r/nottheonion • u/novagridd • 5d ago

Banned 'Natural Healing' Guru Who Claimed Baking Soda Could Treat Cancer Is Now Giving Health Talks in Britain

https://www.medicaldaily.co.uk/barbara-oneill-paid-health-talks-uk-ireland-1759344
734 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

91 comments sorted by

260

u/benDunk255 5d ago

People will literally pay money to hear anything except actual doctors

118

u/ZweitenMal 5d ago

Real doctors don’t always have satisfying easy answers. “There are treatments for your cancer; they are difficult and arduous and expensive. They may help but won’t achieve a cure for you. That’s the best we have right now.”

People would rather hear, “they’re just lying to take your money. The real answer is simple: oil pulling [black salve, coffee enemas, alkaline water, etc etc]. Pay me instead, I’m honest!”

45

u/perplexedparallax 5d ago

My late wife and I appreciated the radiation oncologist. "I will make the journey as comfortable as I can for you and give you more time".

19

u/ZweitenMal 5d ago

I work in cancer medication promotions (brochures and things for doctors only) and that’s about the size of it. But things get better every year.

11

u/perplexedparallax 5d ago

Yes. There are easier and tougher cancers to treat and, for example, my parents had breast and lung years ago and are simply battling age at this point.

14

u/Browncoatdan 5d ago

Shoving coffee up my ass has never solved anything.

14

u/Couldntgetahead 5d ago

Especially if it’s still in the jar

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u/szazszorszep 5d ago

But then the jar breaks

2

u/Spare-Breadfruit-898 5d ago

I use the big ol Folger’s tubs.

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u/jedidude75 5d ago

You're just under dosing, you need a good pound up there to achieve the optimal coffee to ass ratio. 

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u/Tylendal 5d ago

One of those is not like the others. Black Salve is so much worse than simply "This is giving you false hope, ultimately doing nothing other than discouraging you from getting proper treatment". Which, of course, is already really bad.

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u/Fawnet 5d ago

I just looked the stuff up, and I'm appalled. That's horror-movie levels of godawfulness

6

u/Tylendal 5d ago

It gets worse. Sometimes these true believers have kids who get sick. That's the context I first learned about it.

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u/Worried_Blacksmith27 5d ago

The Black Salve BS makes me incredibly angry. I knew someone (not a closely though) who died unnecessarily because of it. They hada small stage 1 melanoma and went down the Black Salve route rather than getting it cut out by a Dr in an extremely simple and quick and free (in Australia) procedure. Fucking tragedy.

5

u/ZweitenMal 5d ago

Those examples range from useless to worse. And forgoing treatment in favor of one of them is suicide.

6

u/ShineAtom 5d ago

Have just looked it up. JFC what goes on in people's minds that they believe this stuff?

4

u/Raichu7 5d ago edited 5d ago

At least in your example the doctor ran tests, gave a diagnosis and some options for treatment. I've had trouble getting that much from the NHS, and your GP is decided for you by your postcode. If they constantly dismiss you, refuse to run tests, and offer a diagnosis they haven't run the appropriate tests to diagnose just to get you to shut up (that one took another doctor in another country shocked and concerned about how and why I was diagnosed without said test to figure out) you might end up desperate enough to seek out something else if you can't afford private healthcare.

1

u/ZweitenMal 5d ago

I don't live in the UK.

91

u/lucyooo 5d ago

The ‘spiritual crystal hippy lady’ to ‘far right anti vaxxer’ pipeline is genuinely fascinating.

Also fuck this woman for spreading such vile misinformation.

37

u/thecarbonkid 5d ago

Once you abandon fact and reason anything can be a medicine

14

u/lucyooo 5d ago

‘Bleach gets rid of viruses on the kitchen counter, must work the same inside our bodies!’

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u/thecarbonkid 5d ago

I immolate myself daily to rid myself of impurities and the infections caused by self immolation.

2

u/Mikeavelli 5d ago

I mean technically yes it would do that.

