Is There a Conspiracy?
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¹ Is There a Conspiracy? A. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.2 I have just read P.J. Lisa's book, Are You A given intravenous vitamin C, this is the price he Target For Elimination, (1984). Here the author must pay for being different. presents the argument that there is a conspiracy If there is a conspiracy against chiropractic led and directed by the American Medical practitioners, is there also one against Or- Association against the holistic healing arts, but thomolecular physicians? The issue here is not as particularly against the practice of chiropractic. clear since here we have one set of medical There is no doubt the medical profession has practitioners waging war against another been consistently and violently opposed to smaller set of medical practitioners. The chiropractic, but they probably would term their establishment may even be more determined to efforts a war against a practice they don't root out these heretics because they and their understand or believe in. I think the AMA would principles have been betrayed by colleagues who not agree it is a conspiracy since conspiracies are had been trained and molded by the same illegal. I use the term "believe in" to highlight the factors. More passion is generated by fact their "belief" is not based upon a body of turncoats than by people who never shared the scientific data, so it is not a scientific conclusion. same set of values and beliefs. I do not know Everyone is entitled to their "beliefs," but should whether the actions of the medical establishment, not give credit to these beliefs by labelling them the psychiatric branch, constitute a conspiracy. scientific. Readers of Lisa's book can weigh his To examine this question I will review Lisa's arguments for themselves. The Federal Trade book, describe the elements of a conspiracy as he Commission (U.S.A.) ruled AMA's activity to sees it, and examine the activity of the eliminate chiropractic in New York illegal, and psychiatric establishment. If there is a close the New York State Attorney General's office parallel between the activity of psychiatry in brought a $13 million suit for criminal conspiracy suppressing Orthomolecular psychiatry and the against them. activity of the American Medical Association in A conspiracy may be directed by one person, trying to destroy chiropractic, we can conclude or by a group of people, in order to achieve their that there was, and is, such a conspiracy. I will objectives, or it may consist of an amorphous leave it to each reader to come to his/her group of individuals who are united by a common conclusion. objective. This may be to protect a set of establishment principles or beliefs, i.e. there is no ELEMENTS OF A CONSPIRACY wish to personally harm people with different (a) The Committee views, merely to prevent them from following The AMA Board of Trustees created a their anti-establishment ideas. If in the process Committee on Quackery during November 1963. they are harmed, that is unfortunate but The committee disbanded a few years ago. unavoidable. If, therefore, a doctor loses his According to Lisa, this committee led and license and his practice and his livelihood promoted the war against chiropractic because he has practitioners. The American Psychiatric Association also created a committee but it was shortlived and 1. Based on: Are You A Target for Elimination? by P.J. Lisa. International Institute of Natural Health Sciences, Inc. produced one report on Megavitamins and P.O. Box 5550, Huntington Beach, CA 92646. 94 pages. Orthomolecular Therapy in Psychiatry. This $3.95 U.S. report has been analyzed by Hoffer and Osmond 2. 3A-2727 Quadra Street, Victoria, B.C. (1976). It has had an enduring effect in suppressing Orthomolecular therapy and is 158 Is There a Conspiracy? used by establishment-types who do not want to by selected individuals to educate medical become interested and who require a handy schools and hospital staff. The same information source of information (misinformation) with was provided to other physician-run organiza- which to bolster their position without the need to tions and to non physician friendly groups. do any personal study of the issues. The psychiatric establishment used almost Had the APA maintained this group as a identical techniques, cooperating with the Lehigh permanent committee, there is no doubt it would Valley Committee on Fraud and Quackery. I have functioned as did the AMA group, since its have seen special articles on megavitamin orientation and philosophy was the same. There therapy written by "experts" who have never is one major difference. The AMA group sought treated a single patient with any nutritional to suppress chiropractic, a rival health-providing technique. They are hearsay experts who have group. The APA committee sought to root out heard only from the APA task force report and heresy from fellow physicians. The composition from a handful of vocal critics who have spent and mode of operation of the APA task force has many years trying to destroy those who use been described and severely criticized (Hoffer nutrition in their practise if it includes vitamins in and Osmond, 1976), but so far no one from the above RDA dosages. In one year three brief APA has felt the need to rebut our examination of critiques of vitamin therapy appeared. They were this committee and how it did its work. written as an expose of the harmfulness of vitamins by listing a number of toxicities which (b) Battle Plan have never occurred, such as Vitamin C causing Any war must be planned before it can be kidney stones and destroying Vitamin B-12 properly executed. The AMA committee pro- (hinting that this will cause pernicious anemia). I vided the staffing and continuous planning using also saw the "fact" sheet used by each of the three the most modern techniques of communications authors from different medical centers; they were to destroy the enemy. The APA committee almost identical. Recently a fourth report followed a similar procedure. The main elements appeared written by an associate of the chairman of the plan by the AMA included: of the APA Task Force. Again it contained the same misinformation. The author had apparently 1. Indoctrination of its own members. All MDs been on the mailing list for the fact sheet. were to be educated about the facts of But this is not all. Loma Linda Medical School chiropractic theory and practice. This was ran a session on nutrition at Simon Fraser done by placing special articles in medical University in Vancouver, British Columbia, journals by "experts" and by books especially several years ago. One of their professors of written to destroy quackery. The term "quack" nutrition read a paper which, as titled, offered to was given a very broad, elastic definition to discuss megavitamin therapy. It did not. It was an include whomever one did not approve of. The enlarged version of the fact sheet containing the dictionary definition of a quack is a non same misinformation. I challenged him to quote physician who professes to be a physician. The me one reference or study which claimed even term can therefore be applied to physicians one case of kidney stones or pernicious anemia only if they lose their license to practice and had been caused by Vitamin C. He remained continue to do so. The AMA's definition of obstinately mute. But there is no centrally quack included physicians who merely coordinated continuing program. It runs on its disagreed with federal RDA estimates. own momentum generated by the report and the Fact sheets were distributed by the committee. general rejection of the validity of Or- This made it simpler to plant the same thomolecular therapy, even though it has never information in a wide variety of journals, examined it seriously and competently. presumably written by different authors but all crafted by the same hand. Lectures were provided 159 Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 2. No. 3, 1987 2. Suppression of information. Positive in- books by Roger Williams. When I saw the list I formation about chiropractic was suppressed felt rejected as my books had not made the list. by refusal of medical journals to carry these Dietary associations have also been a party to this reports. When other reports concluded there type of activity. Over ten years ago, at the annual was some merit in chiropractic, these reports meeting of the Saskatchewan College of were distorted and neutralized. This is still Physicians and Surgeons, the University of happening to information about Saskatchewan Nutrition Department had an ex- Orthomolecular therapy. The Journal of the hibit. It consisted of a table with two lists of American Medical Association has quickly books. The Orthomolecular books were all listed published reports about some hypothesized on the "Do Not Read" side. When I protested dangers of vitamins, presumably for the vigorously, the professor of nutrition, a public good, even when these dangers are biochemist, felt they had done no wrong. manufactured. But it has steadfastly refused Friendly organizations are enlisted as well, or to publish letters or articles which pointed out else they wish to cooperate as they feel the errors in these reports. This is how the threatened. In the United States, several states false idea arose that Vitamin C would destroy were petitioned by their residents to liberalize Vitamin B-12 in vivo. their medical health divisions by introducing Even the New England Journal of Medicine Orthomolecular therapy. The best example was has refused to publish Linus Pauling's critique of Connecticut. The battle against these petitioners the report by Moertel et al.