What is the Predatory Health (PH) sector 

This broad term, which Medika has coined for convenience, encompasses practitioners from almost all the fields of healthcare and includes the complimentary and alternate health (alt-Health) sectors,

For clarification, the alt-Health sector we refer to includes Complimentary and Alternate Health (CAM) – which includes fields like homeopathy and chiropractic – and is far less strictly regulated. The same is true of the other included sectors under this heading, including but not limited to, the natural products and supplement market, new age life coaches, and the grey area of unregulated health (medical) devices. 

The alt-Health sector tends to far more representative of Predatory Health practices. Traditional medicine is broadly regulated and therefore less susceptible to the quackery of PH, but by no means immune to its perpetrators.

Predatory Health practitioners gravitate towards the alt-Health sector, attracted by lax regulation and the vast legally grey areas that allow them to operate and ply their wares almost with impunity. 

The more outlandish and non-traditional the peddled cure or treatment becomes, the more likely the PH practitioner is to gravitate away from traditional medicine by embracing these fields, where their cohort welcomes them with open arms. 

What does a Predatory Health practitioner sell?

Their main product is intangible. They are selling hope, albeit false, something terminal patients and those afflicted with conditions like chronic pain are desperate for. These patients cling to the hope of finding some relief or miracle cure and the predatory health market preys on this. Below is a non-exhaustive list of the typical markets (marks) and strategies these individuals exploit with their health cons.

• Offering miracle cures, treatments, and relief to the terminally ill. Cancer patients are a favored target, but any deadly disease offers these quacks the opportunity to peddle their dangerous and untested wares.
• If you or your child suffers from conditions like autism, you are a primary target. Support groups, especially closed groups on Telegram, Facebook, and other social media groups offer these practitioners the opportunity to exploit you in relative safety. Be wary of any individuals offering treatments for conditions that do not have known medical remedy.
• Chronic pain sufferers are a massive target for Predatory Health. They have an unlimited number of relatively safe, but ineffective treatments and natural products they can peddle to you. It isn’t in their interest to kill their cash cow, but there are unscrupulous merchants who will offer you products that are known to be very dangerous and sometimes fatal
• Obesity, eczema, high blood pressure, influenza, and covid. The list is endless as are the techniques and strategies these unscrupulous merchants will engage to appear legitimate.
• Mental Health is also catered for with New Age life courses offering all sorts of benefits from attending costly online seminars and retreats. It is hocus pocus and has no foundation in solid science. None of these things will cure your chronic pain, cancers, or autism.
• Machines claiming to offer some sort of medical benefit, some working on sound, some using vibration, and others still, claiming amazing unvalidated results and health benefits. Never, ever take endorsements at face value. If these devices actually worked, don’t you think your doctors would be using them?
• The exploitation of misguided activist groups like anti-vaxers to further promote their sales. More damage is done to the cause of vaccines by these individuals than any other group combined. It serves the interests of Predotory Health to promote distrust in traditional medicine.

False Prophets and Fake Prophets

There is a distinction between the two and in the examples and names I will highlight below, most occupy one camp or the other. 

False prophets are usually doctors and medically trained individuals who, for unknown reasons, have latched onto treatments that are not evidence-based and they believe, without conclusive medical evidence to support their beliefs, in the safety and efficacy of the treatments they peddle. 

Belief is a dangerous drug and the sustenance of religion. It has no place in evidence-based medicine. 

Fake prophets, on the other hand, are under no such illusions. They know full well the potential dangers and risks of the products or treatments they peddle. They are highly skilled at manipulating marketing channels to ensure they reach their potential ‘marks’ and will often possess no formal medical training. 

Both are equally dangerous. The fake prophets are usually limited to the alt-Health markets and prefer this environment as it allows for greater freedom to ply their deadly wares. 

It is important to note that sales may not be the only motivating factor that drives certain Predatory Health practitioners. It can simply be a desire to spread disinformation, or, as they may see it, deeply insightful information they have come upon. These are possibly the most disruptive and dangerous voices from within the Predatory Health sector as they enable and empower the real charlatans by creating doubt in people’s minds. 

