#772: Kent Holtorf

Kent Holtorf is an M.D. gone over to the dark side of shameless woo and crackpottery. He is a proponent of bioidentical hormones (which is dismissed as a quackery by people who care about evidence; also here)), a “chronic infection diseases” expert, a self-appointed weight-loss expert, and a practitioner of anti-aging treatments – he bills himself a board examiner for the American Board of Anti-Aging Medicine, which is, to put it mildly, not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties. He is also founder and medical director of Holtorf Medical Group, a practice of five centers that reports to specialize in the treatment and management of medical conditions and disorders including fibromyalgia, adrenal fatigue, complex endocrine dysfunction, hypothyroidism, age management, chronic fatigue syndrome, low libido, Lyme disease, migraines, PMS, perimenopause and menopause – all conditions that have a long tradition of exploitation by woo-meisters. And Holtorf does indeed promote a variety of treatments that are not generally recognized – after all, according to himself his treatments are cutting edge whereas medicine in general are at least “17 years behind”. Indeed, Holtorf is so cutting edge that he does not even need evidence that his treatments work. For the same reason he apparently feels that he can dismiss the objections from the medical establishment outright.

Holtorf is perhaps most famous for being one of Fox News’ go-to “experts” concerning the H1N1 vaccine, on which he said that “I have more concern about the vaccine than I do about the swine flu,” backed up with claims such as the vaccine being “rushed to the market” (false). He has also shown support for the thoroughly discredited idea that vaccines are causally linked to autism and developmental delay.

Diagnosis: A frighteningly influential figure, whose careless treatment of truth and evidence makes him a rather significant threat to civilization.