Quack Alert: Political Hack, Medical Quack- Glenn Beck says he has adrenal fatigue. Endocrinologists beg to differ.

I’ve never met Glenn Beck, nor listened to him for more than a few minutes at a time. In fact, I didn’t realize Beck was still working until a Slate colleague sent me an article about his health revelation. As a fellow human, I’m genuinely pleased that his health has improved, but I’m very concerned about the story he’s telling.

Let’s start with one of Beck’s diagnoses—adrenal fatigue. You have two thumb-sized adrenal glands sitting atop your kidneys. They produce many of the hormones you know by name, including testosterone and adrenaline. Like any other part of your body, the adrenal glands can malfunction. The accepted scientific term for most of these problems is “adrenal insufficiency.” The autoimmune system, for example, sometimes attacks the glands, suppressing production of cortisol. The result is Addison’s disease, which can cause muscle fatigue, weight loss, nausea, and a host of other symptoms. Acute cases can be fatal, especially in young people.

Adrenal insufficiency, however, must be kept separate from adrenal fatigue. Immunologist James Wilson coined the latter term in 1998 to describe a syndrome caused by prolonged stress overburdening the adrenal glands. The symptoms supposedly include extreme fatigue, a general sense of unwellness, and what Wilson calls “gray” feelings.

Wilson is prone to overstatement. He boasts of three doctoral degrees, but two of them are in the scientifically dubious fields of chiropractic and naturopathic medicine. He claims that adrenal fatigue affects millions of people around the world, but provides no credible data to support that statement.

Wilson also says his book on adrenal fatigue has been “received enthusiastically by physicians.” Not exactly. The Endocrine Society—the world’s largest association of people with formal, legitimate training in the treatment of adrenal disorders—says that adrenal fatigue is “not a real medical condition.” The group goes on to say that the diagnostic tests are “not based on scientific facts or supported by good scientific studies,” and that some of the supplements prescribed for the disorder, which include extracts of human glands, have not been adequately tested for safety. The statement concludes by urging patients “not to waste precious time accepting an unproven diagnosis.” Endocrinologists apparently do not beat around the bush.

Robert Vigersky, a past president of the Endocrine Society, says that the adrenal glands perform in precisely the opposite manner that Wilson suggests: “When you’re under stress, the adrenal glands increase output of cortisol and related hormones, and they don’t fatigue. They continue to produce those stress hormones.”

The clinic that diagnosed and treated Glenn Beck also deserves a mention. The Carrick Brain Centers were founded by “chiropractic neurologist” Ted Carrick, who, like James Wilson, has questionable credentials. His Ph.D., for example, comes from a for-profit university that now operates exclusively online. Carrick has made wild claims about restoring patients’ eyesight and hearing. He also claims to bring people back from comas. If extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, you’d think Carrick would have a series of massive, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind studies to prove his results. In fact, he has nothing but anecdotes. Yale neurologist and noted quackery hawk Steven Novella sums the situation up nicely: “Chiropractic neurology appears to me to be the very definition of pseudoscience—it has all the trappings of a legitimate profession, with a complex set of beliefs and practices, but there is no underlying scientific basis for any of it.”

Glenn Beck says relatively little about how he was diagnosed with and treated for adrenal fatigue. The treatment included electrical stimulation, hormonal supplements, and being whirled around in some sort of gyroscope.

If this is all nonsense—as I believe it is—then why is Glenn Beck feeling so much better? Here’s one possibility: He made a bunch of life changes that are known to treat a wide range of disorders. He slept. He ate healthier foods. He exercised and went through physical therapy. Those are reliable first-line treatments for everything from high blood pressure to diabetes to some mild psychological disorders. If Beck benefitted from a miracle cure, these lifestyle changes were it.

There’s a particularly irksome layer to Beck’s story that shows how quacks sell themselves to patients. If his account is to be believed, it appears that some of Beck’s treatment providers spent as much time stroking his ego as treating his ailments…