NCAHF Newsletter articles from January 1996

NCAHF Newsletter archives from January 1996

Major antioxidant supplement goes bust. (beta carotene)(adapted from the New York Times, January 19, 1996)
January 1, 1996... Two large studies that were designed to test the value of beta carotene supplements have found them to be completely ineffective in preventing cancer or heart disease. The Physicians' Health Study involved 23,071 doctors randomly assigned to take...

Pro-oxidant effects of "antioxidant" vitamins. (adapted from the Journal of Nutrition, January 1996)
January 1, 1996... Every "antioxidant" is a redox (reduction-oxidation) agent, protecting against free radicals in some circumstances, promoting them in others. On April 12, at the 1995 meeting of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, five...

Vitamin A versus folic acid: will birth defects messages get equal time? (adapted from the New England Journal of Medicine, 1995;333:1369-73)(includes comment)
January 1, 1996... A study of 22,748 pregnant women (10/84 to 6/87) yielded 121 infants with birth defects of the cranial neural crest. Women who consumed more than 15,000 IU vitamin A daily were 3.5 times more likely CI=1.7 to 7.3) to bear babies with defects...

Indictment makes Burzynski quackdom's latest "martyr." (Stanislaw Burzynski)(adapted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1992;267:2924-8)
January 1, 1996... On Nov 20, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Gaynelle Griffin Jones, charged Stanislaw Burzynski, MD, and the Burzynski Research Institute (BRI) with 75 counts of mail fraud, violations of the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act (FDAC),...

Fluoride & bone cancer. (risk factor analysis)(adapted from the American Journal of Public Health, 1995;85:1678-83)
January 1, 1996... Short History 1974 the National Health Federation hired John Yiamouyannis, PhD, (JY) for the expressed purpose of discrediting fluoridation. initiated the campaign to smear fluoridation by purporting to have found that it causes cancer. His...

Fluoridation battles loom in California.
January 1, 1996... The 1995 California legislature passed a statewide fluoridation mandate requiring every centralized water service with 10,000 or more outlets to fluoridate. Each local jurisdiction must fund its own program. This means that each locale will be...

Malpractice judgment against Hal Huggins. (dental malpractice)
January 1, 1996... In November, a jury awarded Diane Bailey, 41, a $159,000 malpractice award against Colorado Springs dentist Hal Huggins. Bailey says that she had no dental problems at all when she entered Huggins' office in 1991, but lost many teeth and now has...

Sugar and kids' behavior. (adapted from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 1995;274:1617-21)(includes comment)
January 1, 1996... A meta-analysis of 23 high quality* studies found that sugar does not affect the behavior or cognitive performance of children. The strong belief of parents may be due to expectancy and common association. However, a small effect of sugar or...

Vegan zealots promote radical, restrictive diet to school children. (includes comment)
January 1, 1996... Kentucky dietitians are concerned about attempts by EarthSave, the organization started by John Robbins (author of Diet For A New America [see Sept-Oct, 199 1, NCAHF Newsletter for a critique]), to convert school children to a radical,...

First tax-supported "natural health" clinic to open. (in King County, Washington)
January 1, 1996... The King County (Washington) Council is made up of a number of devotees to naturopathy. The Council is described in a New York Times syndication as"rhapsodizing about garlic pills and the healing power of ginkgo tree extract." One member says...