Russell L Blaylock (born 1945) is an alternative health promoting physician who lives in Jackson, Miss. Blaylock has appeared all over the food-related advocacy space and has been around the voodoo health claims circuit.

Among his earlier campaigns Blaylock opposed food additives like aspartame and MSG. He had a wagon-full of junk science claims in his book regarding ‘excitotoxins’–a term he helped coin that is found in several homeopathic and alternative health snake oil sales sites. [1] Blaylock also promotes chemtrail conspiracies alleging cancer-causing nanoparticles as being purposefully released into the atmosphere in a government-corporate scheme.[2] Skeptic’s Dictionary and QuackWatch call him an anti-vaxxer [3] while selling his own line of “Brain Repair Formula” supplements. He has been called “quack of the day” by The Vaccine Conspiracy Theorist.[4]

To herbal medicine and alternative treatment groups, he sells alternative treatments for neurological disorders that he claims stem from aspartame, MSG and other food additives.

Career

• Retired from medicine to write and promote his products for ‘Surgical Neurology International, Theoretical Neuroscience Research, LLC, and Advanced Nutritional Research, LLC.
• Assistant Editor-in-Chief, Surgical Neurology International, UCLA – Serves as editorial board journal under neuroscience section as editor in chief.[5]
• Founder, Theoretical Neuroscience Research, LLC, 2011 – Present (4 years) Ridgeland, MS
• Founder, Advanced Nutritional Research, LLC, 2009 – Present (6 years) Ridgeland, MS

Education

• Medical University of South Carolina, M.D., Resident in Neurosurgery. 1971 – 1977
• Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, 1968 – 1971

Short biography

Russell L. Blaylock is an author and a retired U.S. neurosurgeon. Blaylock introduced a new treatment for a subset of brain tumors, as well as improving certain operations treating hydrocephalus, often called “water on the brain,” which causes babies’ or young children’s head to swell.

Blaylock was a clinical assistant professor of neurosurgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and is currently a visiting professor in the biology department at Belhaven College. He is the author of a number of books and papers, including Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (1994), Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life (2002), and Natural Strategies for Cancer Patients (2003), and writes a monthly newsletter, the Blaylock Wellness Report.

Advocacy

Blaylock has endorsed views inconsistent with the scientific consensus, including that food additives such as aspartame and monosodium glutamate (MSG) are “excitotoxic” to the brain in normal doses, that the H1N1 influenza (swine flu) vaccine carries more risk than swine flu itself, and that GMOs are dangerous to health at any dose.

Allegations of health dangers

Blaylock opposes the use of certain vaccines. He has urged avoidance of the swine flu (H1N1) vaccination, which he claims is more dangerous than the infection itself. He has also given advice on what he feels an individual should do if faced with mandatory vaccination,[6] although current research indicates that an effective vaccine is a vital tool in protecting the public and that the H1N1 vaccine is both safe and effective. Blaylock suggests that vitamin D, fish oil and antioxidants are effective against catching the flu. According to McGill University’s Joe Schwarcz, there is no evidence for these claims.

Blaylock also claims the supposed toxicity of numerous substances that according to scientific studies are safe at customary exposure levels. He has been quoted several times in media outlets regarding his position that MSG is toxic to the brain.[7] He also states that the widely used artificial sweetener aspartame is toxic and may be the cause of multiple sclerosis in his book Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills (Health Press, 1994. ISBN 0-929173-14-7). He has additionally cautioned against heavy use of the artificial sweetener Splenda (sucralose).[8] These positions are not supported by scientific consensus or regulatory bodies, as extensive studies support the safety of aspartame, sucralose, and MSG.

Advertisements selling the ‘Blaylock Wellness Report’ at newsmax.com contain claims of additional health dangers, including fluoridated drinking water, fluoridated toothpaste, vaccines, dental amalgam, cholesterol drugs, pesticides, and aluminum cookware.The following advertisements for The Blaylock Wellness Report include these: Mercury: Save Your Body From Nature’s Deadly Poison, Autism, Why Fluoride Is Toxic, and Food Additives. In April 2013, Blaylock entered his endorsement of the chemtrails conspiracy theory on an internet radio program called Linderman Unleashed Radio Show where he cited increased levels of aluminum in water bodies and nature with his common sense observations of the skies. He proposed the conspiratorial and criminal aircraft spraying by governments of nano toxins for some supposed global, emergency purpose.[9]

COVID-19

As the novel coronavirus began to make its way across the globe in early 2020, Blaylock was quick to downplay the risk it posed. In one of many articles circulating on the fringe of social media, Coronavirus: A Real Danger or More Fearmongering? he blamed the media for ‘hyping disaster’:

Over the past several decades we have gone through a series of epidemic and pandemic scares, none of which have become the infectious demon that was first hyped …. [A]ll were presented by panicky media elite and the bureaucratic medical institutions as the end of the world …. In each case, very few died and quickly they moved on to the next hyped disaster. The question now is—are things as bad with this virus as the purveyors of fear are saying? That remains to be seen. But we have some hints that—“Here we go again.

COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has gone on to kill hundreds of thousands of people. Blaylock is a longtime vaccine skeptic, claiming they are likely to contain contaminants, viruses and viral fragments, rendering them dangerous. He also proposes a causal link between vaccines and schizophrenia, which he says can be triggered by immune cytokines injuring the developing brain.

Rather than look to traditional medical treatments for COVID-19, Blaylock recommends high-dose vitamin C, which he says can lead to “ rapid recovery.” Blaylock claims that high-absorption supplements can not only be used as a preventative against coronavirus-induced complications, but also help infected patients regain immune system integrity. There is no evidence supporting his claims of harm from vaccination and infectious disease experts say his alternative treatments simply don’t work against COVID-19.

After public health officials recommended the use of masks to limit the spread of SARS-COV-2, Blaylock argued that face coverings were not only ineffective, but made the virus more dangerous. “By wearing a mask,” he wrote, “the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain.” He further alleged that “no studies have been done to demonstrate that either a cloth mask or the N95 mask has any effect on transmission of the COVID-19 virus.”

Critics were quick to point out that this argument made no scientific sense. While the virus itself can cause neurological damage in some patients, it’s not because they re-breathe infected air trapped by a mask—a claim popularized by the conspiratorial YouTube documentary Plandemic. Additionally, an April 2020 study in Science found that surgical masks “significantly reduced detection of influenza virus RNA in respiratory droplets and coronavirus RNA in aerosols, with a trend toward reduced detection of coronavirus RNA in respiratory droplets.”

Views on politics

Blaylock has called the American medical system ‘collectivist’ and has suggested that health-care reform efforts under President Obama are masterminded by extragovernmental groups that wish to impose euthanasia. He blamed the purported collectivism of American medicine for the retirement of his friend Miguel Faria. According to Blaylock, the former Soviet Union tried to spread collectivism by covertly introducing illegal drugs and various sexually transmitted diseases into the United States. Schwarcz characterized these positions as “conspiracy theories.”

Regarding his political and philosophical influences, Blaylock wrote that he began “exploring for the first time some of the classics of liberty” while doing his internship at the Medical University of South Carolina, which he said was “deeply embroiled in a leftist-initiated war on Western Culture.” Among these works, Blaylock mentioned Frédéric Bastiat’s The Law, Friedrich Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom and The Constitution of Liberty, and works by Ludwig von Mises, and Murray Rothbard.[10] Blaylock has also been a longtime supporter of the Institute of World Politics, and has praised its founder, John Lenczowski, for his “…dedication to sound principles of transcendent law, moral absolutes and the teaching of these principles within the scope of statecraft…”

Blaylock is very popular on the fringe of America’s conservative movement. Beyond his frequent InfoWars appearances and contributions to Newsmax, the retired neurosurgeon paid former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to promote his video 7 Things that Trigger Alzheimer’s in Your Brain. The video was part of a campaign to attract more subscribers to Blaylock’s wellness report, which Cain regularly shared with his newsletter subscribers between 2013 and 2015.

Media

Television and radio

Blaylock has appeared on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), including on the network’s The 700 Club, a talk show started by televangelist Pat Robertson. Blaylock states that he has also been a guest on over fifty syndicated radio programs, and is a frequent guest on Alex Jones Infowars.com.

Books

• Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills Health Press, 1994. ISBN 0-929173-14-7
• Health and Nutrition Secrets That Can Save Your Life Health Press, 2002. ISBN 0-929173-42-2
• Natural Strategies for The Cancer Patient New York : Twin Streams, 2003. ISBN 0-7582-0221-0

Articles

Blaylock is the author or co-author of two case reports in the Journal of Neurosurgery, and a 32-page report entitled Multiple Sclerosis (Pritchett & Hull, 1988).

He has written for, and been on the editorial board of the journal of the politically conservative non-profit organization Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. This journal was titled Medical Sentinel until 2003, when it became the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons (JPandS).

He is also author of the Newsmax-published “Blaylock Wellness Report.” Newsmax often charges customer’s credit cards $48 for renewal of their newsletter even after the customer has not renewed subscription.

References

• 1   https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/christiane-northrup-md-science-tainted-with-strange-beliefs/
• 2   http://foodintegritynow.org/2013/06/19/dr-russell-blaylock-on-excitotoxins-chemtrails-cancer-fluoride-and-vaccines/
• 3   http://skepdic.com/blaylock.html
• 4   http://vaccineconspiracytheorist.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/quack-of-day-dr-russell-blaylock.html
• 5   https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=14657557
• 6   “What to do if you are forced to take swine flu shot” Blaylock R., Judi McLeod’s Canada Free Press, 19 September 2009.
• 7   A game of hide and seek.(hidden MSG in processed foods) originally printed in Vegetarian Times, September 01, 1998] AccessMyLibrary record.
• 8   How Far from Sugar Is Splenda?, BusinessWeek Online, McGraw Hill, February 2, 2005. Retrieved 2009-10-15.” Gogoi, Pallavi, edited by Beth Belton. 
• 9   Curt Linderman (7 April 2013) Linderman Unleashed Radio Show. Retrieved February 6, 2014.