Snake oil still on sail

[Nearly Sane]

Sad tale to get you angry about such charlantanism




http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38650739

[Rhiannon]

It's incredibly sad.

And the fad for eating 'clean' is causing problems for the healthy too, from what I can gather. Yet even the BBC website has 'clean' recipes on it.

[SusanDoris]

I have read the article. It is depressing the way so many pseudos persuade people to part with money and reject modern medicine.

[Jack Knave]

Why didn't they just go to the doctor? Idiots. They could have asked them if the weirdo treatment was kosher or not.

[Sriram]

Why didn't they just go to the doctor? Idiots. They could have asked them if the weirdo treatment was kosher or not.

Its because the regular doctors had failed that she went to the alternate treatment.....which again is actually only about a diet. I don't see anything wrong with following a certain diet. Certain type of diets and even fasting have been known to restore body immunity and can perhaps heal many types of problems...including cancers.

I don't see anything odd or unusual about it in principle...except that the 'doctor' perhaps carried it to extremes instead of using it as a complementary treatment.

Why have they not interviewed any other patient who might have had a positive response to the diet?! Typical selective reporting IMO!   

[splashscuba]

Its because the regular doctors had failed that she went to the alternate treatment.....which again is actually only about a diet. I don't see anything wrong with following a certain diet. Certain type of diets and even fasting have been known to restore body immunity and can perhaps heal many types of problems...including cancers.

Citation please

I don't see anything odd or unusual about it in principle...except that the 'doctor' perhaps carried it to extremes instead of using it as a complementary treatment.

Why have they not interviewed any other patient who might have had a positive response to the diet?! Typical selective reporting IMO!

Maybe they couldn't find anyone who had a positive experience (unless depriving people of their money is a positive experience)

[SusanDoris]

And things would quickly fall apart if everyone who went to a doctor and was not absolutely cured thought the doctor had failed.

[Rhiannon]

I think the reason some people turn to alternatives once chemo has failed is that it is so rough on the body. It's not hard to see that for some going for a natural, non-toxic option seems better and the feeling is that doctors fail when someone has been made to feel incredibly ill by treatment that hasn't worked.

A friend of mine lost all her teeth thanks to chemo. And then she died.

[Shaker]

I think the reason some people turn to alternatives once chemo has failed is that it is so rough on the body. It's not hard to see that for some going for a natural, non-toxic option seems better and the feeling is that doctors fail when someone has been made to feel incredibly ill by treatment that hasn't worked.

A friend of mine lost all her teeth thanks to chemo. And then she died.

I didn't even know that was a thing  Hair in some cases, sure, but not that. Condolences 

[Rhiannon]

I didn't even know that was a thing  Hair in some cases, sure, but not that. Condolences 

I didn't until it happened to her. Apparently it's not uncommon with breast cancer treatment but I don't know about other kinds.

And thank you. We weren't close, she was someone I'd bump into at various things over the years. One of those people that was incredibly alive, if you know what I mean.

[Nearly Sane]

I think the reason some people turn to alternatives once chemo has failed is that it is so rough on the body. It's not hard to see that for some going for a natural, non-toxic option seems better and the feeling is that doctors fail when someone has been made to feel incredibly ill by treatment that hasn't worked.

A friend of mine lost all her teeth thanks to chemo. And then she died.

I can understand why people turn to almost anything in such circumstances. I remember as a much loved friend went through a two year slow death with treatments including chemo and experimental for the time, the pull of magical thinking to the extent that if I got her the perfect present it would somehow mollify the great dark shadow that was her cancer.


But it's precisely that that makes me feel disgust and revulsion for those who prey on the suffering and tout their common little remedies with no evidence grossly inflated in price as the scum who Sriram has defended on this thread. When you think that someone buying a doctorate from a degree factory is justifiable, then you support lies and death.


Worth reading John Diamond's unfinished book on snake oil

[Shaker]

I can understand why people turn to almost anything in such circumstances. I remember as a much loved friend went through a two year slow death with treatments including chemo and experimental for the time, the pull of magical thinking to the extent that if I got her the perfect present it would somehow mollify the great dark shadow that was her cancer.

I do get quite annoyed by this cancer business at times    And it's something that so many of us are going to have to face up to in our lives. An increasing number of us, come to that.

But it's precisely that that makes me feel disgust and revulsion for those who prey on the suffering and tout their common little remedies with no evidence grossly inflated in price as the scum who Sriram has defended on this thread.

Well, let's face it; if there's some - any - kind of content-free, evidence-free woo around to be defended, he's going to defend it, this being a classic example. It's no surprise.

Worth reading John Diamond's unfinished book on snake oil

It may have been JD of blessed memory (possibly in C: Because Cowards Get Cancer Too, his earlier account of the illness and also a fine book well worth reading) who said that there's no such thing as alternative medicine; there's medicine that works and medicine that doesn't.

