One Sick Mother

And Waiting...

Remember that old Diana Ross song, "I'm still waiting"?  Well, that has been going through my head recently, despite the fact that I hate it.  Now don't get me wrong, it is a lovely song and all. You know the story, right?  A little girl has a crush on an older neighborhood kid and he tells her not to bother. And then he moves away and tells her

"Little girl
Please don't wait for me
Wait patiently for love.
Someday will surely come.."

And of course she doesn't listen.  She waits for him. And as far as I know, she is waiting still.

Because - and I realized this years later, -after I grew a clue. He's GAY!  She can wait until Hell freezes over, gets hot again and then freezes AGAIN, and he's STILL not going to be interested.

...and that's why I hate that song. 

So I heard back from #30 about the whole brain scan thingy. It is a study, won't cost me a bean for the scans (which is good because Insurance won't cover), and maybe some of the other stuff is covered (even better).  However, they are waiting for Board approval or somesuch red tape so I need to hang out some more until that comes through. #30 was very apologetic about the waiting, which was nice of him. However, I don't like hanging around when I could be getting answers.  So we had a conversation which went something like this:

Me: "You know, I'm still confused as to why -if this is CFS- do I feel so much better when I eat hardly anything at all? Yesterday I only ate a few crackers every few hours and I felt great. No episodes at all.  Is that normal for CFS? (subtext: unless you rule everything else out, I won't fit the criteria for your study).

#30:  "That's Interesting. I'll tell you what: While we are waiting for the approval to come through, why dont' we go ahead and schedule a Glucose Tolerance Test to get your glucose and Insulin levels.  Because you know; -just recently I had a woman with that very thing..." (Subtext: Good point. I don't want you buggering up my CFS study if you have a metabolic problem.  Let's rule that out before we get started...)

Ahhhh. The old give-and-take of the negotiating table. How I missed it! 

My GTT is scheduled for tomorrow.

Myasthenia Gravis Herbal Remedy Scams

Myasthenia Gravis can happen at any age and is very difficult to treat. This makes  MG sufferers and their families prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Myasthenia Gravis. The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

MG-tab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Gravatin by Berlin Homeo Products

Gravitax by Botanical Sources

Greveton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Megnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Garvical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

myastheniagravis-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

myastheniagravisproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

myastheniahelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

I'm Still Waiting

I went to see doctor #30 in September and I didn't hear back in over a month. I was seriously starting to wonder what was going on with this guy. It turns out the doctor got sick, needed surgery and was out for a few weeks. He assured me he is All Better Now.  I'm happy for him. However in the meantime, I am nowhere near better and thoroughly sick of feeling horrible all the time.  I suppose there isn't much you can do if your very highly specialized doctor is sick, except wait until he is better and hope he doesn't die.

So in case you haven't guessed, we finally spoke last week. None of my labs were surprising, according to #30. My Epstein Barr titers are still very high, as are markers for Parvovirus.  He didn't test me for the new CFS virus that everyone has been talking about recently. Nor did he test me for porphyria, which he had specifically said he would do.  I had that abnormal result months ago and no-one is willing to follow up on it.

*sigh*

So #30 seems convinced I have CFS. He said he is getting together with a expert on MR Spectroscopy  on Monday -today actually, to talk about new imaging techniques for the brains of people like me.  I am to call him tomorrow and talk about ...something.  I'm not sure what. I go the impression that they were thinking of putting together a study, but I'm not sure. I'm in two minds about a study.  The last one in which I participated ended up with me getting unnecessary and experimental surgery and being charged for it.

But it also looks like this imaging; -although definitely interesting-  is considered experimental (but non-invasive) and therefore not covered by insurance.

And I'm poor.

AND there is still the whole having-to-trek-into-the-city-three-times-per-week thing which has not been resolved.

Maybe we'll get it all sorted out tomorrow. 

But I'm not holding my breath.

Stay tuned.

OSM Investigates: Cure All Remedies Part 1.

