Joseph Mercola: Pharmaceutical Fraud

  • by: |
  • 11/02/2006
I find it incredible that the media slams drug companies for marketing medicines that undergo years of rigorous clinical testing yet fail to investigate schlockmeister's like Kevin Trudeau or the most recent peddler of pharmaceutical porn, Joseph Mercola. Mercola is supposedly an osteopath who has a book entitled the Great Bird Flu Hoax on the NY Times Best seller list. The book claims that world wide concern about avian flu was concocted to gin up huge profits for companies that Rumsfeld and Cheney had ties to. I guess that means the WHO and UN were also on the take but no matter.

Ironically, the way Mercola got the book onto the best seller list was by getting people to preorder the book in massive enough quantities to qualify as a best seller. You might say that's a way of manufacturing a hoax to generate massive profits as well but perhaps that is too fine a distinction.

In fairness to Mercola, some of the products he peddles -- krill oil tablets -- have a modicum of clinical research to support claims that they help reduce cholesterol or alleviate PMS. But he hypes them endlessly, asserting without substantial evidence beyond smaller clinical studies that products such as coconut oil or krill oil can prevent infections, arthritis, etc. And he promotes a study claiming that neptune krill oil "alleviate symptoms caused by rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis, including joint pain, stiffness and functional impairment and significantly inhibit inflammation as shown by a decrease in C-Reactive Protein (CRP) -- a biomarker for inflammation." There is no such study in the medical literature...

Mercola has also been cited by the FDA on a couple of occasions for making medical claims for products without any evidence.

All the while he flogs drugs and vaccines as dangerous and deadly, using newspaper accounts for he source material.

Despite overwhelming evidence that mercury does not cause neurological damage he continues to whip up conspiracy sentiment that it does. And now, though scientific evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aspartame is extremely safe for the vast majority of consumers, Mercola is about to come out with a book called "Sweet Deception" that -- of course -- will conclude that the government and corporations colludes to cover up the TRUTH about artificial sweeteners and the mind numbering and cancer causing effects they have.

And of course Mercola will have a NY Times best seller ready to be pre-sold.

Along with a sugar alternative that he will be hawking as well.

Sometimes coincidences are sweet too.
CMPI

Center for Medicine in the Public Interest is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization promoting innovative solutions that advance medical progress, reduce health disparities, extend life and make health care more affordable, preventive and patient-centered. CMPI also provides the public, policymakers and the media a reliable source of independent scientific analysis on issues ranging from personalized medicine, food and drug safety, health care reform and comparative effectiveness.

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