Quackwatch - Site Content

Site Content

The Quackwatch website contains many essays and white papers, intended for the non-specialist consumer, written by Barrett and other writers. The articles discuss health-related products, treatments, enterprises, and providers that Quackwatch deems to be misleading, fraudulent, and/or ineffective. Also included are links to article sources and both internal and external resources for further study.

The site is especially critical of products, services, and theories that it considers questionable, dubious, and/or dangerous, including:

The website also criticizes some practices, such as caloric restriction and the Dean Ornish program, because they are considered to be too difficult for many people to follow, not because they are ineffective; indeed, Quackwatch states that Dr. Ornish's program has been scientifically proven to work. It also argues against resveratrol, which it deems to have inadequate research backing.

The website provides information about specific people who perform, market, and advocate therapies it considers dubious, including in many cases details of convictions for past marketing fraud. It maintains lists of sources, individuals, and groups it considers questionable and non-recommendable. Its lists include two-time Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling (whose claims about mega-doses of vitamin C are criticized), the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), and integrative medicine proponent Andrew Weil.

The site is part of a network of related sites, including Homeowatch (on homeopathy), Credential Watch (devoted to exposing degree mills), Chirobase (specifically devoted to chiropractic), and MLM Watch (conceived as a skeptic’s guide to multi-level marketing), each devoted to specific topics. Quackwatch.org's articles are reviewed by advisors upon request. The site is developed with the assistance from a worldwide network of volunteers and expert advisors. Many of its articles cite peer-reviewed research and are thoroughly footnoted with several links to references. The site's search engine helps retrieve specific articles. A review in Running & FitNews stated the site "also provides links to hundreds of trusted health sites." The site focuses on combating health-related frauds, myths, fads, and fallacies that is hard to find elsewhere.

The site is available in German, French, and Portuguese, as well as via several mirrors, including www.quack-watch.org and www.quackwatch.com.