I’ve been blogging about alternative medicine for nearly seven years and writing about it, either on Usenet or in other forums for several years before. As a result, there are times when I start to think that maybe I’ve seen it all. And almost every time I start thinking that, I come across something that leaves me scratching my head and either joking about learning something new every day or just scratching my head. This case will be the latter.
Regular readers all know Mike Adams, a.k.a. The Health Ranger. Adams created NewsTarget.com which later evolved into NaturalNews.com, one of the largest, not to mention looniest, “alternative health” sites. As I’ve documented here in the past on more occasions than I can remember (just type Mike Adams’ name into the search box of this blog if you don’t believe me), there’s no quackery too loony for Adams to promote, no conspiracy theory too crazy for him to ascribe to, and no depths to which he will not sink when attacking conventional scientific medicine. Many are the dead celebrities he’s abused to claim that, if they had only chosen his favored quackery they wouldn’t have died of cancer, heart disease, or whatever. Again, I’ve written about these things more times than I can remember, as a quick search will demonstrate. Over the years, if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Mike Adams, it’s that supplements are always good and can never hurt you, and that no criticism of supplements and alt-med are legitimate, coming instead from–of course!–either big pharma, the government, or an unholy alliance of both.
That’s why I’ve been scratching my head over a series of articles Adams has been posting on NaturalNews.com about a supplement known as Adya Clarity beginning last Friday:
- NaturalNews issues consumer alert about Adya Clarity, imported as battery acid and sold for internal consumption
- Adya Clarity response: Label to be modified for full transparency, no internal use marketing without clinical proof (updated)
- Adya Clarity – how to intelligently read the label and calculate possible toxic exposures to excess iron and aluminum
- Adya Clarity caught deceiving Health Canada in licensing scam that hid aluminum content
Oddly enough, I had never heard of Adya Clarity before, and, I’m guessing, neither have many of you. So, before discussing Mike Adams’ tirades against this particular supplement, I decided to wander over to the Adya Clarity website to see what claims its manufacturers have been making. Certainly, this particular supplement makes some doozies of claims:
Would you like to have drinking water that has impurities eliminated, is oxygen enhanced, has a high-level of hydration, supplies your body with valuable minerals, and…has a refreshing taste?
How do you achieve this? Add Adya Clarity Magnetic Sulfate Minerals to your water.
Magnetism is one of the most powerful forces of nature. Adya Clarity’s Magnetic Sulfate Minerals utilize this powerful force by attracting contaminants and clumping them into larger sized particulates. These clumps are heavier than water and, therefore, become sediment. Before your eyes, you will see dissolved, invisible contaminants become insoluble and visible! With this ability, even muddy water can now be made clear. Clarified!
As Adya Clarity’s magnetic minerals are busy clumping impurities together, they are also activating the oxygen within the water. What is oxygenated water? Water that is ready to go to work in your body to provide oxygen for you.
What is lurking in your water? Whether it is chlorine or bacteria, it will be ameliorated. No need to know what the substance is, Adya Clarity is there to win the battle.
This is obviously some serious woo for seriously woo-ey people. If you believe that magnetism attracts all these contaminants and clumps them into particulates that become sediment and that sinks and allows you to separate them from the water, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. Multiple bridges, actually. I promise you a fantastic deal. Well, it’ll actually be as fantastic a deal as Adya Clarity offers its wares in sizes ranging from a 2 oz. for $25, which supposedly “transforms” 15.5 gallons of water, to 32 oz. size for $150, which supposedly “transforms” 250 gallons of water. You can even buy a “Family Preparedness Package” consisting of six 32 oz. bottles and twelve 2 oz. bottles, all for the low, low price of $599.95. In any case, it’s purest fantasy that paramagnetic salts are capable of “attracting contaminants”, including “chlorine or bacteria.” Clearly, Adya Clarity works by some new form of chemistry with which I am not familiar.
Of course, my question upon reading “transforms” was: Transforms into what? Apparently this is what Adya Clarity does:
- Magnetic Sulfate Minerals provide the elements needed for optimum cellular function
- Unnecessary elements are bound and eliminated thus creating equilibrium within the body
- Purify, Microcluster, Structure and Optimize any water by simply adding Adya Clarity
- Chlorine, Fluoride, Petrochemicals, Plastics, Solvents, Heavy Metals & Pathogens are reduced or eliminated.
- Provides your body with the full spectrum of elements in soluble form
- Aids in detoxifying the body by removing cellular waste residues out of all tissues, fluids, glands and organs
- Activates oxygen and increase assimilation of all nutrients to feed and nourish your cells
- Stimulates proper and efficient cellular metabolism
- Maximizes the potential of growth hormones, Glutathione and Super Oxide Dismutase
- Provides profound hydration at the cellular level
- Para-Magnetic sulfate minerals are the key factor to optimize all enzymatic functions in your body
A lot of these claims appear to skirt the limits of what the DSHEA of 1994 would permit as “structure-function” claims; for example, the claim that it gets rid of chlorine, fluoride, petrochemicals, heavy metals, and pathogens sure does sound like a medical claim to me. Yes, many of the rest are the typical vague “structure-function” claims that supplement manufacturers love, such as the claims that Adya Clarity provides “profound hydration at the cellular level” or “provides elements needed for optimum cellular function.” They even throw in a bit about “para-magnetic sulfate materials” being the “key factor to optimize all enzymatic functions in your body,” a claim that definitely qualifies as a pair of fetid dingo’s kidneys.
So what is Adya Clarity, anyway? Adams’ histrionic posts only sort of say. It turns out that, for whatever reason, Adya Clarity seems to be big in the raw food movement, and, in fact, a guy named Matt Monarch has apparently been marketing it for a while now. What’s also interesting is that, in the wake of Adams’ attacks, it appears that many of the glowing video testimonials for Adya Clarity have mysteriously disappeared or been changed to “private.” I did manage, however, manage to find this video, in which it is claimed that a woman got rid of systemic candidiasis, thanks to “super shots” of Adya Clarity:
As you can see, there are a whole lot of pseudocientific claims in there, such as how Adya Clarity can “eliminate pathogens” and “toxins”; specifically, Monarch claims that it can get rid of candida and that it worked for his wife.
