Is it Quackery? Find Out for Yourself!

[MineralMan]

There are many claims made for many things when it comes to health, healthcare, and everything medical. One organization, Quackwatch, has assembled a wide variety of articles on common quackery, patent medicines that don't help, and much, much more. Most of the articles on the site are written by experienced physicians and other healthcare professionals. Confused about claims made about some "remedy" or "treatment?" Check the link below. It's not the easiest website to navigate, but the information you need is there. Is it all correct? That I cannot tell you, since I have not read every article nor researched every article. However, it's a great starting point in the investigation you should make when considering any sort of "alternative" treatment or medication.

http://www.quackwatch.com/

[kickysnana]

1. This group is not legitimate

They are designed to attack alternative medicine and their attempt to establish themselves in Canada was shut down.

http://www.canlyme.com/quackwatch.html

[HuckleB]

2. He lost a court case. That doesn't mean the site is not legitimate.

Quacks don't like being called out for what they are.

http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2010/07/a_nonsensical_attack_stephen_barrett.php

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. The hell it is not

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, and folks like Dr. Mercola, have been charged with stuff

and warned many times about false advertising, yet mercola.com has been linked to many times here as an information source. One court case does not mean the site is not reliable.

[kickysnana]

12. These guys have an an agenda and it isn't protecting your health

It is making money.

They are what is left of the group that worked for the AMA that attacked and kept alternative medicine from gaining any traction until the Supreme Court made them disband by allowing those harmed by them to collect damages. If you don't know your history you are doomed to repeat it.

Yes there are Quacks but Quackwatch is not good at finding them so they make them up. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't also a shake down group. "We won't put on you our site if you contribute, wink, wink."

I was fighting them since they began and thought that the convictions would keep people from falling for their lies but I see that was wrong. Time to contact some people and get back to work.

Again, the Canadian government shut them down from operating in Canada because they are frauds.

Sorry, you were pulled in and are wasting time defending them when there are legitimate groups that do do good.

[HuckleB]

14. That might make sense, if the evidence didn't support them.

Alas, the evidence supports their claims, and it goes against the scam pushers they post about.

Try again.

BTW, if the Canadian government "shut them down," why don't you post something about this supposed story?

[KT2000]

4. You better look into

the background of this group and the individuals involved - especially their "professional background.". You should look into how they make money. You should look into court cases where the credentials of certain members are called into question. I also question the spin on the court cases this group is involved in.

WARNING: Welcome to the courtroom if you say anything bad about the players in this site.

This is NOT a great starting point. DU is the last place this site should be promoted.

This is just a small news brief about one of his court cases:
http://www.canlyme.com/quackwatch.html

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Quackwatch is attacked since it bring scrutiny to those hiding from it

http://www.quackwatch.com/11Ind/bolen.html

[KT2000]

8. No

that is not the case. Educate yourself about how they operate and whose interests they represent. I will draw your attention to Sinaiko v. State of California. You will have to look into who was behind the complaints and who wrote the remedies for the Board of Health determinations that were eventually overthrown.

[MineralMan]

9. Yes.

Check out Dr. Mercola, and see his quackery exposed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Mercola

The quacks have lawyers, too.

[KT2000]

11. No

you are not understanding the work of the members of quackwatch. It takes research and if you do that, you will see an agenda that may surprise you - at lwast I hope so. As they are known for SLAPP suits I will leave it at that.
Also investigate the work of one of his colleagues, Ronald Gots who was outed by Dateline a few years ago for writing fraudulent insurance company medical reviews. They showed a document where he had forged the signature of the real independent medical reviewer. He still operates a company that serves our largest corporations.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Having done much of what you said, I support Quackwatch

How those liver flukes doing for ya?

[Name removed]

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[Lionessa]

7. Thank you. Good to remind folks that some who cry "Quacks!" are themselves web-footed.

[CanSocDem]

10. Is the medical industry helping you? Here's a place to start...

http://healthvsmedicine.blogspot.com/2005/02/medical-nemesis.html

"Direct harm to the patient caused by medical intervention is called iatrogenic disease or injury. Since 1974, iatrogenesis has increasingly been recognized by the medical profession. The Institute of Medicine estimated in 1999 that as many as 98,000 Americans die every year as a result of errors committed in hospitals. However, the scope of iatrogenesis goes far beyond overt error. As we have discussed here, pharmaceutical interventions almost inevitably have a risk of unintended, adverse consequences. About 2% of patients die from surgery. Hospitals are very dangerous places, not only because of the possibility of error, but because they are filled with highly virulent, antibiotic resistant pathogens, and the people have all sorts of extra holes in them, many with tubes going through them, through which those nasty bugs can enter. Infections acquired in hospitals are called nosocomial infections, and they are very common."

.........................................................................

"The recovery from society-wide iatrogenic disease is a political task, not a professional one. It must be based on a grassroots consensus about the balance between the civil liberty to heal and the civil right to equitable health care. During the last generations the medical monopoly over health care has expanded without checks and has encroached on our liberty with regard to our own bodies. Society has transferred to physicians the exclusive right to determine what constitutes sickness, who is or might become sick, and what shall be done to such people. Deviance is now "legitimate" only when it merits and ultimately justifies medical interpretation and intervention. The social commitment to provide all citizens with almost unlimited outputs from the medical system threatens to destroy the environmental and cultural conditions needed by people to live a life of constant autonomous healing. This trend must be recognized and eventually be reversed."

...and for the more discerning reader:


http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(07)60293-1/fulltext#

"Once upon a time, plenty of children were unruly, some adults were shy, and bald men wore hats. Now all of these descriptions might be attributed to diseases—entities with names, diagnostic criteria, and an increasing array of therapeutic options. Medicalisation is a phenomenon explored by Ivan Illich in his seminal 1975 book Limits to medicine. Medical nemesis: the expropriation of health . The term refers to the process by which certain events or characteristics of everyday life become medical i ..."


All institutions are suspect in a free-market society. You should know this.

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[Name removed]

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