Mercola—if it quacks like a duck….

On his website, Joseph Mercola asks, “Why trust me?” A good question. I ask the same question on my website, and I answer it. (“I am a board certified internist. How do you know that’s true? You don’t! “) I am a good enough doctor to know that it is foolish to treat people who aren’t sitting in the same room as you. I present information that any energetic reader can follow up on themselves. I’m also not selling anything.

Given that Mercola is passing himself off as an expert (although in what, I’m not sure), it’s reasonable of him to publish verifiable information about his qualifications to do what he does. Let’s examine what he says about himself…

Introduction

He starts with a canard-filled introduction (as any quackery should):

You are wise to question who you can trust when it comes to maintaining, enhancing or rebuilding your health.

With all websites, newspapers, magazines and other publications offering health advice, with every new multi-million dollar TV ad for another proclaimed miracle drug, with any recommendation offered by traditional and natural physicians, it is essential to answer this question above all others: what is their real motivation?

Yes. Let’s see if he ever explicitly states that he is selling something. For example:

Optimal health is priceless. Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Program designed to achieve optimal health, only costs an average of $3,000-$6,000 but will vary depending on the patient needs.

More on that later.

Back to “motivation”:

Only if the answer provides you with a sense of security, move on to the next important question: what are their qualifications? The primary trick of the existing medical establishment is to get you to forget that first question – their real motivation – by dazzling you with what appears to be magnificently trustworthy qualifications.

Hmm. I guess I missed the class in medical school that taught me the “tricks” of the trade. I never learned how to obscure my true motivations and “dazzle” with ersatz qualifications. I mean, I belong to my specialty’s professional association, the American College of Physicians, and I’m board certified in Internal Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. I trained at a well-regarded Big 10 academic center. But I’ve always assumed that those were “just the facts”. It never occurred to me to use the “dazzle” factor. Well, I assume that Mercola doesn’t try to to over-hype his own qualifications (see below).

But clinical trials conducted by heavily biased “researchers,” advertisements and news stories carefully scripted to scare you into belief, highly polished corporate offices and corporate websites, and an extreme focus on whatever has the most profit potential – not lifesaving or life-enhancing potential – are not qualifications. They are scams.

Don’t fall for it.

Hmm. I assume he is going to tell us which clinical trials and researches he’s talking about. Right?

My motivation, whether you are my patient or a member of the Mercola.com community, is to make you as healthy as you can possibly be. This motivation involves:

1) Providing the health and medical knowledge and resources that will most benefit you, regardless of what category it falls under

2) Exposing the corporate, government and mass media hype that diverts people away from what is truly best for their health and often straight into an early grave

Mercola.com is not, in other words, a tool to get me a bigger house and car, or to run for Senate. I fund this site, and so am beholden to no advertisers, silent partners or corporate parents. Where I offer or recommend products, I do so because I have actively researched them and find they are the best in that category for your health; I ignore anyone with a lesser product, and products not directly pertinent to your health, no matter how much money they offer me.

And any and all money made from the sale of the products I recommend goes right back into building a better site. A site that, startling as it may be with all the greed-motivated hype out there in health care land, is truly for you.

I assume those claims are backed by…something. Since you do accept advertisers, I assume you don’t post ads just because you like the product. They do pay something, don’t they? I hope he realizes that any kind of advertising immediately raises the bar as far as potential conflict of interest goes. It’s not immoral to accept ads, but it must raise the level of scrutiny.

The entire approach of this introduction is pretty classic propaganda. First, break down trust in any other source. Then convince the reader that you are the only one who truly cares, and that the writer is doing everything to benefit you. And remember, everyone else is against both Mercola and his readers.

Qualifications

Since he brings it up, let’s see what is completely un-hyped qualifications are:

And so, my qualifications: first and foremost, I am an osteopathic physician, also known as a DO. DOs are complete physicians who, along with MDs, are licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery in all 50 states. But DOs bring something extra to the practice of medicine. Osteopathic physicians practice a “whole person” approach to medicine, treating the entire person rather that just the symptoms. With a focus on preventive health care, DOs help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don’t just fight illness, but help prevent it, too.

The first un-truth is that osteopaths are somehow more “holistic” than other doctors. All primary care doctors focus on prevention as well as treatment.

I am also board-certified in family medicine and served as the chairman of the family medicine department at St. Alexius Medical Center for five years. I am trained in both traditional and natural medicine and have been practicing natural medicine actively since 1990. For my insight on a variety of healthcare issues, I have been interviewed on national and local news, including:

• Today Show
• CNN
• ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings
• CBS, NBC and ABC local news shows
• Dozens of Nationally Broadcast Radio Shows

First, I don’t care much about whether my doctor has been on TV. He also doesn’t give links, so who knows what was on.

He says he is “board certified” (which I have no reason to doubt) but he doesn’t say what board. He doesn’t list the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians, which is the primary qualification listed by osteopathic FPs. He does list the “American College Osteopathic General Practitioners”, but I’m not sure what that is. It doesn’t appear to be an extant organization. That seems just a little deceptive.

He lists his various hospital affiliations (which isn’t all that interesting) and then reiterates his “chairmanship” of a department. I looked through his hospital’s website and couldn’t confirm or refute this. Some of the real fun comes when he lists his professional affiliations:

1. Association of American Physicians and Surgeons: These guys are both crazy, quack-y, and paranoid. They are not a recognized medical association.
2. Advisory Board member NOHA (Nutrition for Optimal Health Association): this is a local non-medical organization that like to cite articles by the likes of Russell Blaylock.
3. Advisory Board member Price-Pottinger Nutrition Foundation: This is a quack-y pseudo-nutrition website, also mentioned by Blaylock.
4. Advisory Board member Weston A. Price Foundation: This is the old name of the Price-Pottinger. It is the SAME THING! Nice and honest Mercola.

He next lists his “publications” which are primarily crank letters written to various journals. No original peer-reviewed research is listed.

Finally, I’d like to look at the “Personal” sections of his qualifications. This consists of two separate personal statements which will be presented together for ease of analysis:

I am dedicated to finding long-term solutions for my patients who suffer from chronic illnesses. A number of prescription medications are beneficial tools that can help to provide relief from some acute illnesses, and as a fully licensed physician I occasionally prescribe them for these purposes. However, I believe that most medications provide only temporary relief at best, and as an osteopathic physician, I seek to treat the whole person, not just the symptoms.

What a load of bull. First, medications are essential to the treatment of most chronic medical conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Second, most osteopathic physicians have training almost identical to other physicians.

My passion is to transform the traditional medical paradigm in the United States, and that consumes most of my free time after seeing patients. Since 1968, though, I have been an active runner; I completed the Chicago Marathon in just over three hours, among other accomplishments. I have also been a computer hobbyist since 1985, with an interest in the Internet that dates back to the early 1990s.

Who friggin’ cares?

The existing medical establishment is responsible for killing and permanently injuring millions of Americans, but the surging numbers of visitors to Mercola.com since I began the site in 1997 – we are now routinely among the top 10 health sites on the Internet – convinces me that you, too, are fed up with their deception. You want practical health solutions without the hype, and that’s what I offer.

So, above you tout your qualifications in traditional medicine, but here you repeat the old saw that modern medicine is more harmful than good. Consistent? No. Nonsensical, shameless self-promotion, yes. Oh, wait, I forgot. He has no shame.