As most of you know, I spend a lot of time and energy outing scams. I have outed over 1,300 scams here on OSM in the past few months. All of the scams I have outed so far have been pretty blatant: Companies selling garbage which they know has no chance at all of curing whatever ails you. Their sole purpose is to take your money and maybe insult your intelligence in the process.

I often get asked to investigate various remedies and treatments, to see if they are legitimate or if they too are scams.  I am happy to do this, unless I think the request was made by a distributor of the product looking got get some publicity -either negative or positive. Because there is no such thing as bad publicity, right? There are only links and more links.

So in an attempt to educate the consumer while at the same time NOT giving any links or business to dodgy sites, this is the first of an incidental series in which I will investigate a class of remedies generically, with no names included.  Because most of them are just as scammy in their own way as the targeted scams are, so I don't see why they should get a free ride here.

There are different levels of trickery out there  in the herbal cure world.  There are even some sites which may not be blatant scams, but which sound too good to be true nonetheless. Maybe the seller really believes in the quack theory behind the product they are hawking. Or maybe whoever-it-is falls into the category my Da called "well-meaning idiot"; i.e. someone who genuinely believes something has helped them and will help you. too. Maybe they think this  because they took in when they were coincidentally having a remit in symptoms. Who knows?  But anyone who believes in either evolution or intelligent design will tell you that it is possible to fervently but mistakenly believe in something which may not be true.  Because that is the other side's position.

 So -in addition to the common-or-garden criminal scammers, us sick people also have to be on the alert for quacks and well-meaning idiots (WMIs) on top of everything else

 

How to Spot a Quack or a WMI.

The first indication that a cure may have some inherent quackery or well-meaning idiocy is if it claims to cure a wide variety of illnesses. This is especially true if those illnesses bear no relationship to each other, like those that have completely different underlying mechanisms. For example, some sites may claim that their remedy will cure a long list of medical conditions, including  Multiple Sclerosis, AIDS and Epilepsy.  Let's just take those three and analyze a claim like that:

• MS is an auto-immune disease,
• AIDS is essentially a viral infection 
• Epilepsy is rogue electrical discharges in the brain, usually of unknown cause.

How exactly is one single 'cure' going to address all of these completely different problems?   Think about it. To address an auto-immune disorder you have to suppress the immune system. If you are doing that, then a viral infection like AIDS will go haywire. On the other hand, to fight something like AIDS, you would have to enhance the immune system.  This would cause the MS people a problem as their immune system is causing the MS in the first place and they will therefore likely get worse.

And epilepsy:  well nobody knows the underlying mechanism there, so claiming to cure it is just irresponsible.

Therefore  makes absolutely no sense that one product can cure all three conditions.  Yet the claims are out there, people.  Many of them.

Search and Destroy

Another claim I love, probably my favorite claim of them all, is this little gem:

"Our treatment seeks  out and kills cancer cells, leaving healthy cells intact"

I love these kind of claims. They seem so ... neat. So clean. So efficient.  I imagine someone newly diagnosed who is looking at chemo on one hand and a neat little herbal treatment with "no side effects" on the other, would be tempted to try the herbal pill.  I know I would be.

 But I always take a step back and ask a simple question.

 "How?"

That's right: HOW does the treatment seek out cancer cells?  What criteria does it use to differentiate cancer cells from other cells? And what if it is wrong and mistakes ...say ...my pancreas for cancer?

Seriously:  Let's break down that claim: There are approximately 50-75 TRILLION cells in the human body (let's call it 60 trillion as a nice round number)  and there are over 200 different types of cancers out there.

So  you are telling me that your treatment can run some sort of algorithm  that looks like this:

Find Cell 1

Compare cell 1 to 200+ different types of cancer cells (which is presumably held in come kind of on-board cancer database in the pill itself)

If cancer=yes, then destroy cell 1 (but leave all surrounding cells intact)

Else leave cell 1 intact

GoTo cell 2

Compare Cell 2 to 200+ different types of cancer cells...

