#2730: Doug Cutler

Andrew Cutler was one of the leading promoters of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories related to mercury toxicity in the US for a while (especially anti-amalgam pseudoscience and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories), and would have been an obvious candidate for a substantial entry had he not suddenly passed away. But Doug Cutler, though perhaps somewhat less famous than his namesake, is a comparable threat to human flourishing for reasons that are ultimately not that dissimilar.

 

Doug Cutler is a Michigan-based naturopath and, like many naturopaths, anti-vaccine activist. According to Cutler, childhood vaccination is a huge experiment with “our children as the guinea pigs”. Well, it’s not really an experiment, as Cutler imagines it, since he already knows the conclusion: that vaccines are safe and effective (they are) is “the biggest medical fraud (perpetuated by Big Pharma”. Cutler knows this based on his “intimate association with hundreds of mothers that had vaccine injured children” – i.e. any medical problem children might suffer from are vaccine-related, therefore the fact that there are many children with medical issues shows that vaccines are dangerous. Yes, he starts his reasoning with his conclusion as his premise and promptly goes on to lambast advocates for science for their “dogma/bias”. Fuck the studies and the evidence.

 

Of course, Cutler also draws upon his “training and knowledge of environmental toxins” to analyze “the actual ingredients of each vaccine, one by one”, concluding that he “could never in good conscience justify those known toxic ingredients”. Sometimes, he tries to run with the “too many too soon” gambit, as well – “10 vaccines from birth to 6 years in 1983 and 36-38 vaccines from birth to 6 years in 2010. Insane,” says Cutler without bothering to even cursorily compare his antivaccine website sources to the facts – but it really all comes down to “I am opposed to all sources of toxins therefore I am against vaccines”. Like a lot of quacks these days, Cutler is obsessed with alleged toxins – demons won’t fly with his target demographic if you use that term, but yes: that’s what he means, and this is religion; it has nothing to do with science – and his grift is fundamentally based on identifying various “toxins” that are allegedly possessing you and then sell you various regimens and life-style changes that will ostensibly exorcise them and purify your soul wallet body.

 

And Cutler is not just another conspiracy theorist with a computer and a severe case of paranoia. Cutler’s practice, Cutler Integrative Medicine, is one of the larger naturopathic practices in Michigan, and it offers a range of woo: Here you can get subjected to constitutional and colon hydrotherapy, applied kinesiology, homeopathy, Nambudripad Allergy EliminationTechnique (NAET), and TrueRife Technology (oh, yes). NAET is ostensibly a “non-invasive, drug free, natural solution to alleviate allergies of all types and intensities using a blend of selective energy balancing, testing and treatment procedures from acupuncture/acupressure, allopathy, chiropractic, nutritional, and kinesiological disciplines of medicine,” i.e. woo pinned up by your usual blend of vague goobledygook and falsehoods. And naturopaths are still seeking to be licensed in Michigan, which would give people like Doug Cutler an official stamp of approval.

 

Diagnosis: Dingbat paranoid conspiracy theorist whose advice on health is significantly worse than chance. A danger both to his immediate surroundings and to people in Michigan and the US in general – Cutler seems, in fact, to be a rather significant voice of authority in naturopathic communities in the US.