This is rich. This is really rich. Mercola is speaking out against the one thing that keeps him in business: the scientific illiteracy and credulity of Americans. He bemoans ignorance that leads to beliefs such as “the Sun revolves around the Earth”, or the bird flu panic. Then, presumably with a straight face, he invites you to join his “inner circle”, further perpetuating ignorance, and relieving you of the inconvenience carrying around twenty-five bucks that was burning a hole in your pocket (that’s per month).
His “inner circle” includes access to such venerable titles as, “The Psychology of Vaccine Injury Awareness, Plus Excerpts from the Book The Sanctity of Human Blood Vaccination Is NOT Immunization”, and, “Ancient Dietary Wisdom for Tomorrow’s Children”.
Want to avoid ignorance? How about reading the newspaper? Joining a book club? Reading reliable online health resources? Avoiding quacks and cranks?
March 13, 2008 at 6:30 pm
Unfortunately in the U.K., reading the newspaper and avoiding quacks are mutually exclusive…
March 13, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Same here.
March 14, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Correct the spelling of Mercola’s name in your headline.
I totally agree with you about Mercola. What do you think about that cardiologist named Dr. Davis who promotes a program called “Track Your Plaque.” I believe he also charges fees for some of his “information.” I’m also skeptical about some of the stuff he says in his blog, which mostly seems based on anecdotes.
Marilyn
March 14, 2008 at 6:03 pm
That reminds me of a comedy piece that the local radio station used to put on by someone pretending to be an academic named Fred running Fred University. Their slogan was “when someone asks you where you go to school, tell them F.U.”
He sold a product he called “smart juice”, drink it and it was guaranteed to make you smarter. You hear someone say they will try it, and then lots of spluttering and spitting with a disgusted voice saying “this is urine!”, to which Fred replies “see, you are getting smarter already”.
March 14, 2008 at 8:11 pm
http://www.fredsociety.com/fredu.html
March 25, 2008 at 11:50 am
Yeah, that Dr. Mercola, always promoting natural methods of disease prevention and healthly living through nutrition. God forbid he should charge anything and make a living while helping people. Only the local drug dealer at my pharmacy has a right to reap countless dollars selling chemical garbage that harms and kills thousands of people every year. And who is brainwashed? If you can’t recognize that healthy, whole foods are nutritional to the body and help it to maintain a strong immune system, or that cleansing the body helps to rid it of environmental toxins, then you are truly the ones with your heads in the sand. Keep taking your pharmaceuticals and “relieving” your symptoms while padding the pockets of Big Pharma and their bed partner the FDA that only “approves” toxic chemicals released by the likes of Merck. I’ll keep staying healthy through nutrition and avoiding all the diseases that the rest of society will be stuck dealing with because instead of taking care of their body, they took a chemical pill relieve the symptoms and create the illusion of health.
April 17, 2008 at 12:06 am
God bless you Andrew, you invoked the “cleansing the body helps to rid it of environmental toxins” phrase….I think the naive ignorance of a child such as yourself is utterly precious! Someday, you’ll grow up to be an adult…learn about things like the scientific method, human anatomy, the birds and the bees…etc….and all of the cute idiosyncrasies of your youth will fall by the wayside as you develop into an intelligent, thinking adult…..but fret not…it would seem that you still have many blissful years to wallow in your childhood before you have to worry about the cumbersome world of “facts” and “science” that we in the big-boy world endure.
July 19, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I am in the middle. While I agree that Mercola has a good message, and yes he needs to make a living, and yes he chose to keep educating himself about nutrition even after going to medical school, when it probably was not a profitable outlook at the time, but, BUT, does he have to make even more money than he is already probably making because he is on the cutting edge by charging to be in his knowledge club?
Everyone is seems to be right. I think he knows his stuff, but he teeters on untrustworthiness because he is selling something while spewing the truth. Yes, he does deserve to make a profit and he is far better than the drug companies, but it is human nature to be suspicious of him. The “Inner Circle” thing is a little over the top. Is he not making enough money to give the info for free?