Take for instance Dr Christiane Northrup, whose divergence from a reasonably distinguished medical career in women’s health has been abrupt and complete. Her adoption of conspiracy theories, 5G cell towers, microchips in vaccines, and other nonsensical rantings on YouTube and social media beggars belief.

Whatever her motivation, this doctor enjoys a broad following on social media, and her voice has impact. I have no doubt whatsoever that her rantings will result in eventual deaths. People avoiding the Covid vaccine because of baseless lies, people not inoculating their children, and an avoidance of traditional medicine because of the distrust she sows. She epitomizes the False Prophet. 

Meet the Predatory Health Practitioners

The names below are linked to Medika’s Quack Scale, a tool designed to enable the public to identify quacks and charlatans operating in the Predatory Health sector. 

The other end of the scale (Fake Prophets) is occupied by individuals like Dr Fitt, a marketing pseudonym for a disgraced doctor, Roby Mitchell, who now peddles bleach treatments and enemas to autistic children from his base in Texas. Purely driven by financial gain, Mitchell ranks among the bottom feeders in the world of predatory health. 

Dr. Kerri Rivera is another example of a doctor gone bad. Her exploitation of vulnerable mental health patients for profit is well documented and her association with Sayer Ji, an alt-Health proponent who used to sell health foods, has resulted in them spewing a sea of misinformation on Covid and other medical topics. Once again, their motivation is the sale of their products and treatments ay any cost

Kelly Brogan, Joseph Mercola, Zach Bush, the list is as endless as it is dangerous and the reason it grows daily is simply this. Money. There are fortunes to be made in the alt-Health sector, particularly if you claim to have the “cure for Covid” marketed of course as a drug or treatment to boost your immune system against influenza viruses. The FDA might be watching.

Millions of dollars change hands daily, paid over freely by those duped into believing the lies. Often, customers also pay with their lives. 

The individuals who engage in Predatory Health are willing to risk being caught. The system grinds slowly and by the time the FDA catches up with them, the damage is already done. Their message is out there and they simply move the supply of their “toxins” to less mainstream channels. Loopholes and blindspots in current U.S legislation leave room enough to drive buses through. The system offers little more negligible punitive fines and smacks on the wrist, which are not a deterrent.

This is the nature of predatory health and it isn’t always easy to spot. Particularly if your desperation and need for relief or hope outweigh your common sense.

Buying from a “large” business isn’t always a guarantee of safety either. Take the following company Phoenix Biotechnology, whose aggressive marketing campaign to sell a “natural extract” called Oleander 4x is a textbook case of manipulating the health market to promote sales of a product that can potentially cause death. 

Through the misrepresentation and manipulation of clinical studies, they have produced the illusion of medical acceptance and the latest FDA warning issued against them for offering their toxin as a treatment for Covid has exposed the true nature of their business. 

Many other similar companies operate below the radar for years in relative safety, selling and enabling Predatory Health practitioners by making their fake treatments and products available to a global market. 

It is a monumental problem that the healthcare industry and the American government can no longer afford to ignore. Every Predatory Health practitioner we allow to operate, particularly those who still have a foot firmly placed in traditional medicine, bring disrepute to the industry. 

They encourage mistrust of conventional treatments to the detriment of many critically-ill people. The formally qualified quacks breach the oath they have taken and a legal option must be explored to permanently strip them of their qualifications and the right to their use.

Many of these individuals took an oath and their actions are a clear breach of this oath, thereby rendering the conditions of the degree null and void. Simply removing their right to practice is an insufficient response and continues to endanger public health. Where clear intent to harm and deceive is established, the full force of the law should be brought to bear on these quacks.

Legislation enabling medical boards to act more aggressively against medical professionals in the predatory health sector is desperately needed on a federal level. It is in the interests of public safety and in the continued interests of maintaining credulity in existing public healthcare institutions.

Dealing with alt-Health

Policing the alt-Health sector requires an entirely different approach which may include clear legal guidelines of operation, enforceable by institutions like the FDA. This is simply one mechanism though, and the problem will require a multi-faceted approach. 

