Questioning Mercola - Page 2

[crunchy_mama]

Ya, anybody so big on seeling things loses my respect. I do enjoy the natural news site though.

[Delicateflower]

Originally Posted by WuWei

I can't imagine the research costs Mercola must have to incur to be *irrefutable* and above court challenge. Mercola's staff must research and produce their own legally defensible justification for recommending EVERY health alternative on his site, especially with his endorsement as a physician, against party line. MDs are held to a higher level of accountability by law.

That's interesting, I had no idea. Is this bulletproof evidence only available to subscribers or will I find it on his site? I've read there quite a bit and never seen it before?

[RiverSky]

His advertising is incredibly annoying BUT I try hard to overlook it because of everything WuWei said.

Originally Posted by WuWei

I feel compelled to chime in. I have bristled at Dr. Mercola's advertisements for several years. My friend first suggested reading his information. I signed up for the newsletter, not realizing that DAILY (or so it seems) I'd receive an advertisement in my emailbox. I'd read the information with NO SOUND and scroll down to see what 'new and improved' version Mercola was hawking. And roll my eyes. I had a tough time believing the claims, due to the sales pitch.

However, we're looking at creating a whole foods for healing website and the technology costs are daunting. None-the-less, Mercola is nearly a Don Quixote fighting against mainstream "health" care, AMA party line, and Big Pharma. He is a lightening rod for frivolous lawsuits and legal harassment. I have no doubt the man is as rich as George Bush. But, he ain't no George Bush.

When I received the email this week, Why Do I Sell Products on the Site?, I watched and I realized the degree of scrutiny and heat Mercola brings upon himself. Who else is effectively challenging the mainstream "health" party line with 800,000 subscribers, DAILY, with the power of international internet communications? I'm sure that Monsanto, AMA, and Big Pharma are NOT sitting idly by, wishing him well.

With notoriety comes paparazzi, and the lawyers are the paparazzi. I can't imagine the research costs Mercola must have to incur to be *irrefutable* and above court challenge. Even here on MDC, no one is allowed to offer any "medical advice" or copy lengthy articles to substantiate their claims of health and wellness from natural products, due to legal concerns. Mercola's staff must research and produce their own legally defensible justification for recommending EVERY health alternative on his site, especially with his endorsement as a physician, against party line. MDs are held to a higher level of accountability by law.

Anyway, I'm a capitalist and I don't dismiss him because he's getting paid for the effort, risk, and investment to provide alternative health information to the masses. How many IRL physicians do you know who are providing alternative health information to improve people's health?

Now, have I bought anything from Dr. Mercola? But, I do believe that his research is informative, life changing, and offers an alternative to the mainstream "health" party line. THAT I can support with my own endorsement.



Just my $0.02


Pat Robinson

[sweet.p]

This thread caught my eye.

More than a decade ago Dr Mercola used to be active on an alternative health user group I participated on regularly. He was really helpful back then when he had nothing to sell.

I used to like reading his newsletter and website until he became obsessively aggressive marketing his own products and beliefs. It casts suspicion on him ethically when a MD has a financial stake and affiliation with the medicines or remedies he recommends. And he now does!

I don't care what his reason is, I'm not sucked into that type of direct marketing from big pharmaceutical companies, or anyone, nor do I think it's appropriate when "alternative" practitioners are using the same approach.

Wu-wei if you disrespect his methods, why do you want to start a website like his? Being a capitalist is okay as long as you're NOT a MD profiting from what you prescribe.

Someone that is an MD does have a different ethical obligation to the rest of us to not sell medicines that he prescribes.

Most people would be screaming bloody murder if their mainstream doctor profited from the medicine that was prescribed to you or your child.

[amcal]

I don't even care so much that he sells his own products - it's the methods by which he does it that bother me.

He uses scare tactics and I hate that. He also sells things he previously slammed. Like vitamins.

I get capitolism, however, he just seems greedy and seems to have lost the real focus.

