A BBC investigation in Britain has caused a stir about a young woman who died of cancer in 2024 after refusing chemotherapy.
She was estimated to have an 80% chance of being cured by chemotherapy, but under pressure from her mother, 23-year-old Paloma Shemirani chose not to undergo it and instead chose to follow the Gerson therapy. This involves drinking the juice of 9 kilograms of fruit daily, taking various supplements, and undergoing colon cleansing with coffee or castor oil.
When Paloma Shemirani was hospitalized, her mother, Kate, began pressuring her to refuse chemotherapy. An alternative practitioner Kate knew recommended the Gerson diet. She died seven months later.
Kate Shemirani has blamed the British National Health Service for her daughter’s death. She is a former nurse who has been spreading dubious ideas on her website for years. As The Natural Nurse, she sells all kinds of quack remedies, such as apricot kernels, for health problems. Subscribers to her website pay £70 a year. Even more expensive is the twelve-week health program she offers.
During the COVID pandemic, she campaigned against vaccinations, which she claimed were part of a conspiracy to kill people. In 2021, she was struck off her nursing license for spreading misinformation about the pandemic. Several social media companies also blocked her profiles for spreading misinformation.
Pamela’s brothers exposed the scandal. According to them, their mother was obsessed with conspiracy theories and forced them on her children. One of the brothers says she once decided to turn off the Wi-Fi because it was considered dangerous, even though he himself clearly stated that he needed the internet for his studies. “That only fed the joy that she had for using her irrational system of beliefs to control(() me.”
Several health institutions warn about the dangers of the Gerson diet. There is no evidence for its effectiveness and it can dangerously weaken a patient.
“Não se deixe enganar” – in english “Do not be fooled” – is the first book published by COMCEPT, the Portuguese Skeptics Community. Written as a practical guide on how to survive in the modern world, the book covers such diverse topics as alternative therapies, anti-vax movements, psychics, ideomotor effect, ancient astronauts, conspiracy theories, science in the media, or the concept of post truth, among others.
The authors – Diana Barbosa, João Monteiro, Leonor Abrantes and Marco Filipe – not only criticize pseudoscience, but also analyze what is wrong in the scientific process, pointing solutions to correct it. In the end, to relax, they leave the suggestion of how to play the “Bingo of Pseudoscience”. The reader may find that this is a book which looks to serious subjects with a little of humor.
The book has had a good reception in the Media, and the authors have been interviewed by more than a dozen newspapers, magazines and radio programs.
‘A cancer patient nearly died from cyanide poisoning because of his burning passion for apricot kernel extract. The unidentified man, 67, consumed two teaspoons of the ‘complementary medicine’ each day, in the belief it would keep him in remission. He was also taking three tablets of Novodalin – a commercially made herbal fruit kernel supplement daily for the same reason. But his habit eventually caught up with him, a case study reveals. He was beginning to become starved of oxygen – which is how cyanide kills. Doctors found him to have 25 times above the safe limit of the toxin in his body – an amount that can have serious side effects.’
David Gorski speaking at TAM 2012. (Brian Engler CC-BY-SA 3.0).
After a recent series of controversies surrouding German cancer clinics, in which so-called Heilpraktiker (alternative therapists such as Klaus Ross who require fewer qualifications than regular physicians) are allowed to perform invasive treatments, American oncologist David Gorski (Orac) of Science-Based Medicine has extensively studied this phenomenon and published his results.
The conclusions are damning: although some ‘legitimate’ experimental drugs (like 3-BP or DCA) that might have promising future applications are being tested in these clinics, ‘German clinics often charge enormous sums of money for treatments that range from the unproven to the dubious to pure quackery’, whilst offering false hope to desperate patients around Europe. He recounts the story of British stomach cancer patient Pauline Gahan, who has put her faith and fortunes (£300,000; some of it raised publicly) in the Hallwang Clinic in Dornstetten. (more…)
Keshe foundations claims to heal cancer in an interview with local newspaper “Itromsø“.
The foundation claims to have made a machine that uses “plasma” to balance the body and therefore cure cancer. The interview was held in a local alternative fair and Keshe foundation had a stand at this fair.
In Norway, such claims are forbidden by law, and norwegian consumer authorities will investigate the foundation.
The people behind the foundation are also associated with the Magrav Power Plasma generator which claims to provide free energy and the norwegian alternative website “nyhetsspeilet”.
One can suspect that the claims are a calculated risk, because the norwegian laws are quite clear regarding such claims, but the penalty is not very severe.
