#2829: Burton Feinerman

 

We’ve covered dubious stem cell clinics several times already; it’s lucrative business since people in desperate straits are easy targets and willing to pay whatever it takes for a glimmer of (false) hope. Burton Feinerman is the owner of one such business, the Stem Cell Genetic Med Clinic. Now, Feinerman claims that “I don’t do this for money but to give hope to these people and try to help them, to give them treatments that are scientifically good,” because refraining from lying would be poor marketing; but Feinerman has also claimed to be able to treat virtually any “incurable” condition, from “advanced cancer” to “transverse myelitis” (“and more”, to cover anything he might have forgotten that a potential client might turn up suffering from) with his quackery, and there is still absolutely no convincing evidence that a stem cell treatment is able to cure or treat any of these things.

 

Feinerman is also into autism quackery; as Feinerman claims to see it, most people “now feel that some types of chemicals, toxins and vaccines are the causative agents” for autism (which would be incorrect, of course), and that people are exposed to these agent through “aluminum ingestion or absorption, lead exposure, chemicals in foods such as MSG and aspartane, mercury preservative in vaccines, reaction to measles, or pertussis in vaccines.” Oh, yes – the antivaccine crowd are sitting ducks in this game; we have no evidence that Feinerman actually believes any of this nonsense, or whether he really distinguishes what there is evidence for or (epistemic) reasons to believe from whatever can be turned into a marketing ploy. And what does he offer for autism? “Stem Cell Genetic Med approaches the treatment as a chronic inflammatory condition of the brain with immunological dysfunction” (it isn’t; and note that Feinerman doesn’t actually explicitly claim that it is), and his protocol consists of pure quackery, including “[c]helation intravenous or oral”, “[i]ntravenous infusion of glutathione and neurological supplements” and numerous expensive and unnecessary lab tests.

 

Feinerman is also the founder of something called “the Lung Institute”, which makes dubious claims of being able to treat a range of chronic lung diseases – you can read about a real scientist attending one of their infomercial seminars here. The institute claims to fix damaged lungs by (simply) injecting stem cells into your blood, which is parallel to “claiming that I could fix your broken iPhone by just injecting some metal into it” – and Feinerman is predictably careful not to use the word “cure” in his infomercials but rather relies on words like “help”. But hey: they’ve got testimonials.

 

Diagnosis: Yes, he is fully indistinguishable from a stereotypical parody of a used-car salesman. Does he believe his own bullshit? Well, it’s unclear, but natural to suspect that Burton Feinerman believes whatever could help fill his pockets if it were true; and there are plenty of potential victims out there. A horrible, horrible person.

 

Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence