To the douchebag chiropractor

I've been reading a lot lately, and not without reason, about cancer. What angers me is reading over and over that people are told that standard cancer treatments just don't work and that the only way to get better is to use 'natural' remedies. Standard treatments don't work? They don't? I guess I better tell my cousin that she's not really in remission and she better start planning her funeral because she went to doctors instead of seeing some quack chiropractor that thinks he can cure cancer with magical remedies. I better tell my co-worker that her breast cancer isn't gone and she's probably going to die soon. And for that matter, I guess I better get to mourning for my spouse who will no doubt drop dead any day now. Oh! and my boss' former in daughter-in-law... guess I better tell her daughters that I'm sorry that their mother is going to keel over and croak because their mother went to a doctor instead of using quackery. Oh wait! You mean that bogus shit that these assholes are peddling isn't real? Even the FTC has a warning page up? So it's not just the FDA realizing this? And for all kinds of health issues, not just cancer?

Bullshit cures like laetrile have been around for a very long time. They are also responsible for the deaths of many people that could have been helped with standard cancer therapies. Laetrile caused an argument between myself and a resident at my job recently. After a whole 15 minutes he realized that maybe not everything that everyone tells you is the truth. And it never hurts to take a little time to learn about a thing before you make claims. And if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. There is no magical drug that can solve everything. Most of these 'natural remedies' make outrageous claims. None of these claims are proven. As with laetrile, actual doctors did do trials on the 'drug'. The tumors did not shrink. The cancer did not go into remission. The patients showed signs of acute cyanide toxicity. Sure, they died of cyanide poisoning most of the time, but damn if that cancer didn't get them! And it's not like this doesn't only go on in the US. It doesn't. Being naive isn't just confined to one country. It happens everywhere. And claiming that Big Pharma is after your money and doesn't want this information known is weak sauce. Please. Sure you could go somewhere like the Oasis of Hope for your cancer curing woo, but just so you know, that kind of thing isn't always a good idea. It's illegal for a reason, and regulated as unsafe for a reason. It kills people. Steve McQueen was getting laetrile treatment. It worked out so well for him, didn't it? And yes, those people may have still died from their cancer, but at least if they seek medical advice and aid, they actually may have a chance. I hope so long as greedy woo-mongers are around looking to make a quick buck off of people's fears and misery that things like this continue to happen to the worthless assholes. And that these kind of people are looking out for those who don't take the time to research the claims that these miracle cures make.

Curious...

While perusing the woo-meister's site, I happened upon the testimonials section. I was reading these anecdotes from his "believers" and there was much eye rolling and facepalming. First and foremost, should you trust anything on a page where there has to be a disclaimer at the top of the page before you get to anything at all? (I won't say substance because it's nothing but fluffing. And I mean fluffing. In the porno sense, only with ego instead of dick.) This is the disclaimer:

Standard disclaimer: the following statements are unsolicited anecdotal comments and are not meant to make the claim that the inborn intelligence of the body can heal, or that food should be thy medicine and medicine thy food, or that drugs aren't always curative, or that the healing power of nature is primary, or that physicians should do no harm, or that people shouldn't take as many drugs as possible and consult their doctors about why, or that the $2 trillion we spend on health care in this country each year should have any effect whatsoever on our health, or any other notions such as these.

So do all woo sites have this explanation as a standard disclaimer, or is this whackaloon being sarcastic in saying that he has to do this because of big PHARMA? Oh well, that's neither here nor there. What got my attention was the fact that numerous "testimonials" were from "doctors". I say it in quotes because I don't believe a damn thing this man has to say. I think all of these so-called testimonials are bullshit, sprinkled with the man's true believers. One in particular caught my attention. Here it is, cut and paste:

Simply the best and most accessible deconstruction on vaccines I’ve read, and I’ve read quite a few. You should be proud, as I am of you, your courage, and your work!
Anthony J Maniotis PhD, Dept of Pathology, University of Illinois

It caught my attention for a reason. I put the name Anthony J. Maniotis, PhD, Dept of Pathology, University of Illinois into Google and looked at the results. Every single one on the front page for that exact search term, was a word for word cut and paste of the comment on whackaloon's page, about whackaloon's book, but on other websites. If you go to the University of Illinois at Chicago's website and search for the name, there are no matches. If you look in the Department of Pathology, there is no one by that name. If you look at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, there is no one by that name. That is not to say that the person does not exist. 

There does appear to be a Dr. Andrew J. Maniotis, PhD that did cancer research and is employed by the University of Illinois at Chicago. He has a blog. The last time anything was put up on his blog was a post on September 3, 2007. He also has an information page over at the World Association of Vaccine Education. It appears to be an anti-vax site. He is not listed as the Program Director in the Cell and Developmental Biology of Cancer however, regardless of what he has on the blog and that WAVE page. He is listed in UIC's phonebook as the Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Bioengineering. Proof? Here.

Why would someone who has obviously had quite a bit of education and is a researcher, change his name slightly and leave the same comment on several pages referring to the woo-meister's book? I'm not sure. Then again, I think that the woo-meister or someone that's involved in the whole anti-vax movement put the comment there in hopes of giving some authority to the book. The more doctors that are listed, the more people will believe it. Doctors are people too however, and can fall into the same traps that others do, believing woo and nonsense. It is not ethical to lie about your nonsense to sell books. I would hope that people wouldn't blindly believe anything that they read without looking around a little and verifying the information with more than one source. I'm sure I could dig quite a bit more and find even more information. I'll add some screenshots of the website at a later time.

I have found a treasure trove of stupidity

I have found the most amazing treasure trove of stupidity. I don't even have the macro images to encompass the amount of amazing bullshit, fail, and woo all in one place. I did not start out to do a post on the complete dumbassery in this one location. Honestly I didn't. I started a post on a comment from woo-boy last night that bothered me so much that I was looking for this alleged study this morning while there was nothing going on here at work. I found more than I was looking for. This study has yet to make an appearance other than being used as an off-handed reference on anti-medicine wootastic natural cancer cure sites. Repeated over and over again, they repeat the claim that in a study, 75% of doctors would not take chemotherapy. One person that wrote an article that was cut and pasted ad nauseum all over the net where ever one can post free articles, mentions that the question referred to lung cancer only and then proceeded to call chemotherapy almost as bad as drinking the most vile poisons ever. I was going to tear that shit apart until I happened upon some major league woo. Anti-vax? You got it. Mercury causes autism? Yup. Fluoridation!!!! ARGH! Oh yeah, big time crackpottery. This is going to take ages to get through. Awesome. More to come when I dig in a little more.