diet
While medical experts across the world have expressed dismay at Trump’s appointment of Robert Kennedy, the ‘International chiropractors Association’ has just published this remarkable note:
Donald J. Trump made it official that he was nominating Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to serve as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Secretary-designee Kennedy has spent his entire career championing the health of the nation through education, advocacy, research and when needed litigation.
Among his many accomplishments are protecting the environment with Riverkeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council His work at Riverkeeper succeeded in setting long-term environmental legal standards. Kennedy won legal battles against large corporate polluters. He became an adjunct professor of environmental law at Pace University School of Law in 1986 and founded the Pace’s Environmental Litigation Clinic which he co-directed for a decade.
It would be in the Pace Law Review that the landmark paper, “Unanswered Questions from the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program: A Review of Compensated Cases of Vaccine-Induced Brain Injury” (https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1681&context=pelr) would be published in 2011.
Kennedy became laser focused on the autism epidemic while giving lectures on the dangers of mercury in fish, he was repeatedly approached by the mothers of children born healthy who regressed into autism after suffering adverse reactions from childhood vaccines, including their concern about the mercury-based preservative, thimerosal, being used in vaccines including the Hepatitis B vaccine given at birth. Kennedy’s approach to the issue was the same as it always, looking at the science. He assembled a team who gathered all the science and reviewed the issues with him. This resulted in the publication of the book, Thimerosal: Let the Science Speak
The Evidence Supporting the Immediate Removal of Mercury—a Known Neurotoxin—from Vaccines.
After establishing and leading the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense, last year Kennedy stepped back from the organization to throw his hat in the ring to be President. Becoming the embodiment of his uncle John F. Kennedy’s famous quote, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country!”, Kennedy reached out to President Trump to form an alliance to focus on the crisis of chronic disease in the United States, and suspended his campaign to focus on the Make American Healthy Again (MAHA) Initiative.
ICA President, Dr. Selina Sigafoose Jackson, who is currently in Brazil promoting the protection of chiropractic as a separate and distinct profession stated, “Many ICA members have been supporters of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s philanthropic activities and are all in on the MAHA Initiative. The Mission, Vision, and Values of the ICA align with the stated goals of the MAHA Initiative. We stand ready to provide policy proposals and experts to serve as advisors to the incoming Administration and to Secretary Kennedy upon his swearing in.”
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Perhaps I am permitted to contrast this with some health-related truths about Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (my apologies, if the list is incomplete – please add to it by posting further important issues):
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. has, since about 20 years, been a leading figure of the anti-vaccine movement.
- During the epidemic, he pushed the conspiracy theory that “the quarantine” was used as cover to install 5G cell phone networks.
- He claimed that “one out of every six American women has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for a grim inventory of diseases, including autism, blindness, mental retardation and heart, liver and kidney disease.”
- He wrote that, “while people were dying at the rate of 10,000 patients a week, Dr. Fauci declared that hydroxychloroquine should only be used as part of a clinical trial. For the first time in American history, a government official was overruling the medical judgment of thousands of treating physicians, and ordering doctors to stop practicing medicine as they saw fit.”
- He pushed the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 had been “ethnically targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.”
- He claimed in a 2023 podcast interview that “There’s no vaccine that is safe and effective”.
- In a 2021 podcast, he urged people to “resist” CDC guidelines on when kids should get vaccines.
- He founded Children’s Health Defense’ that spreads fear and mistrust in science. One chiropractic group in California had donated $500,000 to this organisation.
- In 2019, he visited Samoa where he became partly responsible for an outbreak of measles, which made 5,700 people sick and killed 83 of them.
- He called mercury-containing vaccines aimed at children a holocaust. In 2015, he compared the horrors committed against Jews to the effects of vaccines on children. “They get the shot, that night they have a fever of a hundred and three, they go to sleep, and three months later their brain is gone. This is a holocaust, what this is doing to our country.”
- He repeatedly alleged that exposure to chemicals — “endocrine disruptors” — is causing gender dysphoria in children and contributing to a rise in LGBTQ-youth. According to him, endocrine disruptors are “chemicals that interfere with the body’s hormones and are commonly found in pesticides and plastic.”
- He stated “Telling people to “trust the experts” is either naive or manipulative—or both.”
- He plans to stop water fluoridation.
- He slammed the FDA’s “suppression” of raw milk.
- He said that a worm ate part of his brain which led to long-lasting “brain fog.”
