Free Advice, Worth Every Cent

A visitor commented on a post about Don Tolman from a while ago that "it'd just be nice to see people post that have done a bit of research and really stepped into the teachings before blindly bashing based on a sound bite". By this I assume that they are implying that my criticism of Don Tolman is based on me taking things out of context.

Here are a few direct quotes from Don's website:

A person who has had over 40 skin cancers already, so of course they should get more sun.

Q: “I have skin cancer on my nose. I already have scars from previous operations – over 40 from my neck up. So I don’t want another operation. Which are the best foods to eat and which are the best to avoid to support self-healing?”

Don’s Answer: A raw food diet is the answer. Every night and every morning smear a layer of extra/extra virgin olive oil all over you especially your face neck and shoulders. Get 20-30 minutes of sunshine with no sun screen every day and watch it all heal. Apply onion juice or garlic juice to the sites of concern each day for 2 weeks the n switch to fresh lemon juice for 2 weeks.

Yellow foods block electromagnetic fields. Seriously?

Q: “What is the effect of EMF radiation and mobile phones etc and how do we strengthen ourselves against its effect?”

Don’s Answer: Always use ear phones whenever you can. Yellow foods block EMF radiation. Even yellow clothing assists in this. Technology is getting better and better in these areas so upgrade when ever you can.

Yes, stay away from surgeons, fruit and vegetables will fix those leaky heart valves. In many instances of congenital heart defects diuretics are prescribed to help eliminate water and salt, so recommending more water and salt without knowing this persons individual details seems very responsible.

Q: “We have two children who were born with congenital heart disease and were told they would not survive without the 7 open heart operations they have had between them. What more can we do for their future good health? ”

Don’s Answer: Stay away from surgeons. This sounds harsh, but if you had seen the things I’ve seen you’d understand. Fear is too much with us and I pam thankful that your children are still alive and with us. And for the skills the doctors displayed by all appearances you need to be thankful, but water, salt, vegetarian diets (or mostly so), walking, playing, jumping rope are the things to do now because life is movement. It can’t be stressed enough that health comes of a happy heart. Hug them, smile with them, play with them and feed them lots of red yellow and orange foods.

Clearly I was wrong to doubt Don's skills as a healer. I'm now going to go and paint my friends mobile phones yellow so they stop working.

Do I Make You Horny?

No, I didn't think so. Nor am I turned on by people killing Rhinoceros for their horn.

I was shocked a few weeks ago to see a television show refer to the use of rhino horn in Chinese medicine as bogus. I'm not shocked to hear that it is bogus, just that it would be called such by a television network with a reputation for shilling quack health products. In fact I saw two new scamish looking devices on the same station this week that I hope to post about soon.

Rhino horn is mostly keratin, the same as your fingernails. So a great market exists for someone to grind up their fingernails and start selling I Can't Believe It's Not Rhino on eBay.

Rhino horn is used to treat fever. I could only find one study, on rats, that showed a positive effect. You'd think if it was such a good remedy for fever, so good that it's worth hunting and killing a rhino for, that there would be some better evidence by now. It can't be that hard. Bunch of people with a fever, divide them into three groups, aspirin, horn or placebo depending on group and tot up the results.

Hopefully calling a scam a scam and a quack a quack will one day become the norm instead of the exception.

Who Needs An Ambulance When You Have Homeopathy?

A while ago I posted about homeopathic first aid kits. I was, of course, taking the piss; so I was a bit surprised to see someone offering a homeopathic first aid course to the public.

I suppose if you burnt yourself you could tip the water from the homeopathic potion bottles on yourself. Or if you encounter someone with hypoglycaemia you could feed them some of your handy sugar pills.

There are many similar courses available claiming they can prepare you to deal with a wide range of emergency situations. Insect bites, allergic reactions, burns, whiplash, cuts and plenty of other maladies.

Homeopathy is based on the concept that 'like cures like'. Which means that these clever homeopaths must have little bottles of diluted knives and car crashes to treat cuts and whiplash with.

The most disappointing discovery was that TAFE colleges are offering such courses. That's a great use of public funds. I wonder if you can do a course in entrail reading at the same time.

It's bad enough that Homeopaths can freely bilk people with no legal reprisals without TAFE and, indirectly, the government endorsing and even promoting such ridiculous quackery.

So the next time that peanut allergy sends you into anaphylactic shock, don't worry about the adrenalin, all you need is a bottle of magic water and you'll be up and about in no time.

ENAR II: Son Of ENAR

Here is the footage of the ENAR on A Current Affair:

And another fine bit of shill work from Channel Nine:

Here's some footage of the SCENAR healing a guys burns. The SCENAR is the ENARs big brother or retarded cousin, something like that. It's a pretty amazing device, not only did it heal the burns it also managed to replace a scar and a tattoo to the burned area.

To quote Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson: Wank, wank, money in the bank.

Beaten To The Punch

Just in case last weeks ENAR device wasn't scamtastic enough Channel Nine's program A Current Affair has followed up with some more gold standard quackery. This time it's a magic drink that will solve all your blood pressure woes.

The product is called Dr Red and is a cordial made from many ingredients including Rosselle, a species of hibiscus. The usual claims were made regarding the existence of supporting evidence and trials. The evidence is pretty thin though. After reading the information presented about the trials I was only able to conclude that this punch doesn't kill mice. Hardly a breakthrough.

I assume that Channel Nine will push any product if given enough cash. It would certainly explain all the product placement and infomercial style of the segment. Or perhaps they just don't do too much research into their stories. Either way it is worrying that so much bunk is being broadcast.

You can see the segment on the ACA website. My favourite part is a close shot of the bottle where we can read on the label:

Antioxidant Enriched
Evidence Based
Rosella Concentrate

Still, at just $53.00 for a 750ml bottle it's a bargain. Regular cordial is only $3.00 but that has a fruit base which is easier to get in the bottle than an evidence base.

Beverages are also available to aid your immune system and your prostate. It looks like this company has solved mankind's health dilemmas single handed. We should all thank the nutraceuticals industry for allowing us to pay prescription prices for everyday grocery items.

In contrast, as I'm writing this Channel Ten news is running a story about Chinese herbs. The segment is about a study being conducted to see if particular herbs lower blood sugar. Unlike A Current Affair they don't mention a brand name and vague unsupported claims to try and sell units. Maybe they could teach Channel Nine the difference between science and shite.

Now I'm off to have a nice glass of evidence based milk.