Mike Adams

Michael Allen Adams was born in 1967 in Lawrence, Kansas. He claims an unspecified bachelor's degree from an unnamed Midwestern university. In his own account, he was a software entrepreneur who developed type-2 diabetes at 30, leading him to explore alternative health. He founded the NaturalNews.com website in 2003–2005 and began regular publishing around 2008 under the persona 'The Health Ranger.'

Natural News grew rapidly by combining genuine-sounding alternative health content with increasingly extreme conspiracy theories. The site promoted anti-vaccine activism, HIV/AIDS denialism, cancer cure fraud, Obama birther theories, 9/11 trutherism, chemtrail fears, and rejection of GMO science, water fluoridation, and chemotherapy. Adams styled himself as a 'citizen journalist' and 'forensic food scientist' while running a laboratory — the CWC Labs — to test food products for heavy metals, results he presented selectively to alarm readers.

The financial model of Natural News depends on selling nutritional supplements, survivalist products, and books to readers primed by fear of mainstream medicine and government. By the mid-2010s, Natural News had accumulated nearly 3 million Facebook followers — more than InfoWars — and became one of the largest platforms for health misinformation globally. In 2017, Google briefly de-indexed Natural News from search results. In 2019, the site was banned from Facebook, Apple News, YouTube, Pinterest, and Twitter for policy violations.

Adams responded to deplatforming by building parallel infrastructure including the video platform Brighteon and the social network Brighteon Social. He has used Natural News to promote COVID-19 misinformation, including claims that the virus was a bioweapon and that vaccines caused mass death. As of 2026, Natural News remains active on alternative platforms and continues to be identified by researchers and media watchdogs as one of the most dangerous sources of health misinformation online.

“Vaccines cause autism and constitute 'medical child abuse.'”

The vaccine-autism link was based on a fraudulent 1998 Wakefield paper that was fully retracted. Dozens of large-scale studies involving millions of children have found no link between any vaccine and autism. The claim has been repeatedly investigated and rejected by scientific and regulatory agencies worldwide.

“Big Pharma is hiding a known cure for cancer.”

This is a common conspiracy theory without evidentiary basis. Cancer is a heterogeneous group of diseases. The idea that pharmaceutical companies would collectively suppress effective cures — foregoing enormous profits from cures — defies economic logic and has no supporting evidence.

“Fluoridated drinking water is a government mind-control chemical or poison.”

Water fluoridation at recommended levels (0.7 mg/L in the US) has decades of safety evidence and is endorsed by the WHO, CDC, and ADA for preventing tooth decay. Controlled studies have found no credible evidence of harm at these doses.