Matthias Rath

Matthias Rath

typical propaganda

Matthias Rath (born 1955 in Stuttgart / Germany) is a controversial German physician, businessman, vitamin entrepreneur and politician. He is the inventor of an alternative medicine, the so called "cellular medicine" (in German: Zellularmedizin) which according to Rath allegedly "heals" severe diseases like AIDS or cancer. This doctrine can been seen as an interpretation of orthomolecular medicine (OM), which is based on the ideas of Linus Pauling.

Pauling himself has been criticised for making overbroad claims. Raths attempts to give his exaggerated claims scientific semblance are hindered by the fact that even Paulings work does not really support them.

Rath sells several products in Europe, ("micronutrients" and vitamins), which are marketed for legal reasons from the Netherlands. (see: Dr. Hittich Gesundheitsmittel)

The claims of healing properties of the cellular medicine have been shown as invalid by scientific studies. In industrial nations vitamin deficiency is very seldom a problem and would have to be diagnosed individually. Only then the actually missing vitamins should be substituted. That's especially the case for liposoluble vitamins.

Rath has put millions in advertising to portray himself as a savior of the sick and that the pharmaceutical industry (whose products he sells!) oppresses him. Some of his products must not be sold in several countries, e.g. germany, because they exceed the saftey limit for vitamins in nutritional products. They do not count as nutritional products anymore but as medical drugs and are more rigorously controlled. Also, studies that prove the effectiveness would have to be provided, a feat Rath was not able to accomplish till now.

Rath runs the "Dr. Rath Health Foundation" which was closely associated with "Health Now" Inc., and he also founded a "Dr. Rath Research Institute". In Europe, his products are sold from The Netherlands.

The case Dominik Feld

Rath with Dominik Feld

Marketing campaign

The case of the young boy Dominik Feld, who fell ill with metastatic bone tumor and died while being treated with cellular medicine was widely covered by german media. Rath had declared the cancerridden nine-year-old healed at various events as a marketing medium for the effectiveness of his vitamin pills. The parents, who believed in Rath had stopped the chemotherapy treatment of their son in May 2003, because they hoped for better healing chances with Rath's products. They started to treat him with micronutrients, the vitamin products of Dr. Rath. They took him to a clinic for alternative medicine in Tijuana, Mexico, which treats according to Rath's methods. The nine-year-old boy died on the first of November 2004.

Rath started to place commercial ads at once which claimed that the boy did not die from cancer, but from coronary failure and malpractice - Botched by the normal medicine. The autopsy of the boy found a big tumor in the breast, which had pressed on lung and heart.

Rath wrote about the death of the Dominik Feld:

"Jetzt bist du endlich frei, Dominik! Hier auf der Erde warst du gefangen, festgehalten auf einer Insel der Krebskranken. Wie Millionen Krebspatienten mit dir warst du angekettet an die Fesseln der Chemo-Medizin."

"Now you are free, Dominik, Here on earth, you were imprisoned, held on an island of the cancerafflicted. Like millions of cancer patients like you, you were chained in the shackles of the chemotherapy"

Versions of this article in other languages

• deutsch: Matthis Rath

Weblinks

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Rath
• http://www.skepdic.com/rath.html