What compounds the complexity of the problem is the alt-Health sector itself. There are definite and real health benefits to certain treatments and therapies offered by the sector. Recognizing, regulating, and protecting these practitioners, products, and therapies will be critical to the future of this market. An excellent example of how a legitimate profession can be ruined by its association with predatory health is the Chiropractic industry.

Left unchecked, the alternative will be an eventual wholesale ban on many potentially helpful drugs, therapies, and products. This would be a knee-jerk response, an oversimplified solution to a complex problem and needs to be avoided at all costs. Sadly, all too often, this type of exaggerated response is typical of politicians who lack a clear grasp of an industry’s dynamics and are looking to simply exercise damage control.

There has been little effort shown by the alt-Health sector to police themselves and whatever results now from the proliferation of fraudsters within their sector, they will share blame in the outcomes. 

If you’ve been affected by Predatory Health practitioners what can you do to stop others falling victim?

Stop enabling Predatory Health Practioners

Every time you come across these individuals and you paths will cross, perhaps frequently, as they proliferate on social media, call them out, unfollow them, report them, block them. 

Their current success is largely attributable to the internet and their mastery of social media as a sales and marketing tool. The privacy of private groups on Facebook and other platforms allows them to operate with impunity, away from prying eyes. 

They are usually only exposed when tragedy occurs, when someone dies from the poisons they peddle and that death is often a child. You can help by exposing them before this happens. 

Websites like Medika Life and others offer pages that highlight the unethical and dangerous practices of these doctors. We also offer a page where the public can confidentially bring names to our attention. You can also report the professionally registered quacks to the relevant boards within their states or directly to the FDA if medication is involved. 

Reporting accounts to the social media platforms is often futile as they are slow to respond, if ever, particularly if groups are closed. Take screenshots of offending materials and include these in a report to the websites listed below. 

Your actions are essential to saving lives and stopping the spread of the rot of predatory health within our communities. By using your voice, you can join a growing community of people speaking out against disinformation. You will not be alone and somewhere on the planet, a child may owe you their life. 

You can also sign a MOBILIZE™ Health petition if you would like to add your voice to a campaign to rid the industry of this blight by creating a formal watchdog, an Organization tasked with and legally enabled to, root out health fraud and the dangerous practices of predatory health practitioners. 

Help us to help protect the most vulnerable sectors of our communities. 

The post Exposing the Dark World of Predatory Health appeared first on Medika Life.

I believe that marijuana should be legalized, regulated, and taxed, just like alcohol and tobacco. If marijuana is going to be approved for use as medicine rather than for recreational use, however, the standards of evidence it must meet should be no different than any other drug, and for the vast majority of indications for which it’s touted medical cannabis doesn’t even come close to meeting that standard.

There is zero credible and convincing evidence to suggest that CBD is effective for serious conditions, like treating cancer. There is also none that shows routine use while well can prevent disease. There are in fact studies that suggest frequent use of cannabis can lead to an increased risk of cancer, testicular in this instance.

Is it possible that the illegal marijuana trade has happened upon a short cut to legitimacy and legalization by pursuing the medical legalization of CBD and by association, the legalization of cannabis?

What’s all the fuss about?

Cannabidiol (CBD) oil is everywhere and seemingly in everything these days. It’s the new panacea for a sick society and will, if their hype is believed, cure a massive range of illnesses and conditions. It’s even recommended as a daily supplement to help smooth out our stress filled lives.

I’m not sure I agree with the supplement label, but I can vouch for the stress removal aspect. Who knew ‘comfortably numb’ would be the the 21st centuries answer to stress.

CBD is one of the many chemical compounds called cannabinoids that is isolated from cannabis (marijuana). Marijuana contains over 400 chemicals of which, at least 120 are cannabinoids, chemicals that stimulate cannabinoid receptors in the human body. We are actually the proud owners of cannabinoid receptors and our bodies produce their own cannabinoids.