- He has a 14-year-long history of abusing heroin from the age of 15. The police once arrested him for possession; he then faced up to two years in jail for the felony but was sentenced to two years probation after pleading guilty.
- He stated: “WiFi radiation … does all kinds of bad things, including causing cancer…cell phone tumors behind the ear.”
- He claimed that rates of autism have increased even though “there has been no change in diagnosis and no change in screening either.” Yet, both have changed significantly.
- He wrote: (Fauci’s) “obsequious subservience to the Big Ag, Big Food, and pharmaceutical companies has left our children drowning in a toxic soup of pesticide residues, corn syrup, and processed foods, while also serving as pincushions for 69 mandated vaccine doses by age 18—none of them properly safety tested.”
- He stated that cancer rates are skyrocketing in the young and the old – a statement that is evidently untrue.
- He authored a viral post on X: “FDA’s war on public health is about to end. This includes its aggressive suppression of psychedelics, peptides, stem cells, raw milk, hyperbaric therapies, chelating compounds, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, vitamins, clean foods, sunshine, exercise, nutraceuticals and anything else that advances human health and can’t be patented by Pharma. If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
- He has also aligned himself with special interests groups such as anti-vaccine chiropractors.
- He stated categorically: “You cannot trust medical advice from medical professionals.”
- He said he’s going to put a pause on infectious diseases research for 8 years.
- He promoted the unfounded theory that the CIA killed his uncle, former President John F. Kennedy.
- He linked school shootings to the increased prescription of antidepressants.
- An evaluation of verified Twitter accounts from 2021, found Kennedy’s personal Twitter account to be the top “superspreader” of vaccine misinformation on Twitter, responsible for 13% of all reshares of misinformation, more than three times the second most-retweeted account.
PS
Let me finish with a true statement: The World Health Organization has estimated that global immunization efforts have saved at least 154 million lives in the past 50 years.
It has been reported that a chiropractor from Boulder City, US, has lost his license to practice for five years. The sentence could be extended if he does not adhere to requirements imposed by the Chiropractic Physicians’ Board of Nevada.
During a hearing, Tenney and his attorney, Hal Reiser, appeared before the board via Zoom to discuss the 25 charges against him. These charges stemmed from him reportedly hosting seminars to provide various services, treatments, nutritive supplementation devices related to diabetes, weight loss and neuropathy.
In a unanimous vote, the board approved Tenney’s voluntary surrender of his license effective immediately. Within 30 days, he must pay $44,514 in fees, costs and fines to the Chiropractic Physicians’ Board of Nevada. He must also provide refunds to three of the complainants in the case, in the amount of nearly $25,000. His attorney said that has been done and that in all, Tenney has refunded more than $150,000 to those who paid following one of his seminars and will continue to do so.
“Dr. Tenney’s failure to comply with any term or condition of this Settlement Agreement will result (in the) Board staff changing the public information related to Dr. Tenney from voluntary surrender to revoked,” a board report states. “Thereafter, Dr. Tenney’s license will be treated as having been revoked, and Dr. Tenney may not apply for reinstatement for at least 10 years after the change of such status.” Once the five-year period is up, Tenney would have to appear before the board for reinstatement.
“Some of the reviewed contracts contain references to an entity called Boulder Wellness,” the report states. “In the course of the investigation, it was determined that Boulder Wellness is a fictitious business name for Boulder Chiropractic, Inc. registered with the Clark County Clerk’s office on July 27, 2020.”
Though the contracts indicated a set price for the goods and services to be provided, they showed that Tenney would negotiate the price of contracts with the patients, ranging from a low of $1,500 to a high of $9,000, the document states. Most of the patients in the reviewed contracts paid in cash on the day of the signing of the contracts.
The board had received a consumer complaint from Patient FH about his and his wife’s attendance at a seminar and subsequent enrollment in a wellness program sold by Tenney in September 2021 in Pahrump.
From April 16, 2022 to Aug. 22, 2022, he hosted more than 50 seminars, sometimes two a day, with a total of 895 participants over that span. These seminars were held in Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
After learning all this, you might ask who is Tad Tenney?
Tad Tenney grew up and graduated in Prescott, Arizona in 1987. After spending two years on a missionary tour of Argentina on behalf of the LDS church, he returned home fluent in Spanish. He attended Snow College where he played basketball for a year. After a successful year, he transferred to Salt Lake Community College where he obtained an Associates of Arts. It was here that he fell in love with the idea of becoming a doctor of Chiropractic care.
