"Dr." Joseph Mercola is a peddler of quackery, much of it branded with his name, from which he reaps huge profits. His standard technique is to say something dangerous-sounding but untrue about a commercially available product, then offer one of his "natural" products as an alternative. For example, Mercola has written that traditional sunscreens are “loaded with toxic chemicals.” Of course, he’s got one with green tea (only $15.97 for an eight-ounce bottle). Ironically, he also sells tanning beds.

He promotes dangerous ideas under the guise of helping people "take control of their own health." Examples: some cancer can be cured with eggplant, that walking barefoot on “earthing” sheets reduces weight gain, and that taking daily doses of chlorella (which he sells) will help clear up “brain fog” by flushing heavy metals from the body.

This blog will be devoted  - perhaps with a low probability of success but with plenty of passion -to putting this huckster out of business. I will soon be retiring from my job as a science and technology journalist, and will devote as much of my free time as my mind, body, and wife will allow to this blog.

I have no financial or career interest in following this path, so I'm not a shill for "Big Pharma," the medical profession or any commercial, religious, or political entity. I like to think of myself as a critical thinker, and as a person who is dumbfounded by watching otherwise intelligent, educated adults fall for Mercola's quackery and that of others like him. I will focus on Mercola, because he is so transparent in his avarice and complete disregard for the well-being of his "followers."