NCAHF Newsletter articles from September 1995

NCAHF Newsletter archives from September 1995

Harkin's manipulation of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine exposed. (Tom Harkin, National Institutes of Health)(adapted from the U.S. News and World Report, July 17, 1995)
September 1, 1995... Stephen Budiansky performed a splendid service to the nation by detailing Senator Tom Harkin's role in the establishment and operation of the NIH Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM) [U.S. News & World Report, 7/17/95]. The article dispels the...

Case is dropped against maverick MD. (alternative medicine physician, Jonathan Wright)(adapted from a Seattle Times wire story in the Kansas City Star, September 26, 1995)
September 1, 1995... The Justice Department decided not to file charges against Jonathan Wright, MD, the Kent, Washington physician whose office was raided by the FDA in 1992. Wright, who is the former president of the American Quack Association and current...

The cost-effectiveness of quackery is scary.
September 1, 1995... NCAHF believes that quackery can be cost-effective; (1) if it is cheaper, (eg, vitamins and herbs instead of prescription drugs); and, (2) because patients will die sooner than they would with standard care. Cost. Health care has become...

Alabama says to diploma mill: not in our back yard! (to unlicensed alternative medicine schools)
September 1, 1995... Lloyd Clayton of Birmingham, Alabama operates a number of diploma mills(*). Included are the Clayton School of Natural Healing, Chadwick University, and the American Holistic College of Nutrition. (Clayton also sells "Dr. Clayton's herbals and...

How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age.
September 1, 1995... How To Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking For A New Age by Schick and Vaugh (Mayfield, 1995) in my view, does what no other book on critical thinking has done; it delivers! Many lament over the great need for the teaching of critical...

Sports performance aid MET-Rx questioned.
September 1, 1995... MET-Rx[TM], a sports performance aid, claims to contain a special, superior "European-produced protein." The company has sold over $60 million worth thus far. Because of the number of high profile professional athletes and teams which are...

Quacked consumer reporter strikes back. (Ellen Burstein investigates Irving Dardik and Superesonant Wavenergy program)
September 1, 1995... Ellen Burstein was a TV investigative reporter for 13 years who was struck with multiple sclerosis. In 1991 she read a glowing front page New York magazine report about Dr. Irving Dardik and his Superesonant Wavenergy (SRWE) program. Dardik's...

Use care when interpreting reports of physicians' interest in alternative and/or complementary medicine.
September 1, 1995... Misdefinitions. A review of studies of physicians' interest in "alternative" and/or complementary' medicine reveals that most writers don't understand their topic. There is no consistent definition of these terms and writers do not even apply...

Cat's claw cancer herb. (adapted from the Journal of Natural Products, 54:453-459, 1991)
September 1, 1995... A Peruvian folk remedy is being touted as a cancer medicine in the USA Ads have been run on Spanish-speaking radio stations. The remedy involves Una de Gato--Cat's Claw in English. Cat's Claw can involve either of two herbs whose scientific...

Drug chains sued for homeopathy claims. (including Payless, Longs, and Walgreens)(adapted from Time, September 25, 1995)
September 1, 1995... A California-based public interest attorney, Donald Driscoll, has filed lawsuits in that state against major drug chains, including Payless, Long's, and Walgreens, charging that package inserts indicating specific uses for homeopathic remedies...