Category: Health Fraud
Radioactive Energy Cards
Thailand officials warn of a radioactive snake-oil "energy card." It's worse than worthless – it's actively dangerous.
Dubious for-profit stem cell clinics: Co-opting ClinicalTrials.gov as a marketing tool
Over twenty years ago, cancer quack Stanislaw Burzynski pioneered the abuse of the clinical trial process as a marketing tool to sell his antineoplastons. Now, for-profit stem cell clinics are using ClinicalTrials.gov as a marketing tool for their unproven therapies by listing dubious and scientifically worthless trials in this government database. What can be done?
Chronic Lyme disease: Fake diagnosis, not fake disease
Believe it or not, an encounter on Twitter actually changed Dr. Gorski's mind. Chronic Lyme disease is a fake diagnosis, not a fake disease.
The NORI protocol: An unproven fruit-based nutritional treatment for cancer sold by a self-proclaimed “expert”
Mark Simon is the founder of the Nutritional Oncology Research Institute. He doesn't have an MD, DO, nor PhD. (He doesn't even have an ND!) Yet he claims to have discovered a dietary protocol that can cure cancer. Can it? (I think you know the answer to this question.)
Patients blinded by stem cell therapy: an update
An update on the tragic results of unproven stem cell treatments to treat macular degeneration.
How do you like your coffee? Rectally?
Fill it to the rim? Please don't.
The Paddison Program for rheumatoid arthritis: An unproven treatment that provides only the illusion of control
Clint Paddison is an Australian comedian with a science degree who developed rheumatoid arthritis at age 31. He now claims to have controlled it with a diet he developed to alter the gut microbiome. How plausible is his story, and does his Paddison Program work? Answer: Not very and almost certainly no.
Maine considers protecting quacks from accountability to regulators and patients
The Maine Legislature is considering a bill that would put quacks beyond the reach of state healthcare regulatory authorities and leave patients without effective redress for harms.
Bleaching away what ails you: The Genesis II Church is still selling Miracle Mineral Supplement as a cure-all
Miracle Mineral Supplement (MMS) has been sold by the Genesis II Church of Health and Healing as a cure-all to treat conditions and diseases as diverse as autism, cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and malaria. Indeed, it's touted as a cure for nearly all disease. It is, however, basically industrial bleach. As ridiculous and harmful as MMS is, it's a quackery that just...
An HBO Documentary about the Theranos Fraud Raises Concerns
Elizabeth Holmes founded Theranos to develop a device that could do 200 tests on a single drop of blood in a minute. She lied; it failed; she is being tried for fraud and conspiracy. The HBO documentary The Inventor tells the story but has some flaws. We can learn lessons from what happened.