Perhaps a little background is in order. An e-mail promotion of the compound is quoted here, providing this alleged background:
In the 1960s, Dr. Asao Shimanishi, a noted scientist and doctor from Japan, discovered after decades of research, that the rock that contained the most abundant minerals is black mica. Black mica (also known as biotite) is found in a wide variety of igneous and metamorphic rocks.
Dr. Shimanishi also discovered that the minerals he extracted from black mica rocks from north of Tokyo had a tremendous healing and nourishing power. He invented a patented way to extract minerals from black mica and maintain them in an ionized form. As a result, people who ate vegetables fertilized with the ionized water became healthier and rejuvenated. This rejuvenative effect may well stem from the fact that the human body consists of the same foundational building blocks as black mica.
In Japan, Dr. Shimanishi is regarded as an authority on the treatment and cleaning of water. He’s probably best known for healing entire bodies of water using a magnetic sulfate mineral solution extracted from the most mineral-rich black mica deposit in Mt Fuji, Japan.
He has demonstrated how he can easily take whole ponds or lakes that are filthy, murky and contaminated — and within one hour, transform the water, making it pristine, crystal clear and potable. And the water would thereafter stay fresh and clean permanently because the contaminants never re-dissolve in water once the water is treated.
There’s a version of the magnetic sulfate mineral solution that Dr. Shimanishi designed for human consumption. It’s called Black Mica Extract. When you put a dropper full of the solution into a glass of tap water, you’ll see before your very eyes how the solution pulls the invisible toxins and contaminants from the water, gathering them together into larger-sized, visible particulates that are heavier than water, causing them to precipitate (sink) to the bottom of the glass. Once the toxins and contaminants are extracted, they become inert substances that are rendered harmless, as well as insoluble, thereby preventing them from being re-absorbed by the water. In addition to cleaning the water and getting rid of all the heavy metals, the solution also remineralizes it with the highest quality minerals.
How is this “black mica extract” made? Actually, it’s made by treating the mineral deposit (Themerox) with either sulfuric or hydrochloric acid, producing a highly acidic product. It appears to be composed primarily of sulfuric acid, iron sulfate, and aluminum sulfate. From my reading, I gather that Adya Clarity consists mainly of a lot of inorganic salts in a very acidic solution. There’s no way it does all the things that Monarch claims, and in fact there’s enough iron and other metals in it that there is a potential problem with iron toxicity from taking the recommended “shots” of Adya Clarity, which consist of a teaspoon of the extract diluted in a glass of water. In other words, there’s plenty of evidence that Adya Clarity can’t do the things claimed for it and a lot of reason to worry about its safety and potential toxicity.
All of which is why my brain almost explodes at the irony of reading Mike Adams write things like:
I am concerned that the founder of Adya, Inc. describes Adya Clarity as a “food” when it is clearly not a food but rather derived from a collection of mined minerals combined with sulfuric acid.
This sort of thing never seemed to bother Adams before; so why does it bother him now? Adams is also a massive hypocrite in that he’s written articles praising a mineral supplement called Zeolite, which is just a different “mineral extract” than Adya Clarity whose proponents make many of the same sorts of pseudoscientific claims for Zeolite that Monarch makes for Adya Clarity, in particular the claim that it can “remove toxins and pathogens.”
Even more ironic is this passage:
The claims that Adya Clarity is good for treating kidney stones, hair loss, arthritis and even cancer are, I discovered, entirely unsubstantiated for this product. There is simply no reliable clinical evidence supporting Adya Clarity to be safe or effective for any health condition whatsoever.
Since when has a lack of clinical evidence for the efficacy of anything ever concerned Adams? Certainly, he’s unconcerned about the mountains of evidence demonstrating the safety and efficacy of vaccines, ignoring it in order to post anti-vaccine screeds, while his minions post glowing reviews of all sorts of woo ranging from “super herbs” to massively exaggerated claims for things like vitamin D or scientifically discredited claims that vitamin C can cure cancer. If there’s anything the history of NaturalNews.com has told us, it’s that to Adams evidence doesn’t matter; ideology does. Anecdotal evidence is more than adequate to convince Adams of anything that fits into his world view that supplements are wonder drugs, if it’s “natural” it’s good, and if it’s “pharmaceutical” it’s bad. The flip side of that is that no amount of medical evidence from randomized clinical trials demonstrating that various science-baed medical therapies work will convince Adams that they do, in fact, work. To him, evidence is secondary.
So why is Adams going after Matt Monarch and the makers of Adya Clarity? Did he suffer a sudden attack of conscience and appreciation for real science, as opposed to pseudoscience? I seriously doubt it. In my opinion, there has to be something else going on here; I’m convinced of it. I just don’t know what it is yet, but I have suspicions. Adams goes out of his way in one post to assert that he is not selling a competing product, but that’s not entirely true.. On various Adya Clarity websites and from the mouth of Matt Monarch himself we hear him saying, “Goodbye Zeolite.” It turns out that Mike Adams sells Zeolite and has a whole section on his website devoted to praising Zeolite as a wonder mineral supplement. As I mentioned before, he also has a long history of making claims for Zeolite that sound a lot like the claims being made for Adya Clarity. As recently as April, Adams has been promoting a regimen of woo that includes zeolites as a means of “detoxifying” the radioactive fallout from the Fukushima disaster. Indeed, particularly hilarious is Adams’ complaint that Adya Clarity is being touted as a supplement, as “food,” when it is derived from minerals.
Rather like Zeolite is.
All of this leads me to wonder: Could Adams’ newfound concern for science, supplement safety, and potential heavy metal toxicity be something as simple as eliminating a competitor? Inquiring minds want to know.
On the other hand, it’s entirely possible I’m mistaken about this. Zeolite doesn’t appear to be one of Adams’ most heavily promoted or sold products. Perhaps there’s another reason. Maybe there’s some sort of personal feud going on here that’s bubbled to the surface, and Adams wants to destroy Monarch’s business. The only thing I’m sure of is that Adams’ attacks on Monarch almost certainly do not flow from a dedication to public safety and science-based medicine. I must admit that I’m curious as to the reason for this attempt by Adams to put Adya Clarity out of business.
Or maybe this is the reason:
I am concerned that the unsubstantiated health claims being used to market Adya Clarity cast a shadow of doubt over the entire natural products industry which, in most cases, sells very safe, effective and well-documented products for consumption.
