Category: Health Fraud

A laboratory fume hood heavily damaged by fire, with charred equipment, melted glassware, and black soot covering the surfaces; burn marks and debris are visible throughout the scene.

Big Trouble in Little Pharma

The Excruciating Inspection of David Geier’s DAP Pharmaceuticals

/ July 1, 2025
No turbo cancer at ASCO

No turbo cancer at ASCO: William Makis vs. Scott Adams and A Midwestern Doctor instead?

I was in Chicago this weekend attending the ASCO meeting, the largest oncology meeting in the world. Nary a talk or poster about "turbo cancer" was seen, but that doesn't mean there wasn't cancer quack fight online to distract me from the meeting.

/ June 2, 2025
A virtual meeting screenshot features five participants, with one highlighted in dim lighting. Others are visible in small window thumbnails, including one with a bookshelf backdrop. Various text labels adorn the screen, reminiscent of how Dr. Mercola might organize an informative webinar.

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?

/ March 24, 2025
Hyperbaric oxygen chamber

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.

/ March 17, 2025
A woman with brown hair tied back wears large, dark sunglasses and a dark coat. She is walking outside, with a blurred urban background. Another person is partially visible beside her.

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...

/ February 19, 2025

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...

/ December 19, 2024

Widespread Use of Dietary Supplements Linked to Liver Damage

Millions of Americans are taking herbal remedies that may be toxic to the liver.

/ October 24, 2024
Google reviews alternative cancer clinics

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.

/ August 12, 2024

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."

/ July 8, 2024

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.

/ July 1, 2024