Tad went onto attend college in Dallas Texas and obtained his Bachelor of Science and Chiropractic care. He moved to Boulder City in 1998 where he opened his practice. Over the last twenty years as his practice has evolved to include a whole health approach for every individual he encounters through his practice. Since his practice opened, he has had more than thirty thousand patient visits and over ten thousand individual patients. The Boulder City Chiropractic Health now specializes in the treatment of diabetes, neuropathy, back and joint pain, depression, and anxiety. It is truly a passion for him as his patients continue to recover without medications or surgery.
In 2018, Tenner was asked: “What are some things that help you continue through difficult moments?” He replied as follows: “Daily I keep a few sayings in mind. The first is: “Every day is a new life to a wise man.” The second is: “no matter what your past is you have a spotless future.” My mom often shared the second with me. These remind me that no matter the shortcomings or failures, I can change it all tomorrow or in the days ahead.”
It looks to me like Tenner needs to change quite a lot to achieve a spotless future.
It has been reported that King Charles is on a secret trip to Bengaluru, his first visit to India since being coronated as king of the United Kingdom on May 6, 2023, at Westminster Abbey, London. Charles arrived in Bengaluru on October 27 and will be at the Soukya International Holistic Health Centre (SIHHC) in Whitefield for wellness treatment till Wednesday (30/10) night, when he is expected to fly to London.
Sources privy to his secret visit said that King Charles arrived in Bengaluru directly from Samoa, where he attended the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting from October 21-26. His visit to Bengaluru was strictly kept under wraps, and he was directly taken to SIHHC, where he was also joined by his wife, Queen Camilla.
According to sources, the couple’s day begins with a morning yoga session, followed by breakfast and rejuvenation treatment before lunch. After a brief rest, a second round of therapies follows, ending with a meditation session before dinner and lights out by 9 pm. They have been enjoying long walks around the campus, visiting the organic farm and cattle shed. Considering the high-profile secret visit, a high-security ring was thrown around SIHHC.
The health centre, founded by Dr. Issac Mathai, is located in Samethanahalli, Whitefield, on Bengaluru’s outskirts. This integrative medical facility combines traditional systems of medicine, including Ayurveda, Homoeopathy, Yoga, and Naturopathy, along with over 30 complementary therapies like reflexology, acupuncture, and dietetics.
Although this is his first visit as a monarch, Charles has visited the centre on nine earlier occasions and celebrated Deepavali on three occasions there. The royal couple has earlier taken wellness treatments, including anti-ageing, detoxification and rejuvenation. On November 14, 2019, the couple celebrated the then Prince Charles’ 71st birthday at SIHHC, an event that attracted a lot of publicity, unlike this visit.
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The website of the SIHHC modestly claims to be “THE WORLD’S FIRST INTEGRATIVE HEALTH DESTINATION’
As I reported in 2022, at a press conference in Goa it was claimed, that Prince Charles had been cured of COVID-19 after seeking treatment from a Bengaluru-based alternative treatment resort, SOUKYA International Holistic Health Centre’ run by a doctor Isaac Mathai. The Palace later denied that this was true.
And what about Dr. Issac Mathai? This is what he writes about himself:
A journey that began from the hills of Wayanad (northern Kerala) in 1985, started to bloom in 1998, and today is an international destination for Holistic health and wellbeing. When Dr. Issac Mathai embarked on this journey influenced by his mother, a Homeopathy practitioner who “helped people get better”, little did he know that one day he would lead a team to redefine the essence of health and wellbeing.
As a confident youngster aspiring to be an ‘exceptional Homeopathic Doctor’, Dr. Mathai encountered two key turning points in life – one, an internationally well-received research paper on integrating Yoga with Homeopathy to cure respiratory disorders, and two, learning at the Hahnemann Postgraduate Institute of Homeopathy, London.
Later he was made a Consultant Physician at the Hale Clinic in London, where he treated a number of high-profile people. This helped him establish a reputation in the holistic healing community in quick time. SOUKYA, is today, a residential holistic centre comparable to any facility in the world.
In a world that is comfortable with the conventional practice of ‘popping pills’, the world at large practices a combination of self-medication based on preconceived notions about what is wrong with individuals. In such a scenario, Dr. Issac Mathai and his team of experienced practitioners from different streams have achieved an important goal – create awareness about the possibility of prevention of adverse health conditions, rather than just addressing the symptom.