The most well-studied cannabinoids that are isolated from cannabis are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and CBD. Unlike THC, CBD is not psychoactive (a drug affecting the mind) and there are hundreds if not thousands of producers and products now on the market, sold everywhere from country markets to pet stores to pharmacies. Like most panaceas, the hype outpaces the evidence and the snake oil salesmen and quacks are out in full force.

What are the facts

Lets start with a few simple facts and work our way up from there. These facts are important and key to understanding how the marketing of CBD is manipulated, even to the point where marketing claims are at odds with each other.

CBD:THC Ratios

Most Hemp/Cannabis oils contain little to almost no THC, Remember that is the ingredient that is psychoactive and messes with your head. This fact is proudly advertised by the manufacturers. The THC levels are mostly below the limit of detection for common assays and manufacturers brag that it’s impossible to fail a drug test if you’re consuming hemp seed oil because “THC levels in our products are barely measurable.”

So no argument there, unless of course the manufacturers would like to retract their statements. Why does this matter you ask? It does matter, because it’s the THC that shows some clinical potential to address tumors, more on this later.

As long as we are in agreement, that the ingredient looked to and referenced for all the research claims made by sites like Medical Jane, references an ingredient that is mostly not present in their product.

Quality Control ? Who needs it.

It has suited the CBD camp to pursue their legalization under the guise of a natural product, rather than that of a drug. The drug industry is heavily regulated and with good reason. One of the benefits of this regulation is strict quality control, something sadly lacking in the natural healthcare sector.

Whilst Canadians enjoy rigorous quality checks on the CBD oils they purchase, Americans are not protected in the same way and legalization and marketing controls vary from state to state, but are mostly non-existent. Depending on where you live, CBD oil might only be available on the black or “grey” market which means there’s little consumers can rely on with respect to product quality and consistency.

No one is checking and consumers are happily sipping away, placing their trust in the manufacturers.

Without being assured that you’re purchasing a high quality product, it’s impossible for consumers to base expectations on published evidence. If you can’t trust what’s on the label of your CBD oil, then any published evidence of benefit, even if it’s of the highest quality, becomes largely irrelevant.

Studies in countries like the Netherlands have shown wide variations between label claims and actual ingredients, and the stated CBD:THC ratio is often, if not invariably, incorrect.

The Drug Debate

Medical (prescription) products based on cannabis or that contain cannabinoids are available in many countries. Epidolex is an FDA-approved CBD extract that is approved for the treatment of seizures associated with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome or Dravet syndrome.

Marinol, a synthetic THC, is approved for nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy, and for the treatment of AIDS-related anorexia. Clearly, the development of these medications points to medically validated benefits of cannabinoids. Yes, these exist, no one is denying that.

The coexistence of CBD in both supplement form and prescription form raises the question of whether or not CBD oil should be treated as a drug or as a supplement. Often these products co-exist in both retail and regulated markets, re-branded and sold by their manufacturers into the different channels.

This classification system is important and can be simply explained as follows. Drugs are generally considered unsafe and unproven until evidence (clinical trials) show otherwise. Supplements and “natural products” are seen as having long histories of use and are considered safe until evidence emerges to show otherwise.

The marketing strategy of CBD manufacturers, having managed to latch onto existing medical claims and utilize these to essentially have an illegal substance re-branded as natural, is nothing short of genius. Few actually appreciate this blatant sleight of hand, pulled off in full view of the public and with the apparent consent of regulatory authorities.

The acceptance of medical marijuana in the public space appears to be far more driven by politics than it is by science, as was pointed out in a recent New York Times article about the impending legalization of medical cannabis in New York State:

New York moved last week to join 22 states in legalizing medical marijuana for patients with a diverse array of debilitating ailments, encompassing epilepsy and cancer, Crohn’s disease and Parkinson’s. Yet there is no rigorous scientific evidence that marijuana effectively treats the symptoms of many of the illnesses for which states have authorized its use.

Instead, experts say, lawmakers and the authors of public referendums have acted largely on the basis of animal studies and heart-wrenching anecdotes. The results have sometimes confounded doctors and researchers.

A lot of people stand to make a lot of money. A lot of people are also poised to pay with their lives for it.