Maybe it is about the business anyway, only in a more general sense. Maybe the cloud developing over Adya Clarity is affecting Adams’ sales of Zeolite and other mineral supplements. Certainly, Adams’ sudden finding of religion when it comes to this particular supplement has nothing to do with science.
73 replies on ““Consumer warnings” about Adya Clarity: Has Mike Adams had a sudden attack of conscience?”
Maximizes the potential of growth hormones, Glutathione and Super Oxide Dismutase
Phrases like that somehow give the impression that the marketers of Adya Clarity have invested some time researching what forms of woo are currently popular with their intended customers, and have targetted their advertising to piggyback on that woo as far as possible, rather than start from scratch creating a totally new alternative reality.
Which would in turn imply that they are deeply cynical people who are not motivated by misguided faith in the efficacy of their product, but rather from the ethical stance that it is wrong to leave fools in possession of their money.
[off-topic, but on the subject of vaccines and surveys]
This survey, promoted by anti-vaccine groups, aims to survey the health of vaccinated kids, presumably to compare with their earlier one of unvaccinated kids. It’s a hopeless case as the selection is biased by where the survey/poll is being advertised but anyone feels like helping to balance out the results with a wider range of contributions…
http://www.vaccineinjury.info/vaccinations-in-general/health-unvaccinated-children/health-vaccinated-children-survey.html
(Do remember in the end it’ll be pointless as the other survey is, basically, garbage and comparing the new one to garbage will only yield garbage… It may be an idea to use a temporary email just in case it proves to be used for spam marketing later; you never know.)
Hmm,
Let’s make that a link to make it easier (sorry about this):
http://www.vaccineinjury.info/vaccinations-in-general/health-unvaccinated-children/health-vaccinated-children-survey.html
Most of the claims made for Adya Clarity, sound marvelous, such as:
But the same could be said of tap water.
I always found it amusing that zeolite, which is a woo panacea according to many, is composed of aluminum compounds. How much of it dissolves in human stomach acids and is absorbed, I don’t know, but aluminum is certainly absorbed when chickens ingest zeolite. The same people who swear by zeolite avoid aluminum in any form, of course. Maybe all that zeolite has dome something terrible to Mike Adams’ brain.
It reminds me of those who believe fluoridation is an evil plot to poison us, yet consume green tea which is full of fluoride…
It’s obviously horrifying how little regulation there is on these supplements.
Which makes me wonder if there will be an incident in the future that finally provokes re-regulation — eventually, one of these clowns is likely to market something so dangerous that an un-ignorable number of people die.
Problem is, it’d be the scandal-of-the-week, and except for a few outlets no one is going to connect it back to the fact that the government isn’t able to do its job, because its hands are tied.
Yeah. I can’t get the video to work (as other systems advance, old Linux and other things have more trouble) but the figure in the standing shot of the video link, sure looks like a dude made up to look like a lady. (Cue Arrowsmith …)
N.B. @6 — If you get a more recent Linux distrib, it works.
And I thought the same thing about the person — turns out it’s Matt Monarch, who is indeed a guy.
I watched just long enough to establish this, since I’m attempting to eat my breakfast at the moment. The treacly theme-song sequence is already a rather effective emetic.
I don’t know how Orac can stand it. He must have special goggles or something, in addition to his infinite supply of irony meters.
I would speculate that one woo throws another woo under the bus to gain more credibility and a bigger piece of the Little Supplement pie. Funny how Adams can suddenly become aware of evidence when it suits him.
Palindrom, in order for it to create scandal the families of the people injured by the woo would have to speak up. Frequently the more dangerous woo is only for the seriously ill and when death occurs it is blamed on “not seeking wellness soon enough” rather than the woo.
There have been cases of documented woo-induced death and injury, including ‘neurocranial restructuring’ (a type of “chiropractic manipulation” that involves blowing up balloons inside your nose to realign bones in your skull for ultimate flow of spinal fluid and chi), another where a child died when taken to a naturopath for a severe asthma attack, and premature cancer death from trying alternative methods first, etc. Even though these incidents happen they don’t seem to be enough to deter people who have been brain-washed into believing that only an alternative health practitioner could possibly have their best interests at heart.
What I find fascinating is the crowing by alternative practitioners that there is “never” death from them. That is only because they either blame “allopathic” medicine FOR the death or the person realizes the woo isn’t working and goes back to proven medicine. Further, there is no real oversight that would keep track of treatment outcomes and hold them to a standard of care, so deaths from alternative practice are rarely ever left at their doorstep.
I didn’t recognize anything about Adya Clarity as I was reading through – until I got down to the video. I’ve seen that putz’s face on ads either here on SB or FTB (can’t remember which), something to effect of “Poison my water, I don’t think so!”
I could never bring myself to click on the link to see what nonsense they were selling – the proclamation and image of this guy along side a vial with “stuff” in the bottom of it told me everything I needed to know. That, and I just don’t have the constitution to slog though it sometimes, brain cells start threatening to jump…off of what I’m not sure but I dare not push them too far.
One can only hope that they annihilate each other in the ensuing tiff.
“This is obviously some serious woo for seriously woo-ey people. ”
Naah. Not serious at all. It’s lacking “quantum.” Now, if it had “quantum magnets” that would be different.
@Grant
You know what is interesting about that survey you linked to? They are including vaccines that are generally not routine, such as anthrax, plague, rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid and yellow fever. That increases the net they can cast for vaccine reactions and conditions they can blame on vaccines. Also, unlike the unvaccinated survey, they do not ask for reasons as to why parents had their children vaccinated.
I also noticed multiple iterations of the same vaccines (just in a different order or individually) – leading someone to click on multiple, even if they only had one.
What a crock.
Or perhaps Mikey is trying to cover his own a–….
From the “Adya Clarity is trying to deceive…..” article: he informs us that there is a “vicious and untrue association being leveled against NaturalNews ” claiming that he promoted the product ( he didn’t promote or endorse it he says) but AC was “placed on the shelf of the NaturalNews store”… and “only small number of sales from an affiliate store”…
Why does this sound familiar to me?
Translation: I’m not making enough money from a product that precipitates gypsum from water to make people think it works. Buy zeolite, it
pays much higher commissionworks better!So that’s where the producers of “Contagion” got the idea for the forsythia videos!
