February 29th kicked off the online “Microbiome Medicine Summit” which, like other advice on optimizing our bodies’ microbial communities, is highly hype shrouded in a guise of legitimate science. For all intents and purposes this summit is the meeting of who is of alternative health woo. If the word is not in your vocabulary, add it now; woo is more than winning a lover’s heart. 1st coined by famous critical thinker James Randi as “woo woo” to denote supernatural claims, the shortened “woo” refers to promotion of or belief in unsubstantiated claims.
With speakers such as alternative medicine mogul Dr. Joseph Mercola, a vaccination opponent who was recently announced 1 of Alternet’s biggest fear-mongers, and bestselling author and public speaker Deepak Chopra, who claims our gut bacteria listen to our concepts (no kidding, I covered), the Microbiome Medicine Summit features various popular alternative health hucksters. Part of a series of online health seminars hosted by a company known as “Health Talks Online,” the summit’s speakers promote evidence-scarce practices, distorting preliminary scientific evidence as a means to a quacktastic end.
No comments:
Post a Comment