The Seven Deadly Spins: Part 1 - Lust

I'm calling this series of posts the Seven Deadly Spins in honor of Vani Hari and her new "advisory Council" of six. Together they add up to the seven blithering idiots who spread fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) about the world we live in. If you were to adhere to everything they say (you couldn't since they contradict each other frequently) but if you could, you'd end up living in a glass bubble subsisting on juiced kale and pumped in oxygen (pure oxygen, cause you know that nitrogen mixed in is an evil conspiracy by the airlines)

First up, I'm going to introduce Dr. Joel Kahn, integrative cardiologist and his deadly spin is lust. Now with a name like Kahn, you'd expect me to choose 'wrath' as his deadly spin because the "wrath of kahn" is a much catchier title but we're about truth here, and wrath is not something I attribute to Kahn.  Passive aggression, pride and condescension he possesses in great supply but that's attributable to many in his profession. No, his real sin is lust. Now I'm not talking about carnal lust here, I have no idea about that, nor do I want to. I'm talking about his lust for the limelight. He craves the fame, attention and wealth that his heroes like Dr Oz have been basking in and he's shown that he's willing to ditch science over his lust for it.

Because vegans don't get cancer, apparently

He calls himself many different things; America's Holistic Heart doctor, Interpreventional cardiologist, Vegan Cardiologist I just call him quackers or for fun; "Chakra Kahn". Let's start with his educational claims. He is undisputably a board certified cardiologist but he likes to tout his Summa Cum Laude graduation from University of Michigan medical school. The reality is that he entered medical school through a now defunct and then experimental program called Inteflex, that sought to fast track high school students into the medical profession by combining undergraduate and medical school into one six year program. In doing so they avoided the complicated and competitive process of being accepted into mainstream medical school. In fact, its 50 accepted students never even took the MCAT. So while Joel may have graduated summa cum laude, at most he only bested 30 some odd students, who were only required to pass courses with a 'C' average, for that title.

Now that's not enough for our boy Joel and his constant quest for edumacation. According to his website he states:

"My knowledge of heart health and healing has come to some degree from standard medical education, journals and conferences. A larger part has come from my post-graduate training at the University of South Florida in Metabolic Cardiology."

But when asked about his education in health and nutrition on twitter he responded thusly;

But according to Chakra Kahn's own words he took 'metabolic cardiology' at USF and according to USF, they don't offer a graduate degree in it, more like a one year certificate of completion. Nice try Joel but you are bending and distorting your achievements, yet again.  

It's also interesting to note that 'metabolic cardiology' is a new field invented by Dr Stephen Sinatra (integrative cardiologist, anti-aging specialist, author and anti-vaxxer) who famously writes; "most diseases result from an inadequate supply of essential nutrients, emotional blockage and environmental toxicity" and who is also a believer in earthing aka grounding. Of course he will happily lighten your wallet to sell you wootastic cures. What I find funny is that Sinatra has a page on his site to help you find the best integrative cardiologists. It must chap Kahn's hide that while he isn't listed his 'pal' Jack Wolfson is listed. I'll get back to him in a couple of minutes, I promise. It's seriously a tangled mass of webs with these hucksters - all intertwined to boost the bottom line.

Anyway, back to Chakra Kahn, whose mentors, like Sinatra are a who's who of woo list! He counts among them, the infamous Dr Oz, Dr Mark Hyman (who I will be writing about in the next post), Daniel Amen, Dr Mercola and...gack...Gabriel Cousens. Oh my, my little munchkins, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, simply slide your wallet over and don't make any fast moves.

