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Researchers warned Tuesday that online calls to help sick people by raising funds for unsubstantiated and sometimes dangerous treatments, as well as so-called treatments, are paying millions of dollars every year, researchers said.
The study published in the Journal of the Association of American Doctors (JAMA) examined the crowdfunding activity from 2015 to 2017 and "identified more than 1,000 campaigns that raised nearly 6.8 million dollars. "
"This money is wasted at best and harmful to the worst," researchers wrote on healthaffairs.org.
The money was collected by four crowdfunding sites, including the best known, GoFundMe.
Researchers focused on homeopathic or naturopathic treatments for cancer, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (OBS) brain damage, stem cell therapies for brain and spinal cord injury, and long-term antibiotic therapy for Lyme disease. chronic.
The scope of the study was limited because it covered only these five treatments and four crowdfunding platforms.
But the dangers of such approaches are real, according to co-author, Ford Vox, doctor of the brain injury treatment program at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia.
Patients who follow naturopathic or homeopathic cancer treatments are five times more likely to die than those who undergo chemotherapy or standard treatment, according to a 2017 study from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Stem cell injections into brain and spinal cord injuries are under study, but such clinical trials are free for patients and subject to strict laws.
"It's definitely a big red flag when people say they're raising money to go on an experimental treatment with stem cells," Vox told AFP.
"They really play with fire," he said of clinics offering such experimental stem cell injections. The main risks include strokes, tumors, infections, meningitis and other painful conditions.
And for those who practice naturopathy or homeopathy for cancer, he added, "You risk dying."
But the researchers found nine practitioners, named by name, in eight countries where people intended to go.
They included "clinics in Germany and Mexico for homeopathic or naturopathic cancer treatments, a New Orleans clinic offering OTH against brain injury, and clinics in the United States, Panama, Thailand, India, China and Mexico ".
Vox said the problem began when people "read something online and were really motivated about it, outside of their doctor's advice."
The crowdfunding boom allows ordinary citizens to "really raise funds that you could not have otherwise," he said.
Homeopathy and other unfounded treatments have benefited from online calls of nearly $ 6.8 million between 2015 and 2017, according to a study published in the journal of the American Medical Association
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