You just have to admire the chutzpah of the first paragraph of the puff:
It has impurities eliminated so it’s pure… and in woo-land it can remain pure when it has all those lovely “valuable minerals” added!
It has a “high level of hydration” – much better than that dehydrated water that comes out of your tap when it’s turned off.
Some good technical info too:
The “refreshing taste” is not something I want to find out about. I’ll stick to oranges, thank you.
Much better than that old-fashioned air stuff that most of us use for oxygen. Of course, air is horribly impure: it’s 80% nitrogen, so if the level of nitrogen increased by a quarter, we’d all die, air is lethal!!
I seriously doubt that this dude has a conscience ( after all, he tells people with cancer, HIV/AIDS, and SMI to eschew SBM and frightens people off of vaccination ): he is afraid that news about a dangerous product even vaguely associated with him might be a smudge upon his cred amongst the woo-enchanted, that he, through his store ( affiliate? part of his MLM empire? he was always trying to get people to sign up as distributors of health “miracles”) might get sued, and that maybe feds from Canada or the US might take a closer look at him now ( perhaps there were previous complaints).
A while back ( 4/2010; Orac covered this), Gary Null was associated with mal-ware in supplement form, OD’ing _himself_ on vitamin D in his own product: in the wake of this news, he put forth a spate of articles and announcements on his website and radio shows disavowing *any* personal responsibility in the matter, ‘splaining how he was hurt *himself* by the negligent manufacturer’s error ( see Quackwatch) and that it might even be sabotage: he did this as a public service** despite the fact the “only a few” bad mixes were sold : seems a fellow who was also injured decided to sue- he didn’t want the others to follow suit.
Googled results about this affair ( via his name) were very bad advertisement for a company that relies upon its websites for sales. He launched on a campaign highlighting his altruism and longtime reputation as a “whistle blower” and “truth teller” about corruption and greed *everywhere* ( see Gary Null.com/ ProgressiveRadioNetwork).
With his four back-to-back articles, I suspect that Mikey is on a similar path of damage control. Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” guy.
** and as a public service I have a lovely bridge to sell you.
Black mica is indeed known as biotite, but it is not a rock. It is a mineral, and there is no such thing as a “rock that contains the most minerals”, since rocks are defined even in 8th-grade earth science textbooks as aggregates of minerals. So Dr. Shimanishi’s ability to extract minerals from “black mica rocks” is right on par with my ability to extract rocks from …rocks.
I am also curious as to how one might extract much magnesium sulfate from a mineral that contains plenty of magnesium but little sulfate (biotite: K(Mg,Fe)3AlSi3O10(OH)2, although it is possible for minor amounts of sulfate to occur in the hydroxyl site. Very, very minor amounts.).
Argh! A spambot – that isn’t me!
Mike Adams says that Adya Clarity is not backed up by clinical trails and extensive research which is true. Zeolite on the other hand is backed up by tons of research by scientist and trials and proven to be effective as an safe detoxification mineral which will be eliminate from the body at the end of the process. I don’t believe in what you say “Maybe it is about the business anyway, only in a more general sense. Maybe the cloud developing over Adya Clarity is affecting Adams’ sales of Zeolite and other mineral supplements. Certainly, Adams’ sudden finding of religion when it comes to this particular supplement has nothing to do with science.” I believe Mike Adams in solely educating the truth to the people. Adya Clarity has been around for 40 years, for the owner to be concealing ingredients from the public and deceiving health Canada to get licence for product is definitely not acceptable and deserves to be expose.
The idea that woo promoters/supplement hucksters are a movement unified by their hatred of mainstream medicine and regulators falls apart when you get a peek at the bitter infighting possibile when they are competing for the same
markscustomers.In Orac’s thread on the Big Woo Summit, I mentioned one of the promoters having an attack on Joe Mercola posted on her website (Mercola did much the same thing as Mike Adams, suddenly deciding that an absence of efficacy demonstrated by clinical research cast doubt on a supplement). You can find attacks on Adams and other Health Freedom Fighters posted around the Internet for various reasons.
One can worship the Woo, but never be devout enough to satisfy all of the faithful all the time.
In the current case of Adya Clarity, there are numerous possibilities for why Adams is criticizing it – competition with his own supplement, failure to harvest ad revenue from its maker, a personal feud with that person etc. What we can be sure of is that it’s not because Adams has had a revelation and will no longer accept woo that lacks a scientific/clinical basis for determining safety and efficacy. He’s been steeped in the crazy for far too long.
A quick google @ NaturalNews reveals that Adams has had a business relationship with Matt Monarch and his Raw Food World: Adams wrote 3/24/10: ” ( Actally, credit goes to Matt Monarch at The Raw Food World whch is technically the store behind our store).” More articles up about Monarch.
I have to get back to my technical work… and Happy Samhain to my Celtic friends and relations!!
Isn’t biotite a uranium ore? I know in the woo-iverse radiation was invented in 1945, and all you have to do is keep away from nuclear power plants and shit, but in the real world it sounds kind of like the thorium toothpaste they sold in the 30s to “radiate cavities away”.
Then you should have no trouble providing the citations. Peer-reviewed journals only, naturally. PMID references will suffice.
Not that this is a big surprise for you crank magnetism fans, but the Adya Clarity guy (Matt Monarch) is also anti-vaccine. He has even more revelations (such as how to make your shoes “grounded”) but sadly will not tell us the more spectacular ones:
“This rabbit hole DOES go deep and most of the stuff that I say probably sounds totally âOUTLANDISHâ and âEXTREMEâ to the majority of the population. I feel, for example, that I am doing a service by not revealing what I feel is the real truth about where humans came from and how âdegeneratedâ we may actually be at this time, as I feel that I would likely lose much credibility sharing these kinds of ideas⦔
By the way, people – don’t buy Zeolite or Adya Clarity – go with nature’s own toxin binder/flusher supreme – diatomaceous earth. It’ll cure what ails you, or so the testimonials say.
@palindrom and @Mrs. Woo: I collect incidents of alt. med. deaths and injuries over at What’s the Harm. There have been plenty.
There was actually an incident that almost provoked government action about DSHEA. Tellingly, the provoking incident was not woo-related, but had to do with sports. (Specifically, athletes getting accused of doping when they thought they were taking herbal remedies only).