[newmum35]

I am not a Mercola fan but am a HUGE Mike Adams and NaturalNews fan! Mercola has always seemed more like a salesman to me than anything else and I hesitate to refer anyone to his site because of the vibes it gives off, even if I agree with what it says! If I can find it anywhere else, then I go there (he often links his sources at the bottom) and then refer others to that page instead.

Other more credible doctors also promote or sell products, Mercola just does it on a more massive scale, thus annoying the heck out of lots of people, including me! I do think that a lot of people stumbling upon his site are turned off from trying natural health products because of the bad "salesman pitch" vibes his site gives off.

But he IS helping to raise awareness about some very important issues of our time. For some odd reason, his site is still tremendously popular despite the salesman pitch! We really do need all the help we can get right now and I think we still need him!

I have been very grateful of his recent interviews with Dr Blaylock and previously, Barbara Loe Fisher, as I couldn't seem to find those interviews anywhere else and I found them incredibly informative.

So basically I have been both grateful for and annoyed with mercola at different points in time, but wouldn't trust his recommendation on any product endorsement. Oh I feel like a walking paradox today lol

PS On the other hand, I totally trust the Health Rangers product endorsements. I recently tried TWO products from this list I found on his site, and I was absolutely blown away by the results! I can't wait to try more!

[NaturalMamma]

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who has noticed this. I had read his stuff some years ago but lost track. Recently I started to subscribe to his newsletter and virtually every one is selling something.

It's gotten to the point where I hate opening them b/c I'll come away from it feeling inferior b/c I don't have X and am not taking X pill. And we're a pretty crunchy family.

As a general statement and a bit of a rabbit trail, I'm tired of all the guilt and shame from various sources in our society on so many levels. I'm tired of feeling like a horrible person if I use a convenience anything if I'm having a sick/bad day and need to make things a little easier for me and my family.

cindi

[alacrity]

I first heard of Mercola 8? years ago. He is often quoted in arguments against vegetarian eating. I have been vegan for 12 years and when reading his fear mongering anti veg writing 8 years ago I completely wrote him off as a nut who was out to make money by scaring people. He was already pushing products then and many of his arguments are absurd.

I would share direct quotes that bother me specifically but it is impossible to even browse the site anymore without giving them an email address and I will not give them any contact info.

I am raising my daughter vegan. According to him she should be wasting away and dying from malnutrition with low mental capacity when in fact she is in the 95th percentile for both weight and height. She says more than 15 words at 12.5 months.

If I get in a debate with someone and they quote Mercola, I assume they are horrible fact checkers. I think Mercola preys on people who want to live naturally by scaring them into following his advice. He knows that many natural living folks will spend any amount of money to be healthy and "safe" so he can charge exorbitant amounts of money on his products.

Also, I am pro-capitalist as well. I have no problem seeing someone make money but his tactics are disturbing and I do not appreciate the way he writes about my lifestyle. He has gotten in trouble with the FDA more than once for lying to sell products. He rubs me the wrong way for so many reasons and I was shocked when I found out so many parents on MDC love him.

[nataliachick7]

I love all of his info on swine flu vaccine recently, and shared it with others. I also think Wu Wei had a great post earlier in this thread.

[WuWei]

Originally Posted by alacrity

If I get in a debate with someone and they quote Mercola, I assume they are horrible fact checkers.

Could you share some examples of this? I agree that Mercola fear-mongers.

The FDA has very stringent (AMA controlled) requirements for what passes as "scientific evidence" regarding health claims. Here is an example for selenium. http://www.fda.gov/Food/LabelingNutr.../ucm072780.htm

Basically, the FDA doesn't allow one to claim that selenium helps prevent "some cancers" or even "certain cancers", although this is factual. The FDA only allows one to state 'that xyz specific cancer' can be helped. Nearly all of these "scientific studies" are funded by pharmaceutical companies, not validated by the 2000 years of traditional medicine observations.

