2025 RationalWiki 'Oregon Plan' Fundraiser

There is no RationalWiki without you. We are a small non-profit with no staff—we are hundreds of volunteers who document pseudoscience and crankery around the world every day. We will never allow ads because we must remain independent. We cannot rely on big donors with corresponding big agendas. We are not the largest website around, but we believe we play an important role in defending truth and objectivity.

Fighting pseudoscience isn't free.
We are 100% user-supported! Help and donate $5, $10, $20 or whatever you can today with PayPal Logo.png!
Donations so far: $8765.50Goal: $10000

Bismacine

From RationalWiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Against allopathy
Alternative medicine
Icon alt med alt.svg
Clinically unproven
Woo-meisters

Bismacine, occasionally known as Chromacine[1] (though Chromocine might be a different drug),[2] is an alternative medicine sold to treat Lyme disease that involves the injection of the metal bismuth. Bismacine was invented by Robert Bradford, who is not a medical doctor,[3] in 2004.[4] In 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning against Bismacine,[5] as bismuth is ineffective and dangerous neither approved for injection and can lead to heart and kidney problems.[1] Bradford pled guilty in 2010 to charges that Bismacine caused the death of a woman in Kansas.[6] Bradford and business partners also admitted that they inflated fears of Lyme disease as part of a marketing campaign to increase sales of Bismacine,[7] calling Lyme disease a "potential plague of the 21st century."[4]

In an article for the Townsend Letter, an alternative health magazine, Bradford claimed that when using Bismacine, all patients had little-to-no adverse effects known as Herxheimer reactions.[2] This is not surprising, as Herxheimer reactions occur in at most 15% of all Lyme disease patients,[8] and would occur in even fewer if Bismacine was failing to kill the Lyme-causing spirochetes.

See also[edit]

External links[edit]

References[edit]