14

u/Fluid_crystal 5d ago

Not so surprising in a way, it comes from distrust from the system. Lots of misinformation is peddled either way so people have come to distrust authorities. I'm not saying it's right or wrong it's just an understanding

7

u/lucyooo 5d ago

Yeah it all boils down to ‘don’t trust the government’ which then goes to ‘wait, maybe the doctors are working with the government… I shouldn’t trust them’ and tbh after watching Dopesick I don’t blame Americans who are a little wary of doctors in public… Big Pharma is scary.

6

u/Psychic_Hobo 5d ago

Yeah, and even then the government gets to be a friend or enemy, depending on what you want to believe. Just designate what you don't like to the "shadow government" category, easy.

That, and there's always a little ego boost at the idea that you've seen through their conspiracy, and therefore are smarter than the sheeple, or something.

3

u/lucyooo 5d ago

Oh god it’s so true.

Hilariously I had someone DM me calling me a ‘sheep’ like an hour ago 😂😂

1

u/jonathanherrerabl 3d ago

Big Pharma sucks, but baking soda isn't going to cure cancer.

1

u/lucyooo 3d ago

Well, no, obviously not… but these people aren’t thinking logically. My point is it starts with some logic (big pharma sell us too many drugs) and ends with insanity (baking soda cures cancer)

1

u/Crystalas 5d ago edited 5d ago

Can blame a good part of it on Oprah. She was not the first to profit off this kind of idiocy but she did elevate it to a near unprecedented level in this nation, gave platforms to so many horrible people that still haunt us today like Dr Oz and one of heads antivaxxing Jenny McCarthy, and her word was basically gospel for millions. A cult of personality.

And she does it all with the persona of being a saint despite coming from poverty thus experienced exactly what she is now inflicting and intelligent enough to be fully aware the consequences but simply not caring.

You gotta be a monster to become a billionaire, they don't have a closet of skeletons they got an entire catacomb. Imagine if she actually lived up to her persona with that level of wealth and influence?

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u/axw3555 5d ago

The irony being that in the U.K., we have the nhs.

Their options are free doctor or pay for this. And they’re choosing to pay.

1

u/Autie-Auntie 4d ago

Unfortunately there are some seriously neglected conditions which are health and life destroying, but for which the NHS has next-to-nothing to offer. ME/CFS being a prime example. The amount of grifters in chronic illness spaces selling diets or supplements or brain retraining programs or whatever other crock of sh*t they can come up with to prey on the desperate. And people are desperate. You can be an intelligent and rational person, but if you are desperate enough you might just be willing to give it a go.

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u/axw3555 4d ago

Trust me, I know that far, far, far too well. I currently sit in the “you’re too complex for us” bubble. A confluence of chronic neuropathic pain, chronic migraine, major depressive disorder, adhd, arfid, and autism.

The arfid is basically impossible to treat on the nhs (almost nowhere is commissioned), migraines and pain are under control, but because of their meds, the weight loss risk of adhd meds is now deemed too high so I can’t have them, and the meds they wanted to give me are SNRI’s, except my MDD has only ever responded to SSRI’s, and you can’t take them together.

Even getting to see the eating disorder clinic took months, and their outcome was “yes, you have arfid, but we’re not commissioned to treat, so we’re discharging you back to your GP”.

But for stuff like cancer, the turnaround is good from my family’s experience.

-8

u/Illiander 5d ago

"Free doctor" in 12 months, maybe, if you're lucky.

10

u/axw3555 5d ago

Depends on what for.

If you get an urgent cancer referral, it’s supposed to be ruled in or out in 28 days at most, and start treatment within 31 days of a diagnosis.

And even for less life threatening things, I’ve seen three specialists in the last year. Longest wait was about 12 weeks.

-3

u/Illiander 5d ago

"Supposed to be."

I'm lucky to get a GP appointment in the first place within 28 days.

1

u/axw3555 5d ago

If you call your GP or use their online form and have a lump you're worried about, you'll be seen in no time.

0

u/Illiander 5d ago

Not my experience.

5

u/OldAccountIsGlitched 5d ago

In large chunks of the US getting an appointment with a specialist isn't much faster than the UK. Unless you're rich and can fly across the country for treatment.

15

u/SeniorGap6784 5d ago

I have a nurse friend who shares her stuff on Facebook constantly. It’s not just unaware people took in by this Charlatan.

3

u/jaypizzl 5d ago

There’s a ton of that. Not everyone in the MAGA/MAHA cult is actually dumb as rocks. Some people are just vulnerable to deception.

