Health authorities in Jiangsu Province are investigating a popular health writer who advocates curing disease by eating raw loach, suspecting the woman might be practising medicine illegally, The Beijing News reported yesterday.

Ma Yueling, calling herself the "Health Godmother," says she has cured diseases including cancer with a variety of unorthodox treatments. However, suspicions surrounding her medical practices have risen along with her fame.

Ma is suspected of treating patients and giving prescriptions without a doctor's license, officials with the Nanjing Public Health Inspection Institute told the newspaper.

Ma, a 48-year-old Nanjing native who used to be a nurse, shot to fame after she published "The Wisdom of Staying Healthy" in 2007, claiming more than 100 "miracles" of curing breast cancer patients.

On her website, Ma said she had that she also successfully treated 12 patients with ALS, a motor neurone disease, by suggesting they eat raw loach to treat the disorder.

The cases pushed her to the media spotlight but sparked nationwide skepticism about her methods and her qualifications.

A nerve surgeon in Nanjing said Ma's treatment for ALS was "ridiculous." He told the newspaper that the cause of the disease was still unknown and the most famous ALS patient, British scientist Stephen Hawking, was still in a wheelchair. Some other experts pointed out that eating raw loach which might contains parasites could pose a health risk.

A Nanjing official said its investigation faced difficulties because Ma mostly did her treatment on the Internet instead of in real clinics.