Joseph Mercola

Mercola injecting himself into interjecting at the 2009 International [anti-]Vaccine Conference.

Against allopathy Alternative medicine

Clinically unproven

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Woo-meisters

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Joseph Mercola (1954–) is an American anti-vaxxer, conspiracy theorist, pseudoscience promoter and absolute quack, best known for making false and misleading health claims.^[1][2][3] Mercola, an osteopathic physician, is a popular guru of alternative medicine and naturopathy.^[4] He is a member of the right-wing quack outfit Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Mercola advocates and provides a forum for many classic crank medical ideas, such as vaccine hysteria and the belief that modern (sorry, "allopathic") medicine kills more people than it helps. His website is a veritable spring of pseudoscience, quackery, and logical fallacies. He is also a promoter of the idea of an AMA/Big Pharma/FDA conspiracy.^[5]

Despite his claim that unlike other doctors, he is not interested in profit,^[6] he advertises all manner of unproven products, and has a health center that dispenses alternative medicine for a steep price.^[7]

Mercola funds 40% of the budget of the anti-vaccination National Vaccine Information Center's budget.^[8] He had previously promoted the false idea that Vitamin C and Vitamin D could prevent measles, and not coincidentally his top sales products are supplements.^[8] Despite claiming to follow a ketogenic diet for four decades, Mercola announced in 2023 that it has ruined his health and he needs to add more carbs to his diet. He is currently a supporter of Ray Peat's fad diet and is promoting the pseudoscientific idea that linoleic acid in vegetable oils is the cause of all chronic disease.

Diet[edit]

Mercola has promoted many different low-carb fad diets. Mercola and James DiNicolantonio advocate the pseudoscientific oxidized linoleic acid hypothesis of coronary heart disease. In 2018, Mercola co-authored a book with DiNicolantonio Superfuel: Ketogenic Keys to Unlock the Secrets of Good Fats, Bad Fats, and Great Health, published by Hay House.^[9]

In 2022, Mercola was supportive of the carnivore diet and interviewed his friend Shawn Baker.^[10] Mercola supports the carnivore diet as he claims it is "really low in omega-6 fats, which is a primary driver of chronic disease."^[11]

In 2023, Mercola announced that he is quitting the ketogenic diet as it had ruined his health. However, he later removed his public announcement and his articles and videos about this from the internet.^[12][13] Despite claiming to have quit the diet, Mercola has authored several books on the ketogenic diet which he has not denounced and he continues to sell ketogenic supplements.

In June 2023, he appeared in a video "Why You May Need More Carbs in Your Diet" with Ray Peat follower Georgi Dinkov.^[14][15] Mercola is now a supporter of Ray Peat's diet.^[16] It is clear that Mercola goes from fad to fad.

Oxidized linoleic acid hypothesis[edit]

Mercola supports the pseudoscientific oxidized linoleic acid hypothesis of James DiNicolantonio. In a 2023 paper Mercola stated that linoleic acid from vegetable oil intake increases risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and dementia.^[17] He supported this claim with no clinical trial or long-term epidemiological data. In reality, linoleic acid decreases all of the chronic diseases he listed. For example, higher linoleic acid intake is associated with a decreased risk of major cardiovascular events, type 2-diabetes and a lower risk of mortality from all causes, CVD, and cancer. ^{[18][19][20][21]} Mercola doesn't refer to any of this evidence.

Mercola ignores the Bradford Hill criteria and how evidence-based medicine works. Instead of citing meta-analyses of clinical trials or consistent results from long-term epidemiological studies, he cites animal model and mechanistic studies which are not considered high-quality evidence. For example, in vitro and animal model findings do not translate consistently into clinical effects in humans and should not be used to make statements about causation. Mercola states that "Canola oil, in particular, has been linked to Alzheimer’s".^[17] His evidence for this claim is a single mouse study.^[22]

Issues[edit]

In addition to the aforementioned issues, Mercola promotes various disproved crank health ideas such as:

