Dr. Mercola

[Kelly on the prairie]

 

www.ratemds.com is where I was able to review patient complaints. Last week I was able to bring up much more than a page worth, but not today. I am not sure why. I am on a new computer, so can't history myself. Sorry about that:001_huh:

[Lovedtodeath]

What does that consist of?

 

My grandmother was seeing a Dr that tended to prefer alternative methods. She was seeing him for issues and he kept telling her she was fine. She died six months later. By the time she decided to just see a different Dr it was too late.

 

So...I do use some alternative methods for some things but for others I do see a mainstream Dr. I really miss my grandmother every day. I really wish she was here. I would really have preferred someone just run over that Dr with a train than to see him kill anyone else with his crazy crap.

The test that I am referring to is an electrodermal scan. Some Natural Doctors use their own intuition, iridology (eyes), accupuncturists will sometimes say that they can "feel" where/how your body is diseased. (My point is that there are many ND's who do not use this test.

 

There are a wide variety of Natural Doctors. I am so sorry that your grandma didn't have a good one. I know it happens. When I first got sick, I had stopped using the electrodermal scan because of expense. I had a Natural Doctor that used muscle testing and she incorrectly attributed my rectal bleeding to a fissure which contributed to my failing to get medical care as quickly as I should have.

 

There are also blood tests that Medical Doctors can get that will tell you if you have cancer anywhere in your body, but for some reason you have to fight tooth and nail to get one. (My friend who is a nurse and diagnosed with ovarian cancer told me about it, encouraging me to get my whole family a blood test.)

Edited November 10, 2009 by Lovedtodeath

[Janet in Toronto]

Sorry....I forgot to quote the previous post.

 

Here it is... http://www.ratemds.com/doctor-ratings/1587/IL/Schaumburg/Mercola

[Carpe Diem]

Thanks for the ratemds link. Very interesting.

[MeanestMomInMidwest]

The test that I am referring to is an electrodermal scan. Some Natural Doctors use their own intuition, iridology (eyes), accupuncturists will sometimes say that they can "feel" where/how your body is diseased. (My point is that there are many ND's who do not use this test.

 

There are a wide variety of Natural Doctors. I am so sorry that your grandma didn't have a good one. I know it happens. When I first got sick, I had stopped using the electrodermal scan because of expense. I had a Natural Doctor that used muscle testing and she incorrectly attributed my rectal bleeding to a fissure which contributed to my failing to get medical care as quickly as I should have.

 

There are also blood tests that Medical Doctors can get that will tell you if you have cancer anywhere in your body, but for some reason you have to fight tooth and nail to get one. (My friend who is a nurse and diagnosed with ovarian cancer told me about it, encouraging me to get my whole family a blood test.)[/QUOTE] <<<don't know why my quote didn't show up right. Bolded by me, as this is the area I feel like commenting on

 

 

This is probably the CA125 test. the reason doctors are hesitant to have every woman get this blood test is that it is not, in and of itself, highly diagnostic. The CA125 test detects early ovarian cancer correctly only about 50% of the time. with later stages it is more accurate (80% for stage II). However there are about a dozen conditions that also cause elevated CA125 (liver damage, PID, early pregnancy, benign ovarian cysts, not to mention other forms of cancer.

 

Many women are demanding this test, and receiving false positives, thus necessitating further, expensive testing for a test that the doctor knew in the beginning is not designed or functional as an early diagnosis tool.

 

I have no doubt there are bad doctors, and good doctors who have bad days. But, sometimes a medical doctor will fight something tooth and nail, because s/he has more information. Most of the physicians I know are constantly studying, attending educational seminars, and doing continuing education in their fields.

 

http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu/ca125qa.cfm

[Lovedtodeath]

Thanks. I will ask my RN friend if this is the test she refers to.

[Blessedfamily]

 

 

This is probably the CA125 test. the reason doctors are hesitant to have every woman get this blood test is that it is not, in and of itself, highly diagnostic. The CA125 test detects early ovarian cancer correctly only about 50% of the time. with later stages it is more accurate (80% for stage II). However there are about a dozen conditions that also cause elevated CA125 (liver damage, PID, early pregnancy, benign ovarian cysts, not to mention other forms of cancer.

 

Many women are demanding this test, and receiving false positives, thus necessitating further, expensive testing for a test that the doctor knew in the beginning is not designed or functional as an early diagnosis tool.

 

http://ovariancancer.jhmi.edu/ca125qa.cfm

 

I had a hard time quoting from your quotes, LOL, but I wanted to second this.

 

My sister told me about the test. She suggested I run and get it and thought all doctors should be doing it. She called me back after she asked her doctor why it wasn't routine, and he told her exactly what you said. There are a dozen other reasons it could be elevated and it's not highly diagnostic by itself.

[Greta]

I've noticed that a couple of the responses here seem to be putting Dr. Mercola and Nourishing Traditions together in some way. I am curious why.

