John Scott, regular contributor to Foods Matter and ‘worm’ enthusiast, has just alerted me to two interesting efforts to rubbish or generally sideline alternative approaches to health and illness. One can only assume that they are made by conventional medicine practitioners/supporters who find alternative approaches unacceptable or, dare one suggest, fear that they may not square with the business plans of the pharmaceutical companies who contribute so significantly to conventional medicine’s finances.
The first is a page on the website www.orthomolecular.org. (Orthomolecular medicine ‘describes the practice of preventing and treating disease by providing the body with optimal amounts of substances which are natural to the body’ – nutrients and micronutrients.)
The page describes how Wikipedia, believed by many to be objective and unbiased, has censored and manipulated information about Max Gerson, the founder of the Gerson nutritional therapy for cancer, to suggest that the information put up by Dr Gerson’s grandson and biographer was ‘biased’ and ‘unreliable’. Furthermore all references in the entry to, and quotations from, scientific papers were removed and replaced with links to various cancer organisations which only offer criticism of the Gerson therapy.
The second link was to a report on Gaia Health reporting the downfall of Stephen Barrett, the founder of Quackbusters, an organisation (now apparently defunct) which made a career out of testifying against non-mainstream medical practitioners. He is currently being sued for over £20 million by the ‘Doctor’s Data Laboratory, which does laboratory testing on issues of heavy metal, nutritional deficiencies, liver toxification, metabolic abnormalities, and environmentally-caused diseases, for what, after getting through the legaleze, amounts to defamation of character, libel, conspiracy, and intentionally attempting to destroy their business.’ Read more!
excellent piece. yes, this is the problem with Wiki’s – open to manipulation. (tell Trev Bennett?) – quackbusters are NOT dead. Has Beata Bishop seen this?