CBD oil does have pharmacological and drug-like effects, there can be little doubt of this. The stronger the emerging claims become, the louder the calls for re-classification will become. Lets examine the validity of a few of these claims made by the CBD industry.

The Cancer Cure

The internet abounds with emotional and painful stories of people that have been cured of their cancer, all thanks to their use of CBD oils. The words ‘miracle’ and ‘life-saving’ permeate these stories. What does real science have to say about the efficacy of CBD on tumors? Note, we aren’t referring to anecdotal evidence and hearsay, but rather hard clinical data.

You cannot have this discussion without first acknowledging the glaring quality control issues surrounding CBD, the consistency and potency of THC, and the volumes present in these oils. Its important to point out here that I am not suggesting there are no potential benefits from THC in the fight against cancer, there may well be and these need to be investigated further.

Associating any of the medical claims attached to THC with CBD is where the danger lies. It is intentionally misleading marketing, designed to offer false hope to desperate individuals and it is unquestionably, morally and ethically reprehensible.

Herbs, when they work, are adulterated drugs. The active ingredient is usually a minor constituent, embedded in thousands of other constituents that make up herbs. It’s almost impossible to control lot-to-lot consistency with respect to content or active ingredients given how location, weather, soil conditions, rainfall, and many other factors can affect how the plants from which the medicines are extracted grow and therefore their chemical composition.

Producing a potent and consistent pharmaceutical compound is an expensive and complicated process, one of the reasons chemists seek to create synthetic variants that can be consistently reproduced. For any clinical trials to produce reliable results, the treatment needs to be consistent, obviously. For the results of these trials to be emulated in the public space, the same rule applies. Consistent quality.

Current manufacturing processes for CBD make this impossible with potency varying from crop to crop and by season. Without regulation, manufacturers take further advantage by ‘watering down’ the final product even further. No one checks.

Manipulating the Data

Medical Jane is at the forefront of promoting the medical benefits of cannabis online through the publication of medical research. In every single instance Medical Jane invokes medical research, the research or trials are not based on Hemp Oil and can thus be argues to bear no relevance whatsoever to CBD.

Each of the studies examines either purified cannabinoids or, in the case of this study, a chemically modified cannabinoid. This study cited in Molecular Cancer, for instance, looks Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol, the most abundant and potent cannabinoid in marijuana, and JWH-133, a non-psychotropic CB2 receptor-selective agonist.

Both inhibit the growth of HER2(+) breast cancer cells in cell culture and in mice, but the concentrations needed are pretty high, with an IC50 (concentration that is 50% of maximum inhibition) in the range of 5 to 10 μM, concentrations achievable with injection of purified compound but certainly not by smoking pot.

You are also highly unlikely to achieve these levels by drinking hemp oil, As we’ve already established, and manufacturers have confirmed, there is little to sometimes no THC in CBD oils. How then can claims relating to this ingredient be offered as proof of the efficacy of CBD?

Invitro tests (performed outside of a living organism) and mice are also a long step away from proven human efficacy. Oral bioavailability of THC from such oils is notoriously low, between 4–20%, making it unlikely that concentrations well above the 10 μM necessary to inhibit or kill more than 50% of the cancer cells are achievable with oral dosing. Drinking litres of CBD is clearly not going to offer a workaround either..

None of the various studies cited, such as this one, which shows inhibition of the epidermal growth factor pathway by purified cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychotropic cannabinoid or this one, the aforementioned study that examines purified Δ9-THC and JWH-133 against HER2(+) breast cancer, support the use of medical marijuana, either smoked as the plant or ingested as an oil, to treat breast cancer.

A recent review concludes that “current preclinical data does not yet provide robust evidence that systemically administered Δ9-THC will be useful for the curative treatment of cancer,” although CBD might have a role based on preclinical data.

Again, in the words of Dr Gorski;

Neither cannabinoid, however, is likely to be curative for advanced cancer. It’s possible that specific cannabinoids might have a role to play in the multimodality treatment of cancer, but, given what we know about them from preclinical studies, it’s highly unlikely that cannabinoids, medical marijuana, or hemp oil can cure stage IV cancer of any kind.

