One of the headlines on Joe Mercola's alternative medicine web site when these awards were being judged said "Red Hot Chili Peppers May Cure Type 1 Diabetes" It was followed by the words "A breakthrough discovery could lead to a natural cure for a disease previously thought to be incurable. ...". The link led to a page on the Mercola site with the same heading where Mercola reported on a study of mice where injection of capsaicin (or a related peptide) into the pancreases of specially-bred mice resulted in temporary reversal or inhibition of some of the precursors of diabetes. Please note that these mice are designed to get diabetes, they did not consume "red hot chilli peppers" in any form whatsoever, and they were mice, not humans. The research was not looking for a cure for diabetes by injecting a chemical derived from capsaicin - the objective was to examine the role of certain pain-detecting pancreatic cells in the development of diabetes.
In Mercola's comments he starts off by saying "Nearly 75 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes, and while only 5 percent have the Type I version, its supposed incurability makes it by far the more challenging form of the illness. So this new research is potentially great news for Type I diabetics. Type 2 diabetes, of course, is already virtually 100 percent curable with natural methods frequently described on my site". It goes without saying that there are no methods described on the site which provide a "virtual 100 percent" cure for diabetes. He then goes on to suggest that the discovery of capsaicin and its action on pancreatic pain cells will not be good news for the pharmaceutical companies, using the words "However, the good news is that this may end up having nothing to do with the drug companies. Seems like once the protocol is worked out, it may be something the average lay person will be able to implement". Yes, that's right - the average person will be able to extract a peptide from peppers and inject it into his own pancreas. Oh, by the way, capsaicin "can also be useful for preventing and treating cancer". Of course it can. It's natural.
You might think that I am biased against Mercola just because he tells lies about diabetes cures, but let's look at his "causes" of autism.
- Pasteurised milk - http://www.mercola.com/2003/jul/2/pasteurized_milk.htm
- Flouride - http://www.mercola.com/2001/jul/25/tooth_decay.htm (when consumed by pregnant women)
- Aluminium - http://www.mercola.com/2006/apr/11/there_are_more_toxins_in_vaccines_than_mercury.htm
- Mercury (of course) - http://www.mercola.com/2004/nov/3/mercury_vaccines_medicine.htm
- MMR (of course) - http://www.mercola.com/2001/jan/28/mmr_autism.htm
- Malnutrition - http://www.mercola.com/2004/jun/26/autism_malnutrition.htm
- Lactose - http://www.mercola.com/2004/jun/26/autism_malnutrition.htm (it goes with the malnutrition)
- Glutamine - http://www.mercola.com/2004/may/1/glutamine.htm (makes autism worse)
- "An excess of grains, sugars, underground vegetables, and any fluid other than water" in the diet - http://www.mercola.com/2000/may/21/ritalin_prozac_adhd.htm (Mercola lies about achieving "near miraculous improvement" by following his advice.)
I could go on, but what's the point? Mercola is prepared to push any form of lie, nonsense or quackery if it can help him to sell things. At least he's consistent about something.
Digg this page
Add to Reddit
