Cancer quackery is about as low as you can go. Telling people you can cure cancer with baking powder and vitamin C is irresponsible, unethical and lethal. But these are staple claims of the Naturopathic health care trade. In the UK, naturopathy is not a prominent mode of alternative medicine, but in the United States, students can spend tens of thousands of dollars being told they are getting meaningful medical qualifications in naturopathic medicine that are somehow equivalent to a real medical training.
Britt Hermes has been exposing this exploitative trade for a number of years now. She knows about it because she has been through it. Her own story is that she invested years of her life, and lots of money, training to be a naturopath under the impression that this was a legitimate form of medicine. Her sudden epiphany came when she discovered her employer at a naturopathic clinic was importing banned quack cancer treatments. Britt realised that naturopathy was ‘ a system of indoctrination based on discredited ideas about health and medicine, full of pseudoscientific rhetoric and loaded with ineffective and dangerous practices”.
She had wasted her money and spent years learning useless and dangerous practices. But Britt is a strong character – she devoted herself to embarking on a life of science (she is now studying for a PhD in Kiel, Germany) and to doing her best to expose the naturopathic community for what it is – blatant, dangerous quackery.
She has been criticising the Universities on her blog that offer naturopathic medical qualifications along with the treatments they treat. Britt is using the tools of evidence based medicine to challenge the claims being made and to make people re-think their casual acceptance of these ‘natural alternatives’. Her honesty and bravery have been moving and she has been recognised in the UK for her indefatigability with an Okham Award.
This has caused near panic in the paranoid and deluded world of naturopathic medicine. She has been targeted, threatened and attacked. Web sites have been set up to try to discredit her. Bastyr University, her alma mater, sent her a cease and desist letter. And now, cancer naturopath, Colleen Huber, has actually issued a misconceived and illiberal libel claim against her in Germany.
Libel claims are almost always designed to silence and intimidate. They are used to punish and harass. Huber cannot be allowed to get away with such legal thuggery and so the Australian Skeptics Society have set up a legal defense fund to help Britt fight this awful action. Britt has representation, but this will be costly. I urge you to donate. If every reader offered the price of a few Friday night drinks, Britt will have no worries. Give more if you can. Defending such actions is vital as it shows quacks they cannot resort to legal actions without significant costs to themselves. Patient lives depend on active and vocal criticism of alternative medicine – this action is designed to stop that.
I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of misconceived libel actions. Not only is it costly, but it also saps time and energy. My libel experience is still ongoing with last-gasp attempts to appeal still going through the courts nearly three years after trial. It is demoralising and destructive. Britt deserves full support and recognition here. Good luck Britt and we are with you.
Andy — make txt size bigger! And line length shorter!
“Her sudden epiphany came when she discovered her employer at a naturopathic clinic was importing banned quack cancer treatments. Britt realised that naturopathy was ‘ a system of indoctrination based on discredited ideas about health and medicine, full of pseudoscientific rhetoric and loaded with ineffective and dangerous practices”.
Is she a sister of Edzard Ernst? Very similar experience leading to the eureka moment!!!!!
Do cancer drugs improve survival or quality of life?
http://www.bmj.com/content/359/bmj.j4528
Sorry, this is an excellent article in the BMJ reviewing the evidence for conventional cancer drugs in solid dose tumours. You may as well give baking powder and vitamin C. It’s safer and certainly a lot cheaper. 71 cancer therapies with cr@p primary endpoint data. This is the real scandal folks!
A top gastric surgeon in WA State told my sister he hates the chemo n radiation Drs as they lie about what it does FOR the person n how much better it is than they used to be. He says we have to try to repair what they have burnt n killed in you n then put bags on you n you probably will die from cancer within 3 to. years anyway. The cancer industry in the U S takes in every year about what the gross income of THREE BOEING COMPANIES PLUS THREE MICROSOFT COMPANIES DO WORLD WIDE. DO YOU THINK THEY WILL CLOSE THAT INCOME CASH COW DOWN? This site is where you find the biggest quack as he trashes studies about depleted soils n in the foods grown today. Some top universities have proven these results and some years back one of the top evening programs in the U S sent people to stores across the U S to buy oranges n they all got tested. Result was VERY LITTLE VITAMIN C IN THE ORANGES. The network never did it again though as they lost lots of ad money as a result. I would bet this guys income is heavily supplemented by big agriculture n the pill companies as well as the m.d. s in the cancer treatment industry
It truly takes an awesome person to not only admit she’s wrong, but to devote herself to taking on these nuts.
An additional article on this at SBM
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/cancer-quack-colleen-huber-sues-britt-hermes-over-criticism/
This website is all fake news all the time. What a joke. You should partner up with snopes and the southern poverty law center, the goal here is apparently to promulgate fake news.
Everything that does not conform to your preconceived notions are “fake news” I assume?
for your consistency, I think it’s baking soda, not baking powder 🙂
It takes immense courage and strength to challenge misleading practices that put lives at risk. I’m standing with her in this fight for truth and accountability, and I hope others will too. Keep up the incredible work, Britt!