[Blessedfamily]

I've noticed that a couple of the responses here seem to be putting Dr. Mercola and Nourishing Traditions together in some way. I am curious why.

 

From reading the posts, I thought Nourishing Traditions must be what he calls his supplements. I guess they aren't?

[Greta]

From reading the posts, I thought Nourishing Traditions must be what he calls his supplements. I guess they aren't?

 

:) No, Nourishing Traditions is a book by Sally Fallon. And they're not even all that similar. NT teaches you, among other things, how to properly prepare grains. Mercola's book is called The No-Grain Diet if memory serves. They disagree on several other key points as I recall.

[Slartibartfast]

I am so sorry that your grandma didn't have a good one. I know it happens.

 

Actually this Dr is pretty well known, that is what bothers me.

[Perry]

There are also blood tests that Medical Doctors can get that will tell you if you have cancer anywhere in your body, but for some reason you have to fight tooth and nail to get one.

 

I agree with Meanest Mom's comments on CA-125. Several years ago there was some discussion of a "universal" screening test for cancer, that was supposed to find *any* cancer in the body.

 

They claimed to have 95% sensitivity and 95% specificity, meaning that if cancer was present, they'd have a correct positive test 95% of the time (sensitivity) and if cancer was NOT present, they would have a correct negative test 95% of the time (specificity). Those numbers sound pretty good on the surface, but it turns out they really aren't good at all, in this situation. What you really need to know is the Positive Predictive Value (PPV) for the test, and this depends on the prevalence of the disease. Here's a definition of PPV:

 

The positive predictive value, or precision rate, is the proportion of patients with positive test results who are correctly diagnosed. It is considered the physician's gold standard, as it reflects the probability that a positive test reflects the underlying condition being tested for.

IOW, how likely it is that the positive test is correct.

 

Let's crunch some numbers.

Estimated 1,500,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in 2009.

US population about 300,000,000

 

So we will use 1,500,000/300,000,000= 0.005, or 1/200 as a rough estimate of prevalence of cancer. This is for all age groups- it would be much lower in kids and much higher in olders. The formula for PPV is this:

 

sensitivity =95%

specificity=95%

prevalence=.005

 

Plugging those number in, we get

 

(.95*.005)/((.95*.005)+(1-.95)*(1-.005))=.0872

That's 8.8%! That means only about 9% of people with a positive screening test will turn out to have cancer. If you are one of those 9%, well good for you, it might, or might not, help to have caught it early. But if you are one of the other 91%, you will be going through an enormous battery of expensive, invasive, not risk-free tests to try to find out where your (nonexistent) cancer is. Mammography, colonoscopy, endoscopy, CAT scans, MRIs, bloodwork etc. And they won't find anything, because it isn't there, but you don't know that, and you'll be worried sick about it. (Not you personally, the generic you, of course. ) Inevitably, there will be serious adverse outcomes related to those tests.

 

So if someone tries to tell you they have a magic lab test that will find any cancer in your body, my advice is to run far away.

[Perry]

.

[Lovedtodeath]

Thanks Perry. I don't understand any of it, but I appreciate it.;)

[Lovedtodeath]

 

Actually this Dr is pretty well known, that is what bothers me.

That bothers me too!:grouphug:

[Slartibartfast]

Sorry this was an error

 

check dates before posting to a similar thread!

Edited June 19, 2010 by Sis

[Negin]

People love to feel cynical about alternative health practitioners.

I find some of Dr Mercola's info useful, but I stopped getting the newsletters because I also find his presentation painful. Too sales oriented- turns me off. However, I think he has his place and he gets some good information more widespread than it otherwise would be. It's up to people to verify it for themselves but as far as I am concerned, I am glad that there are people like him to be a voice for certain treatments and information. I might not like his delivery, but here's to free speech .

Peela, if you have time, can you please share any newsletters, sites, or books that you find useful? Thanks. :)

[Negin]

You need to take any doctor's advise with a grain of salt. Yes, Mercola appears to try to sell you his products, but traditional doctors do the same thing. They're called prescriptions that support the major pharmaceutical companies. Just as with natural alternatives, FDA-approved pills and treatments are making someone money.

 

We use a common sense approach around here. We begin treatment with natural alternatives and if that doesn't work use Western medicine to treat. I can say that, personally, we are hardly ever sick using natural alternatives. I could not say that when we used only FDA-approved Western approaches to treat.

 

I don't agree with everything Mercola says, just as I don't believe everything the FDA says.

Absolutely brilliant post. You said it so well. :)

[dirty ethel rackham]

I think they are lumped together, not because they espouse similar ideas, but because they allegedly promote "unscientific" ideas.

[Scuff]

I somehow got on his email list and occasionally read them. It seems that every email I've read tells me I'm going to die from something and then gives me a product I can buy so that I don't. Maybe what he says is true, I haven't looked into it that much, but it seems to taint whatever truth you tell to be selling something all the time.