Apparently quite a bit. I never got around to the follow-up piece I promised on Dr. Russell Blaylock, and I’m not sure I can do him justice, given how densely he packs in the bullshit, but here it goes…
The opening page of his website reads like a roster of denialism, quackery, and crankism. In the first few inches, titles of articles read, “Vaccines can kill”, “Cholesterol drugs are dangerous”, “Why fluoride is toxic”, and some other great ones like “Stop aging”.
We can examine some of those claims, but let’s examine the messenger a bit first.
Who is this guy, and who likes him?
As stated in my first post on the man, he believably claims to have graduated from medical school and done a residency in neurosurgery. He seems to be trying to piggyback an awful lot of general credibility on his early, very specific work, creating a penumbra of “expert-ness” that is unjustified. That being said, who, besides Blaylock himself, takes him seriously?
The Weston Price Foundation
These folks reportedly have given Blaylock their 2004 Integrity in Science Award. Coming from a foundation that bases it’s mission on the odd nutritional ideas of a single individual, this is a dubious honor. They must be on the cutting edge because they’re into raw milk! They support an incoherent range of fringe nutritional issues, including the assertion that high serum cholesterol is not associated with increased mortality. Hey, I love meat, but reading their site makes me wonder if Weston Price was invented by a bunch of ranchers.
Life Extension Foundation
Blaylock sits on the “advisory board” (damn, I love those “scare quotes”!) of this organization. Their website appears to be an ad factory for nutritional supplements. They do say they are not-for-profit, however. But, hey, I just have to quote this, in honor of Walt Disney and Ted Williams:
The long-term goal of The Foundation’s low-temperature research program is the development of human suspended animation, which will enable physicians to transport dying patients through time for treatment by the super-advanced medical scientists of the future.
I love science fiction as much as the next nerd, but as a real doctor, I’d rather focus on the real and marvelous treatments that we already have, rather than offering my sick patients the “corpsicle” option.
JPANDS???
Yes, he admits to being an associate editor of the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons, the official publication of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. ‘Nuf said.
Nutraceuticals
Blaylock is reportedly an editor of the Journal of the American Nutraceutical Association, “recognized” by Quackwatch. Since “nutraceutical” is not really a scientifically accepted concept in the first place, I’m not sure why he would want his name anywhere near them. Volume 10(2)2007 of JANA (the free sample available online) does not contain a single piece of original research as far as I can tell. It is more of a newsletter than a journal.
Newsmax and the Wellness Report
Newsmax, a conservative news organization with at least some legitimacy, publishes “The Blaylock Wellness Report”. I am not a journalist, so please forgive me for wondering what possible advantages a conservative news outlet could gain from publishing the rantings of a crank denialist. Perhaps someone with more experience might know. Either way, the Report is a denialist’s nocturnal emission. As stated above, it basically repeats every denialist canard imaginable from the “dangers” of fluoridated water, to “killer” vaccines. Lets get move in a little closer and, um, flesh this out a bit.
I don’t know if the dewooificator can stand too much of this. The engines, Captain, they can’t take it!
He first repeats the usual canards, including the horrible fact that the number of childhood vaccinations has grown since the 50s! He fails to mention that the death rates of vaccine-preventable childhood illnesses has tanked.
He fills is rant with calm, useful statements like:
Vaccines are even being promoted for newborns, often for diseases that pose no risk to children. The greatest danger is the vaccines themselves.
And the examples and evidence to support this bold claim is…well, absent (of course, you can buy the “report” through Newsmax. What’s 54 bucks a year compared to …(hey, that’s a lot of lattes. Forget it.) Wait…maybe I am beginning to understand Newsmax’s role here. Every news organization needs a few stable advertisers to keep afloat.
That’s it. I’m spent. The bottom of the vaccine page is full of sales pitches. Has this man no shame?
Nope.
January 6, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Visit our brand of “woo” at http://www.reikimissouri.com
(ed. see also http://whitecoatunderground.com/2007/12/17/woo-patrol/)
February 28, 2008 at 8:21 am
[...] to Joe Mercola’s woo-palace again, and what should pop up but an article by Dr. Woo himself, Russell Blaylock. Apparently Russ and Joe are “good friends”, which is appropriate, since both are [...]
March 6, 2008 at 11:44 am
I’m suspicious of this guy too, but all you’re offering here is innuendo and name-calling. If I don’t know (or care) what a “denialist” is, what’s wrong with what the guy says?
March 6, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I believe that I gave some pretty clear examples above…any specific questions?
March 7, 2008 at 10:41 am
[...] about it), or otherwise object to codes of conduct. Then they can let AAPS members like Russell Blaylock and Joe Mercola run rampant in their halls, practicing cult medicine, and ignoring the standards of [...]
March 7, 2008 at 11:36 am
Actually, I’m sorry I missed this the first time around. For a while Blaylock claimed to be on the faculty of the medical school at the University of Mississippi, yet he did not even get the name correct.
A few years ago I did some poking around, and posted this:
http://groups.google.com/group/misc.health.alternative/msg/352765c24a980483
Basically he was in no way associated with Ole Miss. Someone did contact the U of M Medical Center, and I am told they informed Blaylock to remove any references to the school. Which he did, though several other websites still have that bit of mis-information.
For a while he was a guest lecturer at a little college (that taught Creation Science or some other nonsense), but that page no longer exists, another Usenet post:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.support.breastfeeding/msg/2986c1c07fb7b18e
Still, he may have gone to medical school, but he is just a quack who sells supplements in a strip mall.
May 4, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Blaylock is involved in Mission Possible with Betty Martini (the real identity of “Nancy Markle” - you’ve probably seen the “Sweet Poison” email using this name…the one that blames aspartame for everything from multiple sclerosis to cancer to Legionaire’s Disease,etc. It also says that the MS Trust tried to take action against the FDA (an obvious lie - both the FDA and the MS Trust say that this never happened).
Mission Possible’s website asks: “Did O J Simpson Have a Reaction to Aspartame that led to the deaths of Nicole Simpson? Did Aspartame kill Heath Ledger? Does Michael J. Fox really have Parkinson’s or is his nerve damage from many years of consuming…aspartame laced products?”.
They also seem to sell a lot of supplements…
Other people involved in this stuff include a Dr. Morando Soffritti, Dr. John Olney, and Dr. H J Roberts.
Is Blaylock a hysterical right-winger? Here’s a quote: “Joseph McCarthy and others were right all along. The old Soviet intelligence services have joined forces with the Russian Mafia in a quest to dominate the world economically and politically. While there is no absolute proof that the Soviets specifically created crack cocaine, they made sure it was targeted for the United States.It also drastically reduces the number of healthy young men available for fighting a war.”
No need to worry, though, because Blaylock also writes: “My studies in the field of nutritional sciences have convinced me that there are nutritional ways to protect people from the effects of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. This could mean the difference between surviving such an attack, or dying at the hands of barbarians.” And, by an amazing coincidence, his website sells all the supplements (at a reduced rate for subscribers -hurrah!)
These are just a couple of funny examples of what he says. But the worrying thing is that a lot of people believe him and his cohorts. Suggstions that giving up aspartame can miraculously take away the symptoms of multiple sclerosis,lupus, etc. is dangerous: people might stop taking REAL medications if they think this is true. It’s also downright cruel.
August 20, 2008 at 11:09 am
hey