My aunt has come under the influence of a quack. I may have written about her before, but it's come up again. Rather than getting treatment for the cancer in her face from a real doctor, she's running around talking about the dangers of cellphones (which should have gone on my previous list) and seeing a naturepath (which also should have gone on my previous list) who has her drink juice instead of doing chemo. She's probably gonna die from her cancer because she's not treating it and there isn't a thing I can do about it. Worse, my dad thinks she's doing the right thing because he's gullible when it comes to "natural" products. (Mom is mostly gullible when it comes to protecting children. It's amazing how they shut off parts of their brains, but at least I understand what's doing it to her.) I have no idea why dad is emotional about this particular subject that he can't think clearly about it, but that's him. Worse still, my aunt is subjecting her mother to this nonsense. She forced her mother to go off all her medication (blood pressure and cholesterol and heart meds, and pain killers and so on) and start taking 85 vitamin pills a day. The vitamins were more expensive than the medication and my grandmother is in her 80's. She's made it this far, but going off all these heart meds, and so abruptly, is really a bad idea. My other aunt on that side of the family is an RN and is furious with her sister. And the worst thing is that is the sensible one doesn't step in, something bad could happen to my grandmother, and my now totally boondoggled aunt will just be driven deeper into the arms of her naturepath fraud.

My aunt is acting just like an evangelical. She's "seen the light" and is prosyletizing to everyone she knows about the wonders of her new-found clarity, and she's just taking everyone down with her. Crazy religion needs to be fought just as much as these crazy quacks. Does it not occur to these people that if juice had worked so well, we'd have figured it out centuries again and there would be no need for modern medicine?! I want to email my RN aunt and encourage her to be more forceful with her sister and mother.

I should have added Kevin Trudeau and his ilk to the last list, too.