THENCAHF BULLETINBOARD JULY I AUGUST 2002 The NCAHFBulletin Board is sent to members and media recipients only. It is intended to stimulate and aid in activism against health fraud, misinformationand quackery at the local, state & national levels.

NCAHFQUOTED IN MAGNETICMATTRESS PAD REPORT Barrie Cassileth, PhD, Chief oflntegrative Medicine Service As part of a July 2nd investigativereport on the sales promotion of of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was also a guest. She magneticmattress pads by the Florida-basedcompany European characterizedalternative therapies as ''usually promoted to cure Health Concepts,ABC's Good Morning America (GMA) displayed disease or at least to treat disease and they are, by definition, a letter from NCAHF President Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS, unproven, otherwise they wouldn't be alternative." She said her then enlargedthis excerpt: "There is no plausible theory by which program steers patients away from methods that have no merit and magnetscan treat, (or) cure... disease." offers patients receiving standard treatments what she characterized With a hidden camera, GMA videotaped a sales pitch for the as "rational complementary"therapies such as massage, relaxation, $1,799mattress pads that accompanieda free meal offered by meditation,acupuncture for pain and nausea, music therapy for EuropeanHealth Concepts.The pitchman falsely claimed that the terminally ill patients, and tai-chi. pads "help the body heal itself' of a long list of ailments.Although A recording of the full program can be heard on the Internet by the pads were sold with a 100% satisfaction,money-back guaran­ accessing program archives at www.npr.org. tee, hundredsof people who purchased the pads were not able to get their money back until the Better Business Bureau intervened. FORUMSET UP FOR "A DIFJrERENTWAY TO HEAL?" After receiving a large amount of mail from viewers regarding its NCAHFPRESIDENT ON NPR June program "A Different Way to Health (see May/June Bulletin Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS, president ofNCAHF, was a Board), PBS's Scientific American Frontiers set up a special Web guest on National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation Science Friday forum (http://www.pbs.org/sajZ).The American Chiropractic one-hourprogram about "alternative medicine" and the White Association(ACA), the International ChiropracticAssociation House Commissionon Complementaryand Alternative Medicine (ACA), and the World ChiropracticAlliance (WCA) have com­ Policy (WHCCAMP)on May 3rd• He told host Joanne Silberner: plained about the show's segment about chiropractic,"Adjusting ".,.there is no altemativemedicine.There is either scientific, the Joints," which included criticisms of chiropracticmethods from ev1dence-basedmedicine, or there are things that are being tested, Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS, president ofNCAHF. The or there is non-science,that is, not-scientifically-basedcare." He BreakingNews section of the NCAHF.orgWeb site includes later describedso-called alternative care as: rebuttals by Stephen Barrett, MD and David Ramey, DVM to ... one step betweenhooey and hooha. Most of this stuff, and you criticisms of the program by the ACA and ICA. can find literallytons ofit on the Internet,is promotional.It's The WCA urged chiropractorsto make their opinions known self-serving.It's researchupon peoplewithout their knowledgeor to PBS about the show. WCA advised: consent.It's takingharebrained ideas that have no basis in science • Comments may be registered at www.pbs.org/aboutsite/ and fact, and puttingthem on people.And this is a grievousand feedback.html unethicalway of practicingmedicine in any form.And to endorse • Postal letters should be mailed to the national PBS this in any fashionis an error.I think the public needsprotection heiidquarters,attention of: Ms. Pat Mitchell, Presidentand fromthese sorts of things.And our organization,The National Chief Executive Officer, Public Broadcasting Service, CouncilAgainst Health Fraud, Inc., is in businessto standup for 1320 Braddock Pl., Alexandria, VA 22314 consumersand patientadvocacy and try to get reliableinforma­ • Go to http://www.PBS.orgto search for your local station tion out to peopleso they have some assessmentof someof these and obtain specific addresses and contact information, ideasbeing pushed on them. Write and/or call the PBS affiliate that produced the Another guest, James S. Gordon, MD, chairman of the WHCCAMP,discussed the mainstreamingof"complementary and "Scientific American Frontiers" episode: Connecticut Public Broadcasting,Inc., 240 New Britain Ave., Hartford, alternativetherapies" and characterizedthem as "those therapies that doctors over 30 didn't learn in medicine school" and discussed CT 06106. Tel: 860/278-53l 0 the mainstreamingof CAM. NCAHF members may also want to express their opinions Dr. Baratz replied: "What I just heard sounded like an Enron about the show to PBS. NCAHF member Kurt Youngmann executivetrying to sell me a retirement plan." He added: complainedto his local PBS station for choosing not to air "A Dr. Gordonwould have us believethere are thousandsof these DifferentWay to Heal?" thingsout there that are readyto be tested.... His commission spenttwo years and $2 millionwithout even comingup with a LETTERSSUPPORT SKEPTICISM ABOUT TT definitionor findingone thing that didn't work.... What he's Letters in support of Linda Pearson's Editor's Memo in the advocatingis a perpetualmotion machine for unendingresearch November 2001 issue of The Nurse Practitioner (TNP) on on whateversomebody might dreamup over their coffee. "'Unruffling' the Mystique of TherapeuticTouch" (see NCAHF In responseto a question from Dr. Baratz about ineffective Bulletin Board Jan/Feb 2002) by NCAHF Program Director "alternative"methods, Dr. Gordon declared that laetrile is not an William M. London, EdD, MPH, James Randi of the James Randi effectivecancer treatment. EducationalFoundation, and NCAHF Board members Stephen Barrett, MD, Wallace Sampson, MD, and Tim Gorski, MD were SEMINARTO QUESTION"ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE" published in the journal's February 2002 issue. In an additional "Is There an Alternative Medicine?" is the title of a seminar to be published letter, Board member Saul Green, PhD