Health Blogger Could Be Jailed for Giving Health Advice While Unlicensed

[Northerner]

In February of 2009, Steve Cooksey checked himself into a North Carolina hospital, suffering from what seemed to be complications from Type 1 diabetes. Over four days of treatment, Cooksey kept remembering the experience of his diabetic grandmother, whose life had come to involve daily insulin shots. Something, he decided, had to change. Cooksey, who had never thought much about dieting, began reading up on eating plans that would keep his insulin levels low, and eventually adopted the Paleo diet -- a low-carb, high-protein eating plan that mimics the imagined consumption habits of humans' hunter-gatherer ancestors. Cooksey eventually lost 45 pounds on the diet, and managed, even more significantly, to prevent the need for insulin treatments and other drugs. He also blogged about his experiences, sharing his meal plans and exercise regimen and, eventually, providing a support service to readers that offered one-on-one advice for a small fee.

Now, the North Carolina Board of Dietetics/Nutrition is threatening to send Cooksey to jail.

http://www.theatlantic.com/technolo...giving-health-advice-while-unlicensed/256288/

The reason why it is important that we don't offer medical advice here.

 

[trophywench]

Well, we don't elicit a FEE for our 'service' either, do we?

That makes it into something quite different even in English law !