Horrifying how naturopaths, a few quack MDs, and foreign quack labs are causing an epidemic of fake Lyme diagnoses in Canada. https://lymescience.org/ammi-canada-chronic-lyme-scientific-consensus-antibiotics-testing/
Step 1: Demonize the mainstream tests that accurately tell you that you don’t have Lyme
Step 2: Make the diagnosis using magic
Step 3: Sting yourself with bees
Yes, chronic #Lyme is quite the dangerous cult
Doctor describes horrific treatment of a patient by a "#Lyme literate" quack: long-term IV antibiotics, high-dose vitamin C, ozone therapy - but had also put her on - get this - IV HYDROGEN PEROXIDE. https://www.reddit.com/r/medicine/comments/j05tst/iv_hydrogen_peroxide_rogue_treatments_of_chronic/
Pharmacists! 👏
I gave 109 shots in 12 hours.
New study from Finland replicates what scientists in other countries have consistently found over 3 decades: at least half of the people who believe they have #Lyme disease do not https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1198743X20305747
New: ILADS doctor in Australia—where there is no endemic Lyme—was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct. He prescribed dangerous antibiotics to a patient he falsely diagnosed with Lyme and bartonella. The true diagnosis was lung cancer. https://lymescience.org/peter-mayne-lyme-literate-doctor-australia/
Former ILADS board member Leila Zackrison finally had her license revoked after many years of misconduct. The revocation describes horrific treatment of 6 patients, including three adolescent girls. https://lymescience.org/rogues/Leila-Zackrison/Leila-Zackrison-License-Revocation-2020.pdf
Save lives with #AntibioticStewardship
Scientists have documented troubling overdiagnosis & overtreatment of #Lyme disease for 3 decades. In a Yale study, of patients with no Lyme, 75% had received unnecessary antibiotics and 31% had received >100 days of antibiotics. 😲 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9490595/
The dangerous chronic #Lyme movement started in the late 1980s. In 1991, the Harvard Health letter wrote about the noticeably cult-like “Lymeys” who bankrupted and tortured themselves for their beliefs. https://web.archive.org/web/20050427090223/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1585/is_n10_v16/ai_11075350/print
Still trying to figure out why there are so many fake #Lyme groups—some with substantial financial resources—that are run by patients.
There are many types of quackery: detox, naturopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic, chinese medicine, and chronic lyme. But only chronic #Lyme has numerous fake organizations run by patients (not profit-seeking quacks) all over the world that promote it. Why do you think this is?
Another anti-vaccine quack who markets herself using the phrases “integrative” and “functional”.
CA Medical Board Describes Fair Oaks Doctor's Vaccine Waivers As 'Gross Negligence' https://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2020/09/21/ca-medical-board-dr-mary-kelly-sutton-vaccine-waivers/?taid=5f6a2da182069f0001ab8882&utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
The satirical Mr. Wrong vs an actual chronic #Lyme cult member.
You’d be surprised how much email we get protesting our advice not to sting yourself with bees. https://lymescience.org/bee-venom-therapy-apitherapy/
Quack #Lyme treatments are often marketed with non-human studies. It is not a good idea to draw conclusions from mouse and Petri dish tests. A new example: non-human studies made statins look promising for Lyme but didn’t help humans with neuroborelliosis. https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/9/9/2995
Richard Vetter won the 2020 #IgNobelPrize in entomology for collecting evidence that many entomologists (scientists who study insects) are afraid of spiders, which are not insects.
https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/winners/
Here’s what they didn’t like:
This article is basically an ad for dangerous chronic #Lyme quackery that involves stinging yourself with bees. While we appreciate being quoted, it’s very selective. And of the 1,091 words in the article, only 80 (7%) are dedicated to the skeptical view. https://donotlink.it/mPPRrk
Excellent article on the evolution of the harmful chronic #Lyme movement and the appeal of having a fake diagnosis https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.02110s4607
A prescient quote from a 2015 article about Theranos and an Arizona law that allows consumers to purchase lab testing without a doctor. https://thepolitic.org/out-for-blood/
New @tpwky podcast on the scourge of guinea worm and the effort to eradicate it: http://thispodcastwillkillyou.com/2020/09/15/episode-58-guinea-worm-almost-ancient-history/
Breaking: Shady "regenerative" and "integrated" stem cell clinic sued by Georgia Attorney General https://law.georgia.gov/press-releases/2020-09-14/carr-sues-elite-integrated-medical-deceptive-claims-made-elderly-and
Medical Child Abuse:
When Alisha was 14 years old, her mum told her she had #Lyme disease.
She underwent years of alternative treatments and became so weak that she needed to use a wheelchair.
But when she was 17, she discovered her life had been a lie. https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/11/munchausen-by-proxy-lyme-disease-wheelchair-13254713/
Dangerous quack groups:
• Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)
• International #Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS)
• American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM)
• American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M)
• American Academy of Environmental Medicine
New: How a teenager suffered years of Medical Child Abuse in the harmful Chronic #Lyme movement https://metro.co.uk/2020/09/11/munchausen-by-proxy-lyme-disease-wheelchair-13254713/
Anthony William is a charlatan pretending to be a psychic doctor. The “Medical Medium” has 2.6 million followers on Instagram and 118k followers on Twitter. https://www.inverse.com/article/40096-medical-medium-anthony-william
In 2018, CDC reported about people who had received fake Lyme and babesia diagnoses. There were zero stories in the press about it.