First, do no harm

This medical ethic, drilled into the head of every first year medical student, doesn’t apply to the cannabis industry. They’ve not sworn an oath designed to place your interests and your health before all else. They are purely driven by profits and will exploit whatever means necessary to maximize said profits, even at the expense of your life.

As more people join the pseudoscience cult of marijuana, ascribing their miraculous recoveries to cannabis, little attention is given to their existing conventional medications and treatments. Treatments that often bring these patients to the point where they are able to garner what little benefit the Cannabis oils and products may offer. Ascribing their recovery solely to Cannabis, is both misleading and dangerous.

Whilst we rejoice in the apparent cures of these individuals, we need to look beyond the hype. We need to study, in a controlled environment, the effects of Cannabinoids when used in conjunction with conventional medicines.

We already know enough to be able to say without doubt, that on their own, Cannabinoids cannot cure cancer. To assert these false claims and then use them to exploit a very vulnerable segment of the population purely for profit is grossly unethical and borders on criminal.

Whilst may form an important part of the multimodality treatment of cancers, it’s far to early to call the race. It is not whether these compounds exhibit any effects that is in question here, Science openly acknowledges that something is at play, it simply hasn’t had the time yet to work out what that is and until it does, the quacks and pseudo-scientists need to be reeled in.

They do a discredit to any potential benefits the plant may show, they impede the scientific processes required to ascertain these benefits and to they negate the efforts of legal, properly qualified medically trained doctors currently experimenting with cannabis in the fields of pain and nausea management in chemo patients and other fields of medicine.

Conning people out of cash is one thing, conning them out of their health and life and is an entirely different issue. As long as we continue to confuse correlation with causation, we will require legislation to protect these vulnerable individuals and it’s time the state wakes up to these dangers. It has an obligation to public safety. First do no harm.

On Drug Interactions

You wont be surprised at this point to learn that cannabis interacts and interferes with the pharmacological action of other drugs. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…Which drugs are these and if it is a medically proven fact, why are warnings not adhered to CBD oils? Another questionable benefit cannabis enjoys, operating under the CAM banner of a ‘natural product’.

A total of 376 drugs are known to interact with cannabis. 354 are considered moderate, but 24 of these are listed as major or serious enough to warrant warning. These drugs are listed below and linked for additional information on each. Always inform your doctor or health care provider of any medications you are using, including natural and homeopathic products.

• alfentanil
• buprenorphine
• butorphanol
• codeine
• dezocine
• fentanyl
• hydrocodone
• hydromorphone
• levomethadyl acetate
• levorphanol
• meperidine
• methadone
• morphine
• morphine liposomal
• nalbuphine
• oxycodone
• oxymorphone
• pentazocine
• propoxyphene
• remifentanil
• sodium oxybate
• sufentanil
• tapentadol
• tramadol

On Legalization

In case you’re left with the feeling that I would like to see cannabis revert to its original criminalized status, nothing could be further from the truth. I have in the past, and still occasionally, engaged in the consumption of a stress busting joint or brownie. It is a mostly harmless pursuit and possibly far less toxic than cigarette smoke and alcohol.

Prosecuting and incarcerating cannabis users is insanity, a waste of policing resources and hugely damaging to the lives of those affected. I am firmly in the camp of legalization, treating cannabis as we do alcohol and tobacco. Neither of the two aforementioned, however, make spurious claims as to their medicinal and curative properties and herein lies the problem.

Lets take a step back and a time out, rather than allowing the cannabis industry to dictate it’s preferred area of unsanctioned medical testing, namely on you, it’s customers. The fact that it currently manipulates existing science and relies on half truths and the misinterpretation of data to sell itself, should be proof enough of the industries bonafide’s.

Its called baffling with bullshit, and when I last checked, misrepresenting your product to the public was a criminal offense. Especially when it involved the customers health and, potentially, their life. Add to that the manipulation of vulnerable individuals to provide you with testimony to corroborate your story, and you should be looking at life.

The post The CBD Oil Scam- A Con That Relies on Confusing Correlation with Causation appeared first on Medika Life.