I would never in a million years have thought that I would find my work being plagiarized (stolen) by medical doctors! There are now two such plagiarists I know of, though there may be more. This latest theft I was alerted to by a migraineur who bumped into it on TikTok.

If you have a TikTok account, watch this doctor explaining what a “salt test” is and how it can help migraines, as if it were her discovery: here and her name is Dr.Beth.Osteo.Migraines on TikTok with a very British accent (Update: she is from Melbourne, so not British but Aussie accent). See more update at the end of the article.

I took the liberty and commented on her post, calling her theft to attention. She is using the expression salt test, something I have coined in my book (already in my first book, which was published at the end of 2013 or early 2014, and explains how it works. The salt test is something that is very specific to my protocol, which is used by all of the migraineurs I work with and is also explained in my current book (2nd edition, published in 2017) Fighting The Migraine Epidemic: Complete Guide: How to Treat & Prevent Migraines Without Medicines.

There is another doctor on YouTube, Dr. Eric Berg, who also stole the exact same expression that you can hear him explain here. I was also alerted to that plagiarism by a migraineur who follows my protocol and was watching this YouTube video. There too, I have commented, as did many of the migraineurs I work with did.

Why am I saying that this two doctors are plagiarizing? Because neither of them cites the source where they have learned about the salt test, which is not something I just randomly coined, but there is an entire process behind it. Furthermore, if done incorrectly, it may make a migraine worse rather than better. But neither doctor understand the principles and the reasons behind the salt test so they don’t mention what to do and why if it works or if it doesn’t work.

Why Plagiarize?

I very much dislike when people steal and plagiarize. It is punished in schools at all levels, from kindergarten to graduate-level university work, and especially in academia. Plagiarism is a crime, especially if the work from which it is taken is copyrighted or trademarked or both. And the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R) is a registered trademark.

If these two doctors had mentioned the protocol’s name (Stanton Migraine Protocol(R)) or my name (Angela A Stanton, PhD), I would have applauded them both for spreading the news, but neither did. They both are spreading this information as if it were their discovery.

I distrust those who plagiarize. Because plagiarism is a theft of intellectual property and a thief is a thief, no matter what is stolen or by whom it is stolen!

Feel free to comment on these videos, letting other viewers know that both of these are plagiarizing the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R), a registered trademark, and everyone without exception, doctors or not, must cite the original source!

On The Flip Side

Plagiarism is a form of flattery too, because those who plagiarize my stuff admit that I have discovered something amazing and they want to benefit from it. I totally understand this and this part definitely is a pleaser–you will understand better why after I give you a bit of history of the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R) and my struggles.

A Bit of History

I have been a migraineur since my early teens, and have been through hell and back with any of the medications available. Nothing ever worked and life was a living nightmare. Migraine is not “just a headache”. In fact, migraine may not even come with a headache–though mine did. Migraine comes with nausea, vomiting, dizziness, vertigo, diarrhea, constipations, irritable bowel syndrome, restless legs syndrome, forgetfulness, semi paralysis of part of the body on one side, inability to speak, hear, see, understand, talk, write, read, tingling body parts, you may even forget where you are or who is talking to you, and some may also get aura or just simply go bling a bit for awhile in one eye. It is not a headache… it is a very serious condition that makes life impossible.

About 14 years ago I quit my academic teaching job and I started to read up about migraines because I have suffered from them for so long and I decided that “I have earned the right to figure this out”. I never had the chance before because of work (I had to help the family financially) while also finishing university, taking care of our kids, so I suffered through the many decades with migraines. I used to pull two chairs together at the university where I was teaching and would lie down on them between two classes, taking a triptan. I used to ask the professor next door to my office to kindly wake me so I wouldn’t miss my teaching. I had hoped that the pain would lift enough so I could teach.

After years of reading everything I could, and I explain the whole process in my book, I discovered that salt and glucose were the biggest problems, since they modified the electrolyte–the long and complicated chemical background is detailed in the book. In short: I needed much more salt, more water, and much less carbs than the average person. When I discovered this, and after years of experimenting on me, finding that it worked for me, I wrote my first book (now only used copies are sold), I also opened a Facebook migraine group, and joined a ton of already existing migraine groups of Facebook, hoping to see what others were doing and to find out if anyone would be willing to give a try to what I was doing. I wanted to see if it worked for others as well, or was it just me?

