Shameless 'celebrity addiction expert' Dr. Drew stokes unfounded rumors about Hillary Clinton's health

Ever hungry for attention, Dr. Drew Pinsky has decided to offer his two cents by stoking conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton’s health.

The latest iteration of the pattern of distortion in the right-wing echo chamber is the notion that Hilary Clinton suffers from some odd and as-yet-unnamed ailment. Clinton had one health scare in 2012 involving a blood clot—not a particularly remarkable issue at her age—but otherwise the claims are totally unfounded.

Clinton has released detailed health records to demonstrate this. But Trump and his surrogates have still tried to turn the rumors into a major political talking point.

Addressing national security at one recent rally, Trump claimed that Clinton lacked the “physical stamina” to take on ISIS. And during a segment with CNN’s Carol Costello a couple of days ago, Trump surrogate Amy Kremer also made sure to question Hillary’s physical condition.

But spreading such rumors is all the more disgusting if you’re supposed to be a medical professional.

On KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning, Dr. Drew said that he was “gravely concerned” about Hillary’s health.

He claimed that he and a colleague had taken the initiative to look into the situation: “based on the information that she has provided and her doctors had provided, we were gravely concerned not just about her health… but about her health care… She is receiving 1950s-level sort of care by our evaluation.”

He also mentioned Hillary’s hypothyroidism, which is covered by her released health records.

He continued:

“Well, she’s had two clots, a traverse sinus thrombosis. What’s wrong with her coagulation system, has that been evaluated? And, oh, by the way, Armour Thyroid [the medicine Pinski says Clinton is taking] associated rarely with hyper coagulability. So the very medicine the doctors are using may be causing this problem and they are using an old-fashioned medicine to treat it. What is going on with her healthcare? It’s bizarre… maybe they have reasons but at a distance it looks bizarre. There has got to be a standard for people who are going to lead the country who are gonna be making these important decisions… Again, Hillary maybe fine with all this…. It’s dangerous, it’s concerning.”

He also chose to diagnose Hillary Clinton based on a concussion she had in 2012 without actually examining his unwitting “patient.” He said: “When she hit her head she had to wear these prism glasses … That is brain damage, so it’s affected her balance. Now clearly it hasn’t affected her cognition.”

No, that’s definitely not what he was trying to hint at.

Dr. Drew Pinsky is a guy who thinks appropriate treatment for addiction is shoving cameras in people’s faces, reinforcing negative stereotypes about “addicts” and turning their treatment into a ratings circus.

“The problem here is that Dr. Drew benefits from [his celebrity patients’] participation, which must have some powerful effects on his way of relating to them,” Dr. John J. Mariani, director of the Substance Treatment and Research Service at Columbia University, has said.”He also has a vested interest in the outcome of their treatment being interesting to viewers, which is also not in their best interest. Treatment with conflicts of interest isn’t treatment.”

Pinsky also denied his Celebrity Rehab “patients” methadone or Suboxone—the gold-standard maintenance medications for opioid addiction.

“Methadone just takes your soul away,” he has claimed. “It’s no way to live.”

Actually, methadone is an option that keeps a much higher percentage of people alive than abstinence-only treatment for opioid addiction.

Six alumni of Celebrity Rehab have since diedfrom drug-related issues or suicide.

The idea that Dr. Drew should be taken seriously when pronouncing on anyone’s health—let alone when he does it with such transparent political and/or attention-seeking motives—is laughable.