BOOK REVIEWS discussion of the fad pseudodisease chedelics, pursued states of altered con- takes, the sicker he or she is. of hypoglycemia, he disparages prac- sciousness, and came to believe that I haven’t seen “the statistics,” but I’m titioners who recommend “all sorts truth can be accessed through “stoned” sure he must be right. People who are of vitamins and supplements that are thinking. Relman says, “Like so many of sick undoubtedly do take more medi- unlikely to be of any value.” That is par- the other gurus of , cine than people who are well. This sort ticularly amusing, since that is exactly Weil is not bothered by logical contra- of upside-down logic is rampant in his what Weil himself does throughout this dictions in his argument, or encum- book, along with the warning, endlessly book for other diagnoses. bered by a need to search for objective repeated, that “it’s all about the money.” Weil is America’s leading advocate evidence.” Believe me, it is. of “integrative” medicine. It seems he The book is indeed full of contradic- Why are Americans getting fat- wants to “integrate” critical thinking tions. Weil advises against suppressing ter? Trudeau reveals the inside story: with opinion, myth with reality, the hay fever symptoms with antihistamines “Scientists who work in secret laborato- twenty-first century with the fifteenth, or steroids, because “Suppressive treat- ries are developing chemicals and com- and proven remedies with old wives’ ment can perpetuate disease by frus- binations of chemicals that are added tales. Why would he want to do this? trating it.” What does he recommend to our food and not put on the label.” What are we to make of an M.D. whose instead? Natural remedies that he says These “secret poisonous chemicals,” he advice for herpes includes the standard will . . . suppress symptoms! explains, are specifically designed: drug acyclovir but also includes “visu- I can agree wholeheartedly with 1. To make people hungry, so alizations and mental affirmations to let Weil’s advice to stay away from con- they will buy more food. the herpes virus know that it is welcome ventional doctors unless you are really 2. To make people fatter, be cause in your body only if it stays in its dor- sick and not take drugs unless you really fat people eat more. mant state”? need to. It would be even better advice 3. To addict people to the Insight into Weil’s shifty para- if it extended to staying away from product. digms can be gleaned from “A Trip to unconventional doctors and not taking 4. To cause disease, because the Stonesville,” by Arnold Relman, M.D., unproven remedies. food industry is in cahoots editor emeritus of The New England If you like to try a lot of things and with drug companies. Journal of Medicine (available online experiment on yourself on the basis at www..org/11Ind/weil. of opinion and nonscientific beliefs, What evidence does Trudeau pro- html). Relman describes how Weil you might like this book. If you want vide of this shocking conspiracy? rebelled against his Harvard training, reliable, common-sense health advice Kevin Trudeau doesn’t do “evidence.” associated with native healers, took psy- based on good science, buy one of Dean He prefers to describe himself as a “whistle blower.” His information, he claims, comes from unnamed “insid- ers.” Other information seems to come It’s All about the Money from thin air: “I was looking through ROBERT L. PARK history books about Nazi concentration camps in World War II,” Trudeau Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About. writes, “and I noticed that the peo- By Kevin Trudeau. Alliance Publishing Group, Inc., 2005. ple behind the barbed wire were all ISBN 0-975-59951-8. 570 pp. Hardcover, $29.95. skinny. There weren’t any fat people there.” Trudeau’s conclusion? “Your genes don’t make you fat . . . everyone can lose weight.” Sure, just check into a nyone who somehow missed an , but allows the reader concentration camp. Kevin Trudeau’s alternative at least a chance to pause and think “Animals in the wild never get sick,” A medicine (see p. about Trudeau’s simplistic answers to we are told. What nonsense! Naturalists 51 in this issue) can now read his book, the complex questions of health. encounter sick and dying animals every Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You Why do people get sick? “The num- day. Influenza, for example, is a bird dis- to Know About. The book reads like ber one reason people are sick,” Trudeau ease (heard of bird flu?). It ravages wild Robert L. Park is a professor of physics at the explains, “is because of the amount of bird populations every year and only University of Maryland and the author of drugs they take.” He says statistics show occasionally does a strain cross over to Voodoo Science. conclusively that the more prescription humans. Wild animals are riddled with and nonprescription drugs a person parasites and infectious diseases.

