In many podcast episodes, guests have claimed to know simple solutions to health problems that they believe mainstream institutions are hiding from the public. They also often promoted their products on the podcast.
Cancer researcher Dr. Thomas Seyfried appeared on the podcast in October. He is a proponent of using the ketogenic diet, a low-carb, high-fat diet, to treat cancer.
But Professor Grimes told us doctors warned patients against diet restrictions during cancer treatment.
“You could potentially and very realistically get very, very sick and have a much worse health outcome than if you followed the recommended guidelines from your oncologists,” he said.
In the podcast, Dr. Seyfried also suggested that radiation and chemotherapy improve patients’ life expectancy by only one to two months, comparing modern cancer treatments to “medieval medicine.”
Mr. Bartlett did not respond to this statement.
Statistics from Cancer Research UK show that survival rates for cancer patients in the UK have doubled over the past 50 years. In the US, the death rate from cancer has decreased by 33% since 1990 thanks to modern treatments.
Dr. Thomas Seyfried told us he “stands by the statements he made in the interview.”
The solutions offered by these guests appeal to listeners because they feel sensible and do not have the side effects of pharmaceuticals, says Professor Heidi Larson, an expert in public trust in health care.
“But they (guests) are stressed a lot. It pushes people away from science-based medicine. They stop doing something that might have side effects, even though it might save their life.”
Cecil Simmons of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a think tank specializing in disinformation research, believes this type of content can help grow audiences.
“Baiting health content with scary titles does very well online with an algorithm that amplifies it,” she said.
