Monday, May 20, 2013

#556: Natasha Campbell-McBride


Continuing our foray into slightly less prominent (but not necessarily less nefarious) enemies of reason and science, we present to you Natasha Campbell-McBride, a physician who is perhaps most famous for appearing in one of Joe Mercola’s videos explaining how she cured her son of autism. In her explanation, she perpetuates most of the myths concerning autism, and commits most of the fallacies associated with inductive reasoning – thus providing Mercola with another testimonial of the kind Mercola relies on. Campbell-McBride falls hard for the myth of the autism epidemic; she suggests that there is no genetic component to autism, and prefers to run with a toxins gambit instead. She’s even come up with her own syndrome: Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) (her private invention; do try to ask her about evidence), and as it turns out she has – in typical crackpot vein – developed a whole industry of dietary woo to treat it (but – of course – no trials or anything remotely suggesting that she is in any way close to correct). Her book, Gut and Psychology Syndrome Book: Natural Treatment For: Autism, ADD, ADHD Depression, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Schizophrenia, tells us how she’s apparently able to treat them all.

Yes, Campbell-McBride is another one of those woo-masters who have located The One True Source of All Disease, and on her website , Doctor-Natasha.com, you will find her claim to be able to treat anything from acne to depression to diabetes to autism to ADHD to schizophrenia to tummy pain. And in support of her hypothesis? Testimonials, of course. That, and Ancient Wisdom.

Her views on vaccines are discussed in detail here, and her diet has received some coverage here.

Diagnosis: I suppose that in order to count as a quack you have to intentionally mislead people, and it seems that Campbell-McBride believes that what she’s doing actually works. So we may have to have some discussion about labels.

12 comments:

  1. She's a PHYSICIAN?!?

    Dear Ms. Campbell-McBride: It's Hippocratic Oath, not Hypocritic oath!

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  2. Her views are based on science, reason, and certainly experience with her own child and countless others. I certainly hope you read her book and heard her speak before you criticize - you offer no science-based alternatives (to treat autism) of your own.
    Fred F.

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    1. Agree 100% - I just came across this website and am shocked. Obviously, the website owner is insane.

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    2. Exactly it is science based and from past wisdom

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    3. It's funny that you don't really see this kind of smearing websites on mainstream shit figures. You only see this kind of websites (like Rational Wiki) on alternative figures, with articles purely based on "this person is insane lul" without giving the slightest evidence or just arguments, only pure smearing and ad hominem. I guess this is what you call shills (or the fact that they often appear in the first google results).

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  3. Wow!!! Man you've been deceived by the conventional medical system. I'm sorry you don't have the ability to expand your knowledge and open your mind enough to understand this woman. She's brilliant. Have you given her protocol a shot or know someone who has? I have & it worked for my IBD.

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  4. She does recognize a genetic component, you obviously haven't read her work because that is central to it. Genes and cultural practices are both passed down leading to greater susceptibility in some individuals/families. Combine that with environmental factors such as nutritionally poor food, carb loading on GMO foods with super glutens, higher loads of toxins and chemicals, and greater use of antibiotics (creating super germs while depleting our own resources for immunity) and it really provides an excellent explanation for the disease transition seen in industrialized countries. Her work is an excellent example of evolutionary medicine!

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  5. She is not just a physician she is a neurologist, which is a specialist, whose focus of specialization is the brain. The Gaps diet is based on a diet from the 1930's developed by Dr. Sidney Valentine Haas who specialized in intestinal disorders and was that diet is called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD). This doctors Gaps diet is the "tweaked" version of the SCD diet and is highly successful in the treatment of many ailments. She doesn't profess that this diet cures everything, but most disease begins in the gut, that is a fact (so much literature). When that is not functioning optimally, many things go awry in the body. Her diet is based on real food and really the way that food was prepared before for millennia, before the crap that most eat today. She is very intelligent and for anyone who has read the material, it will make more sense about food and disease than most anything you will read around today. I have seen it help several people I know in my personal life who were very ill, become well in in a year, with just real food, no drugs. As for you having a problem with anecdotal evidence, to me it is the best kind. Who will fund food based science, when it is not patentable and can therefore make no money for any one group, ie pharmaceutical industry, etc. What good is all your peer reviewed evidence which says this and that drug works (which is funded by pharma and has serious biases you and I don't get to hear about) when the patient is dead? According to pharma, do chemo and radiation because peer reviewed evidence says its your best chance. I would rather take my chances with the cancer than their bull crap money making treatments.

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  6. My life changed when I switched to the SCD diet (similar to GAPS). I think you are too quick to dismiss something that has proven effective for many.

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  7. Are you on a break, out out of business, as most bquacks end up!

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  8. Reminds us of the deceptive Yahuda Shoenfield

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  9. Following the GAPS diet principles worked to heal my son's eczema and after doing it for a year he's thriving physically and intellectually at almost 2 years old. So that's all I care about. This Doctor promotes eating real food and cutting out processed crap so of course she is going to have her critics that are losing money because of the GAPS diet. Let people attempt to heal themselves without pharmaceutical drugs! It's THEIR body! THEIR life!

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