Education:
M.D. (Homeopathy),
Hahnemann Post-Graduate Institute of Homeopathy, London M.R.C.H, London
Chinese Pulse Diagnosis and Acupuncture, WHO Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China
Trained (Mind-Body Medicine Programme) at Harvard Medical School, USA
Of the 3 institutions mentioned above, I could only find the last one: Harvard CME | Mind Body Medicine.
And under MD (Homeopathy), I found this: MD in Homoeopathy is a 3-year long postgraduate course in medicine including a year of house job, and remaining 2 years of research and study.
So, should we be concerned about the health of our King?
What do you think?
Nearly every time that I talk to proponents of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) I hear a lot about diet. Diet is a central theme to almost all of them, it seems. In such conversations, several issues often emerge and frequently take the form of accusations, e.g.:
- Conventional medicine neglects the importance of diet for our health.
- Medical students learn next to nothing about the subject.
- In conventional medicine, hardly any research is focussed on diet.
- By contrast, practitioners of SCAM know a lot about diet.
- Many are experts in the subject.
- Patients are well-advised to consult SCAM practitioners if they want to learn how to eat healthily.
- SCAM practitioners have developed a wide range of diets that keep their patients fit and healthy.
I usually try to object to some of these points. The truth is that medical students do learn about diet, that doctors are aware of its importance, and that research into diets is highly active.
Particularly about the last point, I can get rather irritated. Sadly, this impresses the SCAM fans very little. They have their opinion and rarely budge.
After one such conversation, I decided to go on Medline and produce some figures. Here they are:
- As of 6 October, there are 1 453 clinical trials listed on Medline as published in 2024.*
- Between 1957 and today, around 57 000 such trials have been published.
- Their number shows an almost exponential growth during this period.
- The diets tested range widely and include, for instance, the Mediteranean diet, the ketogenic diet, intermittent fasting, vegetarian diet, energy restricted diet, gluten-free diet.
- There are as good as no trials on any of the SCAM diets.
- The researchers doing the diet trials are almost exclusively conventional medics or nutritionist.
- I did not find any SCAM practitioners in the list of authors.
So, the next time a SCAM proponent bullshits you about diet, you can tell him or her to get lost!
*Not all are, in fact, clinical trials
Previous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) suggested that gut microbiota-based therapies may be effective in treating autoimmune diseases, but a systematic summary is lacking. This systematic review was aimed at filling the gap.
The literature searches identified total of 80 RCTs. They related to 14 types of autoimmune disease:
- celiac sprue,
- SLE,
- lupus nephritis (LN),
- RA,
- juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA),
- spondyloarthritis,
- psoriasis,
- fibromyalgia syndrome,
- MS,
- systemic sclerosis,
- type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM),
- oral lichen planus (OLP),
- Crohn’s disease,
- ulcerative colitis.
The results showed that gut microbiota-based therapies may improve the symptoms and/or inflammatory factor of:
- celiac sprue,
- SLE,
- LN,
- JIA,
- psoriasis,
- PSS,
- MS,
- systemic sclerosis,
- Crohn’s disease,
- ulcerative colitis.
However, gut microbiota-based therapies may not improve the symptoms and/or inflammatory factor of spondyloarthritis and RA. Gut microbiota-based therapies may relieve the pain of fibromyalgia syndrome, but the effect on fibromyalgia impact questionnaire score is not significant. Gut microbiota-based therapies may improve HbA1c in T1DM, but its effect on total insulin requirement does not seem to be significant. Probiotics did not seem to increase the incidence of adverse events.
The authors concluded that gut microbiota-based therapies may improve several autoimmune diseases (celiac sprue, SLE and LN, JIA, psoriasis, fibromyalgia syndrome, PSS, MS, T1DM, Crohn’s disease, and ulcerative colitis).
This sounds promissing, perhaps even a bit too good to be true?
To answer this question, It seems important to look at the quality of the primary studies:
- Twenty-nine RCTs failed to describe the random sequence generation methods.
- Seventeen RCTs were not blinded and their results contained subjective indicators.
- Seven RCTs were rated as high risk of bias.
And what about other caveats?
- The effect sizes vary but are often small.
- There is much heterogeneity.
- For some of the conditions there are only very few trials
- There is no uniform, plausible mode of action.
In summary, while these findings are no doubt interesting, I recommend taking them with a pinch of salt.
