Influenced to Death

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria discuss the recent changes happening at Mercola.com and the strange influencer influencing Dr. Mercola. Show notes: * Carnivore update - Paul Saladino eats some plants now* Dr. Mercola * 1.7 M followers on FB, 512K on IG, 417K followers on X* Osteopath, DO* Stopped treating patients in 2009 to focus on his brand. Net worth in 2017 over 100 million* In the past 10 yeras, he’s been covered by multiple outlets as either a quack or walking a fine line between holistic and kooky: 2012 article in Chicago Magazine - https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/February-2012/Dr-Joseph-Mercola-Visionary-or-Quack/, BRYAN SMITH* During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mercola, his company, and social media site were warned again by the FDA in 2020–2021 for falsely advertising the efficacy of high doses of vitamin C, vitamin D3, quercetin, and pterostilbene products to "mitigate, prevent, treat, diagnose, or cure" COVID-19 disease.[8* https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-24053-4 - study on vitamin D supplementation and covid* https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2023.1131103/full - vitamin D supplementation meta and systematic review* https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-21513-9 - vitamin D status and risk of severe covid* Banned from YouTube - videos taken down and * In 2023, executives of his company Mercola Market complained that JP Morgan closed their bank accounts. The financial institution indicated those accounts were terminated when they became aware of "multiple occasions of regulatory scrutiny, raising concerns about a pattern of deceptive business practices." Source: Wikipediahttps://myfloridacfo.com/docs-sf/cfo-news-libraries/news-documents/2023/chase-letter.pdf?sfvrsn=25b03a95_2 - letter from Jimmy Patronis, CFO of the state of FL, to JP Morgan* From the Chicago Mag article by Smith: “Steven Salzberg, a prominent biologist, professor, and researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, calls Mercola “the 21st-century equivalent of a snake-oil salesman.” “Mercola says that his critics are wrong on all counts. Far from dispensing dangerous misinformation or trading in conspiracy theories, as some allege, he is a champion of “taking charge of our own health,” the doctor insists—a truth teller alerting Americans to what he calls the abuses, hoaxes, and myths perpetrated by the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.”Even Dr. Oz called him controversial.According to traffic-tracking firm Quantcast, Mercola.com draws about 1.9 million unique visitors per month, each of whom returns an average of nearly ten times a month. That remarkable “stickiness” puts the site’s total visits on a par with those to the National Institutes of Health’s website. (Mercola claims his is “the world’s No. 1 natural health website,” citing figures from Alexa.com.) Mercola’s 200,000-plus “likes” on Facebook are more than double the number for WebMD. And two of his eight books—2003’s The No-Grain Diet and 2006’s The Great Bird Flu Hoax—have landed on the New York Times bestseller list.>> Mercola says he recently donated $1 million to several alternative medicine groups, including the National Vaccine Information Center, which describes itself as a “vaccine watch dog.” Part of the money, according to the group’s website, was used to pay for an ad called “Vaccines: Know the Risk,” which was shown hourly on the CBS Jumbotron in Times Square for several weeks last spring.* Newsletter from National Vaccine Information Center that outlines the issue, June 2024: https://www.nvic.org/newsletter/may-2024/defending-freedom-of-religion* Mrs. Barbara Loe-Fisher* I was proud to work side by side in a trusted partnership with him and thankful for the generous average of $300,000 per year over a span of 15 years he donated through his foundation to NVIC, which we counted on in our annual budget to help our small staff operate four websites and implement nationwide vaccine choice advocacy programs and services.12* On March 25, 2024, NVIC received an email from someone identifying herself as the new CEO of Mercola.com informing us that donations from Dr. Mercola’s Natural Health Products Research Foundation were immediately discontinued.