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| Claims | "Helping people, help themselves" |
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The Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI) is a nonprofit organization in West Palm Beach, Florida, USA, originally co-founded in 1956 in Stoneham, Massachusetts, by Lithuanian-born Viktoras Kulvinskas and Ann Wigmore. [1]
Hippocrates Health Institute focuses on alternative therapies and plant-based nutrition, to promote health and well-being through holistic approaches. The institute offers wellness programs centered on raw vegan diets, nutritional counseling, and lifestyle education. [2] [3]
In 2015, the Florida Department of Health issued cease-and-desist orders against the institute co-directors for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. [4] [5] The Florida Department of Health later formally informed Hippocrates Health Institute that it has subsequently withdrawn and dismissed the cease-and-desist orders due to lack of sufficient evidence. [6] [7] [8]
HHI is regarded as controversial for supposedly treating serious illnesses with unproven natural methods that lack scientific validation. [9] [10] Additionally, former staff members have filed lawsuits against the institute, alleging wrongful termination after raising concerns about ethical issues in patient care. [11] [12]
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Amygdalin is a naturally occurring chemical compound found in many plants, most notably in the seeds of apricots, bitter almonds, apples, peaches, cherries and plums, and in the roots of manioc.
Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called blasts or leukemia cells. Symptoms may include bleeding and bruising, bone pain, fatigue, fever, and an increased risk of infections. These symptoms occur due to a lack of normal blood cells. Diagnosis is typically made by blood tests or bone marrow biopsy.
Food Not Bombs (FNB) is a loose-knit group of independent collectives, sharing free, usually vegan and vegetarian food with others. The group believes that corporate and government priorities are skewed to allow hunger to persist in the midst of abundance. To demonstrate this, FNB serves surplus food gathered from grocery stores, bakeries and markets which would otherwise go to waste, or occasionally has already been thrown away. The group exhibits a form of franchise activism.
Serenoa repens, commonly known as saw palmetto, is a small palm, growing to a maximum height around 200–300 cm (6.6–9.8 ft).
Raw foodism, also known as rawism or a raw food diet, is the dietary practice of eating only or mostly food that is uncooked and unprocessed. Depending on the philosophy, or type of lifestyle and results desired, raw food diets may include a selection of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish, meat, and dairy products. The diet may also include simply processed foods, such as various types of sprouted seeds, cheese, and fermented foods such as yogurts, kefir, kombucha, or sauerkraut, but generally not foods that have been pasteurized, homogenized, or produced with the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, solvents, and food additives.
Quackwatch is a United States–based website, self-described as a "network of people" founded by Stephen Barrett, which aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and to focus on "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere". Since 1996 it has operated the alternative medicine watchdog website quackwatch.org, which advises the public on unproven or ineffective alternative medical remedies. The site contains articles and other information criticizing many forms of alternative medicine.
The Burzynski Clinic is a clinic selling an unproven cancer treatment, which has been characterized as harmful quackery. It was founded in 1976 and is located in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It offers a form of chemotherapy originally called "antineoplaston therapy" devised by the clinic's founder Stanislaw Burzynski in the 1970s. Antineoplaston is Burzynski's term for a group of urine-derived peptides, peptide derivatives, and mixtures. There is no accepted scientific evidence of benefit from antineoplaston combinations for various diseases, and the Clinic's claimed successes have not been replicated by independent researchers. The therapy has been rebranded in various ways over the years to mirror fashions in medicine, for example as a kind of "immunotherapy". The therapy is administered through the ruse of running a large numbers of clinical trials, which long-time Burzynski lawyer Richard Jaffe has described as "a joke".
Max Gerson was a German-born American physician who developed the Gerson therapy, a dietary-based alternative cancer treatment that he claimed could cure cancer and most chronic, degenerative diseases. Gerson therapy involves a plant-based diet with coffee enemas, ozone enemas, dietary supplements and raw calf liver extract, the latter was discontinued in the 1980s after patients were hospitalized for bacterial infections.
Alkaline diet describes a group of loosely related diets based on the misconception that different types of food can have an effect on the pH balance of the body. It originated from the acid ash hypothesis, which primarily related to osteoporosis research. Proponents of the diet believe that certain foods can affect the acidity (pH) of the body and that the change in pH can therefore be used to treat or prevent disease. However, their claims are false, and there is no evidence supporting the claimed mechanisms of this diet, which is not recommended by dietitians or other health professionals.
Ann Wigmore was a Lithuanian–American holistic health practitioner, naturopath and raw food advocate.
City of Hope is a private, non-profit clinical research center, hospital and graduate school located in Duarte, California, United States. The center's main campus resides on 110 acres (45 ha) of land adjacent to the boundaries of Duarte and Irwindale, with a network of clinical practice locations throughout Southern California, satellite offices in Monrovia and Irwindale, and regional fundraising offices throughout the United States.
Crazy Sexy Cancer is a documentary film created by actress and photographer Kris Carr. The film premiered on March 11, 2007, at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival, and had its US television premiere on August 29, 2007, on TLC. The film was edited by Pagan Harleman and Brian Fassett. The music was composed by Matthew Puckett.
Nicholas James Gonzalez was a New York–based physician known for developing the Gonzalez regimen, an alternative cancer treatment. Gonzalez's treatments are based on the belief that pancreatic enzymes are the body's main defense against cancer and can be used as a cancer treatment. His methods have been generally rejected by the medical community. and he has been characterized as a quack and fraud by other doctors and health fraud watchdog groups. In 1994 Gonzalez was reprimanded and placed on two years' probation by the New York State Medical Board for "departing from accepted practice".
Vesanto Melina is a Canadian Registered Dietitian and co-author of books that have become classics in the field of vegetarian, vegan, and raw foods nutrition, have sold almost a million copies in English and are in nine additional languages. She has presented talks and workshops on various aspects of vegetarian, vegan and raw foods and nutrition for dietitians, health professionals, and vegetarian associations in 17 American states and 9 Canadian provinces, and in 10 countries as well as Iceland and Costa Rica.
Ponatinib, sold under the brand name Iclusig, is a medication used for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia and Philadelphia chromosome–positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia. It was developed by Ariad Pharmaceuticals. It is a multi-targeted tyrosine-kinase inhibitor. Some forms of chronic myeloid leukemia, those that have the T315I mutation, are resistant to current therapies such as imatinib. Ponatinib has been designed to be effective against these types of tumors.
The history of cancer describes the development of the field of oncology and its role in the history of medicine.
Grape therapy or grape diet, also known as ampelotherapy, is a diet that involves heavy consumption of grapes, including seeds, and parts of the vine, including leaves, that is a form of alternative medicine. The concept was developed in 19th-century Germany in spas such as Bad Duerkheim and Merano. The concept has no scientific basis and is regarded as quackery by scientific institutions like the American Cancer Society.
Vaidya Balendu Prakash is an Indian Ayurveda practitioner. He is a former physician to the President of India and the founder of Paadav, a specialty Ayurvedic hospital in Dehradun. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1999.
David "Avocado" Wolfe is an American author and conspiracy theorist. He promotes a variety of pseudoscientific ideas such as raw foodism, alternative medicine, and anti-vaccine sentiment. He has been described as "[o]ne of Facebook's most ubiquitous public figures" as well as an "internationally renowned conspiracy theorist" and a "huckster".
Baptist Health South Florida is a faith-based not-for-profit healthcare organization and clinical care network in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties. Baptist Health has 11 hospitals and in excess of 100 physician practices and outpatient facilities.