This prospective cohort study examined the effects of fish oil supplements on the clinical course of cardiovascular disease, from a healthy state to atrial fibrillation, major adverse cardiovascular events, and subsequently death.
The analysis is based on the UK Biobank study (1 January 2006 to 31 December 2010, with follow-up to 31 March 2021 (median follow-up 11.9 years)) including 415 737 participants, aged 40-69 years. Incident cases of atrial fibrillation, major adverse cardiovascular events, and death, identified by linkage to hospital inpatient records and death registries. Role of fish oil supplements in different progressive stages of cardiovascular diseases, from healthy status (primary stage), to atrial fibrillation (secondary stage), major adverse cardiovascular events (tertiary stage), and death (end stage).
Among 415 737 participants free of cardiovascular diseases, 18 367 patients with incident atrial fibrillation, 22 636 with major adverse cardiovascular events, and 22 140 deaths during follow-up were identified. Regular use of fish oil supplements had different roles in the transitions from healthy status to atrial fibrillation, to major adverse cardiovascular events, and then to death:
- For people without cardiovascular disease, hazard ratios were 1.13 (95% confidence interval 1.10 to 1.17) for the transition from healthy status to atrial fibrillation and 1.05 (1.00 to 1.11) from healthy status to stroke.
- For participants with a diagnosis of a known cardiovascular disease, regular use of fish oil supplements was beneficial for transitions from atrial fibrillation to major adverse cardiovascular events (hazard ratio 0.92, 0.87 to 0.98), atrial fibrillation to myocardial infarction (0.85, 0.76 to 0.96), and heart failure to death (0.91, 0.84 to 0.99).
The authors concluded that regular use of fish oil supplements might be a risk factor for atrial fibrillation and stroke among the general population but could be beneficial for progression of cardiovascular disease from atrial fibrillation to major adverse cardiovascular events, and from atrial fibrillation to death. Further studies are needed to determine the precise mechanisms for the development and prognosis of cardiovascular disease events with regular use of fish oil supplements.
I must admit that I am slightly puzzled by this study and its findings. The authors clearly speak of the ‘role’ regular use of fish oil supplements has. This language implies a casual impact. Yet, what we have here are associations, and every 1st year medical student knows that
correlation is not causation.
Other things to note are that:
- the associations are only very weak;
- they go in opposite directions depending on the subpopulation that is examined,
- there is no plausible mechanism of action to explain all this.
Collectively, these facts suggest to me that we are indeed more likely dealing here with a non-causal association and not a causal link. All the more surprising then that the (UK) press took up this paper in a major and occasionally alarmist fashion (the headline in THE TELEGRAPH was Revealed: How cod liver oil could be bad for your health). I learned of it by listening to the BBC headline news.
In the previous 3 parts of this series (see here, here and here), we have discussed 9 fake diagnoses of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM):
- adrenal fatigue,
- candidiasis hypersensitivity,
- chronic intoxications,
- chronic Lyme disease,
- electromagnetic hypersensitivity,
- homosexuality,
- leaky gut syndrome,
- multiple chemical sensitivity,
- neurasthenia.
Today I will briefly discuss three further fake diagnoses and list the treatments that SCAM practitioners might recommend for them.
Vaccine overload
Vaccine overload is a term for the notion that giving many vaccines at once may overwhelm or weaken a patient’s immune system which, in turn, is alleged to lead to adverse effects. Because children have an immature immune system, they are claimed to be afflicted most frequently.
There is no evidence that vaccine overload exists nor that it can lead to illness. This does not stop SCAM practitioners to apply or recommend all sorts of SCAMs for the imagined condition. Particular favourites are all sorts of detox diets, homeopathy and a wide range of dietary supplements. Such diets and supplements can be tricky for younger children. In this case, SCAM practitioners recommend, amongst many other things, smoothies or adding turmeric, ginger, and small amounts of Shillington’s adult supplements to the child’s food.
None of these recommendations are supported by anything resembling sound evidence, of course.
Vertebral subluxation
On this blog, we have discussed vertebral subluxations more often than I care to remember. Chiropractors claim that these figments of their imagination impair the flow of innate which, in turn, makes us ill. Straight chiros, those who adhere to the gospel of their guru DD Palmer, diagnose subluxations in 100% of their patients. They are undeterred by the fact that vertebral subluxations do not exist.
I can understand why! If they did aknowledge that the diagnosis is fake, they would have no reason to treat patients with spinal manipulations, and they would quickly go out of business.