...repeat 60 trillion times

Then after the 60 trillionth pass, presumably it should start again from the beginning, because several million cells will have died and been replaced in the meantime.

Take this to the bank from a computer ex-professional: That's an awful lot of computing power to fit into a little pill.  Not that you ever could, of course,  because pills can't actually perform computational logic of the type mentioned. And even if they could; I would have a bunch of questions for the manufacturer, such as:

How do you update the pills for new kinds of cancers as they are discovered? Can they somehow into the wireless network and download them overnight like Windows does?  Or maybe the creators just use Magic, because that's the only other explanation. 

And again: what if it makes a mistake and misses some cancer cells or destroys some healthy cells  like...  Oh,  I don't know... Neurons?   What then?

And another thing:  How was it tested?  And WHO was it tested on?  Mice?  (I mean... seriously. who would actually volunteer to be the first human subject in a trial like that?  Even if you are completely terminal,  how would you know it wouldn't go straight in there and eat your brain?)  

Now don't get me wrong, there are people out there actually WORKING on nanotechnology that will do exactly this kind of thing. Teeny tiny little nanobots that will rove around the body, looking for cancer (and that makes me wonder how the immune system will respond to them?  But that's probably a post for another year).  To imply that a pill, lotion or medicine can perform this kind of computational logic is just plain ridiculous. It goes back to my question to the doctor on how streptococcus knows what age a child is? 

The answer: It doesn't know, because it's a feckin BACTERIUM! It can't think.  Neither can pills, potions capsules or lotions (hey!  I think I feel a Pome coming on)

So yeah.  Claims that a pill or potion can  target and kill a certain type of cell is complete crap. Don't believe a word of it.

Research The Research

Another giveaway on quacks and WMI, is that there is usually no actual published scientific research, just theories and gushing  testimonials.  No studies or clinical trials at all. Well, I'm sorry. if there is no large-scale, double-blind peer reviewed human (as in Home Sapiens. Not mice, plants, frogs or bunny rabbits) study; preferably published in a respected journal,  then the cure isn't proven and you can stop wasting my time, TYVM. 

Sure, some people may have taken your product and felt better. That's called the placebo effect and it is well documented. Or they may have taken it around a time when their condition just happened to take an upturn (because most chronic conditions do tend to wax and wane) and associated your product with that upturn. There are a many reasons why people might *think* it helps. This is why we need objective research. To prove if it really helps and by how much.

Most normal people are afraid to read a research paper; afraid they won't understand it.  This is something scammers LOVE BTW. They like to cobble together any old shite that might look good to an amateur and put it out there as valid research. There are three ways to combat this.

1. Look for peer-review and/or  publication in a valid journal.  If a study is published in The Lancet, JAMA, NEJM, or a similar, well respected publication; chances are it's completely legitimate.
2. Try reading the report anyway and see how you get on. Skim over the science-ese and read the English. Often, if the research is bogus, a regular person will pick up on the details: A classic example is the product name omission in the 'results' section:  "both sexes are equally affected by Vitiligo"   Yeah OK. How many were affected by the PRODUCT, as opposed to the disease you are supposed to be curing?  Also look for discrepancies such as dates. If the product was introduced in 2006, but the study is dated 1997, chances are they study and the product don't quite match.  If the study started out on 30 people, but 50 of them responded to the treatment, well, something is up.
3. Get help. You probably know someone who can read over the study; a sibling, friend, colleague or neighbor.  Ask them to have a look at it for you. They can only say no.

I have seen incidences where false studies have been cobbled together. I have also seen people trying to fob off small-scale animal studies as "proof" that their product is so wonderful.  But these types of studies  are not acceptable to me. Not enough that I would actually ingest any of these products at risk of hurting myself. A study need to be legitimate, which means peer review. A product needs to be tested on people. And I mean properly tested in a controlled double-blind scientific study, where the neither the doctors or patients know who is getting the product and who is getting a sugar pill. That way, their responses can be monitored independently and the results can't be fixed.