* The only verifiable information I had about what had happened were two articles published in Natural Products Insider on Feb. 1317 and Mar. 1, 202418 informing readers that the Mercola.com company was under new management and that Dr. Mercola was now being influenced by and taking direction from a person, who refers to himself as “the Kai” and claims to be a “psychic” channeling the voice of an “ancient and wise high-vibration entity from the causal plane” called Bahlon.19 20 21* The media articles published in February and March detailed the fact that this self- identified psychic who Dr. Mercola is now consulting with had convinced him that he, Dr. Mercola, is “a god” and “the new Jesus.”22 The articles contained references to videos and descriptions of what had taken place at the Mercola.com company in early February when Dr. Mercola without warning fired top executives, including his own sister, who helped him establish and has worked at his company for 40 years.* More in a 2001 NYT article by Arthur Allen: https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/06/magazine/questions-for-barbara-loe-fisher-on-the-costs-of-vaccination.html * Barbara Loe-Fisher sued Paul Offit over a piece that was published in Wired magazine in 2009. “As the Complaint puts it, "Offit disagrees adamantly with the . . . positions taken by Plaintiff Arthur and advocated by her and by NVIC." In response to those positions, Defendant Offit is quoted in the article as saying that "`Kaflooey theories' make him crazy" and that Plaintiff "makes him particularly nuts as in `You just want to scream'" because "She lies." He goes on to say that Plaintiff "inflames people against me. And wrongly. I'm in this for the same reason she is. I care about kids. Does she think that Merck is paying me to speak about vaccines? Is that the logic?" In her Complaint, Plaintiff contends that, Defendant Offit's statement "she lies," is defamatory and that he and the Magazine Defendants have published a false statement of fact and have committed defamation per se, causing her to appear "odious, infamous, and ridiculous." Arthur v. Offit, Civil Action No. 01:09-cv-1398, 6 (E.D. Va. Mar. 10, 2010)* From Natural Products Insider, March 2024: https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/supplements/dr-mercola-allegedly-plans-to-introduce-psychic-advisor-to-followers- “In the article, Mercola described his consultations with “a collective source energy aimed at bringing self-awareness to Earth,” whom he referred to as “Bahlon.” Mercola fired CEO Steve Rye; Chief Business Officer Ryan Boland; and Chief Editor Janet Selvig, Mercola’s sister, Feb. 7, as detailed in a Natural Products Insider exclusive Feb 13.The Bahlon “entity” is claimed to be channeled by a man identifying himself as Kai Clay and who also appears to present himself as Christopher Johnson. LinkedIn profiles under both names feature photos of the same man. Hours of video of Clay consulting with Mercola as Bahlon have been shared with Natural Products Insider.”* Kai Clay/Bahlon* I can find absolutely nothing on him prior to 2020/2021. One article mentioned that he used to be a high-profile business executive, but there is nothing on this. * He claims he has been channeling Bahlon for decades. * https://www.reddit.com/r/spiritualbusiness/comments/17pisey/mondays_free_spiritual_entrepreneur_mentoring/ * Bahlon is trademarked. So is Spiritual Mind, Kai Clay’s business listed on his LinkedIn. * Brings his 8 y/o daughter Sera Clay into his events/readings/channelings - she’s part of his podcast, True Future Podcast* In this video podcast preview you can hear Kai “channeling” Bahlon, speaking the “language of light”, and Sera “translating.”* Kai Clay published a book, sold on Amazon in Nov 2023 about trance channeling, now out of print. “Channeled Insight for Manifestation: Guidance for Spiritual Conscious from Bahlon (Channeled Insight from Bahlon)”* https://bahlon.com/* https://www.instagram.com/bahlonkaiclay/ - 27k followers - not a huge following on X, hasn’t posted since 2023* You can also join his Light Circle Membership: One month $99, one year for $1000* How I Became A Trance Channel (Kai Clay’s account): * People reporting experiences of mediumship have higher dissociation symptom scores than non-mediums, but below thresholds for pathological dissociation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5782403/ * A Yale team enlisted help from mediums to help them better understand why those with psychosis hear voices: ​​https://news.yale.edu/2016/09/27/psychics-help-psychiatrists-understand-voices-psychosis * Varieties of Voice-Hearing: Psychics and the Psychosis Continuum “We found the hallucinatory experiences of psychic voice-hearers to be very similar to those of patients who were diagnosed. We employed techniques from forensic psychiatry to conclude that the psychics were not malingering. Critically, we found that this sample of non-help-seeking voice hearers were able to control the onset and offset of their voices, that they were less distressed by their voice-hearing experiences and that, the first time they admitted to voice-hearing, the reception by others was much more likely to be positive.” https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/43/1/84/2511864?login=false * Anomalous information reception by mediums: A meta-analysis of the scientific evidence“ Conclusions The results of this meta-analysis support the hypothesis that some mediums can retrieve information about deceased persons through unknown means.