Yin/Yang imbalance
According to the assumptions of practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), all health problems arise from an imbalaance of the two life forces , yin and yang. To restore the balance, they employ a range of therapies such as acupuncture, herbal mixtures, massages, etc.
But these life forces do not exist. Thus they cannot be out of balance, and consequently the imbalance cannot cause illness. TCM practitioners don’t want to hear any of this. Why not? You guessed it: if they aknowledged these facts, they would need to stop practising.
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Fake diagnoses are the life-line of many SCAM practitioners:
- they tell you that something is wrong with you (despite the fact that you are entirely healthy);
- they make sure that this is a reason for serious concern;
- they claim they can put the alleged abnormality right again;
- they administer a lengthy series of treatments and/or sell you plenty of remedies;
- when they have earned enough money treating you, they give you the good news: you are back to narmal;
- gullible consumers are impressed by the unfailing competence of the SCAM practitioners.
My conclusion:
there is nothing easier and more profitably to heal that a condition that did not exist in the first place.
In the previous two parts of this series (see here and here), we discussed the following SCAM diagnoses:
- adrenal fatigue,
- candidiasis hypersensitivity,
- chronic intoxications,
- chronic Lyme disease,
- electromagnetic hypersensitivity,
- homosexuality.
Today, I will add three further fake diagnoses to the list.
Leaky gut syndrome
Leaky gut syndrome is allegedly caused by the passage of harmful substances from the gut wall into the body. SCAM proponents claim it is the origin of many conditions, including multiple sclerosis and autism. However, there is no evidence to show that these claims are true. SCAM practitioners nevertheless recommend many types of SCAM to treat the non-existing entity, e.g. SCAM diets, supplements, etc. It goes without saying that none of them have been shown to be effective.
Multiple chemical sensitivity
Multiple chemical sensitivity is allegedly caused by a hypersensitivity to commonly used chemicals. The symptoms are vague such as headache, dizziness, fatigue. Even those who believe that the condition exist are unable to offer a generally accepted definition of the syndrome.
The SCAMs recommended include:
- Nutritional supplements
- Digestive aids
- Hormone balancing
- Detoxification
- Desensitization
- Eliminating occult infections
- Oxygen
- Immune stimulation
Naturally, none of them is supported by sound evidence.
Neurasthenia
In 1869, physician George Miller Beard developed a diagnostic profile for a mental disorder that appeared to be common in the US. Neurasthenia was allegedly characterised by migraines, fatigue, depression, and digestive problems.
The cure, according to Beard, was to flee the city – because it was the stresses of city life that caused the condition. Women were encouraged to rest, while men were asked to engage in outdoor activities. By the early 20th century, this mental disorder had become a status symbol, and it soon spread to other parts of the world. But this pandemic was short-lived: by 1930, neurasthenia had virtually disappeared from conventional medicine.
In SCAM, however, neurasthenia is still a well-establisged money earner. SCAM practitioners do not hesitate to recomment virually every SCAM under the sun for it. They all have one thing in common: they do not work.
It has been reported that a former model almost died trying to cure her cancer with a juice diet. Medics tried to get Irena Stoynova to use conventional cancer treatments after she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in June 2021, but she ‘shut them out’. Instead of chemotherapy, she sought out so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) online and took the advice of a social media influencer who claims the body can ‘heal itself’ with help of a radical lifestyle and diet changes.
Ms Stoynova thus followed various diets and holistic therapies for two-and-a-half years, which left her emaciated and with fluid on her lungs.
Doctors said she was on the verge of death when she was taken to Frimley Park Hospital by ambulance in May last year. She was told by Dr Clare Rees that she would likely die without treatment for her stage three cancer. But Ms Stoynova continued to refuse for a number of days before finally agreeing to receive chemotherapy. Ms Stoynova then spent 50 days in the hospital’s acute dependency unit.
She said when she was first diagnosed that she decided against traditional treatments after ‘reading about and watching many doctors and professors talk about the success rate of alternative therapies online’. The 39-year-old, who now works in sales, said she did a juice diet for two-and-a-half years, but also tried a raw diet, intermittent fasting, boiling herbs and special teas.