SKEPTICAL INQUIRER January / February 2006 57 BOOK REVIEWS

“There are cultures around the world and a year later pled guilty to more concerned with the health of the where the people have never had cancer, in exchange for a two-year prison industries they regulate than with pub- or heart disease, or acid reflux disease, or term. His prison time, he says, made lic health, lax enforcement of environ- prostate problems, etc.” Wrong. There him realize that “the love of money is mental regulations, tobacco companies are certainly populations where these the root of all evil.” Americans love that denied for years that their deadly conditions are less common, but you a reformed sinner, but has he really product was harmful and yet are still in may not want to live there. These are the reformed? In 1998 he was required by business. It’s a standard tactic of scam diseases of old age. They are most com- the FTC to pay $500,000 to cover con- artists to dwell on the sins of “the estab- mon in the developed nations, where sumer redress relating to false or mis- lishment,” but Trudeau didn’t have to people have life expectancies about dou- leading claims made in six infomercials, make up the establishment sins. ble that of the rest of the world. and in 2004, he was fined $2 million Attorneys general of several states The statements Trudeau makes and ordered to stop doing infomercials. vigorously enforce state consumer pro- are so preposterous that you might be Trudeau makes no attempt to hide tection laws, but the result is usually a tempted to dismiss anyone who would his troubles with the FTC; in fact, he consent-decree under which the snake pay $29.95 for his book as hopelessly wears his convictions as a badge of oil merchants simply agree to cheat gullible. Unfortunately, they are more honor, proof that the establishment the citizens of other states. A huge likely to be merely hopeless. Chronic is out to silence him. The Federal and growing segment of the national pain and terminal illness have a way of Trade Commission, the Food and Drug population is victimized by alternative making people willing to try just about Administration, congress, the drug medicine scams that the FDA and FTC anything. And the most widespread ter- companies, the food industry, the med- seem incapable of dealing with. minal condition is old age. ical profession, and the scientific com- Ultimately, the only group in a posi- So who is this man, preying on munity, he says, are all part of a vast tion to challenge alternative medicine is the most vulnerable among us? Kevin establishment conspiracy that makes the scientific medicine community. The Trudeau is a forty-two-year-old ex-con- people sick so they will buy dangerous job is left almost entirely to a handful of vict with no formal education, who pos- drugs that will make them sicker still. dedicated scientists and physicians who sesses a truly awesome natural talent for What should make us all wince are are well past retirement. You cannot infomercial marketing. He is a classic the tiny threads of truth woven into build a reputation as a medical scientist snake-oil salesman. Sometimes referred the fabric of this sleazy book: unhealthy by attacking an uneducated convicted to as “the Infomercial King,” Trudeau ties of NIH scientists to the drug com- felon with no medical credentials like prefers to describe himself as “the nation’s panies, regulatory agencies that seem Kevin Trudeau. Natural Cures is anti-es- foremost consumer advocate.” The sees him a little differently, fining him mil- lions of dollars for false and mislead- A Glorious, Dangerous ing advertising and barring him from any further participation in infomercial Obsession marketing. However, to avoid infring- GREG MARTINEZ ing on his protected free speech rights, the FTC allowed an exception for Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie. “truthful infomercials for informational By Barbara Goldsmith, Atlas Books. W.W. Norton & publications.” Trudeau, thumbing his Company, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-393-053137-4. nose at the FTC, now does infomercials 256 pp. Hardcover, $23.95. marketing his book. According to the book cover, over 1.5 million copies of n the introduction to her sensitive to get past the romanticized image of the Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You and thoughtful new biography of lonely, suffering woman scientist strug- to Know About have been sold. This IMarie Curie, Obsessive Genius: The gling in a world of sexist hostility and seems to be the only book offered by Inner World of Marie Curie, the fourth in repression to take a clear-eyed look at her the Alliance Publishing Group, Inc. the Great Discoveries science book series, personality and achievements in a fair, Who owns Alliance Publishing? Kevin Barbara Goldsmith states her intention non-politicized manner. That her success Trudeau. Greg Martinez lives and writes in in this goal is only mixed does not dimin- Trudeau’s legal problems are nothing Gainesville, Florida. E-mail: martineg66 ish the excellence of this absorbing and new. In 1990, he posed as a doctor in @yahoo.com. moving book. order to deposit $80,000 in false checks, Goldsmith is largely successful in

58 Volume 30, Issue 1