 

Hello, FDA?

The FDA regulates conventional and recognized  cures and treatments. It requires proper studies and testing and strict standards of manufacture and auditing.  The FDA does not regulate "herbal supplements".  If a so-called herbal supplement actually turned out to be the cure for anything, I can guarantee you the FDA will be on the manufacturer and will require that the product become fully regulated as a drug, not a supplement.

Many companies will tell you that they are 'avoiding' studies because "if the word gets out"  about their marvelous product the FDA will swoop down and regulate them. I have even heard some of them claim that the FDA will confiscate their product and put it out to market on behalf of the Government.  (Ha!  that is funny! This kind of thing doesn't happen in America). The quack company will then go on to tell you that you had better get in there now and buy their product before the FDA snatches it away from the unsuspecting and deserving public.

This is just spin; smoke and mirrors.  And a very hard sell.

First off:  FDA regulation is a GOOD thing for us consumers. It enforces standards. FDA regulation may be considered "bad" for these manufacturers because it forces them to adhere to certain standards of quality and manufacturing (aww. poor babies! ) and therefore it drives their costs up.

Secondly, FDA regulation means that consumers have recourse under the law if the treatment turns out to be harmful. Right now, if you get poisoned by (say) Parkotab, you are screwed.  You can't bring the weight of the US government or the civil/ criminal courts down on the manufacturer because there is no FDA regulation of that product.  However, if you are hurt by an FDA regulated drug, you have recourse under the law and the FDA can take appropriate action, such as force a recall.

So don't believe any paranoid rantings regarding the FDA that the miracle cure merchants will put out there. Their motive is not to make you well. It is to make money for themselves. 

Selling Books, not cures

This is a topic for a whole 'nother post, but some of the claims out there are in book form. "Buy this book for only $25" and you too will know The Secret to conquer  [insert medical problem here]!".  The interesting thing about these schemes: They can bypass certain laws regarding claims. For example, in the UK it is illegal to sell a pill that claims to cure cancer.  However you can sell a book that claims a "secret" to curing cancer.

Inventive, no?

There will be more on this subject another time.

 

Read the disclaimer:

I love this one, lifted from a miracle cure for something

This treatment has not been evaluated by the FDA. The term "cure," as used in this article, is the alternative medicine definition of "cure"...

Ooooooh!  So we are playing with words now! (I love playing with words!) So  "cure" doesn't mean cure to you.  It means something different. Something alternative.

Okay.

Because when I think of the word "cure" I think of concepts such as "all better" and "no longer sick". When you use the word "cure" you mean ...what, exactly?  Something alternative?  What's the alternative to "cured"? 

Sick?

Dead?  

Do please advise, oh miracle cure purveyor. There is quite a range of possibilities there, not all of them happy-happy.

I hope I have given you some food for thought here. There is a lot more, too, but it is late and I am tired. Stay tuned for part II.

Thought for Today

Accessories are the mother of pretension.

Motor Neuron Disease Herbal Treatment Scams

A serious diagnosis like Motor Neuron Disease (spelled Motor Neurone DIsease in Europe) is usually a shock and the person diagnosed and their friends and families will often go into overdrive to try and "beat" the disease. This zeal makes MND sufferers (and their families) prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for  Motor Neuron Disease, The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Mototab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Ronitin by Berlin Homeo Products

Neuratax by Botanical Sources

Troneton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Neunofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Motical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.  There are multiple versions of all of these sites, identical except for the disease and product names.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

Motorneuron-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

mndproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

mndhelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Guillain-Barre Herbal Treatment Scams

Guillain-Barre Syndrome (GBS) is thought to be rare, and is therefore little understood within the medical community (or most other communities,  for that matter).  There are not too many experts in GBS available and treatment is expensive and well, confusing. Therefore many people with GBS may try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes GBS sufferers (and their families)  prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
  
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Guillain-Barre Syndrome. The product name is linked back to the scam site. However, if you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Guillatab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations, is here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming is here.

