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As winter approaches, the new H1N1 ‘flu is making lots of headlines. Ranging from the totally unsubstantiated fear-mongering to the more sophisticated and better informed, the medias’ coverage of the pandemic has done a lot to confuse the public who doesn’t seem able to distinguish between these two. One of these headlines that certainly made heavy impact here in Sweden is Dr. Annika Dahlqvist’s claim that a low-carb diet can protect against the new H1N1 influenza.

Dahlqvist, probably the most known low-carb diet proponent in Sweden, made herself known a few years ago by opposing the current nutrition trends and recommending a low-carb, high-fat diet to her patients, including diabetics. She was seriously challenged for being so outspoken and even risked her license as a medical practitioner when she was referred to the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, Socialstyrelsen. However the verdict that came out was in her favor, and Dr. Dahlqvist may now continue giving her nutrition advice to patients and the public, walking on the footsteps of the late Robert Atkins.

Being a low-carb diet proponent myself, I was certainly displeased by Dahlqvist’s statement about low-carb diet offering protection against the new ‘flu. Having seen the results of low-carb diet on myself and others, I’m pretty much convinced that this is the way out of obesity, more effective than any low-GI diet and much less troublesome than bariatric surgery. But protection against the ‘flu? Without the slightest evidence to support this claim, Dahlqvist’s statement is completely out of line. Such a profound lack of seriousness has its cost: Dr Dahlqvist is about to face Socialstyrelsen for a another round.

Much like Atkins, Dahlqvist lends her name to a series of products for weight loss, mainly books. She’s also the author of a much-visited blog. Her name and image are widely recognizable and Dahlqvist has managed to turn them into a valuable marketing asset. She has admittedly the gift of the gab and knows how to draw attention to herself - sometimes the wrong way.

Speaking of marketing and lack of seriousness, can somebody please explain what’s a doctor in her white coat, with a stethoscope laid on her shoulders, doing standing next to a cook over a kitchen stove?

Vidarkliniken, probably the most controversial health provider in Sweden, was recently granted a year’s respite by the government in order to continue selling their drugs to those who request (and can afford) them. This came amidst heated discussions about Vidarkliniken’s rôle in the Swedish health care system, and whether such medicine should be allowed to be on the market while there’s no scientific evidence to support its usefulness.

Roughly translated as “the clinic beyond”, Vidarkliniken is a private clinic situated in Järna, outside of Stockholm. They describe themselves as “Scandinavia’s only anthroposophic hospital” and offer services such as palliative care, rehabilitation, treatment of chronic anxiety, fibromyalgia etc. Their hospital pharmacy is equipped with drugs that may be accepted by mainstream medicine, or not. The latter are the so-called “anthroposophic drugs”, a legacy of the founder of Anthroposophy, the Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner.

The flagship “anthroposophic drug” is Iscador, a mistletoe extract that’s marketed as cure against cancer. Vidarkliniken is the place to go if you want access to Iscador — or fervent pro-Iscador advocacy. Iscador’s manufacturer is no other than Weleda, the company co-founded by Steiner himself back in 1921. Below is Steiner’s own testimony on mistletoe’s otherworldly properties:

There are beings whose progress is checked, who remain at a lower stage of evolution. The mistletoe, for instance, is a token of this ancient epoch. It is a survival of the parasitic plant-beings which once lived on the Earth as upon a plant. Hence its peculiar, occult properties, known to the Druids who spoke of it as the most sacred of all plants. Mistletoe is a survival from the lunar epoch of the Earth. It is parasitic because it has not learned, like other plants, to live directly upon mineral substance.

Disease is something of an analogy. It is a regression, caused by the parasitic elements in the organism. The Druids and the Skalds knew of the relation between the mistletoe and man. There is an echo of this in the legend of Baldur. The God Baldur is put to death by the mistletoe because the mistletoe is a hostile element from the preceding epoch — an element no longer united — with man. The other plants, having adapted themselves to the subsequent epoch, swore friendship to him.

Rudolf Steiner, An Esoteric Cosmology

The utter absurdity above would be laughed at by anyone with some scientific background. Nevertheless, Steiner and his adherents created a true mistletoe cult. They noted that the mistletoe bears a resemblance with cancer: Just as cancer feeds on the healthy parts of the body “as a parasite” (sic), so does mistletoe feed on its host plant. By the “doctrine of signatures”, this is a revelation of mistletoe’s purpose of existence, and what makes mistletoe a cure for cancer!

So, out of this concoction of mythology, pseudoscience and occultism emerged Iscador. A miracle drug capitalizing on mistletoe’s perceived uniqueness (as if there weren’t any other parasites in nature), “ethereal surplus” and other irrelevant nonsense. It became soon enough a prosperous industry, a source of hope for the hopeless.

Iscador has been on the market since 1926 but until now there’s no clear evidence from clinical research to demonstrate its effect on cancer patients’ survival or quality of life. This hasn’t stopped Weleda from claiming that their product does work, or the masses of desperate patients swarming to get access to this drug.

“Mistletoe therapy” is marketed as a “complementary” therapy to other, well-established cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, irradiation and surgery — it is even claimed that Iscador reduces the side effects of other cancer treatments. The manufacturer does not promote Iscador as a single therapy. Why? Because of the frightening prospect of cancer patients on Iscador denying themselves any actually useful treatment, and thus suffering devastating consequences upon their health. So the manufacturer has chosen to be on the safe side, declaring Iscador “complementary” to avoid serious legal repercussions.

It’s bad enough that quack “anthroposophic medicine” is allowed to be on the market, while “conventional medicine” has to be extensively tested through laboratory experiments and clinical trials before approval — this is obviously a case of double standards. It’s hard to imagine why an obscure sect gets more credibility than science. A self-proclaimed clairvoyant such as Steiner who just dictates his visions never has to explain how and why things work for him; on the other hand a scientist does.

It’s also criminal that there’s such a prolific industry of selling false hope to desperate people. What adds insult to injury is that Vidarkliniken and “anthroposophic medicine” are actually integrated into the Swedish health care system and receive state funding.

See also

• Anthroposophic medicine, in the “Skeptic’s Dictionary”.
• Rudolf Steiner’s Quackery, on Quackwatch
• Mistletoe therapy in oncology, by Horneber M et al.