So Kevin Trudeau, a convicted felon, and known fraud is selling a book… and Americans are buying it in record numbers, making this charlatan even richer. Way to go folks.

Convicted U.S. felon’s ‘Cures’ tops book charts – Yahoo! News

NEW YORK (Reuters) – He went to prison for fraud and was ordered by the U.S. government to stop touting health products on infomercials, but Kevin Trudeau’s book “Natural Cures ‘They’ Don’t Want You to Know About” is a bestseller.
[…]
“This book is exploiting and misleading people who are searching for cures to serious illnesses,” said Teresa Santiago, who chairs the board. “From cover to cover, this book is a fraud,” she said, adding that a doctor quoted apparently endorsing the book died in 2001.
[…]
Sullivan said the FTC sanction barring him from making infomercials for anything but books was “extraordinary” and followed a string of previous fraud charges that were settled.

Trudeau, 42, was jailed for 22 months in the early 1990s over credit card fraud — something Trudeau dismissed as nothing more than a youthful indiscretion.

We all know the drug companies are in it for the money… but then, the same can be said for every industry in the world. Are the prices of some life-saving drugs too high for many to afford? Yep. Do the companies deserve to get paid for their work developing these drugs? Yep. Does the fact that these drugs exist at all and will oneday be commonplace and affordable excuse the short-term profits their inventors and investors will see? Umm… yep.

Alternatively, we could drive them out of business… through fear-mongering and legislation – but then where would we be? Back to using leeches and dying from simple, curable diseases?

No thanks.

Note: I have no arguments against natural-based cures, alternative medicines and treatments, and the power of the mind to aid in the healing process. I do have a problem with the concept of disregarding ‘modern’ medicine and centuries of medical knowledge in favor of alternative cures that have no basis in proven fact. Adults are welcome to subject themselves to prayer vigils and bee-sting therapy in hope of curing the uncurable, but when they interfere with others’ right to take aspirin for a headache, or prevent children from receiving proper, lifesaving medical care, they need to be dealt with harshly.