Baritin by Berlin Homeo Products

Gabratax by Botanical Sources

Barbeton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Gebnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Nebrical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the self-styled "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

guillainbarre-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

gbs-products.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

gbshelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Emphysema / COPD Scams

Emphysema is a factor in the progression of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a condition that limits the flow of air when you breathe out. Emphysema occurs when the air sacs at the ends of your smallest air passages (bronchioles) are gradually destroyed. Smoking is the leading cause of emphysema.

As it worsens, emphysema turns the spherical air sacs — clustered like bunches of grapes — into large, irregular pockets with gaping holes in their inner walls. This reduces the number of air sacs and keeps some of the oxygen entering your lungs from reaching your bloodstream. In addition, the elastic fibers that hold open the small airways leading to the air sacs are slowly destroyed, so that they collapse when you breathe out, not letting the air in your lungs escape.

Airway obstruction, another feature of COPD, contributes to emphysema. The combination of emphysema and obstructed airways makes breathing increasingly difficult. Treatment often slows, but doesn't reverse, the process. (Source: the Mayo Clinic)

Because Emphysema/COPD is difficult to treat, many people try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes COPD sufferers prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product
  
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Emphysema and COPD. The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products  legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers, due to a loophole in their advertising policy. 

Emphotab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS)  -more on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Emphotin by Berlin Homeo Products

Hismatax by Botanical Sources

Hysmeton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Phenofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Physmical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

Emphysema-options.com run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

Emphysema-products.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

Emphysemahelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off (I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Look at the comments on my articles).

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

Keloids Scam Products: Warning

Keloids effect many people and is characterized by scarring. It can vary from isolated lesions to widespread scarring.  There is no cure and few treatments.

Furthermore, because Keloids are often considered to be a cosmetic problem, insurance often will not cover treatment. Therefore, many people try to find a treatment outside of mainstream medicine. This makes people with Keloids prime targets for predatory scammers who look for people with tricky medical problems to exploit for their own gain.

There are two types of scam site to look out for: 

• The straight scam product site
• The comparison scam site

Let's start with straight product scams. like the ones listed below.  These sites are all for a single product, each of which claims "guaranteed treatment" or "results within days" and list all sorts of herbs, -some of which may be dangerous- as ingredients.

The scam sites have a lot in common: there is no real contact information listed anywhere: No names of people, no phone numbers, no e-mail addresses. The contact information is a mail forwarding service, and/or an online form which you fill out, which gives you no e-mail address and no way to follow up. Every single scam site I have found (over 900!) uses CCNow to process their payments. Make of that what you will. I am just stating the fact.

Here is the list of scam products I have found for Keloids, The product name is linked back to their site. If you click on the company name,  you will be linked back to my article on the particular company selling that product and why it is bad. Please be aware that most of these companies advertise directly on WebMD and other legitimate medical sites. This does not make their products legitimate. Contrary to what WebMD would like you to believe, they do not verify all of their advertisers. There is a huge loophole in their advertising policy. 

Kelotab by Oslo Health Solutions (OHS). There ismore on OHS, detailing the kind of garbage they put in some of their preparations here  and a little more info on them and the psychology of scamming here.

Loditin by Berlin Homeo Products

Declarex by Botanical Sources

Kleneton by Gordon's Herbal Research Center

Kelnofax by Healing Plants Ltd

Lodical by Solutions By Nature

Please don't buy any of the above products. They are all scams. None of them are based in the country they claim to be based. All of the addresses are mail forwarding services. If you receive any pills, they will arrive from Pakistan. I have received tons of feedback from readers who tell me this is so.

The other type of scam site is more sneaky.  These are the so-called "philanthropic" sites, the ones which want to "help" you find the "correct" cure for your "problem". These sites will list between two or four herbal treatments (all of which you will find listed above) in varying order, and will make an "independent recommendation" of which one they think is best.  Of course, the catch is that the "independent" evaluator actually owns all of the bogus cures in the first place, so they don't care which one you choose, as long as you choose one. They get the money regardless.

