Even more surprised to see a Matt Traverso ad for 'How to reverse diabetes' on Facebook

Just spotted an advert on my Facebook page for a way to reverse diabetes. I've pointed out to Facebook that this advert (or a suspiciously similar one) has already been 'banned' in the UK - ie an adjudication was upheld against it and it must not be shown in its current form again.

In case people with diabetes are Googling to find out information about an e-book on the topic I hope they'll find this.

Save your money, the advert is full of nonsense about acids and alkalis that betrays some confused thinking about physiology as well. The person or people behind the book, Matt Traverso, has / have already had two adjudications upheld against him / them for misleading advertising about diabetes and also Alzheimer's.

This is the offending website for diabetes http://www.reverse-diabetes-today[dot]com/ (replace [dot] with a dot for link to work).

For an example of how spectacularly wrong the advert is here's a sentence that demonstrates a lack of awareness of the different ways in which Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes develop:

"If you don’t stop the attacks on your pancreas‚ you develop type 2 and eventually type 1 diabetes!"

No, Type 1 diabetes is largely an autoimmune condition. The immune system starts attacking the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin and as the cells die off the person's blood glucose levels rise. Type 2 diabetes usually begins with insulin resistance. There's plenty of insulin and sufficient cells in the pancreas to produce it but the rest of the body's organs aren't responding appropriately, so even though there's enough insulin to do the job of normalising glucose levels it's not able to do it and so glucose levels rise.

I say largely because there are obviously people whose diabetes doesn't fit neatly into these categories (some people have MODY - maturity onset diabetes of the young, or LADA - latent autoimmune diabetes in adults and there are other forms of diabetes that are also caused by a very specific genetic change).

People with Type 2 diabetes may move from managing their diabetes with diet / activity and perhaps pills to diet / activity and insulin (and possibly pills as well) - but they still have Type 2 diabetes. I'm prepared to accept that many people are confused by this (I've spoken to hundreds who are) and it's not too surprising given that diabetes used to be classified as 'insulin dependent' and 'insulin independent'. However, as far as I'm concerned this confusion is inexcusable in anyone trying to claim the status of a healthcare information provider for people with diabetes.

The website also makes some very grand claims about curing diabetes in three weeks and references as well as confusing 'normal' blood glucose levels with 'not having diabetes'. There's undoubtedly a great deal that a healthy diet can do to help glucose levels, as well as blood fats, but normal levels doesn't necessarily mean 'cure', particularly if the complications of diabetes are already underway.

It's one of those things where there's some generally sensible lifestyle advice (eat fruit and veg, move about a bit, don't survive on processed foods) that is then overlaid with some vaguely mystical nonsense that sounds sciencey, and presumably makes the advice a bit more marketable.

"Dr. Young is an American microbiologist and nutrition scientist and known as one of the top research scientists in the world. His findings are currently sending shockwaves throughout the scientific community."

This bit is rather comical given his history. Young is also an advocate of live blood analysis which appears to be a bogus diagnostic technique to help you find out how many herbal supplements you need to buy.

Here are two Advertising Standards Authority adjudications against Matt Traverso's adverts:

Matt Traverso t/a Vital Life Education
A website offering a book called "The Alzheimer's-Reversing Breakthrough" stated "Discover The Truth About Alzheimer's That Doctors And Pharmaceutical Companies Don't Want You To Know About 'At...
Date: 11 May 2011
Decision: Upheld

Matt Traverso t/a Vital Life Education Claims on a website, viewed on 13 April 2011, for a book entitled “How to reverse Diabetes”. The ad was headed "The Diabetes-Reversing BreakthroughTM Don't Even Think About Taking More...
Date: 3 August 2011
Decision: Upheld