Mercola.com Celebrates Its 18-Year Anniversary

By Dr. Mercola

Mercola.com now celebrates its 18th anniversary... We’ve surely come a long way since 1997 when I decided to launch a small website to share the latest developments in natural health with the world beyond the confines of my medical practice!   

Thanks to you, this site has become a leading source of health news and information, with more than 10 million unique visitors coming to our site every month to learn how to take control of their health, which has been my sole motivation all along.

By the time I stopped seeing patients in order to dedicate my limited time to this newsletter, I’d already personally helped tens of thousands of patients address their health problems.

But I knew I could help educate magnitudes more on how to get healthy through this newsletter than I ever could treating patients privately. Our site proves this as we now have more than a million page views every day.

It was a decision I’ve never regretted, and I regularly delight in the feedback from readers I see during my travels that report feeling better than they’ve ever felt before as a result of implementing the lifestyle changes I suggest and getting off toxic drugs.

Exposing the Truth, Years Ahead of Time...

We’ve made many changes at Mercola.com since our humble beginnings in 1997. We’ve gone from sending out a newsletter once a week, to now providing two or more in-depth articles every day of the week.

Over the years we’ve helped pave the way in demanding transparency in FDA actions, and we’ve exposed the realities of how many public health programs are intricately tied to Big Pharma.

We’ve also made many aware of the pernicious revolving doors existing between government and big industries and corporations like Monsanto and Merck, and how corruption and conflicts of interest color science and many if not most government health recommendations.

Throughout this 18-year journey, we’ve consistently shared the news well before the mainstream. Examples of topics we’ve been frontrunners of include:

• Exposing the swine flu pandemic for the hoax that it was. That article ended up being among the top five pages viewed on the entire internet the day we posted it, and it crashed all our servers.
• Exposing Merck’s drug, Vioxx, for the killer that it was, years before major media started reporting it. I actually issued the first public warning about Vioxx while it was still in clinical trials — a year before it became available by prescription.
• Warning about the emergence of statin drugs, which I stated were an accident waiting to happen. My first warnings were issued in 2001. Fast-forward to a decade and a half later and the truth of this has become quite evident, and the dangers of statins are now well-documented.

• Two years ago I began issuing a similar warning for the next-gen cholesterol drugs, PCSK9 inhibitors, which just received FDA approval on July 24, 2015. I predict this class of drugs may be even more dangerous than statins ever were.

• I’ve long warned of the dangers of routine mammograms, and in the past several years, a number of studies have emerged showing that mammograms appear to do more harm than good, and are not, in fact, saving women’s lives.
• Being one of the first to widely educate people about the critical importance of vitamin D and sensible sun exposure for health and disease prevention, and the many benefits of astaxanthin.

Thank You for Supporting Health Liberty and Freedom for All!

Many don’t realize that I never sold anything on the site for the first four years. When the income from my medical practice could not subsidize the site any further I realized I had to be able to finance the growth in some way.

I chose to avoid using ads that would promote items I did not necessarily agree with, and also decided against having outside investors so I could maintain complete editorial control of the content.

This gives me the freedom to report the facts as I see them, and base my recommendations on the available research and input from experts, without having to appease advertisers who have something to sell.

I fully appreciate that many are seriously struggling in this economy. That is why it is my sincere intention that most of the healthy lifestyle changes I advocate cost little or nothing at all, and are freely available to just about anyone, regardless of income.

And, while most of my recommendations center on eating real food and exercising, whenever I do recommend or offer products, I do so because I have thoroughly researched them and find they’re the best in their category. I have a top-notch research and development team to help me in this process as well.

If you chose to use a supplement, please make sure the company is using the highest quality ingredients without dangerous additives. Profit generated from the sale of products in my online store go right back into maintaining and building a better site, providing you with more free tools, videos, and in-depth articles.

Even more importantly, 15 to 20 percent of these profits help support my Health Liberty partner organizations — all of which are dedicated to protecting your freedom to make voluntary health choices. All of the proceeds from my latest book, Effortless Healing, now a New York Times best-seller,¹ will also be used to provide financial support to my Health Liberty partners, which include:

• The National Vaccine Information Center (vaccine choices and informed consent)
• Fluoride Action Network (water fluoridation)
• Organic Consumers Association, and the Institute for Responsible Technology (GMOs)
• Consumers for Dental Choice (mercury-free dentistry)
• GrassrootsHealth (vitamin D)

Health Liberty Has Been a Resounding Success

The nonprofit coalition Health Liberty was launched five years ago, and since then we’ve made great strides toward getting toxic mercury out of dentistry and fluoride out of drinking water.

We’ve also seen a tremendous awakening across the US of people learning about the hazards of genetically engineered foods and the need to label them; the health and environmental benefits of organics and regenerative agriculture; the importance of vitamin D for health and disease prevention; and the necessity to fight for our right to make informed vaccine choices.

To all of you, I want to extend my sincere Thank You for participating in this health revolution, and for your support in our many Health Liberty campaigns! We could not have achieved any of our victories without you.

Because of your loyal support, we’ve slowly but surely awakened the world to the false promises of the fatally flawed conventional medical view, which claims disease is best treated with drugs, and that the government knows what’s best for your health and should be allowed to dictate your health options.

That model is a prescription for disaster for personal health and freedom. The truth is, it’s health that counts ― and the freedom to choose health over treating symptoms of disease will always be our goal.

So it’s with great excitement and hope for the future that I promise you my team and I will continue educating and creating awareness to allow you to make your own informed health choices. Most of all, after 18 years, I am really excited to see the community that has been created, and I want to personally thank YOU for being here and supporting and encouraging each other in the Vital Votes forum as well.

18th Anniversary Specials

Many of the changes to this web site have occurred in response to requests and suggestions from you, and I encourage you to continue sharing your thoughts and ideas for how to make it even better as we move forward. For example, my online store grew in response to your requests for an easy and safe method to purchase high quality health products over the Internet that have been carefully vetted and independently tested. Mercola.com evolved to give you just that ― an online health products store that you can trust.

So if you see a need that has not yet been filled, or if there are topics you’d like to see covered in future articles, please share them in the comments section below. Last but not least, free replays of my presentation based on the health teachings of my latest book, Effortless Healing, are now available for viewing on the site 24/7.  Click here to start watching today!