It was about 18 months ago, and this very blog was the only skeptic blog that took notice, as far as I can tell. It still annoys me how totally skeptics missed the boat on this. The herbal industry was ALL OVER it from the beginning, and most skeptics never even knew this bill was proposed. We should have been lobbying for it from day one.
Naah. Not serious at all. It’s lacking “quantum.” Now, if it had “quantum magnets” that would be different.
Well, they do have the power of plasma in a supporting role.
@ Grant: Orac already covered that vaccinated versus unvaccinated survey and I participated in it, and discussed my “participation” on this blog. As I recall, I ticked off all the boxes for symptoms for my “son” who never received any vaccines. My “daughter” on the other hand, who was fully vaccinated, had none of those problems listed on the internet survey. For an all too brief moment in time, I shot up on the anti-vax websites’ enemies list.
@ michelle: Beamup “suggested” that you locate some peer-reviewed journals about “Zeolyte” through PubMed. I suggest that you view the FDA Warning Letter to the manufacturers of “Zeolite”:
Casewatch: Warning Letter CFSAN-OC-07-01 (June 29, 2007)
@ Gorbin Wafflemunch: “I’ve seen that putz’s face on ads either here on SB or FTB (can’t remember which), something to effect of “Poison my water, I don’t think so!”
The “putz” has a 20 minute video extolling the virtues of colonic cleansing at the “Every Body Cleansing Studio” website.
Mr. and Mrs. “Putz” are all over the internet with videos about their recent relocation to Ecuador…see “Matt Monarch in Equador” video on the web.
Mikey mentions a supplement industry lawyer. I suspect that this lawyer has some inside information about regulatory agencies which are in the process of cracking down on Adya Clarity. Of course, the promoters of Adya Clarity, are now safely ensconced in Ecuador.
I have to admire (and simultaneously despise) the marketing skills of those who have managed to persuade people to eat cat litter. I thought that bleach (Humble’s MMS), toilet cleaner (MMS2), baking soda (Simoncini) and linseed oil (Budwig) were the silliest supplements I had come across but zeolite, perhaps, takes the crown. I sometimes wonder if these people are in competition to see who can get the marks to buy the most ridiculous thing.
@lilady
I think the survey Grant was referring to is actually a newer one looking at vaccinated, rather than unvaccinated.
@Tim #26 – I’ve read your site! Thank you so much for publishing these things. If only I could get Mr. Woo to read them with any amount of open-mindedness…
@Krebiozen – have you read (I unfortunately get emails from the oh so unhumble Mr. Humble) that he recommends taking pool shock, grinding it finer in a mortar and pestle, putting it in capsules and taking several with a large glass of water as a new way to get the same results as MMS?
There was one woman who died from MMS that I know of; not sure if there are others. Hubby found the MMS woo (not sure who got him onto it; he listens to a LOT of alternative radio for one) and insists on “sharing” the woo with anyone on antibiotics because it will cure them faster and better. When they are starting to feel better after three days of MMS and antibiotics they are absolutely astonished. 🙁
Good grief. Does he not know that “pool shock” is at least five different chemicals (and that’s just the chlorine variants; there are a lot of “non-chlorine shocks” too), depending on what kind you get?
@ Todd W: Yes, it “appears” to be a different internet survey. At the bottom of the survey is this notation:
http://www.vaccineinjury.info, Powered by Joomla! and designed by SiteGround web hosting modified by Webhosting Andreas Ruttkamp
This is the same “Webhosting Andreas Ruttkamp” listed on the prior internet survey sponsored by Child Health Safety that Orac blogged about:
A survey administered by a German anti-vax homeopath backfires spectacularly (August 31, 2011)
I again have entered data about my fully vaccinated child who has none of the health/behavior/developmental problems listed on this new internet survey sponsored by “vaccineinjury.info…with a phony email address.
After entering the data and hitting the “submit” button, the “German homeopath” mentioned in Orac’s August blog, (Andreas Bachmair), picture and name came up. BTW, it appears that his residence is in Switzerland.
Mrs. Woo,
Isn’t he Pope (or maybe Bishop) Humble now, having started his own church? That’s the MMS2 I was referring to – it’s calcium hypochlorite, which is the main constituent of some toilet cleaners, and is also used as pool cleaner, as you mentioned.
Some time ago I worked out the relative toxicity and Staphylococcus aureus killing power of chlorine dioxide (‘activated’ MMS) and dicloxacillin. I calculated that dicloxacillin is 25 times more potent against Staph and 20 times less toxic than MMS. That makes dicloxacillin about 500 times more effective than MMS in terms of risk/benefit ratio.
MMS is a powerful GI irritant, so it makes you nauseous and gives you diarrhea which, of course, shows that it is working, as these symptoms are attributed to ‘die-off’ or toxins leaving your body. Not true, of course. A dose of MMS high enough to achieve blood levels high enough to kill Staph (assuming it was all absorbed, which is very unlikely) would be very close to a lethal dose (somewhere in the region of 10 grams).
On reflection, perhaps MMS should take the silliest supplement award after all. It makes eating cat litter look innocuous in comparison.
…the claims that Adya Clarity provides “profound hydration at the cellular level”…
Isn’t that what water always does? Isn’t that kinda what the word “hydration” means?
As for Adams’ motives, maybe he’s realizing that a unified front isn’t protecting alt-med from criticism anymore, so he’s dumping a failed strategy (thinking his “allies” are about to do the same for the same reason), and just attacking competitors to protect his own little bit of turf.
Where I live, “oxygenated water” = hydrogen peroxide. I wouldn’t advise drinking that :/
Nice list of trace minerals, all the stuff the antivax and chelation nutters go on about:
“Additionally contains up to 100 trace minerals including aluminum, barium, cobalt, copper, germanium, lithium, molybdenum, nickel, rubidium, selenium, silicon, silver, titanium, tungsten, vanadium.”
/facepalm
@Todd (#12) Good points. I *could* do a post listing the weaknesses of the surveys. I doubt it’d do any good though! Besides, Iâm sure Orac covered some of that ground in his coverage of the earlier survey.
@Krebiozen –
Yes, “Bishop” Humble. Can’t remember what his church name is now. He is arguing that he cannot be shut down by any regulations in pushing MMS because he and anyone who “follows” him is now protected by religious freedoms under the first amendment. He offers regular “classes” to “teach” you how to be a member of his church, recruit members and make MMS/MMS2, etc.