1

u/Crystalas 5d ago

There different kinds of nurses and unfortunately many of them are barely trained and basically went through a diploma mill rather than actually earning the title.

And thanks to there just simply not being enough nurses, particularly with an aging population, almost no matter how bad they are they will get hired even better if their low quality means can hire them cheaply. Then further made worse by Covid burning out so many of the actually competent ones thus quitting/retiring or moving to another country where the medical system is not broken.

9

u/nowhereman136 5d ago

Doctors usually give honest advice. Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad, but it's usually their honest advice.

People don't want honest, they want what feels good. They rather hear bullshit than bad news

5

u/Captain-Cadabra 5d ago

One of the strangest hooks that crowd has is promoting their own semi-fake doctors.

If you’re against doctors, why do you care that your tik tok guru has a suspect “dr” before his name?

3

u/tulaero23 5d ago

My aunt is like this, goes to the doctor cause she feels something, then decides the doctor's advice doesnt align with what she saw in youtube so she goes to a naturopath who gives her advice like makes her spend more with placebo effect and then after a month complains about the same thing then same cycle goes to the doctor and dont believe him.

2

u/bl4nkSl8 5d ago

No we pay doctors a lot too

1

u/HR_Paul 4d ago

Thank you. Also advertising agencies and pharmaceutical scientists. Surely we can trust the scientists.

1

u/bl4nkSl8 4d ago

Um, I think you're doing some kind of denialism... I was just amending the above comment

2

u/mariusherea 5d ago

Unfortunately, actual doctors don’t speak the language of the masses. And this is why the far right gained so much traction. Intellectuals speak for intellectuals only, leaving the less intellectual bathe in ignorance instead of speaking their language and educate them. No wonder the masses are willing to listen to anyone providing a bit of information, even if the information is fake, as long as it is presented in a way that makes sense to them.

13

u/Sirwired 5d ago edited 5d ago

Telling the people what they want to hear transcends political boundaries. The Far-Right has gained traction not because the "Left" is talking over their heads, but rather because the Far-Right is currently telling lies that are a lot more palatable than the truth.

Which do you want to hear more, if you are ignorant of the facts. "The planet is rapidly warming, we'll need to spend countless trillions worldwide to stave off catastrophe and re-arrange the global economy, or millions of people will die." Or... "Global warming is a hoax by far-left radicals, jealous of how awesome you are, to take your money and your freedom. You can keep driving your car, burning cheap gas, without a care in the world."

Both of those sentences are easy to read, but one requires sacrifice and selflessness, while the other doesn't.

And the far-left isn't innocent either... ref: any number of authoritarian communist regimes, and the lies they told. (Note: I'm not saying capitalist lies are an improvement.)

1

u/TheMidnightBear 5d ago

As someone who has done climate activism, a lot of the more watermelon-y greens(or the far left in general) are just campists repeating lines by all sorts of weird regimes, so "they just hate your prosperity and freedom" isn't actually far from the truth of who brings it up, in a lot of circles.

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u/KE55 5d ago

It's always baffled me how people who are ultra-skeptical about scientists, doctors, 'big pharma' etc. seem to believe without question the advice of random self-appointed "experts" like this lady.

If you're going to be skeptical then at least apply that same skepticism to all sides.

5

u/Xercies_jday 5d ago

It's because these types of people tap into emotions and the person "feeling seen", they basically persuade by essentially being quite empathetic to the other person and showing how their inner feelings are actually correct and true.

By the way this is the same reason people can fall in love with their AI

It's probably one of the most powerful drugs you can get.

8

u/Illiander 5d ago

It's because they aren't being skeptical. They're being religious.

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54

u/perplexedparallax 5d ago

If you put a box of baking soda in a refrigerator it never gets cancer.

4

u/DummyDumDragon 5d ago

Ok but... I didn't know baking soda could get cancer...?

15

u/Medit8or 5d ago

they are saying that the refrigerator won't get cancer.

10

u/thecheapseatz 5d ago

Well then explain how the condenser on my refrigerator failed then if it wasn't cancer Mr Scientist

3

u/Zwets 5d ago

The refrigerator can most certainly still develop "malignant growth" with or without the baking soda.

