{"id":3371,"date":"2011-06-21T21:01:16","date_gmt":"2011-06-22T01:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theness.com\/neurologicablog\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2011-06-21T21:01:16","modified_gmt":"2011-06-22T01:01:16","slug":"dumb-statement-of-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theness.com\/neurologicablog\/dumb-statement-of-the-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Dumb Statement of the Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am traveling this week. Right now I am in a hotel in Phoenix with really slow internet access. And the rest of the week I am down to my phone for internet access. So – not much blogging this week.<\/p>\n

I will give you a quick one for today. In a recent New York Times article<\/a> about Orin Hatch’s support for the supplement industry (with a token quote from this humble blogger), Dr. Vaughn T. Johnson, an osteopathic physician and Xango distributor, was interviewed for the article, which states:<\/p>\n

Studies showed, Dr. Johnson said, it was \u201canti-tumor,\u201d \u201canti-obesity,\u201d \u201canti-aging,\u201d \u201canti-fatigue,\u201d \u201cantiviral,\u201d \u201cantibiotic\u201d and \u201cantidepressant.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Xango is just the latest in a long line of exotic fruit juice products with all sorts of unsubstantiated and frankly unbelievable health claims. Here is the money quote from Dr. Johnson:<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do I know this isn\u2019t just snake oil? It\u2019s a really simple answer. A company that is selling snake oil is not going to stay in business for almost 11 years and grow as fast as this company is growing.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Wow. Of course, this raises the typical question for skeptics – is this guy really dumb enough to believe this, or does he not just care? This sounds like it came right off a company brochure. When it comes to health products, an actual physical effect is not necessary to stay in business. The placebo effect is sufficient. Blood letting was used for a couple thousand years, and I doubt is ever helped a single person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am traveling this week. Right now I am in a hotel in Phoenix with really slow internet access. And the rest of the week I am down to my phone for internet access. So – not much blogging this week. I will give you a quick one for today. In a recent New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alternative-medicine","category-skepticism"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t