Says that if any bother them, etc. to tell them that there is nothing in this world greater than empowering people to heal themselves, etc., etc.
He makes my blood boil. I’m a spiritual person of sorts and it is offensive for someone to take belief and manipulate it into a transparent type of “protection” to further fleece the vulnerable and encourage them to acts of self-harm.
Right now my growing dislike of charlatans like these causes a lot of conflict with Mr. Woo. I wish the mister could see the difference between someone who is creating something and selling it for their own profit while crying “government conspiracy” and “big pharma profits” vs. my primary care physician who works in his spare time volunteering free physician care (every Wednesday and a week here and there with two weeks in the summer) and of course never making a dime on a single prescription he writes me (all generic).
There is NO WAY that Mike Adams actually believes any of the asinine crap he spews out. Aside from monetary gain, I think that he’s doing it all for kicks and trying to mess with everybody’s heads.
@ Don’t Touch:
*Au contraire*! I think that Mike believes a great deal of his nonsense and actually carries out the intricate diet, exercise, and advice plan** that he preaches (see Health Ranger website) and is probably somewhat obsessive about it. *And* he probably also believes that he is a “scientific revolutionary” as well- of all this feeds his ego. Thus, while he is realistic about how to manipulate others in order to sell products, his evaluation of his own abilities is most likely sorely amiss. Now the insane conspiracy theories are another story (both figuratively and literally).
**when dudes aged 40, 50, or 60-something ( Adams, Mercola, Null) brag about their body fat percentage- you *know* they’re doing something to interfere with nature.
Many thanks to Sam C (at #17) & everyone who’s talked about zeolite – I’ve been trying to get past a bit of a block with my own blogging & your comment about dehydrated water, plus the zeolite stuff, has given me an idea to run with 🙂 Very much appreciated.
@ alison: You certainly did get past that writer’s block…great article that you “ran with” on your own blog. Brava!
@ Denice Walter
The stuff that quacks promote, especially with Adams and Mercola… it blows my mind. Yes, people can be very gullible and foolish, but where do you draw the line between brainless and a devious con artist? Okay, MAYBE Mike Adams is a victim to the Dunning-Kruger effect as he has a definite fanatical tone, but I do think Mercola is more conniving. Mercola advocates staring into the sun for long periods of time, homeopathy, anti-vax propaganda, “Big Pharma” conspiracies, and dozens of the most illogical things anyone could ever think all at once. Most of the studies Mercola has ever cited to ‘prove’ his point have either been twisted, cherry-picked and/or invariably flawed/biased while ignoring other studies and evidence that contradicts him. Yes, Adams does this, too, but the way Mercola does it strongly resembles the work of trolls and troll fiction. It’s difficult to know whether any of the quacks are lying because some people can be very good actors, but I’m willing to bet that most of them are lying for the “almighty dollar” (along with gaining “fame”).
@ Denice Walter and @ Don’t Touch: I suspect you are both right with your approaches to Adams, Mercola and Null.
Here we have two guys Adams and Null, with little or no education in the sciences and virtually no credentials and Dr. Mercola who has the education and credentials, who chose to goo over to the “woo” side.
Each of the three derives pleasure from the adoration they receive from their adoring (internet) plainly ignorant audiences. Then too, are the appearances on TV and radio outlets, where they expand their “audience”. That plus the DVD sales, book sales, kick-backs from the CAM treatment dealers and the sale of their very own cooked up supplements provide some mighty nice lifestyles for these quacks. Mercola has branched out to the sale of organic food and “natural cosmetics and lotions”, as well.
And they call educated practitioners of science-based medicine “shills” for Big Pharma….chutzpah!
Thanks, lilady, much appreciated. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep it going again from now on 🙂
“profound hydration at the cellular level”
Isn’t that a tagline from one of those beauty-cream ads? They always mention ‘hydration’.
That should be no surprise of course, as the beauty industry and the woo-supplement industry have lots in common; both sell the fantasy of beauty and health in a bottle / jar / pill. However it seems to me that the beauty industry is a lot more regulated – would L’Oreal or Garnier ever dare to put acid or heavy metals into their creams?
@ Don’t Touch and lilady:
I do believe that these hucksters adhere to their own systems: following extreme diets, wolfing down supplements by the handful ( one even OD’ed on his own formula), and obsessively exercising in order to maintain their ultra-lean physiques, while eschewing SBM- however I also think that the propaganda goes way beyond what they truly believe into what they *wish* were true. There is a slippery way with which they deal with information- be it legit or nonsensial studies- they play with numbers and words indescriminately- are they deliberately doing so, just sloppy, or unable to keep details straight?
And I also think that they ( especially the two dis-educated ones) are unable to correctly assess their own level of ability- these along with other characteristics, such as grandiose, pressured speech, lack of concern for consequences for *other* people, and spinning bizarre confabulations about conspiracies do not speak well of their mental health. Although I am loathe to estimate skills ( e.g. verbal et al), I feel that they are not amongst the top 25% of their respective classes- I will leave the question of *which classes* purely to your imaginations. And they lie like rugs.
Articles or recorded material are manicured to achieve maximum impact – that is, maximum sales: these guys will say anything to make a sale. Probably they might be convincing themselves as well- frightened of lack of control and of reality- thus becoming consumers of their own bad medicine. Again, ” Oh what a tangled web we weave….”
@Sophia8 –
I’m not sure if the cosmetics industry introduces heavy metals into their creams, etc., or not. The irony I find in your question is that alternative medicine insists that they DO, and suggests you either buy their special products for your hair/body or make your own.
@Denice – both Null and Adams strike me as textbook cases of narcissistic personality disorder. I think you are correct that they are true believers in their own woo, it’s all wrapped up in their distorted self-image. The way they promote their woo and argue against their detractors shows common traits found in narcissists — arrogance, magical thinking, a sense of entitlement, disregard for the welfare of others…
Mercola seems like more of a true con man – he has narcissism to spare as well, but I suspect he got into woo because it’s more lucrative and much less work than practicing medicine. There’s no consequences if you’re wrong, and the patients let you blame them if the treatment doesn’t work.
This sort of thing never seemed to bother Adams before; so why does it bother him now? My cynical side says the check from Adya Clarity for the advertising on NaturalNews bounced.