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32660815/ Anomalous information reception by research mediums demonstrated using a novel triple-blind protocol (Randomized Controlled Trial): This study design is pretty complicated, it was making my brain hurt while reading. The mediums in this study were communicating with deceased relatives. The results suggest that certain mediums cananomalously receive accurate information about deceased individuals. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17234565/ * Takeaways:* Who’s influencing the influencers? * How far can people go before their followers think it’s too far?* How can someone who’s not a medical professional separate the good stuff from the crap? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria welcome Brooke Cates, founder of The Bloom Method and passionate pre and postnatal fitness pioneer. They discuss the #fitmom trend and research showing that influenced postpartum fitness leaves women worse for wear. Full show notes:History of PP fitness: https://www.eternalblossombirthandbeyond.com/the-history Historical overview of pregnancy fitness, not PP fitness, but SUPER interesting to see pregnancy fitness history from the 1700s (!!!) to present: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563105/ Great blog describing #fitmom influence: https://buildnurturerestore.com/body-image-postpartum-healing-versus-getting-your-body-back/ “A novel 2022 experimental study found that women exposed to body-focused social media posts targeted at new mothers experience not only higher rates of body dissatisfaction but also cultivated an unhealthy relationship with food, resulting in eating less and feeling guilt after eating (3).“The #fitmom study: https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-022-05089-w#Tab2 “Our finding that this improvement in body dissatisfaction appeared to happen among mothers in our control group, but not for mothers in our intervention group, suggests that exposure to body-focused social media prevented intervention mothers from the progression of feeling better about their bodies as they move further from birth toward 12 months postpartum”#fitmom hashtag has 29.5 million videos on IGhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7926552/ - Recovery of Abdominal Muscle Thickness and Contractile Function in Women after Childbirth“Therefore, abdominal muscle exercises might help prevent postpartum symptoms; however, because deterioration of muscle function is significant in the first four months, careful attention should be paid to exercise intensity. The study limitation was a relatively small sample size, thus future studies should involve more participants.”Pelvic organ prolapse Strenuous physical activity, exercise, and pelvic organ prolapse: a narrative scoping reviewhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10238337/Eight prevalence studies were retrieved. Prevalence rates of symptomatic POP varied between 0 (small study within different sports) and 23% (Olympic weightlifters and powerlifters). Parity was the only factor associated with POP in most studies. There is scant knowledge of exercise and POP in the postpartum period. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com/subscribe

In part 2, Hannah & Victoria go full carnivore nerd and explore the full spectrum of evidence surrounding an all-animal food diet.What’s the evidence for carnivore?PubMed search for “carnivore diet” returned 21 results, but only a small handful are applicable to this conversation, i.e., this diet has not been thoroughly studied.* https://journals.lww.com/co-endocrinology/abstract/2020/10000/can_a_carnivore_diet_provide_all_essential.11.aspx Can a carnivore diet provide all essential nutrients? Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and ObesityBy L. Amber O’Hearn, aka @ketocarnivore on X, “Eat Meat, Not Too Little, Mostly Fat” major nutrient she reports as possible deficiency is calcium, likely due to acid loadMore on her background:https://twitter.com/ambimorph * https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34934897/ Behavioral Characteristics and Self-Reported Health Status among 2029 Adults Consuming a "Carnivore Diet" * social media survey was conducted 30 March-24 June 2020 among adults self-identifying as consuming a carnivore diet for ≥6 mo* 2029 respondents (median age: 44 y, 67% male) reported consuming a carnivore diet for 14 mo (IQR: 9-20 mo), motivated primarily by health reasons (93%)* Most common sx were GI related, but still low (3-5%)* Among a subset reporting