Category: Health Fraud
Combatting dangerous quackery and antivaccine misinformation on streaming services and social media
Last week, Amazon began removing antivaccine videos from Amazon Prime. Last month, YouTube announced that it was demonetizing antivaccine videos, and Facebook stated that it would be taking action to de-emphasize antivaccine pages in its searched. These are all good first tentative steps, but the problem of quackery on streaming platforms and social media goes way beyond just antivaccine content. Making it...
FDA promises industry-friendly “modernization” of dietary supplement regulation
The FDA promises the "most significant modernization of dietary supplement regulation" in 25 years while maintaining its industry-friendly regulatory scheme.
Pharmacies continue to sell sugar pills as flu remedy
Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic remedy that is made by taking the heart and liver of a duck and diluting it to nothing. It's a placebo, but sold widely by pharmacies as a "treatment" for colds and influenza.
Clínica 0-19: False hope in Monterrey for brain cancer patients (part 4)
Last week, Annabelle Potts, a girl with the deadly brain cancer DIPG, passed away. She had made the news in Australia and worldwide because she had been treated at Clínica 0-19 in Monterrey, Mexico, where Drs. Alberto Garcia and Alberto Siller treat DIPG patients with a secret unproven mix of intra-arterial chemotherapy injected directly into the arteries feeding the brainstem, all while...
Crowdfunding: The fuel for cancer quackery (part 2)
In September, The Good Thinking Society released a study estimating the scope of crowdfunding for cancer quackery in the UK. Now, Jeremy Snyder and Tim Caulfield have done the same for the US, specifically for homeopathy for cancer. The results are alarming. Truly, crowdfunding is the fuel for cancer quackery. But will GoFundMe and other crowdfunding sites clean up their acts?
Release Active Drugs – Homeopathy By Another Name
A Russian company is marketing "release active drugs" as a new medical technology, but it is just bogus homeopathy dressed up with new jargon.
The stem cell hard sell: The Medical Board of California is forming a task force to determine how to regulate physicians offering stem cell therapies.
For-profit stem cell clinics selling unproven and downright quacky stem cell therapies have proliferated over the last several years, with federal and state law seemingly powerless to stop them. Recently, the FDA and FTC have shown signs of acting to crack down on them. Now, the Medical Board of California is forming a task force to determine how to regulate physicians offering...
IgG food intolerance tests continue to mislead consumers into unnecessary dietary restrictions
IgG food intolerance testing is ineffective, yet it continues to be promoted to consumers. CBC Marketplace recently investigated two Canadian companies that sell these tests.
More, please! A victim of cancer quack Robert O. Young wins a $105 million settlement
Robert O. Young is a cancer quack who claims to be a naturopath who promotes what he calls "pH Miracle Living." He claims that cancer is caused by excess acid and that the way to prevent and cure cancer is to "alkalinize the blood." Two and a half years ago, he was convicted of practicing medicine without a license. Last week, a...
FTC settles deceptive advertising claims against amniotic stem cell clinics
An FTC settlement may kill "amniotic stem cell" treatments, but a plethora of other stem cell clinics flourish without regulatory oversight.