Interesting. Monarch and Adams were previously acquainted, as least to the extent that Adams advertised for Monarch’s wedding-combined-RawFood-event to Angela Stokes.
http://www.naturalnews.com/GoogleSearchResults.html?q=matt+monarch&cx=010579349100583850635%3Aw_kzwe9_yca&cof=FORID%3A11&ie=UTF-8&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&sa=Search&siteurl=naturalnews.com%2F#1219
Monarch has also written on the NaturalNews site.
Maybe it’s related to Adam’s departure from Vilcabamba? It’s strange that he builds a house there and then heads back to the States.
Mikey has the earth moving equipment out and is plowing Monarch under today on his web site. There’s quite an interesting interview with an integrative medicine specialist about the dangers of Adya Clarity…I’m sure the pregnant women who took this supplement aren’t too pleased with Mikey or Monarch.
Matt Monarch and his wife are residing permanently in Vilcacamba, Ecuador and was selling a 2.5 acre lot adjacent to a river and adjacent to his hacienda, a few months back.
“Maybe it’s related to Adam’s departure from Vilcabamba? It’s strange that he builds a house there and then heads back to the States”. Ya think?
@ Denice Walter
Oh, if only we could read the minds of these quacks. If we could prove that they were without a doubt conmen, -maybe- less people would fall for the nonsense.
@sophia8
The real danger of beauty creams are the counterfeit/cheap kind, particularly the “skin-lightening” ones from overseas (mostly China and Japan and getting them online). Other than that, the worst that could happen in the U.S. is wasted money.
can I just, as a consumer/patient past and present state the obvious? Most of our lives, we’ve accepted the gp’s word as gospel, we’ve watched our loved ones do the same, generation after generation, place themselves or accept that their parents love them enough to entrust their lives to surgeons dr’s nurses and so on, we follow blindly until we start to see a pattern of not so reassuring events, so we dare to question, the obvious, why, if there’s a better way a healthier way to treat my mum, my daughter, my son, my dad sister brother, are we more often than not, told firmly, even when the truth is simple enough for a ten year old to grasp, that I’m the dr and you are the patient, don’t ask questions, try the alternative and you do it alone. Mike adams, encourages to question, and I continue to do so whatever i believe, n lo and behold, the more he learns, the more of a threat he becomes, the wrong doing, the suffering the mainstream health institutions have caused the death the disease, painful slow disabling heart breaking with not one sorry, we will continue to maime practice profit you and yours, if it causes harm tough. If you had or have to watch your child die slowly so be it… N u talk of which product? I don’t see mike killing with chia seeds choking you with natural alternatives, I don’t see him telling us he knows best I see him doing his best, n anything we wish to take from that we can or we can choose not to. The difference being free to choose, and continue to still get the same treatment whatever we decide, one of respect for that persons decision. To compare, in my opinion screams to readers, witchunt, after knowing both, that Mikes getting bigger and you feel threatened, so are resorting to bitching, trying to belittle humiliate, pathetic play ground tactics. Please do us a favour and grow the hell up. The ‘the don’t be his friend’ method you’re trying only serves as an insult to all those who have decided not to let you keep on hurting their loved ones. You had your chance. Deal with it.
One more thing, no consequences if he,s wrong? As opposed to what exactly? Consequences on such a wide scale lets use this opportunity and blame it on a pandemic started by the ones no one likes much rite now, before they caught us landing in the middle to do a little stirring incognito? Hell think of the benefits, oops yes we can apologize for the conflict of interest after pay day ! Think playtimes over now.
Ms. Fairclough:
Sorry, but taking that kind of advice from an incoherent rant would be silly. If you want us to “grow up”, then you demonstrate that you can spell, use grammar and write coherently. Plus you should actually read and address the points made in the article: mainly that a supplement shill is warning against a product sold by former colleagues.
coherently… One more time for those with immaculate grammar eh?
It not about grammar you small minded retard, easy on the flouride. Funny how you’re only comeback like everyone else with absolutely fack all to say, is mere personal insults? lets see how well you’d write and concentrate whilst playing just dance 3 with 3 kids who with me come way before what a small minded prick like you thinks of my grammar! My point exactly!!!! Quick, gather ones crayons your bus is here…
Oh noez! Chris disagreed with what you said on the Internet! Everybody panic!
Mme. Fairclough, it is difficult for anyone, especially us, to take your histrionic claims seriously when you don’t takethe time to use proper grammar, spelling or punctuation. An occasional typo is easily forgiven, but blatant abortion of language will result in lambasting.
If you wish to concentrate on your video games, then by all means don’t distract yourself. Save up your intellectual resources before coming back to debate the commentary here.
For what it’s worth, just because one method doesn’t seem to work does not justify using a method that has been shown NOT to work at all. That is the point: whenever these supplements are tested, we find they are wholly ineffective in their claims.
And I’d bet I could totally school you at Just Dance 3. One more way in which you are deficient.
Aw, isn’t it cute when she comes back complaining that I insulted her, when the only thing that was clear from her first incoherent rants were the blatant insults. Like the one I quoted. Plus she still did not address the article.
Perhaps, Ms. Faircough, you should turn off the computer and video games, then go sit down and read a book to your three kids. Or have them read a book to you. You might try Natural Causes: Death, Lies and Politics in America’s Vitamin and Herbal Supplement Industry.
Ms. Fairclough, I don’t see “mike” actually, you know, curing anyone either.
If you have data that anything Mike Adams recommends actually has a better success rate than the current standard of care, please share. This should be at least as high a quality of data as that required to get a drug on the market to be taken seriously.
It not about grammar you small minded retard, easy on the flouride.
And for a moment I was wondering why the angel at guardiansprayerwarrior-dot-com was cross-eyed.
I was mostly amused that she chose to initially insult us by telling us to “grow up” in a rant that would have been marked up by red ink if a fourth grader had turned it in to his/her teacher.