(And they think we are the ones who are sick?)

Here is a list of the scam evaluators, along with the link to my background info on them. 

keloids-options.com is run by The Society for the Promotion of Alternative Health (SPAH)

keloidsproducts.com run by  Herbal Product Reviews

keloidshelp.org run by Towards Natural Health.  A little more on them here.

I have tried everything I can think to try and get these scams shut down; -and I am still trying, however, they are still operating. In the meantime, I am trying to get the word out as much as possible so that people won't buy these products and be ripped off. Unfortunately, I still get e-mails every day from people who have been. Just read some of the comments and you will see what I mean.

Please spread the word that these products are scams. If you belong to a support group or messageboard, please let the other members know about these scam products, so that they are not conned into wasting their time and money.

An Open Letter to Martin J. Wygod, Head of WebMD

Dear Mr. Wygod.

Sorry to take you away from your racehorses, but I tried to go through normal WebMD channels and my e-mails have remained unanswered.  Then I tried to find the CEO of WebMD, but there is none. Nor is there a head of advertising or public relations. Therefore I went to the holding company, HLTH Inc, and I could find no-one there who seemed to have a descriptive title ("member of the board of directors" doesn't really cover it). And so I decided in desperation, to address this to you. You are after all, the acting CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, so the buck stops with you.

It's a straightforward question:

Why does WebMD allow filthy scammers to advertise on the site?

What do you mean you don't and it's against your advertising policy?   You DO and  -maybe you don't know this, because maybe it happened in the lower management echelons, but your advertising policy is specifically designed to allow it to happen.  There is a humungous loop hole built right in. So I know HOW you have filthy scammers advertising on WebMD  (and I will explain how later for the benefit my other readers who may not have noticed).  But please, Mr Wygood,  tell me WHY it happens?  Do you need the money so badly?  Does WebMD get so much money from Yahoo for each "click" a scammer receives through this loophole in policy, that the company would fold without it?

Do you make so much money from supporting scammers that you are willing to risk the reputation of WebMD? Because -trust me, that is what you are doing.  All those editors and reviewers. All the medical boards and MDs and other people who work so hard to put out good and accurate content are made to look like idiots because the first link in a search will go to a scam site selling "miracle cures" for serious and fatal illnesses such as Multiple Systems Atrophy.  All in total violation of your very excellent advertising policy,  which prohibits such practices and which has as a closing statement, the following line

No Advertising will be allowed on the WebMD Network that could injure the good name or reputation of WebMD or the WebMD Site.

Um. You have this, this, this, this and this company directly advertising on WebMD, tucked right in there under the logo so that lovely sentiment is a FAIL.

You see,  There is a little paragraph higher up in the advertising policy that reads like this (excerpt)

"...As described in the "Ads by Yahoo" hyper link in the Ads by Yahoo section on our Search pages, these "Ads by Yahoo" are listings that have been purchased by companies that want to have links to their sites appear adjacent to search results in response to specific terms. WebMD may receive payment from Yahoo in connection with displaying the sponsored link results..."

Sooo. "Ads by Yahoo" is a separate deal, not covered by the advertising policy that prohibits miracle cures or false claims and a bunch of other stuff the scammers do.  

Here is the "Ads By Yahoo" policy... -actually it's more of a disclaimer:

"Ads by Yahoo!" are paid advertisements. These advertisements have been purchased by companies that want to have links to their sites appear in WebMD’s search results when you search on specific words or phrases on WebMD. These advertisements are administered, sorted, and maintained by Yahoo! and are displayed on the WebMD site. WebMD may receive payment from Yahoo! when you click on any of these advertisement links. The advertisements have not been reviewed for accuracy, objectivity, or balance by the physicians or editorial staff at WebMD and are not endorsed by either WebMD or Yahoo!