current lipids, LDL-cholesterol was markedly elevated (172 mg/dL), whereas HDL-cholesterol (68 mg/dL) and triglycerides (68 mg/dL) were optimal. Participants with diabetes reported benefits including reductions in median [IQR] BMI (4.3 [1.4-7.2]), glycated hemoglobin (0.4% [0%-1.7%]), and diabetes medication use (84%-100%)* BSL and OHH were supported by National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases grants K23 DK119546 and R03 DK123541 to study a low-carbohydrate diet. JTM was supported by National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health training grant T32AT004094. The funders had no involvement in the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of the data. Author disclosures: Dr. David Ludwig: DSL reports royalties for books that recommend a carbohydrate-modified diet; his spouse owns a nutrition education and consulting business. All other authors report no conflicts of interest.* Carb/insulin model - obesity is caused by excess consumption of carbohydrate which then disrupts normal insulin metabolism leading to weight gain * Biggest issues were altered lipid profiles, specifically high LDL. Authors state that for those with a more extreme LDl response, meds could be considered. * Authors propose benefits could be due to eliminiaton of reactive foods/plant chemicals, (though they do state that plant compounds have proven benefits) * Calcium might be a problem * Did a great job of stating limitations* Limitations of Self-reported Health Status and Metabolic Markers among Adults Consuming a "Carnivore Diet" editorial“The authors are aware of many of the limitations of their study design and the generalizability of the results. It is also abundantly clear that higher-quality research is required to determine the carnivore diet’s long-term positive and adverse health effects. However, considering the propensity of media outlets and the lay public to misinterpret, exaggerate, and disseminate findings from scientific research, we believe caution should be exercised when discussing the study’s conclusions. In particular, discussion relating to the changes in health status and metabolic markers recorded in this study requires considerable reference to the unverifiable nature of the data.We congratulate the authors on taking the first steps towards scientifically quantifying the health effects of the carnivore diet and welcome any future, high-quality studies that may provide valuable data to fill the sparse literature on this specific eating pattern.”Ancestral:Some traditional people ate close to exclusive meat and fat diets due to what was available (Arctic), but most ancestral people ate plant foods. Katharine Milton laid this out in an editorial for AJCN in 2000…she looks rad af: https://nature.berkeley.edu/miltonlab/index.html She says, “The hunter-gatherer data used by Cordain et al. (4) came from the Ethnographic Atlas (5), a cross-cultural index compiled largely from 20th-century sources and written by ethnographers or others with disparate backgrounds, rarely interested in diet per se or trained in dietary collection techniques. By the 20th century, most hunter-gatherers had vanished; many of those who remained had been displaced to marginal environments. Some societies coded as hunter-gatherers in the Atlas probably were not exclusively hunter-gatherers or were displaced agricultural peoples. Because most of the ethnographers were male, they often did not associate with women, who typically collect and process plant resources.Finally, all the hunter-gatherers that were included in the Atlas were modern-day humans with a rich variety of social and economic patterns and were not “survivors from the primitive condition of all mankind” (6). Their wide range of dietary behaviors does not fall into one standard macronutrient pattern that contemporary humans could emulate for better health. Indeed, using data from the same Ethnographic Atlas, Lee (1) found that gathered vegetable foods were the primary source of subsistence for most of the hunter-gatherer societies he examined, whereas an emphasis on hunting occurred only in the highest latitudes.”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10702155/ Net base/acid load of ancestral diet:https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12450898/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10702160/ Anecdotal: Some people feel crazy better!Mikhaila Peterson’s video on the Lion Diet article by the Mayo Clinic: The Mayo Clinic article: https://mcpress.mayoclinic.org/nutrition-fitness/a-meat-only-diet-is-not-the-answer-examining-the-carnivore-and-lion-diets/ For reference: 44,000 people follow The Lion Diet on FB, 165K on YouTube, and many post their success stories. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com/subscribe

