Dr. Quack (MD)

An interesting phenomenon in healthcare today is this:
Qualified professionals, using their degrees to make a quick buck.  A quack buck.

Take Antagolin, for example (please see my previous post):
1. Its head of research is a qualified medical doctor.  According to their website, Dr. Conrad Smith is also a screenwriter, whose scripts are wanted in Hollywood.  Lucky for you, the overweight, desperate and easily impressed public, Dr. Smith has decided to use his experiences in the USA to exploit the untapped weight-loss and diet-fad market in South Africa, by systematically corrupting the public understanding of science.  Coincidentally, no further information is given on Dr. Smith's record.  (Other than his stellar script-writing capabilities.  I wonder if his position as a supplement salesperson helps his script applications?)

This will probably have to be a different post, but the only trial ever done with Antagolin, according to their "package insert" (if one could call that referenced piece of propaganda a PI), was done in the USA (to get a patent granted, not FDA approval), and is "on record" and "helped overweight individuals lose weight".  No sample size, control group, concurrent weight loss strategies or other drugs taken are listed, because real science gets in the way of making money.

So what about the claims that it "may reduce insulin resistance"?
Oh, I see.  Is it the experimental data on Bernebine, but not your actual formulation?
Interesting.  So you didn't think that the claims you make about your formulation need to be backed up by evidence about your formulation?

Dr. Quack.  Once again: Well done, Internet!
"The doctor will see you now.  So, take off your clothes, get in the tub and lather up."

2. The CEO of the Medical Nutritional Institute is a pharmacist named Mariaan Du Plessis.
They say that "due to her strong entrepeneurial drive, she soon left corprate employment to start her own business", (and to rip people off by making unsubstantiated claims about her products).

We will need to systematically analyse the data available on MNI's products.  This is just the beginning.  It is overwhelming.  We will start with Antagolin.


I have been in contact with their staff about evidence for their products.  They keep referring me to pubmed.  Pubmed has nothing on Antagolin (but several inconclusive studies on their ingredients).  Their evidence is missing.  I suspect it does not exist.