#302: Gary Null

A.k.a. The Kent Hovind of alternative medicine.

Gary Null is a self-proclaimed researcher, nutritionist, herbalist, and political activist. In his medical practice he starts from the commonsensical belief that nutrition is important to health and well-being, and leaves reality from there: he rejects Western medicine and its oppressive trends, such as treating illness with medication. Medicines, you see, don’t help cure the disease, only the symptoms (that goes for everything from colds to cancer). So what should you do? Well – it’s obvious, really – you should buy foods, herbs and woo from Gary Null. And once you have embraced one kind of woo, it becomes a magnet for all the other woo as well. In 2008 Null organized a rally against vaccination in New Jersey in response to a flu vaccine mandate. 

Null is, among other things (such as a cancer denialist), a hardcore AIDS denialist. He denies that HIV is a virus that can be spread sexually and can be “treated” with harmful drugs. Rather, the common underlying conditions for the epidemic are malnutrition, unclean water, poverty, illness such as TB, malaria and dysentery, and poor lifestyle choices (yes, those darned African children and their lifestyle choices). Before he discovered AIDS denialism, Null was the main proponent of the ridiculous coffee enemas, the justification for which truly flaunted his complete medical, anatomical and physiological ignorance – as well as his insulation from evidence (but since the medical establishment is a big conspiracy anyway. Null has often pointed out that he is being followed by shadowy types, obviously agents of science-based medicine). He has also endorsed the blood type diet.

Concerning his credentials, Null claims to be a PhD. He is supposed to have received a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies from Union Institute & University (thesis: “A Study of Psychological and Physiological Effects of Caffeine on Human Health” – so that’s where it came from), which is a correspondence college. It is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, but only for the humanities. An extensive critical look at Null and his credentials can be found here.

He is also known for accusing the “medical community of suppressing alternative cancer treatments to protect the medical establishment's solid-gold cancer train.” Right.

In 2010 Null nearly died from overdosing on Vitamin D through eating his own branded “Ultimate Power Meal” twice a day. This shows that he’s not merely a fraud but actually believes his own claims, I guess. His response was to sue the company making it for him for making it exactly in accordance with his recommendations. Apparently six other people were hospitalized as well. At least Null assures us that “all his other products are fine".

Diagnosis: One of the most dangerous people alive, Null is actually taken seriously by millions of people; he has the potential of doing real harm to the world and has in fact already done so.