What gets me, is that there seems to be no controls on people being able to say things as if they are facts, when there is no proof of it, and then convince vulnerable people to part with their money, for unproven tests, and treatments, which are potentially very dangerous to people’s health, and be used as guinea pigs, to try and prove these often very unscientific theories, without the scientific evidence to say that the treatments are safe. In fact with regards to the Marshall protocol, being vitamin D deficient is proven to be very detrimental to people’s heath.
To me it seems very wrong, that anybody can come up with un replicated theories i.e. pseudo science, and be allowed to make money, and/or possibly endanger vulnerable and desperate people’s lives, and this is legal.
I am glad that Trevor Marshall has made his ideas available for anyone to try. I went on the Marshall Protocol myself for 3 months, and noticed some mild improvements; but I stopped the protocol because I wanted to test other treatments that I thought might be more promising. I may decide to give the Marshall Protocol another try at some point.
Though I do agree that Trevor Marshall and the people that work with him are jumping the gun when they state that "
L-form bacteria are the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome," given that there is no proof at all of this.
There is no data to show that L-form bacteria are even
associated with ME/CFS, let alone data that proves L-form bacteria cause ME/CFS.
Researchers are entitled to make statements such as "
we believe/suspect that L-form bacteria may be the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome" or words to that effect, because such a statement is about the beliefs and hunches that a researcher may have. All researchers have hunches and entertain beliefs, and their research efforts are guided by their beliefs.
But proving these hunches and beliefs actually requires decades of work and effort.
Most of the doctors and researchers in ME/CFS have their own particular beliefs and interests. Dr John Chia, for example, believes that enteroviruses are the cause of ME/CFS, and works hard to try to gather data to prove this belief. So far, he is doing very well. But Chia does not go around saying "
enteroviruses cause ME/CFS", even if he believes it to be the case, because he knows saying that would be jumping the gun of proper scientific proof.
Note however that Trevor Marshall is not making any money from his theories, as any patients that try his protocol do so through their own doctor, or do it by themselves. In any case, the Marshall Protocol is pretty cheap; you only need to buy the blood pressure drug Benicar in order to do the Marshall Protocol.
Also note that unproven theories are not necessarily pseudoscience; theories may even turn out to be wrong, but that does not make them pseudoscience. Though it is certainly wrong to portray an unproven theory as a fact, when there is not any proof for it.
I generally support Trevor Marshall's academic interests and theories. He is one of the few people out there that are pushing the envelope when it comes to making the medical research community more aware that many common diseases may well be underpinned by chronic microbial infection. I personally agree with this view. I think we will find that a whole raft of common diseases from Alzheimer's to cancer will turn out to be caused by microbes. Trevor Marshall is doing good work in raising awareness that microbes may be the cause of many diseases of currently unknown etiology.
Another person who has worked to bring greater awareness that microbes may be the cause of many common diseases is
Paul W Ewald.
Can’t say I have read Gerald Domingue’s work, but I find it somewhat baffling that they think that L form bacteria, have a role in Rheumatic fever, tuberculosis and syphilis, when the causes of and successful treatments for these diseases is already known.
It is not uncommon for more than one microbe to be involved in the progression of a disease. For example, while we know that HIV is the cause of AIDS, it is thought that co-infection with the virus HHV-6A can dramatically accelerates the progression of AIDS. Ref:
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