I’m impressed by the variety of comments posted at the end of my most recent BusinessWeek.com column about Dr. Joseph Mercola, and I want to respond to several here.
The most provocative is from "ShowMeTheMoney", who demands, "I challenge you to publicly divulge your personal agenda in defense of Big Pharma and related financial arrangements." To me, this kind of comment illustrates the ideological nature of the struggle currently under way between the forces of Big Pharma and so-called alternative medicine. This individual took my criticism of Dr. Mercola as slamming of the entire alternative medicine movement, and it wasn’t at all. The column acknowledges that Dr. Mercola has valid and important things to say, and expresses disappointment that he allows his marketing strategy to operate at such a low level. I have no "personal agenda in defense of Big Pharma"–quite the contrary. I have regularly questioned Big Pharma’s approach to doing business, most notably in another recent BusinessWeek.com article on women’s hormones.
ShowMeTheMoney also challenges me to review a recent study from Canada showing "that doctors are curing cancer using only IV injections of vitamin C." The study is intriguing, but the authors themselves acknowledge its limitations–mainly that it is limited to examples of three cancer patients who appear to have benefited from massive vitamin C injections. I hope it proves itself out in further studies. The reader’s comment suggests to me how quickly the ideologues latch onto one or another piece of evidence as absolute and conclusive. That’s the nature of ideological debates.
Another comment comes from "Crohn", who describes how Dr. Mercola helped him get rid of his symptoms of Crohn’s disease after his own doctor gave up. This doesn’t surprise me at all. As I indicated in the column, Dr. Mercola is quite knowledgeable and has much to offer. I also credited him with being impressively straightforward in his online discussion of office visits and fees. I just wish he didn’t have such a heavy foot on the sales accelerator.
A comment from "Wintermute" points out, "Holistic and other alternative medicines are prey to a lot of snake-oil salesmen, but not much more than the mainstream medical establishment in general." I agree completely. I also feel that two wrongs don’t make a right. Just because "they" do it doesn’t mean "we" should do it. Maybe I’m too idealistic, but I feel it’s up to the alternative medicine side to operate at a higher level than Big Pharma.
The latter explains why there’s so much cynicism about health care, as summed up by "tlo9879": "It’s all about money folks. It’s not about your health!"
Recent Comments