• Toxic metals in vaccines and dental fillings. The idea of heavy metal poisoning as being responsible for many common health problems is a popular one, and completely wrong. The studies of mercury in dental amalgams and vaccines are conclusive – there is no danger (which is more than can be said for the unnecessary chelation therapy that quacks prescribe to fix the "problem").^[23]
• Statin denialism, Mercola claims that statins are harmful and that 99% of people do not need them. He says they cause birth defects if taken during pregnancy and increase the risk of diseases.^[24][25] This one is particularly horrible, as few medications or interventions have been found to be as safe and effective as statins. Failing to prescribe a statin to someone with coronary artery disease is very much against the standard of care (meaning that it could be construed as malpractice).
• Microwaves "kill nutrients in food." No more than ovens do.^[26]
• Modern medicine kills you dead, but homeopathy works! (Fractal wrongness).
• HIV doesn't cause AIDS and death from HIV is due to the "psychological stress" of having the condition. But he has a cure!^[27]
• GMOs are every bit as harmful as excessive sugar and processed food.^[28]
• Eyeglasses denial^[29], which is as pointless and harmful as it sounds.
• Seriously, just pick a scientifically unsupported concern out of a hat, anything from aspartame to water fluoridation.
• Magnesium woo, he is supportive of the crackpot ideas of Carolyn Dean.^[30]
• Promoting misinformation about linoleic acid from vegetable oils which he claims is driving chronic disease.^[31] There is no evidence to support this as shown above.

COVID-19[edit]

In March 2021, the Center for Countering Digital Hate published a list of twelve individuals entitled the "disinformation dozen", e.g. the individuals most responsible for spreading anti-vaccination misinformation online. ^[32] Topping the list was Joseph Mercola, who by July 2021 had published more than 600 articles on Facebook that cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines since the start of the pandemic. ^[33]

On April 29, 2021, Mercola published a book entitled The Truth About COVID-19, in collaboration with noted medical woo pusher Ronnie Cummings, and with a forward from notable anti-vaccination pusher Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Depressingly, on July 24 2021, this book was listed as the #1 best seller in the Kindle "Preventive Medicine" category on Amazon, ^[34] in spite of the book being a massive pile of bullshit conspiracy theories mixed in with unproven and disproven "treatments" (that happen to coincide with some of the supplements that Mercola sells). ^[35] Mercola also endorsed (via an Amazon editorial review) a "behind-the-scenes" novelized account of the bullshit non-documentary Plandemic. ^[36].

In a win for science, On September 29, 2021, Mercola (along with Kennedy) was booted off YouTube for being a prominent spreader of anti-vaccination bullshit.^[37]

Trouble with regulatory committees[edit]

Mercola has received two warnings from the FDA for hyping coconut oil, chlorella, and the Living Fuel Rx^TM diet.^[38][39] He received a third warning for selling infrared cameras that he claimed could be used to diagnose a number of illnesses.^[40]

On February 18, 2021, Mercola received yet another warning from the FDA. This time, the warning was for Mercola promoting vitamin C and vitamin D as a COVID-19 cure on his supplements website, as well as promoting quercetin (a flavonoid that, like the aforementioned vitamins, is present in many fruits and vegetables) as a cure for COVID-19.^[41] (The quercetin-cures-COVID bullshit claim, uncoincidentally, happens to also be promoted in Mercola's depressingly best-selling Truth About COVID-19 book). ^[35]

In addition, in April 2016, Mercola was forced to settle with the Federal Trade Commission for false advertising, due to Mercola selling tanning beds that he claimed not only didn't cause cancer, but somehow actively reduced the chances of getting it. Because this claim was 100% bullshit, Mercola was forced to pay refunds to his customers and leave the tanning bed business. ^[42][43]

This all came to a head in August 2021, when Mercola announced that he'd be wiping much of his old article archives and deleting new articles after a 48-hour period, claiming that President Biden had "targeted [him] as his primary obstacle that must be removed."^[44]

Birds of a feather…[edit]

In what can only be termed a alternative medicine practitioner group hug, Mercola has recently come to the defense of the Burzynski Clinic despite the obvious pitfalls of doing so.^[45]

See also[edit]

• Megavitamin therapy — for some of Mercola's products that exceed the maximum recommended daily dose

External links[edit]

• mercola.com
• FDA Orders Mercola to Stop Illegal Claims, Quackwatch
• 9 Reasons to Completely Ignore Joseph Mercola, Science-Based Medicine
• Joseph Mercola and the Town of Allopath, Merseyside Skeptics
• Joseph Mercola and winged-monkeys, A pet-care video from Mercola.com
• Mercola – Still Lying After All These Years, Denialism blog
• Respectful Insolence has an entire catalog of Mercola's adventures in Woo generation:
  • Mercola Sells the Delusion of Homeopathy
  • Joe Mercola and Raw Milk Faddism Invade HuffPo
  • Joe Mercola's Shampoo Woo
  • Joe Mercola Plays the Religion Card Against Vaccines
  • Joe Mercola: Proof positive that quackery sells
  • Joe Mercola attacks vaccinations again. Film at 11.
  • Joe Mercola: 15 years of promoting quackery.

References[edit]