NCAHF Newsletter articles from July 2001

NCAHF Newsletter archives from July 2001

Crackdown continues on Baja California clinics.
July 1, 2001... Since January Baja California health officials have closed 20 clinics that offer "alternative" treatments to clients who come from the United States and other countries, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported One of these clinics was the San...

Rebirthing killers sentenced; assistants plead guilty.
July 1, 2001... "Rebirthing therapists" Connell Watkins and Julie Ponder, who were convicted in April of reckless child abuse in suffocating 10-year-old Candace Newmaker as part of "rebirthing therapy," received the minimum sentence of 16 years from a Colorado...

Dubios mental health-related methods summarized.
July 1, 2001... In the recent double issue of Priorities for Health magazine on "Sorting Out Junk Science" [12(4);2000 and 13(1);2001], Jack Raso, MS provided brief descriptions of "Dubious Mental Health-Related Methods" such as: Acceptance Acupressure Method,...

Pseudoscientific psychological therapies scrutinized.
July 1, 2001... A symposium in the Spring 2001 issue of The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine and Aberrant Medical Practices [SRAM] on "Pseudoscience and Psychotherapy" begins with brain behavior scientist Barry Beyerstein's article "Fringe...

Autism quackery reviewed.
July 1, 2001... Person with autism have slight to substantial impairment in ability to learn, communicate, and interact socially with others. Several recently published articles including two articles in the special double issue of Priorities for Health...

Rogerian nursing Science exposed as pseudoscience.
July 1, 2001... Many nursing academicians describe themselves as Rogerians. By this they mean they take seriously the work of the late Martha Rogers, who was dean of nursing at New York University and the author of The Science of Unitary Human Beings and An...

New edition of consumer health textbook available.
July 1, 2001... Stephen Barrett, MD, William T. Jarvis, PhD, Manfred Kroger, PhD, and William M. London, EdD, MPH are co-authors of the seventh edition (2002) of the college textbook Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions (623 pp.) published by...

Psychotherapy Web sites for consumers critiqued.
July 1, 2001... A study of the quality of information on psychotherapy at Web sites that consumers would likely find in a search for information on psychotherapy revealed that "the consumer of health information is exposed to a variety of unsubstantiated...

Correction.
July 1, 2001... The founder of the Society for Cancer Research, Rudolf Steiner, was incorrectly described as a physician in the May/June newsletter article "Celebrity Publicizes Choice of Dubious Cancer Treatment Following Coverage of Her Liposuction Clinic."

New NCAHF task force initiated. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... Cindy Province, RN (cindypro@mo.net) is the coordinator of a new NCAHF Task Force that will evaluate the claims made by anti-vaccination activists and expose how promoters of unproven methods of healthcare threaten community health by...

AVMA revises CAM guidelines. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... The Executive Board of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) gave its acceptance on April 9th of a statement of new, rational "Guidelines on Complementary and Alternative Medicine." The new statement replaces guidelines adopted in...

Dog fancier supports NCAHF. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... When Donna Svabik's beloved Bullmastiff, Sonny, developed osteogenic sarcoma, she pored through Internet forums and chats to seek advice. She round the Canines in Crisis Web site which promoted a radical diet of megadoses of various vitamins,...

NCAHF board members speak out. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... * Saul Green, PhD offered a scathing critique of contemporary "alternative" methods such as extravenous ozone and gaseous ozone for people with AIDS, "metabolic therapy," and "antineoplaston" treatments to an overflow audience at the...

FDA and FCT act against Comfrey Marketing. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... The US FDA asked makers of dietary supplements containing comfrey to withdraw their products because the pyrrolizidine alkaloids in comfrey cause liver damage and possibly cancer. The Federal Trade Commission announced that Utah-based...

Guilty plea in sale of colloidal silver. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... In June the Federal Trade Commission settled fraud charges against several companies that sold colloidal silver products over the Internet. A bit player in the colloidal silver scam, Steve Tondre of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, promoted a...

New "wellness and alternative medicine" B.S. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... The Department of Behavioral Sciences at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont has announced a new bachelor degree program in "Wellness and Alternative Medicine" (WAM). According to the Johnson State Web site: "The WAM program is among the...

Famous astrologer's thesis questioned. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... More than 400 sociologists signed a petition asking the president of the Sorbonne to make an independent evaluation of the passing grade given sociology PhD student Elizabeth Teissler's defended thesis on "The Epistemological Situation of...

Correction. (The NCAHF Bulletin Board).
July 1, 2001... In "OIG CALLS FDA OVERSIGHT OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS" in the March/April 2001 Bulletin Board, the figure for the dietary supplement industry's estimate of sales should have been $16 billion instead of $16 million.