All of these 'physicians' are violating their own code of ethics, or perhaps when you step into the woo world as a trained doctor, you trade the hippocratic oath for  the capitalistic oath, because certainly Chakra Kahn has no problem with that:

See, Kahn links to all kinds of profitable endeavors from his website. He links to the Daniel Plan, which is a faith based plan for diet and exercise that's willing to sell you all kinds of cool merch, books, CDs and links to Dr Mark Hyman, who will readily sell you the rest of the stuff, like supplements cookbooks, powders and miracle self-cure kits. In fact, you can pay up to $300.00 for supplements that support your 10 day detox so you can literally piss away 300 bucks. Kahn also has links to the Thrive store - which is an online merchant designed to give up to 20% of the cuts back to the referring site. Problem is, nowhere on Kahn's site does he have a disclaimer that tells you he gets paid to promote these affiliate products. I'm sure that the FTC as well as the AMA would frown on that practice. But hey, capitalism is the cooperation of many, right? He provides links and you provide cash, downright symbiotic.

I'm focusing on Joel, because since becoming a member of the Food Boob's advisory council, he has become her most vocal and ardent defender on twitter. Now why is that do you think? Just since he's become the boob's advisor, he's picked up a couple thousand twitter followers. You see, Vani has what he lusts for; she has fame and followers but he has something she does not; credibility. So they do a swap. Vani gets to reference a doctor - no a cardiologist,  whenever she's out in left field (which is usually) and he gets to cash in on some of her followers. Sadly for him, his credibility will be shot all to hell, what there is of it, anyway.

You see, Kahn just isn't doing as well as some of his shyster idols. They go on CNN, make big bucks on their woo and have much more brand recognition than the Chakra Kahn has. Take his pal Dr Jack Wolfson, the notorious integrative Paleo cardiologist and anti-vaxxer. See in order to up the woo quotient you just keep adding random words to your title. Wolfson is much more well known as the Paleo doctor and was much more in media demand until his disastrous CNN interview about vaccines. When Kahn was asked about the difference between the vegan cardiology theory that he pushes, and the paleo theory that Wolfson promotes (along with the requisite supplements) Kahn referred to it as 'splitting hairs'. Say wha???? They seem like opposite ends of the spectrum, but then, as Joel repeatedly reminds everyone on twitter. HE is a doctor and you are not. Funny how that science thing only counts when they are selling their brand of 'science'. I do have to wonder, however, about some of Kahn's advice.

He recommends a strict vegan diet. OK, that works for some I suppose and he even claims it's anti aging, however, if that's the case one wonders why his website photo is at least 25 years old. Is he not content with his looks on his strict diet, exercise and spiritual healing routine?

Joel's website photo, doesn't he look young and healthy?

Current photo of Joel (age 56)

He also recommends sleeping on 'grounded sheets' and believes in Earthing 

(something even Woo-Master Andrew Weil thinks is bunk).  Most recently he wrote a few paragraphs of poorly researched and even more poorly cited opinions about genetically modified foods. The citations he actually managed to include were laughable links to fraudulent studies, long ago debunked. So why put himself into this controversy? That's right, back to his deadly sin. Lust for the limelight. Help him out Food Boob, poor guy just wants to be Dr Oz before he's too old. Whoops, that ship looks to have sailed already. Sorry, buddy.

But don't ask him questions or take him to task on anything via social media because his responses are as worthless as his advice. I was told to hug someone because he deduced I had anger issues based on asking a few simple questions. Despite his PR person actually responding to my personal cancer story with a completely inappropriate remark, I'm not angry, I'm amused.

Dr Kahn's PR agency tweet in response to a cancer story

Believe it or not, she's still doing PR for a doctor who claims to teach classes in cardioncology after that brilliant response. Of course the good doctor himself told me I needed to visit Heart Math and buy an application to reset my energies or some such nonsense, also known as tooth fairy science.

Sadly, I could go on all day but it's time to get out the truth-o-meter. What say you? Well, according to Joel Kahn, in an interview he said; "the consumer is at the prey of whomever is most effective at marketing" and it's the first honest thing I've heard him say. So choke down another handful of chlorella, doc, since that's what you swear by, because we're going to call this a big fat pants on fire.

Oh and I'll save the 200 bucks you wanted me to spend on Heart Math and I'll sleep on Egyptian cotton instead of plugging in my sheets to ground them. Watch your wallet folks, the Seven Deadly Spins are out to get their hands on it!

Next time we'll talk about the Second Deadly Spin.

That's All Folks!