Douchebag of the Week: Kevin Trudeau

This shouldn’t piss me off – I could just Google “list of scam artists”, “list of quacks”, or “list of douchebags” and hundreds of Trudeau-like characters would pop up from throughout history. I could get them all out of my system at once, then forget about it. It’s more fun to find out about these guys via my natural travels through life. Here’s the Wiki article on Trudeau, and an article about him on Salon.

Trudeau positions himself as a consumer advocate, protecting us from what “They” don’t want us to know. Those fat cats in Washington, the FDA, Big Pharm lobbyists, the Doctors’ Cabal, etc. All those bad people trying to make money off our health, or lack thereof. As quick as I am to throw around this accusation – he’s more of a cult leader. He has very enthusiastic followers who clearly follow blindly since the “cures” he hawks are total bullshit.

I took a class on “complementary and alternative medicine” (CAM) taught by a real kook who was far too willing to lend credence to folk (superstitious) medicine and repeatedly referenced the movie “What The Bleep Do We Know?” (Wiki) as representing truth. Clearly I was skeptical of her and her agenda, but there were certain arguments made that I had to agree with despite this.

Just because certain CAM methods are difficult or impossible to test via the gold standard of double-blind controlled studies, does not by itself mean the method is ineffective. Many CAM practices are focused on the individual, and therefore would be silly to test in a random sample. A similar type of test could be conducted where every person in the non-placebo group is treated individually and then aggregate success rates are measured, but that’s a different topic.

While reading about Trudeau I came across this article – “25 Ways to Spot Quacks and Vitamin Pushers” – on the website Quackwatch. The “we treat the individual” mantra is, according to them, a sign of quackery – and usually it is. I also believe that article is so skeptical it occasionally borders on wrong on the opposite side of what it argues against.

A brief look at the history of “medical doctors” as we know them and the AMA tells an interesting story of professionalism power grabs and assorted nonsense. The science behind medicine throughout history has been very shaky. This doesn’t mean we should distrust organized medicine today, but it’s worth it to be skeptical when it comes to your health. Certain types of doctors see the world through “hammer and nail” syndrome: surgeons see surgery as the answer, psychiatrists prescribe drugs. There are certain types of treatment that have very low success rates where alternate treatments (or doing nothing) might work better. I’m just going to make that claim and leave it open without source.

I also recall a rather conservative professor/expert on white-collar crime mentioning that a conservative (low-end) estimate of medical fraud (doctors overcharging, performing unnecessary tests, etc) is $100 billion a year, but probably much more. Damn whitecoats.

I’m skeptical, but I wouldn’t deny a cure that works just to fit my own beliefs. Trudeau has a history of douchebaggery, he is not a doctor. He has not discovered an herb or exercise that will cure cancer. He’s a douchebag because he pretends to be a consumer advocate while grabbing gullible dollars, and because his quack medicine keeps people from looking at real problems in the medical industry and legitimate potential in less-quacky alternatives.