Thursday, November 20, 2014

#1214: Renee Tocco


A.k.a. Renee Hunter

Renee Tocco is a Michigan-based chiropractor well known in the anti-vaccine movement, and signatory to the International Medical Council on Vaccination’s list of people … well, anti-vaccinationists (and, yes, IMCV is a belligerent anti-science organization). She is also the founder of Hope for Autism, another group devoted to proposing unsupported claims about the causes (and potential solutions) of the probably mythical autism epidemic. And of course the vaccines are to blame. According to Tocco there is a conspiracy going on in the medical community to protect (for rather nebulous reasons) the idea that autism has a genetic component and exonerate vaccines.

She also has the solution: “I truly believe that chiropractors, as primary health care physicians, are destined to change the world of autism.” The reason is that instead of medication, Tocco thinks, chiropractors can use woo. In particular, her woo. “Hope For Autism offers BioNutritional Care training for both chiropractic physicians and the general public. Bionutritional Care utilizes diagnostic tools and methods of testing to determine the underlying physiological causes of symptoms particular to an individual suffering with a disease or condition. These underlying physiological conditions include, but are not limited to, chronic fungal, bacterial, viral or parasitic infection, nutritional deficiency, food and inhalant allergies, heavy metal toxicity, systemic inflammation, and immune system deficiencies. Then, with a focus on natural and non-invasive treatments and modalities, an individual’s fundamental diagnoses are addressed with methods that have been shown to be effective.” Evidence for efficacy? How dare you even ask – it is “natural.” And the approach can, in a few easy steps, take care of a lot of things in one fell swoop, non-invasively, which is the hallmark of good woo.

Diagnosis: I kinda hope this entry is greeted with a yawn. There is nothing new or original here. Just the standard admixture of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and spamming.

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