Tag: alternative cancer cure testimonial
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.
FitScript™: Functional health quackery and a misleading alternative cancer cure testimonial
Perusing the hellscape that is what Twitter has degenerated into as X, I found an alternative cancer cure testimonial, which led me into "functional health" nonsense that I hadn't encountered before. Introducing FitScript.
Tess Lawrie: Ivermectin isn’t just for COVID-19 but cures cancer too!
In a turn that should surprise exactly no one, the BIRD Group's Tess Lawrie effortlessly pivots from promoting ivermectin as a cure for COVID-19 to promoting it as a cure for cancer. It's another example of how single-issue quacks almost inevitably embrace more diverse quackery.
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.)
True believers, entrepreneurs, and scammers in alternative medicine
In the online echo chamber promoting alternative medicine, there are varying degrees of deception. There are true believers (who are often victims), entrepreneurs (who are often true believers who found a profitable business), and scammers. The categories are not mutually exclusive.
Why do some women refuse treatments for their breast cancer?
Adjuvant therapy after surgery, such as chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and radiation therapy, has contributed to a 39% decrease in breast cancer mortality since 1989. Unfortunately, a significant number of women decline evidence-based adjuvant therapy. A recent study suggests that distrust of the medical system plays a significant role in such refusal.
Abraham Cherrix is alive and well because of science-based medicine
Although I haven't discussed it here in depth, the case of Abraham Cherrix is an instructive example. Eleven years ago, he and his parents chose quackery over science-based medicine to treat his cancer. He's alive now because he finally realized the error of his decision and underwent chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
The Natural Cancer Cure Narrative
Julie Reason and her husband are producing a documentary about her cancer, and efforts to cure it. Based on their comments, they are drawing upon an established and false narrative about the causes and cures of cancer, one that can be dangerous to her, and all other cancer patients.
Did cannabis oil save Deryn Blackwell, the “boy in seven billion,” when his bone marrow transplant for two cancers was failing?
In a forthcoming book The Boy in 7 Billion, Callie Blackwell claims that cannabis oil, which she had started giving her son Deryn to relieve his symptoms during a bone marrow transplant for two cancers, actually saved his life when the bone marrow transplant appeared to be failing. Unfortunately, her story appears to be another testimonial that confuses correlation with causation.
Myths integrative medicine sells us: “We never advocate alternative medicine without conventional medicine”
"Integrative medicine" (IM) effectively integrates quackery with real medicine. The main talking point by advocates of IM meant to deflect this criticism is that IM practitioners always use alternative medicine with conventional medicine and never advocate the use of alternative medicine alone. A new book by a prominent advocate of IM suggests that this talking point is at best self-delusion among academics...