Comment by KirinDave | Hacker News Reader

Comment by KirinDave | Hacker News Reader

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Please be aware of this dubious source. Not only is HuffPo basically a bastion for crackpots with outrageous anti-establishment medical claims, but Dr. Mercola is on a sort-of one man war for crazy.

For example, he believes that Aspartame is surely a deadly neurotoxin that EVERYONE uses daily: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/aspartame-health-ri... And also, pasteurized milk is surely bad, right? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mercola/dairy-free-avoid-th... (nevermind the other issues at play!) (and milk in general is a deadly cancer-causing toxin! http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2000/07/3...)

This guy has some extremely fringe and poorly supported claims, has a vanity domain name offering health advice, and sells health products direct over the internet (including known scams like Acai berry extract, "bioTHIN", and even a line of "healthy cookware!").

In other words, he has all the red flags of a Kevin Trudeau that hasn't been caught yet. He's selling magic light lamps (http://products.mercola.com/himalayan-salt/himalayan-salt-la... ) for pete's sake!

For a slightly less fringy defense of this view, check out the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics: http://www.thincs.org/news.htm

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

I just wanted to get the word out: Dr. Mercola is not a good source for ANY health advice. He's not even a real doctor, he's an Osteopath.

According to, for example, the Mayo Clinic, D.O.s are in fact real doctors: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/osteopath/AN02093

I had a D.O. as my primary care physician for a few years, and he seemed just like other doctors: oh, look, you're sick. Here's a prescription. I'm not sure if that similarity is exactly a recommendation, but there it is. :)

D.O.'s in the United States are not all that different from M.D.'s anymore--they're certainly qualified as "real doctors" by the rest of the medical community. I would still trust an MD slightly more, but DO != quack, even if this particular DO happens to be a quack.

The majority of the internet quackery that I come across is perpetrated by D.O.'s. There's no doubt that the anti-science, New Age-y crackpots have found a D.O. degree to be the path of least resistance.

My take on the article is that:

1) The author is crazy and shouldn't be trusted.

2) Most of what he says in this article is accurate.

Stopped clocks, and all that. So, if you're on statins please do look into their actual effectiveness--especially their impact on overall mortality statistics, not just coronary heart disease. But you probably don't want to go looking to this guy for that information.

Nonsense! Why just look at mercolaquack.com, which helpfully tells you how he's totally not a quack, merely a victim of a massive smear campaign!

Because THEY are out to get YOU, and only HE stands in the way to stop them, by selling you thing which are "not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."

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