Cancer quackery and cancer scams are everywhere, and we can only endeavor to scratch the surface of a huge, multifaceted and lucrative industry based on selling useless products (marketed with a glimmer of hope) to desperate people in desperate situations; after all who wouldn’t be willing to shell out some dollars on the faintest hope of surviving a death sentence? The FDA can (also as a result of regulative constraints) similarly only hope to take action against a tiny fraction of such quacks and scammers – and probably less these days than before – but at least they got around to responding to the claims made by the Florida company Amazing Sour Sop, Inc., which was pushing products like Sour Sop Capsules, Sour Sop Tea Bags, and Sour Sop Leaves with claims like “[r]esearch has proven it to be 10,000 times stronger than the chemotherapy drug Adriamycin”. If you wondered what research they are talking about or whether real researchers woulduse the word ‘proven’ you are probably not in the target group; nor would you be if you ask ‘which studies’ in response to Amazing Sour Sop’s claim that “studies suggest [Sour Sop] to be effective in helping with prostate, lung, breast, colon and pancreatic cancers. It is also said to be used in the treatment for tumor, arthritis […] bladder infections, high blood pressure, high cholesterol […] and protection of your immune system to avoid deadly infections.” They (allegedly) also have testimonials suggesting that “it helps with infertility, impotence […] etc.”
And really, the company didn’t even bother with any degree of subtlety to avoid legal trouble. The answer to their question “Is soursop really a cure for cancer?” was an unqualified ‘yes’: “Many would be surprised to know that soursop has miraculous cancer cell killing properties, almost 10000 times stronger than Chemo.” They would indeed be surprised. Amazing Sour Sop apparently even included some of their nonsense claims on their products. The FDA was not impressed.
Now, Amazing Sour Sop was not the kind of company that was particularly forthcoming about the people or organization behind its website, but FDA addressed their complaints to the author of the blog “Health Benefits Of Sour Sop amazingsoursop.com”, Dennis Grant, so we file it under him.
Diagnosis: We tend to go for the conclusion that promoters of ridiculous pseudoscience and quackery are themselves true believers. It’s not always obviously the most accurate conclusion to draw.
Hat-tip: Respectful Insolence
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