NCAHF Newsletter articles from May 1991

NCAHF Newsletter archives from May 1991

Questionable cancer remedy patients tested.
May 1, 1991... Cassileth, et al compared the length of survival and quality of life of 78-matched pairs of selected patients treated at the Livingston-Wheeler Medical Clinic (LWMC) at San Diego and the University of Pennsylvania Cancer Center. Patients...

CU clarifies dental mercury questions. (Consumer's Union)
May 1, 1991... Consumer's Union presents the important facts of the dental amalgam controversy in the May, 1991 Consumer Reports. CU's depiction of a thermometer which expresses micrograms of mercury per gram of creatine excreted in the urine put the matter...

Nystatin fails to relieve psychological symptoms ("yeast infection").
May 1, 1991... The questionable theory that Candida albicans (AKA yeast) infection is responsible for a chronic hypersensitivity syndrome which includes specific psychological symptoms was tested by randomized, double-blind trial lasting 32-weeks and...

Health food industry gleeful as federal clearinghouse for nutrition information is established.
May 1, 1991... The health food industry worked hard to pass legislation that would establish a Federal agency that would assemble and mix nutrition misinformation with sound information in a way that would make the former indistinguishable. The ability to...

Time magazine hits Scientology.
May 1, 1991... Richard Behar skewers the church of Scientology in the May 6, 1991, issue of Time. The article is probably one of the most important and courageous pieces of journalism ever done. Scientology is described as "a ruthless global scam -- and...

$900,000 award in clinical ecology malpractice case. (estate of Glen Gersten suit against Warren Levin)
May 1, 1991... A New York City jury awarded $900,000 in a wrongful death case to the administratrix of the estate of Glen Gersten who committed suicide after years of treatment by clinical ecologist Warren Levin, MD. The award included $411,000 in punitive...

The World Research Foundation.
May 1, 1991... The WRF is an information and referral resource that espouses a line familiar to quack fighters. Operated by Steven and La Verne Ross, WRF's stated purpose is to inform people about all available treatments (read: including quackery). They...

Victims of Chiropractic group formed.
May 1, 1991... A Georgia man, who suffers partial impairment following chiropractic neck manipulation (CNM), has formed an organization for people who have been injured by CNM. His hope is to have legislation passed in every state which would require that...

Pharmacist practiced pseudomedicine.
May 1, 1991... The activities of an unidentified Nebraska pharmacist are described in the "You be the Judge" legal column of Drug Store News/Inside Pharmacy (6/18/90). The man adopted the title of "doctor" allowing people to believe that he was a physician,...

Desperate Soviets turn to quackery & folk medicine.
May 1, 1991... A scarcity of medications is driving Soviet citizens to herbal remedies, banki (empty jars are heated and used to create suction on the chest), homeopathy and psychic healing according to New York Times writer Frances X. Clines. A booming...

James Keller captured. (cancer quackery case)
May 1, 1991... James Gordon Keller, 57, was arrested at the U.S. border on March 18. Keller, whose escapades were detailed in "The sad allure of cancer quackery," FDA Consumer, 5/85, once operated the Universal Health Center at Matamoros, Mexico, where he...