Each to their own decisions. Orthodox vs Alternative, both camps have their benefits and disastrous consequences throughout history. Make up your own minds, research, research research. Learn the pros and cons from BOTH camps belief systems and choose what is best for you. It is just as hypocritical for orthodox medicine to criticize alternative ideals when facts and statistics, taken no less from the study of their own medical journals and published articles, show them to be one of the leading causes of death. Yet alternative supporters commit the same crime by ignoring their own unfounded claims and the massive advances in diagnostics and surgery of their counterparts. Surely in our ‘advanced’ world the best of both can exist together. As for me I’ll keep eating my superfoods, stay away from sugar and keep my 78 year young body active. If I ever break a bone I’ll be seeing my friends at the local hospital. Remember my friends, ignorance is risky. 🙂
I used Adya C for a short time and felt better than I have felt for years I was able to eat curry without getting sick from the onions as usually do. I felt well enought to work which I do not usually. I have CFS long term but not badly these days. I felt normal. THen I read Mike’s warning about it. So I stopped Within 2 weeks feel shit again. I have spoken to others face to face who are getting great results. But I am not game to take it any more I have previously used minerals for health and had wonderful results but they were in a form that was a bit heavy for the liver and kidneys. There is no doubt that minerals are the answer rather than the toxic concoctions from normal doctors.
Before Adya Clarity people used various clays (which are basically ground up minerals) to purify their bodies of toxins. This is not a ‘loony’ ‘fringe’ notion, it is the biological truth, which we can observe in nature, and in our own healings. Perhaps you didn’t know that many animals, including parrots (very intelligent!) and perhaps a larger list of rainforest animals that I could list here, including mammals, including primates, EAT CLAY REGULARLY. Why do they eat clay? Well for one, because many of these animals depend on eating large amounts of highly varied leaves, berries, roots, etc, and some of these plants contain poisons which would become a problem if they were not regularly removed from the body. So animals have clay-licking parties and it is quite a beautiful thing to observe. There are videos of parrots and other animals on YOUTUBE if you are interested. Smart humans have also eaten clay in order to mineralize their bodies and to pull out toxins by magnetism (negative binding to positive and dumping out by fecal route). Some humans, the unfortunate Haitians (unfortunate because like the Mexicans they are close to the USA but far from the GOD) also eat clay, as do their brothers in Africa. Adya Clarity, a mineral solution based on MICA (one of the most plentiful mineral substances on earth.) works in the same way, and its claims are not at all crazy or farfetched. Whether or not the levels of aluminum in the mica are too elevated is another question of course, but I tend to believe that the levels of aluminum spread by industrialisation are really what we should be worrying about. To combat this, grow your own organic food, don’t eat much that comes out of a package, and filter your water well.
Before Adya Clarity people used various clays (which are basically ground up minerals) to purify their bodies of toxins. This is not a ‘loony’ ‘fringe’ notion, it is the biological truth, which we can observe in nature, and in our own healings. Perhaps you didn’t know that many animals, including parrots (very intelligent!) and perhaps a larger list of rainforest animals that I could list here, including mammals, including primates, EAT CLAY REGULARLY. Why do they eat clay? Well for one, because many of these animals depend on eating large amounts of highly varied leaves, berries, roots, etc, and some of these plants contain poisons which would become a problem if they were not regularly removed from the body. So animals have clay-licking parties and it is quite a beautiful thing to observe. There are videos of parrots and other animals on YOUTUBE if you are interested. Smart humans have also eaten clay in order to mineralize their bodies and to pull out toxins by magnetism (negative binding to positive and dumping out by fecal route). Some humans, the unfortunate Haitians (unfortunate because like the Mexicans they are close to the USA but far from the GOD) also eat clay, as do their brothers in Africa. Adya Clarity, a mineral solution based on MICA (one of the most plentiful mineral substances on earth.) works in the same way, and its claims are not at all crazy or farfetched. Whether or not the levels of aluminum in the mica are too elevated is another question of course, but I tend to believe that the levels of aluminum spread by industrialisation are really what we should be worrying about. To combat this, grow your own organic food, don’t eat much that comes out of a package, and filter your water well. I filter mine with Adya Clarity, as well as charcoal, and other common minerals. I also drink pyrophilite clay! That should take care of those pesky government planted memes! Have a nice day!
I’d say this last sentence gave Angus away as a Poe, but I’m pretty certain no Poe would come along and re-animate a thread from 5 months ago…
In the meantime, Angus, I’m sure you can share your references found in the scientific literature for your claims.
A Poe, Composer99? An old thread? Perhaps, but I think my two cents is worth something even in an old thread as you say, since this fact (about clay) is not mentioned here at all, so…. I’m not going to do the research for you, but here is a helpful video of animals eating clay. You should thank me instead of being snarky, unless you already were aware of this information, in which case, you might say:
“Poe is right, animals (including humans) eat clay to remove toxins, and we can do the same.” Have a nice day ‘composer99’!
Oh, here’s the video ‘composer99’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PJ89Fs6DDU
Because everyone knows that YouTube videos constitute scientific evidence. They’re just like medical journals but without all that pesky proof ‘n’ shit.
Angus Martin @ 66:
Do tell. Are we referring to ‘clay’ as the term used for a particular size range (less than about 4 µm) of grains of any type? Or are we referring to a particular series of phyllosilicate minerals?
Neat trick, given how rare iron-bearing clays are. Seems like you’re just making, uh, shit up.
Err, no. “Negative to positive” would be electrical, not magnetic. Unless you use magnets to fish out other magnets, but then maybe you should stop eating nails.
I also don’t see how ingested clay could pull out toxins which already passed from your guts into your body.
Or maybe you are in Star Trek. What happens if you reverse the polarity? Or cross the beams?
Eating clay does actually work to neutralize toxins. However, and here’s the catch — it only works to neutralize toxins that are still in your gut. Clay is also useful as an antacid. (Many human societies use it for this purpose — that’s right, acid reflux is an ancient problem.) In the case of wild parrots, it enables them to exploit food sources not normally available to them. Chimpanzees in parts of Africa have learned to raid the huts of charcoal burners (they’re pretty sneaky too, sending a few in to distract the guy while the rest swoop in and make off with the loot) for pretty much the same purpose.
However, and here’s where it’s a problem for Adya Clarity — this doesn’t detoxify the animals, nor does it draw toxins out of the blood or anything ridiculous like this. It’s purely a poison control measure. In fact, if you ingest a poison, one of the first things doctors may attempt is making you swallow a lot of activated charcoal to try and soak it up, which echos what the chimps are doing. It works. But it’s not useful for detoxing a healthy person who doesn’t make a habit of eating poisonous shrubs. Personally, I think it would make more sense to stop noshing on nightshade than to start eating clay.