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Chiropractor Discovers Scientific Breakthrough After 9 Years

Vitamin A deficiencies in Africa, technology bringing us closer to quantum computing, and reports that plastic bags can be decomposed in three months, all have the topic of scientific breakthroughs in common (according to search results). If the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had its way, based on a report I blogged about nearly 9 years ago today, we may not be reading about these breakthroughs, as well as others.

By Michael Dorausch, D.C.

Vitamin A deficiencies in Africa, technology bringing us closer to quantum computing, and reports that plastic bags can be decomposed in three months, all have the topic of scientific breakthroughs in common (according to search results). If the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had its way, based on a report I blogged about nearly 9 years ago today, we may not be reading about these breakthroughs, as well as others.

Matrix ChiropracticIt was June 20, 1999, when I authored the first post announcing the beginning of a Planet Chiropractic News Service. It wasn’t much of a post by today’s standards, but it was the first official archived post announcing the service. Only days later, on Friday, June 25, 1999, there was something more right up our alley to report on. At that time, the director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection had announced the launching of a consumer education campaign, as a result of their growing concerns regarding 20 million Americans looking to the Internet for health information.

According to the article, the FTC’s consumer education program was recommending that consumers interested in gaining medical advice online begin with US Government owned web sites, that provided links to reputable sources of information. Frankly at the time, I was surprised that more people were not in an uproar over the campaign. That article became one of the driving forces that motivated me to continue moving forward, and publish fresh chiropractic news content daily. It’s been over 3825 days, and I’m happy to still be moving, and see how things have changed (or remained the same).

In the initial campaign, FDA officials reportedly recommended that consumers should stay away from sites that used phrases like “scientific breakthrough” or included impressive sounding terminology to disguise a lack of scientific proof. They also warned consumers stay away from sites that claimed the government or other groups had conspired to suppress a product. Seen any websites like that in the search indexes lately?

Fast-forward nine years later and there are about 536,000 results indexed in Google (in June 1999 Google was in its infancy, and it had just secured a round of funding from Sequoia capital and another firm) for the term: scientific breakthrough. Websites in the index include many dot-coms (such as Reuters and CNN), dot-orgs (like the International Food Policy Research Institute), newspapers (like the UK’s Independent, The Guardian, and the New York Times), news magazines (like Time), and even dot-gov domains (scroll through the search results to see which ones).

In 2008 it almost seems ludicrous that a federal entity would suggest consumers what keywords not to be using when performing searches online. Or maybe it’s not, they may still be doing so, for all I know. I honestly haven’t been paying as much attention as I had back in 1999. I’m too busy blogging about curing cancer.

planetc1.com-news @ 11:18 pm | Article ID: 1213942755

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