Category: Health Fraud

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.

/ April 29, 2019

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.

/ April 25, 2019
Miracle Mineral Solution

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...

/ April 22, 2019

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.

/ March 26, 2019

Brief Announcement: Price of Consumer Health Book Has Been Slashed

The price of the textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions has been reduced to $9.99 on Amazon.

/ March 16, 2019

Médecins Sans Medicine? “Homeopaths without borders” giving sugar pills for infectious diseases in Honduras

Canadian homeopaths are in Honduras, and claim their magic water remedies can prevent diseases such as Chagas, dengue, and chikungunya.

/ March 7, 2019
Amazon Prime

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...

/ March 4, 2019

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.

/ February 14, 2019

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.

/ January 24, 2019