Dr. Joseph Mercola

[Second Summer]

Joseph Mercola, a doctor of osteopathy, is often referred to in discussions about health and nutrition, especially regarding alternative views on these topics, so I thought it would make sense to have a thread on him. He's the author of the best-selling books The No-Grain Diet (with Alison Rose Levy) and The Great Bird Flu Hoax, and has appeared on the Dr. Oz Show. His website (mercola dot com) markets various controversial dietary supplements and medical devices.

Here is what a couple of sources have to say about him:

Joseph Mercola, "doctor" of osteopathy, is a popular guru of alternative medicine and a member of the right-wing quack outfit Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. He advocates and provides a forum for many classic crank medical ideas, such as vaccine hysteria and the belief that modern (sorry, "allopathic") medicine kills more people than it helps. His website is a veritable spring of pseudoscience, quackery, and logical fallacies. He is a promoter of the idea of an AMA/Big Pharma/FDA conspiracy.[1]

Despite his claim that unlike real other doctors, he is not interested in profit,[2] he advertises all manner of unproven products, and has a health center that dispenses alternative medicine for a steep price.[3]

Read more: Joseph Mercola - RationalWiki

Some highlights from Wikipedia:

Mercola advocates a diet consisting mostly of unprocessed foods. He sees value in paleolithic diets and advocates metabolic typing, and is a proponent of vegetable juicing.[19] [...] Mercola's website has called microwave ovens dangerous, claiming both that they emit dangerous radiation and that microwaving food alters its chemistry.[21][22] In contrast, academic reviews have concluded that "no significant nutritional differences exist between foods prepared by conventional and microwave methods."[23] [...] Mercola has questioned whether HIV is the cause of AIDS. He says that the manifestations of AIDS (including opportunistic infections and death) may be the result of "psychological stress" brought on by the belief that HIV is harmful.[31] [...] Mercola opposes the use of most prescription drugs and immunizations, favoring better food choices, especially unprocessed, organic produce and elimination of most sugar and grains from our diet; [...]

Read more: Joseph Mercola - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For many years, Dr. Mercola and other staff members saw patients at his clinic, which was called the Optimal Wellness Center. However, in 2006, an article in Chicago Magazine reported that Mercola had stopped practicing medicine to focus on his Web site [3]. I did not see any mention of this on his Web site, and the site invited patients to come to his clinic—which was renamed Dr. Mercola's Natural Health Center—for detoxification, chiropractic, Dispensary, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Functional Medicine Program, homeopathy, Neuro-Structural Integration Technique (NST), nutritional consultation, Nutritional Typing Test, thermography, Total Body Modification (TBM), and Active Isolated Stretching. In September 2014, the site announced that he had closed the clinic "in order to devote his full time and attention to research, education and increasing public awareness." [4]

Read more: FDA Orders Dr. Joseph Mercola to Stop Illegal Claims

 

[Calliegirl]

I cringe every time I see his name pop up or someone uses something he says/promotes as fact.