Category Archives: Alternative medicine

Elle Macpherson refused chemotherapy after secret breast cancer diagnosis

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Supermodel says she is in remission after being diagnosed seven years ago and rejecting traditional medicine

Elle Macpherson has said she was diagnosed with breast cancer seven years ago but is now in remission despite refusing chemotherapy.

The Australian supermodel and actor, who rose to fame in the 1980s, is publishing a memoir – Elle: Life, Lessons, and Learning to Trust Yourself – in which she says she took a holistic approach to the illness, going against the advice of 32 doctors.

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Jarrad Antonovich inquest halted for potential criminal charges over death at NSW spiritual retreat

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Coroner suspends inquest into death of man who consumed ayahuasca and frog toxin kambo at the Dreaming Arts festival at Arcoora in 2021

An inquest into the death of a man after taking poison and hallucinogens has been suspended after a coroner found there could be enough evidence for charges to be laid.

Jarrad Antonovich died of a perforated oesophagus after consuming the plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca and frog-based poison kambo at the Dreaming Arts festival at Arcoora retreat in northern NSW on 16 October 2021.

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Inquest hears claim spiritual leaders conspired to mislead police about Jarrad Antonovich’s death after ‘kambo’ ritual

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Antonovich died during a six-day retreat in NSW’s northern rivers after he took a cocktail of alternative ‘medicines’

A group of spiritual leaders at a retreat in the northern rivers conspired to mislead police about the death of a man who had just taken a cocktail of alternative “medicines”, a Bryon Bay courtroom has heard.

The inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich also heard that a Brazilian religious tradition fusing Christianity with Amazonian shamanic practices – including the drinking of hallucinogenic tea ayahuasca – gained increasing sway over an Australian community known as the “Church of Ayahuasca” in the lead-up to that fatal ceremony.

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Participants at retreat where man died after ayahuasca ceremony allegedly told not to talk, NSW inquest hears

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Jarrad Antonovich died after drinking plant-based psychedelic and having frog toxin extract ‘kambo’ dabbed into burns

The ceremonial leader of a spiritual retreat in northern New South Wales at which a man died after drinking ayahuasca may have told witnesses not to talk about the fatal ceremony, a coroner has heard.

The second sitting of the inquest into the death of Jarrad Antonovich – who died after drinking the plant-based psychedelic and having the frog toxin extract “kambo” dabbed into burns in his skin – held its second hearing on Friday.

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Woolworths’ free naturopath consultations raise concerns among peak health bodies

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Exclusive: experts fear the cost-of-living crisis is forcing people to forgo evidence-based healthcare

Hundreds of free appointments with naturopaths have been booked through Woolworths subsidiary HealthyLife, as peak health bodies warn people are forgoing more expensive, evidence-based care due to the cost-of-living crisis.

In March HealthyLife launched telehealth consultations with general practitioners, dieticians, nutritionists and in-house naturopaths, alongside home delivery of pharmaceutical products through its partner SuperPharmacy.

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Alternative reality: two kambo deaths spark soul-searching in Australia’s counter-culture capital

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A fortnight of harrowing testimony at consecutive inquests shines a light on the northern rivers’ alternative therapy scene

The road into Mullumbimby beckons like a promise.

With its palm trees and buskers and its slightly raffish air, “Mullum”, as it is known, has long drawn dreamers and idealists looking for alternative ways of being. People come here to escape, to reinvent themselves, to cast away the past, to be healed.

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Blackmores subsidiary kept selling pregnancy vitamins despite hundreds of complaints, ex-employee alleges

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Whistleblower says he was instructed to tell customers the products were safe to consume, despite lack of testing evidence

A subsidiary of the supplements company Blackmores left a pregnancy multivitamin on shelves for nearly a year despite hundreds of complaints that it was contaminated with mould-like black spots, a former staff member has alleged.

In a complaint to the Therapeutic Goods Administration, Peter Ellis alleged FIT-BioCeuticals brushed aside concerns about its products, including pregnancy vitamins and vitamin D drops being used by a children’s hospital, in potential breach of quality regulations.

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Spanish couple arrested over toad-venom and ayahuasca rituals

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Pair allegedly charged €150 for ‘ancestral’ ceremonies involving psychotropic substances

Spanish police have arrested a couple over accusations they were carrying out rituals – billed online as “international ancestral medicine” – involving an array of banned substances ranging from toad venom to ayahuasca.

The couple, aged 42 and 38, allegedly ran an association that performed ceremonies involving psychotropic substances for as much as €150 (£129) a session. Weekend retreats were also on offer at a cost of up to €350 (£300).

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Ginger root and meteorite dust: the Steiner ‘Covid cures’ offered in Germany

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The movement best known for its schools is firmly entrenched within the German health sector

In a pandemic where global leaders have peddled quack treatments and miracle cures, Germany has often stood out as a shining beacon for science.

It is the country that developed the first diagnostic test to detect the coronavirus, and the first vaccine approved in the west to shield people against the disease. It is a country whose physicist chancellor told parliament she passionately believes “there are scientific findings that are real and should be followed.”

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Are crystals the new blood diamonds?

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Gwyneth loves them, Adele can’t sing without them and Kim Kardashian uses them to deal with stress. Many of us are lured by their beauty and promise of mystical powers, but are ‘healing’ crystals connecting us to the earth – or harming it?

Crystallisation is a transition from chaos to perfection; the evolution of the crystal industry has been less simple. Millions of years ago liquid rock inside the earth cooled and hardened, and this is how crystals formed at the twinkling centre of the earth. Piece by piece they’ve been mined to become the centre, too, of an international industry that hangs on their rumoured metaphysical healing properties. But recently something else has emerged from the rocks – a darker truth. Rather than connecting with the earth, those buying crystals are damaging it, fatally.

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen gifted guests black tourmaline to keep negative energies at bay

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Exclusive: US homeopaths claim ‘therapies’ prevent measles and ‘cure’ autism

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Thousands of children put on alternative therapies amid measles outbreak, potentially exposing them to life-threatening illness

Thousands of American children are being put on homeopathic alternatives to vaccination by practitioners who claim they can prevent measles and “cure” autism, the Guardian has learned.

At least 200 homeopaths in the US are practicing a controversial “therapy” known as Cease that falsely asserts that it has the power to treat and even cure autism. The acronym stands for Complete Elimination of Autistic Spectrum Expression.

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