More Junk Science - Anthony William aka Medical Medium

[Sly Saint]

"
Goop's "Trusted Expert" Anthony William Dispenses Junk Science, Say Critics
How has the Florida-based huckster got away with it for so long?

By Rae Paoletta on January 10, 2018

"In the spring of 2013, Kate Gallagher Leong called Anthony William. She was desperate for help. Forty-eight days later, her son, Gavin, was dead."

"William, who markets himself as the “Medical Medium,” has written three books about natural healing and garnered a celebrity clientele. Robert De Niro, James Van Der Beek of Dawson’s Creek fame, Naomi Campbell, and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow all offer glowing testimonials of William’s “God-given skills,” despite the fact he doesn’t seem to have a public record of a medical degree. Instead, he maintains that his expertise was granted to him by a “spirit” when he was four years old — and that his connection with that entity allows him to cure others of various illnesses, from irritable bowel to thyroid cancer."

Esther Crawley and others please take note:

"Promoting the Medical Medium is no different than promoting anti-vaccine views or cleanses or coffee enemas. The minimum is that people waste money, but there is great potential for harm with many of the therapies that are recommended and delays in diagnosis. Every day someone tweets to me or messages me on Facebook about a friend of family member who delayed real therapy that could help them to give snake oil a go. How anyone can publish that drivel and think, “I have done a good thing today” is beyond me."

"“I started doing some researching and I found out that when one of Anthony’s books came out there was a lottery by the publisher — Hay House — that whoever wrote the ‘most inspiring’ Amazon review would win a reading or something with him.”

"Inverse obtained what appears to be a copy of that call-out, originally on William’s website, later pasted to Phoenix Rising — a forum for people suffering from Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome"

https://www.inverse.com/article/40096-medical-medium-anthony-william

 

[TiredSam]

Oh my goodness, the thread they must be referring to is this:

http://forums.phoenixrising.me/inde...y-at-the-root-of-medical-mysteries-ebv.41377/

From November 2015, in which I made the second post! The advert was copied into the 11th post down not as a recommendation, but as confirmation of the fake review service.

The article doesn't make this clear, and can be read as if PR was promoting the book. Which some individual members do, Tammy is still promoting it in December 2017.

 

[Sean]

Anthony William is either a deluded fool, or a charlatan and scumbag preying on the sick and desperate.

Which is it, Mr William?

 

[Little Bluestem]

While I haven't said a lot about it, I am a psychological medium. Send me a bunch of money and I will tell you how big a fool you are. I have a complex formula to determine this.

Spoiler: Complex Formula

The more money you send, the bigger fool you are.

ETA: I know this is not entirely funny. I am not on Facebook, so did not read about the woman's son who died, but I know it can be dangerous.

 

[Sly Saint]

The article doesn't make this clear, and can be read as if PR was promoting the book. Which some individual members do, Tammy is still promoting it in December 2017.

Hmm, didn't think that was allowed....... but while we're at it the prodigal daughter has also returned and promoting Gupta style treatment.

eta: just seen on FB

"Phoenix Rising
Health & wellness website" ??

 

[Wyva]

I just want to add that this guy's Medical Medium book gets recommended every once in a while in my group, so now I added it to my list of keywords that automatically sends me a moderation alert (so I can purge these comments as quickly as possible).

The worst part is that there is a doctor here who seems to be very popular with patients whose symptoms are dismissed by other doctors. She is a self-proclaimed "outsider" doc, the doctor of the people who are sent away from other docs. She joined my group early on when I didn't know too much about her and made some comments that ME/CFS is not such a big mystery, only people who don't understand the neuroendocrine system find it mystifying. I remember that she posted something about LC on her FB page early on that I wanted to correct and she really didn't care about the ME/CFS literature I showed her and was quite dismissive that I "misunderstood" her, whatever. Her tone was like she was talking to an idiot. (Which seems to be her default tone about anything that is not "outsider" medicine.)

She went kind of silent afterwards in my group but then recently some members started recommending her to pwLC as the person "who knows everything that should be known" about LC. So I checked her FB page again. My impression is that she is pretty much anti-vaxx, promoted ivermectin and these days she says that LC is reactivated EBV to every pwLC who visits her. I found some other comments from other kind of patients on the internet who say now she seems to think every disease is caused by chronic EBV infection. And why I'm mentioning all this is because I saw that she posted about this very book on her FB page, recommending it. Yes, this book where the author gets his medical explanations from some spirits and she seems to be basing her current views on this book.

I don't understand how doctors can go down this path that they promote such BS. I ended up banning her from my group but the problem is that she is popular because she is an actual doctor and is willing to accept these patients no one else wants to deal with.

It is so unfortunate that we really have to fight on two fronts here: one with the BPS people and one with all the quacks.

Btw I understand that there are some papers that say they have found reactivated EBV in pwLC. However, that's not simply what we're talking about here in this story.

 

[rvallee]

I don't understand how doctors can go down this path that they promote such BS. I ended up banning her from my group but the problem is that she is popular because she is an actual doctor and is willing to accept these patients no one else wants to deal with.

Same roots as psychosomatic beliefs, just with a different cultural bent. The flaw is in the lack of reasoning, it's there in the system.

 

[Arnie Pye]

This man has produced a book called "Thyroid Healing". Those who have looked into it say it is clear he has nothing new to offer on the subject and his output is almost certainly gleaned from the output of others on the subject on the internet. Every mention of him makes my skin crawl.