and declared himself to be the "new Jesus." What will happen to his business empire?
Quackery (still) kills: A five-year-old boy dies in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber
Even as quacks and antivaxxers take over our federal government's health apparatus, let's not forget why we need stronger, not laxer, regulation of "unconventional" medical practices.
Apple Cider Vinegar
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...
Homeopathy: Magical thinking, not medicine
The Science-Based Medicine blog was established way back in 2008. Since that time, contributors to this blog have been sounding the alarm about the harmful effects of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories related to health. Few people in positions of authority heeded these warnings or recognized the severity of the threat over the next decade. Sometimes we as health professionals were even mocked...
Widespread Use of Dietary Supplements Linked to Liver Damage
Millions of Americans are taking herbal remedies that may be toxic to the liver.
How Google listings are used by alternative cancer clinics to lure in desperate patients
I've long been writing about "alternative cancer clinics" (i.e., quack clinics) that sell false hope in the form of very expensive but ineffective treatments to desperate cancer patients. A recent study demonstrates how they use Google to do this.
Access Consciousness: Phrenology fused with energy medicine
Access Consciousness claims to show how to improve your mental and physical health by touching 32 Access Bars on your scalp. It's basically phrenology reborn and fused with "energy medicine."
Paul Marik: Disparaging chemotherapy in order to sell cancer quackery
Everything old is new once again, as COVID-19 quacks rehash old cancer quack claims that chemotherapy doesn't work in order to sell their preferred cancer quackery.
Yet another example of how “new school” anti-COVID vaccine antivaxxers have become just antivaxxers now
Dr. Pierre Kory and the pseudomous Substacker known as A Midwestern Doctor provide two more examples of how "anti-COVID" antivax has now become just antivax.
The Washington Post publishes an advertorial on IV drips
Last week, I had a choice between two poorly framed articles on health to discuss. I wrote about the one on "vaccine injury." But the second one about IV drips kept nagging at me. Why do journalists do so poorly on issues like this?