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Huffington Post: A Hotbed of Junk Medicine

Unpaid bloggers push enemas for swine flu, vaccine hokum

By Jason Farago,  Newser Staff

Posted Jul 30, 2009 7:51 AM CDT
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(Newser) – During the height of swine flu panic, a Huffington Post blogger advised dumping the Tamiflu and sticking with "deep-cleansing enemas," which will supposedly keep you influenza-free and help you lose weight, too. HuffPo is a hotbed of junk medicine, Dr. Rahul K. Parikh writes in Salon, with pseudoscientific columns on everything from thyroid disease to something called "distance healing." Their link: Arianna Huffington's own taste for alternative medicine.

HuffPo has given space to meaningless treatments like detox diets and energy scans, but it's most notorious for pushing the debunked theory that childhood vaccines can cause autism—as advocated by such experts as Jim Carrey. Huffington herself has tried all sorts of alternative medicine, but there's another reason for her site's slant: Contributors aren't paid, leaving serious reporters to look elsewhere and cede the platform to "sensationalism and self-promotion."

Arianna Huffington testifies during a hearing on the future of journalism before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.
Arianna Huffington testifies during a hearing on the future of journalism before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Wednesday, May 6, 2009.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
Arianna Huffington is a long-time advocate of alternative medicines.
Arianna Huffington is a long-time advocate of alternative medicines.   (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 8 comments
Snarfeh
Jul 31, 2009 3:27 AM CDT
Oh yeah..PS - HuffPo does suck. I have not gone to their site in years and anything sourced to them at another site, like Newser, I research it, if I am not already informed on the topic.
Snarfeh
Jul 31, 2009 3:25 AM CDT
Some alternative medicine is junk and some is not. Our species wouldn't have survived this long if some of those remedies didn't work. Since it is not regulated, people looking to make easy money are in that market and their products make good products look bad. While between jobs, I started getting a cold and someone told me to try Echinacea. I had never heard of it. The shit worked! I really didn't expect it would but I have also used some that didn't work. So, like most products, it's in the quality of the product. My philosophy is this: I'll try it and if it works, great. If it doesn't, I go back to Big Pharma's symptom treating drugs that usually cause nausea, dizziness, ulcers, blackouts, anal bleeding, etc.
youngblood
Jul 30, 2009 4:31 AM CDT
The Republicans LOST...Hahahahahhahaha!!

 
vaccination • Arianna Huffington • alternative medicine • Huffington Post • blogs • junk science • swine flu

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