wrote: "To my held on September 2!51 in the New York City area (at a location to knowledge,no one has ever documented the replies of patients who be announced). The scheduled speakers are: (1) Barrie Cassileth, did not receive TT but were told they did or patients who were not PhD, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service at Memorial Sloan­ told they got TT while anaesthetized." Kettering Cancer Center; (2) John E. Dodes, DDS, member of the Additional letters critical of TT by NCAHF Board member Health Fraud Advisory Board, New York State Department of Linda Rosa, RN, Larry Sarner, and Henry Claman, MD were Health; (3) Victor Herbert, MD, JD, MACP, FRSM (London), published in the April 2002 issue ofTNP. NCAHF Board member and professor of medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Medical Center; and (4) Jack Raso, MS, NURSINGEDITOR CALLS FOR REPEALOF DSHEA RD, author of"Alternative Healthcare: A Comprehensive Guide." In her February 2002 Editor's Memo, Linda Pearson, RN, FNP, The seminar is sponsored by the Center for Inquiry-Metro NY. MSN, editor-in-chief of The Nurse Practitioner objects to the lack For more information, contact Barry F. Seidman at of protection consumers have from dietary supplement risks [email protected] 973-655-9556. because of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994. She concludes: SANSAACALLS FOR SUPPLEMENTRESTRICTIONS As patientadvocates, we should advocatefor the repeal of the SANSAA (Students Against Nutritional Supplement Abuse by DSHEA;until the DSHEAis repealed,we must warn patientsof Adolescents) is a grassroots effort with a stated mission "to push the potentialdangers ofusing unregulateddietary supplements. for a Missouri law banning adolescents under age 18 from As always,please contactme at [email protected] your thoughtson this topic. purchasing nutritional supplements (including diet pills and steroids) over-the-counter." SANSAA's Web site, www.sansaa.org, LETTERTO AARPPUBLIC POLICYINSTITUTE includes information about supplements, a critique of the 1994 March 31, 2002 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act, and links to anti­ I read with interest your publication, 1B#46, Complementary quackery resources. and Alternative Medicine: The Road Less Traveled? A striking omission is anything skeptical or critical of the BIOETHICISTCRITIQUES WHCCAMP REPORT alleged entity CAM. You fail to note that it is a coined marketing In "Alternative Medicine: A Response to the White House Com­ term, it lacks any scientific basis, and that thousands of people are mission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy," scammed and/or injured each year by CAM practices. Donal P. O'Mathuna, Ph.D., a fellow of The Center for Bioethics In short, your report is scholarly but totaIIy unbalanced. and Human Dignity in Chicago (www.cbhd.org), and professor of It would he a servtceto your members to point out the dangers_ bioethics & chemistry at Mount Carmel College of Nursing and failings of alleged CAM so they can make informed decisions characterizes the tone of the commission's report as: "one in which about any proposed CAM care, regardless of the source. sweeping changes are called for, everything from adding courses in For instance, chiropractic, which accounts for more than half CAM [complementary and alternative medicine] to medical of the CAM you report, regularly paralyzes hundreds of individuals schools, provision of CAM within federal programs, and coverage with unnecessary neck manipulations resulting in vertebral artery of CAM by insurance programs." Dr. O'Mathuna writes: "Such strokes. That aside, neck manipulation in those ofus over 50 is recommendations are premature until a sufficient foundation of often downright dangerous, given calcified ligaments and evidence-based reviews becomes available on what works, what is osteophytes. Chiropractic, despite more than 100 years of existence safe, and what is affordable." He criticizes the commission for has not found any disease, cured any disease, or prevented any failing to acknowledge the need to distinguish therapies that have a disease. Many chiropractors dissuade patients from having routine plausible mechanism of action from those that don't. He points out vaccinations, a known effective public health measure. Consider that the only examples of supposed CAM therapies that the the impact on your members of having no tetanus, pneumovax or commission specifies as being proven safe and effective-exercise, flu vaccinations. I've personally seen many elderly die of flu, nutrition, and stress management-have been evaluated within tetanus, and pneumonia. medicine. He identifies the report's overriding problem as its lack When objectively studied, the value of back manipulation by of"definitional clarity as to what precisely constitutes CAM." chiropracticis about the same as rest, conservative management, "The Report does not address the training of healthcare and tincture of time. professionals to appropriately and ethically address spirituality, nor People die readily and regularly of allergic asthma, and it does it tackle the way some CAM therapies disguise their religious would be criminal to rely on chiropractic, naturopathy or any other roots," writes O'Mathuna. "In neglecting these issues, the Report CAM modality as the method of treating this disease. contributes to such covert promotion of religious practices. The Other CAM practices such as "biological dentistry" are Report similarly fails to address the use of federal funds in nothing more than a dangerous fraud. I have reviewed tens of cases promoting spiritual practices or specific religions." of patients harmed by this nonsense. And there is a long list of The full critique is available at http://www.xenos.org/ similar departures from rationality and efficacy. ministries/crossroads/donal/whitehouse cam.htm#lO on the Web If interested, I would be happy to supply information to/ site of The Crossroads Project, a ministry of Xenos Christian collaborate with your writers on the problems with CAM to Fellowship. produce a more balanced report. Robert Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS Free subscriptions to Consumer Health Digest (NCAHF's Editor's note: As of mid-June Dr. Baratz still had not received weekly e-mail newsletter) at http://www.ncahf.org/digest/chd.html a response.