# Is the heart a pump or a vortex? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 25, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597 "2016-12-25T14:22:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sleepyrice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@sleepyrice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleepyrice)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/41 "2016-12-27T02:49:22Z")
Thanks for all the feedback - you guys can stop now, don’t want to waste your time. I outlined all of this for my friend and shared this thread with him (thanks so much). He just blew it off as all of us being brainwashed by mainstream media and medicine and (MSM) not treating the body as a whole system. He bought and read the guys book and is a solid convert… Blood goes from heart to each organ, etc etc… He still won’t wear a BP monitor for a full day to see what his BP is really doing - instead he sits and meditates and deep breathes for 10 min and then tests and says “see it’s only 145 i’m healed. MSM would have given me useless pills.” he believes his high BP is due to toxins in his body and juicing vegetables every morning (before a bagel) will absolve him of these issues. At 220+ pounds (100kg) he says weight isn’t an issue as ‘thin people have more heart attacks,’ and will reduce the nights that he gets completely trashed on booze and drugs down to 3 nights a week 😉 Here’s a classic nugget from his last thread (regarding our comments): “its hard for most people to understand how to make the judgement call about the quality of information… most simply want to read things that reconfirm their views” (sigh) - frankly, i give up. i realize my time is being wasted. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2016, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/42 "2016-12-27T03:59:49Z")
Has he reproduced? If not, there’s always hope for the gene pool. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/43 "2020-02-08T16:02:26Z")
Update: Since this thread appeared, Dr. Thomas the-heart-is-not-a-pump Cowan has cranked out two more books: “Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness” (as you might expect, an antivax screed) and his latest “game-changer”, “Cancer and the New Biology of Water”, which explains that cancer is caused by a derangement in the intracellular structure of water (no, really). You can fight cancer by imbibing deuterium-depleted water, “Quinton Isotonic Seawater” and various supplements, some of which Cowan sells or distributes through his website.\* Possibly tempering one’s enthusiasm for following Cowan’s advice is that in 2017 the medical board in California [revoked his license to practice](http://www2.mbc.ca.gov/breezepdl/document.aspx?path=%5CDIDOCS%5C20170510%5CDMRAAAFC2%5C&did=AAAFC170510212520652.DID&licenseType=G&licenseNumber=86923) but stayed the order, putting him on probation for five years on condition that he have a practice monitor, prohibited him from treating cancer patients and ordered him to take medical courses including one on ethics. > **[Hot Alternative Doc Censured](https://www.davidgumpert.com/hot-alternative-doc-cowan-censured-ca-medical-authorities)** > > California medical authorities come down hard on hot alternative MD Thomas Cowan. The vortex has not been kind to poor Doc Cowan. ☹ \*when you combine antivax nonsense with kooky theories about the heart and cancer, you get an unholy mess of crank magnetism. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/44 "2020-02-08T22:31:23Z")
> [@sleepyrice](#): > > Sure, but how do I prove he’s a quack when debating. There are so many internet quacks around now and no-one seems to be watching them. This page: [debunking handbook](https://skepticalscience.com/docs/Debunking_Handbook.pdf) (pdf) may help. ETA: just noticed this was a zombie. Oh well, zombies need debunking too. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/45 "2020-02-09T04:16:03Z")
That notion that the heart is connected directly to each organ sounds almost like Reflexology. Why not just study that? Dr. Cowan, and his believers, could probably gain from some exposure to the [Total Perspective Vortex](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex). (Animated demonstration [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0K4VODk8Q).) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2020, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597/46 "2020-02-09T05:39:57Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > That notion that the heart is connected directly to each organ sounds almost like Reflexology. Why not just study that? Is that someone else’s woo? He can’t make money off that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-heart-a-pump-or-a-vortex/775597.md?page=2)