This week, Amy Schumer made an instagram post saying she had #Lyme (an easily cured infection). Dozens of stories ensued.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/67/wr/mm6741a6.htm
Jennifer Hollis was a bright college student who suffered from depression but didn’t get the care she deserved. Instead, she was convinced she was infested with chronic #Lyme & tried to treat it with bleach. She died by suicide. #WorldSuicidePreventionDay https://www.houstonpress.com/news/heres-why-authorities-want-to-stop-the-sale-of-jim-humbles-miracle-cure-8909556
Amy Schumer says she’s taking an herbal potion to treat #Lyme disease. Here’s why that’s a bad idea. (She’s also taking doxycycline, 10-28 days of which is standard for Lyme) https://lymescience.org/herbs-supplements-chronic-lyme/
Many bad omens in Amy Schumer’s announcement that she believes she has #Lyme disease: She thinks she’s had it for years, she’s taking herbal snake oil, and she wants the internet to give her medical advice. And Rosanna Arquette is recommending a dangerous “Lyme literate” quack.
It would be nice if journalists questioned why all these celebrities think they have #Lyme disease. It’s the same reason so many celebrities avoid gluten: it’s a pseudoscientific health fad based on a real problem.
New book by one of the cofounders of the @MarchForScience on the anti-vaccine movement https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/anti-vaxxers
Samantha Bee: Women in particular are relentlessly preyed upon by companies that work to exploit their insecurities while making impossible claims. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvTxFsJMUPM
Mark Hyman is a dangerous charlatan who needs to be fired from the Cleveland Clinic before he harms any more people. This is utter nonsense.
Quacks who market themselves as “#Lyme literate” often abuse young people, especially adolescent girls. Below is one horrific story from a CDC report. https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6623a3.htm
The NIH discusses the unreliability of #Lyme testing sold by the shady company IgeneX https://lymescience.org/igenex-lyme-disease-testing-nih/
Instead of a con artist, @ACEPNow should have the authors of the classic paper “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit” speak at its conference. The paper use tweets from Deepak Chopra’s Twitter feed. @ACEPSteve http://littlesvr.ca/grumble/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Bullshit-detection.pdf
Is the infamous Homeopathic ER going to become a reality, now that @ACEPNow is paying a quack to evangelize to its members? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cg2CQqMaU1I https://twitter.com/ACEPNow/status/1301897951585996806
Frontiers and MDPI have become vanity publishers for chronic #Lyme conspiracy theories.
Here, experts skewer a garbage paper by well-known quack Christian Perronne and his cronies.
Frontiers let Perronne become a journal editor. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00474/full
Instagram deleted the account of anti-vax conspiracy theorist cesspool GreenMedInfo 👏
Anti-science activists attempt to undermine the scientific consensus when it comes to human-cause global warming, vaccines, GMOs, and Lyme.
The first message people heard about the consensus on human-caused global warming was there was no consensus. Why? Market research by @FrankLuntz found attacking the scientific consensus on climate change reduced support for climate action (full video at http://youtu.be/BPNr9BeMNLk).
Fun article from 1987 on how magician James Randi exposed faith healers https://www.jstor.org/stable/27505913
After falsely diagnosing chronic #Lyme, bartonella, babesia, and toxic mold, the functional/integrative/Lyme literate quack prescribes a gluten/dairy-free diet, one year of a crazy drug regimen including azithromycin, rifampin, & atovaquone, intravenous ozone, and 20 supplements.
This is your doctor. What is he prescribing you? #SunnyFXX
The ILADS-associated leader of the Chronic #Lyme Cult in Turkey is trying to give Shinzo Abe a fake diagnosis. 🙄 Lyme disease does not cause gastrointestinal symptoms. https://lymescience.org/turkey/
Anti-science activists always attempt to undermine the scientific consensus. We see this with climate change, genetically engineered foods, vaccines, evolution, community water fluoridation, EMFs from wireless devices, and #Lyme disease. https://lymescience.org/scientific-consensus/
Why is the 97% consensus on human-caused global warming such a focus for climate deniers? Because consensus is a gateway belief - casting doubt on consensus reduces support for climate action. Deniers know this (full video at http://youtu.be/JuUz2AwoSko). @sander_vdlinden
The chronic #Lyme and anti-vax movements heavily overlap. Most of the so-called “Lyme literate” are functional/integrative/naturopathic quacks who saw a lucrative opportunity to make money while having their egos stroked.
The Netflix series #Unwell deserves two thumbs down, says @HHSkepDoc. “Rather than explaining science, they offer slick journalism, appeals to emotion, and unthinking gullibility.” https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/unwell-netflixs-documentary-series-is-poor-journalism-that-neglects-science/