The FDA calls it "lying" to state anything other than their own (pharmaceutical company run) government organization allows. So, I feel quite confident that any specific alternative health resources that Mercola champions or sells has toed the FDA line. He is a lightening rod for the FDA, specific to alternative treatments.

Again, don't buy his product, see if you can verify the information elsewhere. Check the FDA site, if you believe it is a reputable resource. However, I trust holistic health and Mercola tons more than I trust the FDA to be looking out for Americans. I assume that Mercola is looking out for himself, concurrently. However, how many people realize that the FDA is run by pharmaceutical executives and the AMA monopoly?


Pat Robinson

[alacrity]

Mercola often states "a study found" or "studies show" but does not reveal sources of those studies so people can read the studies on their own. This seems shady to me. When I say debate I am referring to people quoting Mercola telling me my daughter is not going to be healthy because we're vegan. I got it a lot before I got pregnant and while I was pregnant especially because I did not gain a lot of weight. Turns out I was just very healthy and active. My daughter was born big and has been extremely healthy so people stopped quoting Mercola at me telling me I'm killing her.

[alacrity]

Also, I take my daughter to a holistic doctor. I prefer holistic medicine but Mercola does not seem much different than most pharma companies to me. He is out to scare people into spending money on his products instead of the big pharma products. He is simply replacing products with his own.

[carmel23]

Dr. Mercola has never really impressed me. I have several UA violations for questioning him (Okay so I am pregnant and didn't do it in a very nice way...) but something about his selling tactics have *always* put me off.

It's like classic snake oil salesman in his tactics.

And I totally agree with alacrity--he isn't really all that different in his technique. I'm all for good research and natural based medicine, but he does a disservice to it in my opinion.

There are only so many things that the FDA regulates--very specific things within specific guidelines. For instance, everyone know that drinking water is good for you, but the FDA doesn't regulate water, right? Or herbal stuff... even if it can be used to treat a specific illness. I *like* that the FDA only regulates a very specific range of drugs.

And anyone can fund a study--not just big pharma companies. It just so happens that that is their business, so they fund the studies. But all kind of studies are funded by other organizations--from Universities to foundations.

But yeah, anytime someone posts a Mercola reference, or uses him as 'evidence' of support of something, I dismiss it as a poor source for the information.

[MyLilPwny]

I like Dr. Mercola and the Weston A. Price Foundation, which he is a board member of. I've been following them since 2006 (I only started holistic health research in 2004) I agree with most of the information that Dr. Mercola releases about vaccines, nutrition, and other holistic health topics, so he is generally a trustworthy source for me. His views on cod liver oil now conflict with the Weston A. Price Foundation's views, but I'm sticking with the WAPF and keeping fermented cod liver oil for the fat-soluble vitamins, as are most other MDC moms in the Traditional Foods forum. I'm very happy with the products that I've purchased from Mercola. I have his ceramic cookware and bakeware, blue tube head set for minimizing cell phone EMFs, multivitamins--both adult and kids, krill oil (took this throughout my pregnancy), coconut flour and a few other items.

[Pogonia]

Mercola is no longer a board member of WAPF.

[MyLilPwny]

Originally Posted by Pogonia

Mercola is no longer a board member of WAPF.

Thanks, I didn't realize the change. I just checked and didn't see his name. Oh well. He used to be a board member of WAPF then

[ema-adama]

I have never actually been on his website as I was put off that I had to register to read anything. However, the vibe I have is that he is not a reliable source of information. I read a rebuttal to his reasons not to get the swine flu recently, http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=2116#more-2116, and I was surprised that Mercola was calling thimerasol an adjuvant.

It's interesting reading up about him and what he does though

[J-Bean]

Just stumbled on this thread and had to say, I'm enjoying reading the dialogue here in re: to Mercola. I just mentioned him to a friend in a phone conversation two hours ago and was hoping she'd read or heard of him, because something about it all feels off to me. Sometimes good info. it seems, but such questionable ways of sharing the info. Just wanted to thank everyone for the great dialogue. For some reason, my 2 and 4 year old just aren't there yet in this dept. (! )