Speaking about her diagnosis, she said: ‘I was devastated, the whole world just closed around me and I felt really alone.’ She said that she was advised to start chemotherapy, but instead turned to the internet to find alternative advice. ‘I found an American guy who has millions of followers who promoted holistic treatment,’ she said. ‘He had a podcast where he interviewed very knowledgeable doctors and professors who are talking about holistic treatment and they called standard treatment “outrageous”. ‘They said that people who had chemotherapy are “lazy” and don’t want to put in the hard work of holistic treatment.’ Ms Stoynova continued: ‘The guy has three or four books on how to heal cancer holistically – how to make salads, use different herbs, juicing, intermittent fasting – there were so many testimonials, so many people that did it. ‘I spent £2,000 on juicers – one for smoothies, one for carrots, one for citrus and one for everything else. I spent two to three hours a day making juice for the next day.
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The ‘juice diet’ seems to have been the Gerson therapy or a variation of it. We have discussed this particular SCAM several times before, e.g.:
- The Gerson Therapy: possibly the worst cancer quackery of them all
- ‘Censored for curing cancer’: the Gerson therapy re-visited
- Gerson therapy: a treatment to avoid at all cost
I just wish Irena Stoynova had read my blog instead of following the criminal quackery of the ‘American guy’.
My conclusion:
reading this blog and telling others about it can saave lives
The BBC stands for reliable information, at least that’s what I used to believe. After reading a recent article published on the BBC website, I have my doubts, however. See for yourself; here are a few excerpts:
On a holiday to Kerala on India’s south-western Malabar Coast, Shilpa Iyer decided to visit Kotakkal, a town that became famous after the establishment of Arya Vaidya Sala, Kerala’s best-known centre for the practice of Ayurveda, in 1902. Seven days later, she left the historical treatment centre after completeing panchakarma, a cleansing and rejuvenating programme for the body, mind and consciousness.
“There was nothing really wrong, but I was always busy with the demands of modern life and plagued with continual aches and pains. So, I decided to focus on my own health,” Iyer says.
Panchakarma, a holistic Ayurvedic therapy, involves a series of detoxifying procedures. It integrates herbal medicines, cleansing therapies, personalised diet plans and wellness activities to eliminate the root cause of disease, revive and rejuvenate the body, and ensure health and longevity.
Iyer says she left “feeling lighter, healthier and better than ever before”. She isn’t the only one who signed up for an Ayurvedic treatment in Kerala; the holistic system of medicine is a way of life in this coastal paradise.
… Ayurveda translates to “knowledge of life” and originated in India more than 3,000 years ago. It is based on the ideology that health and wellness depend on a delicate balance between the mind, body, spirit and environment, and places great emphasis on preventive strategies rather than curative ones. The ancient system of medicine is centred on the idea of universal interconnectedness between prakriti (the body’s constitution) and doshas (life forces). Varied combinations of the five elements — aakash (sky), jal (water), prithvi (earth), agni (fire) and vayu (air) – create the three doshas.
Dr Gaurang Paneri, an Ayurveda practitioner, explains every person has the three doshas, vata, pitta and kapha, in varying strength and magnitude. “The predominant dosha determines their prakriti. Diseases arise when doshas are affected because of an external or internal stimulus (typically linked to eating habits, lifestyle or physical exercise). Ayurveda works to ensure harmony between the three,” he says…
The small state has more than 100 Ayurvedic government-run hospitals, 800 Ayurvedic pharmaceutical factories and 800 Ayurvedic medicine dispensaries. As many as 120 holiday resorts and private wellness centres offer specialised treatments such as kasti vvasti, an oil-based treatment for back pain and inflammation in the lumbosacral region; elakkizhi, a treatment with heated herbal poultices to tackles aches, pains and muskoskeletal trauma; njavara kizhi, a massage therapy for arthritis or chronic musculoskeletal discomfort; and shirodhara, a restorative therapy to ease stress and anxiety and that involves pouring warm, medicated oil over the forehead.
Most treatment centres offer therapies and treatments for a range of health issues, including immunity, mental health, anxiety, pain management, weight loss, skin and health care, sleep issues, psoriasis, eczema, eye care, arthritis, sciatica, gastric problems and paralysis. The treatments typically include dietary changes, herbal medicines, massage therapies, poultices, meditation and breath exercises…
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I find such advertisements disguised as journalism disturbing:
- No mention that the treatments in question lack conclusive evidence of effectiveness.
- Not a word about the fact that many can be outright dangerous.
- No mention of the often exorbitant fees visitors are asked to pay.
Please do better next time you report about health matters, BBC!
