Sometimes even if you don't like an entrepreneur's business style, you have to give credit to his ability to promote and sell. So it is with Joseph Mercola, a Chicago-area osteopath (a type of physician, who tends to be holistically oriented). He is one of a fast-growing number of alternative-health practitioners who seek to capitalize on concerns about the conventional health care system -- in his case relying on slick promotion, clever use of information, and scare tactics (see BW Online, 05/29/06, "Medical Guesswork").
I came across Dr. Mercola's Web site (mercola.com) while doing a Google search on raw milk -- milk that is unpasteurized and is considered by many health-care practitioners to be healthier than the pasteurized stuff. What struck me wasn't his claim that pasteurization destroys many important nutrients in milk -- many alternative-care practitioners say that -- but his requirement that I supply my e-mail address before he would send me a link to view his article.