So in theory, I could pay to advertise kiddie porn on WebMD (not that I would) using "Ads By Yahoo", and neither WebMD  nor Yahoo would do a darn thing.  -OK maybe Kiddie porn is taking it too far because that is overtly, rather than covertly illegal. But I could claim a bogus herbal remedy for ...say Motor Neuron Disease (hello, ALS) that gives "results within Days" and that would be allowed.  You think not? Well, here is Exhibit A:

   

 The three circled sites are all scams.

The bottom one; that 'results within days' one that I mentioned?  Well, that particular advertisement is from Healing Plants Ltd, a scam operation that was outed before here on OSM.  Healing Plants have both direct and indirect advertisements on WebMD. The direct version is seen as an example above (they have around 60 bogus products for different diseases, and yes. Several more of them are on WebMD). The indirect ones are in the form of bogus comparison sites that point people to Healing Plants or to two or three other -even worse- "'guaranteed treatments";  some of which contain strychnine, mercury, arsenic or ground-up hairballs.

...all available a few short clicks away from WebMD.  Are you proud to see your life's work exploited so?

Another thing I have found -a little flaw in your site design, is that "Ads by Yahoo!" has a smarter matching engine than you. So if you mistype something, you get no WebMD results, but their ads are all there, nicely listed. Most people will probably just click on the nearest ad, cutting out WebMD altogether.

 
(As you can see here: four out of the six "Ads by Yahoo!" results are scams. Man-problems are very popular with the scammers)

Mr. Wygod, I have demonstrated using  your own text and screenshots that WebMD supports scammers and is paid to do so.  I have to ask you out straight:  Is this policy deliberate or an oversight?  I can't help but think it is deliberate, as the policy was so carefully structured to protect the Yahoo stream; -which is the one on which all the scammers enter WebMD- from your rigid advertising policy. And yet there they are, plain as day, looking for all the world to the casual observer (which most are) as if they are legitimate and endorsed by you.

Now I have to ask, did you know about this policy?  I can't believe you did. I can't believe you would allow that to happen. Not because I think you are so wonderful or anything -I don't know you at all (except for what I have read here), but because I think you are a good businessman, and a policy like that on a site like WebMD is simply bad business. It is undermining the entire brand for a series of "clicks" which are probably worth a fraction of a penny apiece.  And I know WebMD doesn't get most of its revenue from advertising, anyway. So to  jeopardize the entire franchise for the sake of  pennies is just dumb.

So this is the situation you have on your hands right now: WebMD is supporting scammers to the following effect:

• It looks like WebMD is endorsing these scam sites and products (and several of my readers who were fooled, actually said it was because the referral site was a legitimate one, such as yours)
• It allows these criminals to make money off of sick and desperate people on the back of (and to the detriment of) WebMD's reputation.
• Some of the products are harmful, so some people may be hurt by them, when they came to WebMD for help. Theoretically, -despite all your disclaimers, WebMD could be open to a lawsuit if this happened.

I am urging you to please put a process in place that performs better due diligence on the type of companies advertising on WebMD through "Ads by Yahoo!" and similar feeds.  I can provide a pretty comprehensive list of the scammers I know about (I am sure there are plenty that I have missed). Actually, the lists are here on this site,  under the "scams" section, but I can provide it in a better format -in any format you like.

I don't expect a direct answer from you. I didn't get one when I went to customer service, despite the friendly little box that said they would get back to me in two business days, so I know you won't respond. But even if you don't respond you will be responding: Your response will show in the WebMD site. I predict that you will do either one of the following

1. Nothing
2.  Remove all the scam ads
3. Leave the "Ads by Yahoo!" feed untouched, but with a more visible disclaimer thereon.

I hope  you  do the right thing and choose Option #2; -but I have to tell you (and you can color me cynical), my money is on #3.

BTW: If you need help identifying the scammers, I was serious in my offer to help.  My e-mail is linked on the top left-hand corner of this site.

Sincerely

One Sick Mother