In part 1 of this “meaty” extravaganza 👀, Hannah and Victoria explore the history of the Carnivore diet and their biases.Be sure to listen to part 2 for the full Carnivore story.Full show notes:Definition: A carnivore, or meat-eater, is an animal or plant whose food and energy requirements are met by the consumption of animal tissues whether through hunting or scavenging.Likewise inspired by observations on an indigenous diet in St. Lucia, Dr. John Rollo in 1797 successfully treated 2 patients with diabetes with a diet consisting only of meat and fat. Rollo recommended the near-complete elimination of plant foods, a prescription that was widely adopted and empirically optimized to prolong the life of people with diabetes in the 19th century. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112440/ Meatrition.com (hahaha): The Philosophy of the Stomach; or an Exclusively Animal Diet is the Most Wholesome and Fit for Man. By Bernard Moncriff, London 1856.https://books.google.com/books?id=CG_HmgEACAAJ&pg=PP12&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=1#v=onepage&q&f=false "The most wholesome diet is that which requires the least quantity of matter to be introduced into the digestive cavity for the support of the system."“My face, from being rather shallow, became clear and youthful, my eyes serene and mirrors of happiness. It gave me unknown, or rather, forgotten pleasure, to jump over ditch and hedge, and to make those exercises which required muscular strength”."I have not felt the slightest disagreeableness arising from the bowels, either in the shape of eructations from the stomach, or obstruction, or dysentery, or of any denomination whatever. Indeed, it if was not from memory, and from books, I should not know that I had such things as a stomach and intestines. The evacuation of the bowels takes place with ease and regularity once every other day.”Clinical calorimetry: XLV. Prolonged meat diets with a study of kidney function and ketosis - 1930 - “Two normal men volunteered to live solely on meat for one year.” https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0021925818768427 Inspired by Inuit peopleScurvy wasn’t present in native pop, but when it occurred in scientists it was cured by eating raw meatAfter one year, gingivitis had disappeared in one of the men. The total acidity of the urine during the meat diet was increased to 2 or 3 times that of the acidity on mixed diets, and acetonuria was present throughout the periods of exclusive meat. Meat diet contained less calcium, but study didn’t report a deficiency.Dr. Shawn Baker “invented” the modern carnivore diet: https://carnivore.diet/dr-shawn-baker-md/ - surgeon, author, athlete, fatherThe Carnivore King, https://www.youtube.com/@ShawnBakerMD Dr. Paul Saladino (psychiatrist)(Google him if you must, we’re not giving him a backlink.)“Learn which foods are b******t.”Liver King: Brian Johnson - owns Heart and Soil supplement company with Paul Saladino.“Whole Package” male hormonal support supplement is most eye-catching; contains beef testicles, liver, blood extract:2023 article in The New Yorker by Manvir Singh titled Red Shift: Is an all meat diet what nature intended? quoting Raw Egg Nationalist (213K followers on X), who talks about soy globalism and how a low-fat veggie diet tanks testosterone. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/10/02/is-an-all-meat-diet-what-nature-intended This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, Hannah and Victoria do their best to keep an open mind as they discuss Breatharianism, aka the influencer-led trend of living on breath alone.No food.No water.Just prana.- Dunning-Kreuger effect: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10626367/ - Wiley Brooks: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2508172/How-Michelle-Pfeiffer-seduced-deadly-cult-says-live-air-alone.html, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV6Xizszik8, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkN8cmcNC6Y - Ellen Greve aka Jasmuheen: https://jasmuheen.podia.com/darkroomretreats - Ray Maor: https://raymaor.com/expand-your-consciousness-portal/retreats/ (Some retreats cost over $3000) - Audra Bear: https://www.instagram.com/audrabear/ - “Claims of anomalously long fasting: An assessment of the evidence from investigated cases”: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1550830720302032?via%3Dihub- Nirjal Upvas in Ayurveda- Inedia: Latin for “fasting”- Bigu in Taoist tradition: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5728740/, https://journals.sfu.ca/jnonlocality/public/journals/1/PREPRINTS/BiguStudy081413r.pdf - Survival into the 21st Century: https://www.amazon.com/Survival-into-21st-Century-Planetary/dp/0933278047 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit influencedtodeath.substack.com/subscribe