I was kicked out of every migraine group on Facebook. I was called names, told I was a quack, once I was kicked off Facebook by someone for 24 hours (I am probably the only person on Facebook who needed to use a driver’s license and one other document with my full name and address on it to be able to prove who I was and be able to get back on Facebook), and even had several people write nasty blog articles about my process. People joined my Facebook group just to poke fun of me. It was a very hard start! My book sales were completely blocked by one person who sent me a message and told me she was going to block my sales, and indeed, she did. She posted a 1* review on Amazon the day after the book came out. It was a very long review, but not one sentence reflected the truth about my book, of course, which she never read.

I faced some very serous obstacles in my first year.

I persevered and some people in my group decided to give my protocol a try and it worked for them. Before long, there were many followers and the book started to sell thousands of copies very fast. The negativity almost stopped–some people still only found pleasure in trying to destroy my reputation, but by this time the protocol was working for so many people that I started a Wall of Testimonials, so there was no denying anymore that it worked. It appeared that my solution worked for all migraineurs and for all migraine types.

Over the years I had improved on the protocol tremendously based on the feedback of the thousands of migraineurs, and the protocol advanced to the second edition of the book.

Over ten thousands of migraineurs now are in my two migraine groups on Facebook, also many migraineurs privately apply my protocol, not on Facebook. It is now a fully functional protocol with several versions of adaptation per person. I have also gained the trust of many doctors and several send their migraine patients to me. I am now working on the 3rd edition of the book.

With this short history, you can see that after years of being beaten up for recommending a protocol no one believed in, to now having the same protocol plagiarized and stolen by others, including doctors, for self interest, is a problem but it is also a form of flattery. By now a newspaper article and magazine articles were written about the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R) and I was also interviewed a number of times on how it works and what the key migraine causes and principles for prevention are. I also have three lectures recorded on migraine cause and prevention and offered as training for continual educational credits for medical professionals by Nutrition Network, an organization that offers credit hours of training to doctors, scientists, and other healthcare-associated professionals.

I don’t make money on my protocol. It is free for all. While the book is not free, it is available in libraries if someone cannot afford to buy it. I have formed a nonprofit, which can provide the book to those who cannot afford it, and I have done so many times in the past. Over the years we have received lots of donations from migraineurs and we are here to help all we can–and free.

So I take offense when some doctors claim fame, and, therefore, may financially benefit, from something I created and offer for free! It’s not only unfair and illegal but it is downright ugly, bad spirited, and painful to me.

Concluding Thoughts

I am happy to help any doctor on this planet who wishes to use the Stanton Migraine Protocol(R) to help migraineurs but the help they provide–on my protocol’s behalf–needs to be free and my name, and the name of the protocol, must be mentioned/cited!

UPDATES:

7/17/2021: 7 PM Pacific: Dr.Beth.Osteo.Migraines pined my name and the information that it is from my work under her video–great start

7/17/2021: 11 PM Pacific: Dr.Beth.Osteo.Migraines asked there under the video if she should re-record the video citing the source the proper way. My answer was “yes please”

7/18/2021: 9 AM Pacific I was told by my migraine friends in my Facebook margarine group that Dr.Beth.Osteo.Migraines posted an apology video and a new video on the salt test, citing her sources property. Here is the link to the apology video. Here is the link to the new Salt Test video with proper citation.

8/18/2021: 2 PM Pacific I watched the two videos and posted a thank you note to Dr.Beth.Osteo.Migraines for both, the apology and the updated Salt Test video. I am truly appreciative of her standing up for what’s right once she realized she made a mistake. She has courage and I appreciate her for that.

Now… the next step is to get Dr. Eric Berg to do the same.. I won’t hold my breath

And lastly: I have since been contacted by a couple of doctors and also a “migraine pharmacist” (not quite sure what that means) who asked me how they can learn about the protocol so they can help their patients.

For those interested to learn about the protocol, pelase first listen to my lectures at Nutrition Network on migraine cause–it is in their Neurology course listing. If you have further questions on the specific of the application, you are welcome to join my Facebook migraine groups, since I have two, you may consider joining both: original protocol and advanced to keto migraine groups–please be sure to note on the questions that you are a healthcare professional. You should also consider reading my book–you need not invest, the last chapter, which is specifically for doctors and scientists is available for free at ResearchGate (I think one needs to be a member but it’s free).

Comments are welcome, as always, and are moderated for appropriateness.

Angela