[Bubbles]

 Yes there's a lot of snake oil about.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/goodbye-goop-seven-of-gwyneth-paltrows-most-ridiculous-recommend/

Vaginal steaming ?   

Weird!

[Sriram]

What has a diet got to do with Woo? Some of you have woo in your brain!!!

Various types of diets are often prescribed for various illnesses. What is woo about it?!   

Anything you guys are not familiar with is 'woo' is it?! LOL!   You guys get scared & flustered very easily, I must say! 

[Shaker]

Not scared and flustered - contemptuous of blind credulity, especially in cases like this.

[Nearly Sane]

What has a diet got to do with Woo? Some of you have woo in your brain!!!

Various types of diets are often prescribed for various illnesses. What is woo about it?!   

Anything you guys are not familiar with is 'woo' is it?! LOL!   You guys get scared & flustered very easily, I must say! 

Scared, no. Flustered, no. Contemptuous of your defence of someone charging huge amounts for a worthless piece of crap to a dying person and profiting from lies, yes.

[Sriram]

Scared, no. Flustered, no. Contemptuous of your defence of someone charging huge amounts for a worthless piece of crap to a dying person and profiting from lies, yes.

Even the mainstream chemo therapy was in effect a case of  'charging huge amounts for a worthless piece of crap to a dying person'...remember!!?  That is why she went to the alternate treatment in the first place...remember again!!?? 

[Nearly Sane]

Even the mainstream chemo therapy was in effect a case of  'charging huge amounts for a worthless piece of crap to a dying person'...remember!!?  That is why she went to the alternate treatment in the first place...remember again!!??

Does chemo work everytine, nope. Does it have a scientifically proven benefit, yes. Whereas you want to defend someone  their degree and benefitting from charging extortionate prices for snake oil. You defend the theivery and lies of  people who prey on the dying.

[Sriram]

Does chemo work everytine, nope. Does it have a scientifically proven benefit, yes. Whereas you want to defend someone  their degree and benefitting from charging extortionate prices for snake oil. You defend the theivery and lies of  people who prey on the dying.

LOL!!  He was not selling snake oil. So...stop saying that!  Its a lie!  He was prescribing a diet....which is perfectly legitimate. Maybe even that treatment does not work every time for everyone.....just like chemo!! Maybe!

[Nearly Sane]

LOL!!  He was not selling snake oil. So...stop saying that!  Its a lie!  He was prescribing a diet....which is perfectly legitimate. Maybe even that treatment does not work every time for everyone.....just like chemo!! Maybe!

With his bought degree. He's swelling snake oil.  And you want to support him charging thousands of pounds for it to a dying person.

If you think that is laugh out loud funny, then you need to consider how evil, and rapacious that makes you look.

[Sriram]

With his bought degree. He's swelling snake oil.  And you want to support him charging thousands of pounds for it to a dying person.

If you think that is laugh out loud funny, then you need to consider how evil, and rapacious that makes you look.

Oh....'Evil and Rapacious'...and all!!!  Really?!!  LOL!   

[Nearly Sane]

Oh....'Evil and Rapacious'...and all!!!  Really?!!  LOL!   

Yep, you find the preying on the dying funny, and think charging them huge amounts for worthless snake oil a defensible thing. By your own words, you are condemned.

[Udayana]

It is not "treatment".

The pros and cons of any diet can be debated, however even if it is a great, healthy, diet - that has no bearing on the fact that Young's claims were false, his theories fraudulent, and he himself was a convicted fraudster and cheat, with full intention of profiting from the exploitation of dying people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_O._Young

[Dicky Underpants]

Oh....'Evil and Rapacious'...and all!!!  Really?!!  LOL!   

Certainly - if the arse in question is charging the gullible public thousands of pounds for a diet, and a treatment which has only his shifty sales technique to substantiate the claims made about it, he is certainly 'evil and rapacious' - unfortunately, unscrupulous turds exploiting the vulnerable and suffering abound, and they know there's easy money to be had.

[Sriram]

Well...Ok. Let me clarify that I was not supporting any individual, certainly not the chap in question.

I was supporting alternate treatments and diet changes. Yes...its possible that that particular person is a cheat. But alternate treatments prescribing changes in diet are not woo (whatever that is.....!). This is a clear case of....'we don't understand it so it must be woo'. 

Similar things were said about Yoga not very long ago....and are still said about Ayurveda, Acupuncture and so on.   

Most such dietary and alternate treatments are real treatments that could improve the immune system and cure illnesses.  And just because they fail in one case, they cannot be dismissed as nonsense without a thorough investigation of all such cases. Comparing them all to 'sale of snake oil' is absolute rubbish and is typical of the ivory tower that many 'mainstream' people are locking themselves in!!

No other patient taking treatment from the above person has been interviewed. So...clearly there is bias at work here and there is no effort to take an unbiased view of his work and treatment.

.