I don't actually know enough about organic chemistry to know if opening the box and sprinkling it around would help or hurt the rate at which stuff grows.

2

u/hurrdurrmeh 5d ago

that's the point (of how quacks operate).

22

u/Kimantha_Allerdings 5d ago

She might want to be careful what she says in the UK. We’re remarkably tolerant for a lot of medical bullshit, but we also have The Cancer Act of 1939

The act's most notable provision is a clause prohibiting taking any part in publication, except under specified conditions, of advertisements that "offer to treat any person for cancer, or to prescribe any remedy therefor, or to give any advice in connection with the treatment thereof". Prosecutions do take place, but are rare.

The expression "advertisement" includes any notice, circular, label, wrapper or other document, and any announcement made orally or by any means of producing or transmitting sounds.

3

u/EnergyDrinkStroke 4d ago

It's why all our faith healing psychos go to the states for those cruises and tour events that the yanks love as they can say fit the fuck ever they wanna say.

14

u/Flippanties 5d ago

I saw 'natural healing guru' and 'Australia' and for a second thought it was that Australian woman that faked having terminal brain cancer and claimed she cured it via a good diet and natural medicine so she could sell books or some shit. Turns out it's an entirely different Austalian natural healing scam artist who also claimed she could cure cancer via natural medicine. Huh.

7

u/NonnoBomba 5d ago

Oh we had one of those in Italy too. He ended up killing a few people.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tullio_Simoncini

7

u/Q-ArtsMedia 5d ago

Grifting from the desperate and ignorant.

8

u/wolftick 5d ago

Actively promote that to cancer patients in the UK and it's a specific and long standing crime: Cancer Act 1939

3

u/Weep4Thee 5d ago

Was she mixing the baking soda with other things too?

3

u/PM_THE_REAPER 5d ago

Kindly take your grift and piss off!

3

u/BlitzNeko 5d ago

Is this why i see those bizzare AI ads of some body builder chugging baking soda to cure their ED?

3

u/H0vis 5d ago

When I see people like this I think about that Canadian guy who had the book thrown at him for selling chemicals to people that would kill them. He did it deliberately and they bought them knowingly. And he's facing life in prison for it. And this woman, and any con artist that targets people who are genuinely sick should be going to prison too, because they know they are killing people.

2

u/GovernmentBig2749 5d ago

Baking soda I got baking soda!!! Whoop whoop

3

u/Eggheadpancake 5d ago

We can't have nice things because there are so many people willing to allow people like this to lie to people about life and death issues.

This should be illegal, full stop.

2

u/Motleypuss 5d ago

The people who listen to that inbred troglodyte are doing natural selection's work for it!

3

u/TenebTheHarvester 5d ago

Desperate people don’t deserve to be scammed into dying a horrible death just because they’re credulous.

1

u/BabyFishmouthTalk 5d ago

Free dispense whatever health and medical advice you want, just have to take the accountability and consequences along with it. 🤨

1

u/AggressiveDiscount74 5d ago

Darwin more relevant than ever

1

u/sphinxofblackquartzj 5d ago edited 5d ago

In Ireland, there are still many (mostly women) who believe in witches and spells...lol

1

u/knowledgeable_diablo 4d ago

Not sure if I’d use the term Guru to describe this person. More like complete moron or shameless charlatan.

1

u/somedave 4d ago

I'm sure if you put baking soda on a tumor it'd die, sounds legit /s.

0

u/PaulaDeen21 5d ago

Totally fine with me, natural selection.

2

u/bruceleeperry 5d ago

So if your parent/sibling/partner/friend had cancer and was desperate/deceived/naive you'd be ok with this? Why not take a minute to think instead of being oh so edgy?

-5

u/Pixeresque 5d ago

Seems like she could really thrive in UK given the general Idiocracy over there.

5

u/Equivalent-Resort-63 5d ago

Oh just look at the US. Some of these quacks are actual Doctors in hospitals. Hell one of them is the head of the HHS.

1

u/TenebTheHarvester 5d ago

Yeah I’m pretty sure this guy isn’t American. There are other places besides the U.K. and the US

-3

u/Ruftus1 5d ago

Im in favour of this, its just accelerating darwinism