Vernon Coleman - a suitable case for treatment?

[Asolepius]

Dr Vernon Coleman has for 30 years revelled in sensation, which he values more highly than truth. Has anyone looked at his site www.vernoncoleman.com? He is not a woo-woo merchant at all, but never lets the facts stop him from selling his books. His opinions are far-ranging (a few I agree with), not just on medicine or technology. This is probably off-topic but there may be some relevance.

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His webpage starts out by posting praises about himself that people have (allegedly) sent to him via e-mail, followed by flattering sound-bites from newspapers and magazines.

That's the kind of advertising I expect to see for a Hollywood movie, not a doctor.

[Rolfe]

My God, him!

I had a run-in with him when I'd only been qualified two years (1978, that makes it). I was working in general practice in a town in the Midlands, and the local daily newspaper printed a column he wrote. One column was a vitriolic anti-dog rant, going on about the huge number of hospital attendences for dog bites, how children get worms from dogs, and how dogs cause polio!

My clients were quite concerned about this, and I wrote a letter to the paper in rebuttal. I received an absolutely vitriolic reply, more or less saying that if he wasn't such a nice kind tolerant soul he'd come over and rearrange my face.

The interesting wrinkle on the dog bites is that however many there are, there are apparently more hospital admissions for human bites! And the human whipworm is transmitted child-to-child, nothing to do with the dog. And although a paper has been published showing that people with polio were significantly more likely than others to have antibodies to the canine roundworm Toxocara canis, no causal link has ever been established.

I passed the correspondence on to the professor of parasitology at my alma mater, where I was returning to do post-graduate research, and I believe he wrote another letter to the newspaper. However, he said he'd come across Coleman before, and although he'd try to put him right he didn't think much of his chances.

Rolfe.

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Originally posted by Les Rose
He is not a woo-woo merchant at all,
You could've fooled me. Here are a couple of the things he has to say in his most recent health article, The Power Of Your Mind (http://www.vernoncoleman.com/powerofyourm.htm):

"Another patient suffered from diabetes when one personality was dominant. But the diabetes vanished when a different personality took over."

That's right, the power of positive thinking can cure diabetes!

"Note
Vernon Coleman's book Mindpower explains in detail how you can use your mind to keep you healthy - and to help heal your body when you are ill. Mindpower is available in all good bookshops and libraries or from the shop on this Web site."

Yep, he's not a woo-woo merchant at all. :rolleyes: