NCAHF Newsletter articles from May 1995

NCAHF Newsletter archives from May 1995

Death and illness linked to kombucha fad. (kombucha mushrooms)(adapted from the Des Moines Register, April 13, 1995)
May 1, 1995... A 59-year-old Sioux City, Iowa woman died, and another was hospitalized and nearly died, after drinking kombucha tea. Both women suffered from severe acidosis. Like many such cases, it is difficult to prove conclusively that the tea is the...

Media misleads Americans on government report and the value of chiropractors for treating back pain.
May 1, 1995... In December, 1994, the U.S. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (AHCPR) issued clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of most acute, painful, low back problems. Among the recommended treatments was spinal manipulation "especially...

Vitamin companies to sell vegetable pills. (Daily Greens)
May 1, 1995... In an effort to cash in on the reality that food is superior to vitamin pills, vitamin companies are going to market veggie pills. This is not the first time a pill company has tried this approach. Daily Greens, a capsule of dehydrated veggies,...

Interferon alpha aids "cure" controversy. (for AIDS)(adapted from the Chicago Tribune, March 14, 1995)
May 1, 1995... Dr. Abdul Alim Muhammad, a nonpracticing surgeon turned minister in Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, is promoting Low Dose Oral Interferon Alpha (LDOIA), an AIDS remedy first touted by Davy K Koech, health minister of Kenya. Both Dr. Muhammad...

Maverick medics want to force insurance reimbursement. (Foundation for the Advancement of Innovative Medicine)
May 1, 1995... The Foundation for the Advancement of Innovative Medicine (FAIM), a New York based organization made up of maverick doctors and others who promote dubious medicine, is organizing a campaign to attack insurance companies that refuse to reimburse...

Anti-consumer double standard reappears in suppression of cancer data.
May 1, 1995... Cancer patients are denied access to existing scientific information on "alternative" cancer therapies assembled under a publicly-funded research grant. The National Cancer Institute (NCI) paid Grace Monaco and associates $500,000 to develop...

Quackery abounds in China: Chinese remedies should make us wary.
May 1, 1995... Wu Xianghong, a doctoral candidate in philosophy and science at Renmin University of China, Beijing, writes about the popularity of paranormal beliefs in China in Skeptical Briefs March, 1995. Unsophisticated scams of a simple-mindedness not...

Dietary supplements marketing muddled and contentious.
May 1, 1995... The 1994 Dietary Supplements Health Education Act (DSHEA) does not please health food industry attorneys, the FDA, or consumer advocates. Health food attorneys wonder if the requirement that balanced information be made available means that...

Facilitated communication company settles FTC charges. (Louis Bass Inc.)
May 1, 1995... Louis Bass, Inc, which does business as Crestwood Company (Glendale, Wisc) and Abovo Inc (Chicopee, Mass), settled FTC charges that its Crestalk and Canon Communicator devices enable autistic individuals to communicate through Facilitated...