Quackwatch

[silverharp]

Colloidal Silver:
Risk Without Benefit

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

Colloidal silver is a suspension of submicroscopic metallic silver particles in a colloidal base. Long-term use of silver preparations can lead to argyria, a condition in which silver salts deposit in the skin, eyes, and internal organs, and the skin turns ashen-gray. Many cases of argyria occurred during the pre-antibiotic era when silver was a common ingredient in nosedrops. When the cause became apparent, doctors stopped recommending their use, and reputable manufacturers stopped producing them. The official drug guidebooks (United States Pharmacopeia and National Formulary) have not listed colloidal silver products since 1975.

Dubious Ads

In recent years, silver-containing products have been marketed with unsubstantiated claims that they are effective against AIDS, cancer, infectious diseases, parasites, chronic fatigue, acne, warts, hemorrhoids, enlarged prostate, and many other diseases and conditions. Some marketers claim that colloidal silver is effective against hundreds of diseases.

During 1997 and 1998, Changes International, a Florida-based multilevel company, stated:

Our colloidal silver contains 99.99% pure silver particles suspended indefinitely in demineralized water that kills bacteria and viruses. It can be applied topically and/or absorbed into the blood stream sub-lingually (under the tongue), thereby avoiding the negative effects of traditional antibiotics that kill good bacteria in the lower digestive tract.

An all natural antibiotic alternative in the purest form available. The presence of colloidal silver near a virus, fungi, bacterium or any other single celled pathogen disables its oxygen-metabolism enzyme, its chemical lung, so to say. The pathogens suffocates and dies, and is cleared out of the body by the immune, lymphatic and elimination systems.

Unlike pharmaceutical antibiotics which destroy beneficial enzymes, colloidal silver leaves these beneficial enzymes intact. Thus colloidal silver is absolutely safe for humans, reptiles, plants and all multi-celled living matter.

It is impossible for single-celled germs to mutate into silver-resistant forms, as happens with conventional antibiotics. Also, colloidal silver cannot interact or interfere with other medicines being taken. Colloidal silver is truly a safe, natural remedy for many of mankind's ills. Colloidal silver can be taken indefinitely because the body does not develop a tolerance to it [1]

Seasilver International, a California-based multilevel company, claims that American are suffering from "silver deficiency." Although silver is not an essential nutrient, product information posted on the company's Web site states:

The depletion of minerals in our soil has left us deficient of silver, one of our most essential trace minerals, causing a drastic increase in immune system disorders in our society in the last decade. Research has taught us that all disease is allowed to manifest itself because of a weakened immune system. In over 20 years of worldwide research on Colloidal Silver, numerous interviews with government agencies, health care practitioners and their patients, no other nutrient, herb or drug (prescription or over-the-counter) is as safe and effective against all known forms of unfriendly virus, bacteria, and fungus. Additionally, while it is generally known that most antibiotics kill only perhaps 6 or 7 different disease organisms, reports have shown that Colloidal Silver has been used successfully in the treatment of over 650 diseases! Furthermore, strains of disease organisms fail to develop in the presence of Colloidal Silver. Colloidal Silver's greatest attribute is its unique ability to function as a superior second immune system in the body! [2]

The ad below is from the July 1996 issue of Alternative Medicine Digest.





Critical Studies and Case Reports

In 1995, an herbal distributor named Leslie Taylor tested nine commonly marketed colloidal silver products available at health-food stores and concluded:

• Two of the products were contaminated with microorganisms.
• The amount of silver suspended in solution varied from product to product and would gradually decrease over time.
• Only five products actually showed antibacterial activity in a laboratory test. To perform the test, she prepared a culture plate with Staphylococcus aureas bacteria, which can cause infections in humans. She then placed a drop from each product on the plate and used disks of two common antibiotics as controls. After eight hours of incubation, she found that bacterial growth had been inhibited around the antibiotics and four of the products.

Of course, the fact that a product inhibits bacteria in a laboratory culture doesn't mean it is effective (or safe) in the human body. In fact, products that kill bacteria in the laboratory would be more likely to cause argyria because they contain more silver ions that are free to deposit in the user's skin.

FDA laboratory studies have found that the amount of silver in some product samples has varied from 15.2% to 124% of the amount listed on the product labels. The amount of silver required to produce argyria is unknown. However, the FDA has concluded that the risk of using silver products exceeds any unsubstantiated benefit [3]. So far, nine cases of argyria related to silver products have been reported:

• A 56-year-old man who had sold and used colloidal silver for three years, developed blue/gray discoloration of his fingernails accompanied by a very high blood level of silver [4].
• A married couple who had three years of daily consumption of a drink prepared by administering an electrolytic charge to a bowl of water that contained a silver bar [5].
• Another couple had been taking a silver-containing "dietary supplement" prescribed by a naturopath [5].
• A mentally ill man who had been drinking silver-containing herbal tea for about 10 months [5].
• Stan Jones, Montana's Libertarian Party candidate for the U.S. Senate, who reportedly started taking colloidal silver in 1999 for fear that Y2K disruptions might lead to a shortage of antibiotics. He made his own concoction by electrically two silver wires in a glass of water [6].
• Two men, ages 63 and 76, developed argyria after a year of product use inspired by Internet claims [7].

Enforcement Actions

Between October 1993 and September 1994, the FDA issued warning letters to five colloidal silver marketers::

• Higher Education Library Publications (H.E.L.P.), of Springfield, Utah, was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was effective as a natural antibiotic and might be effective against cancer, genito-urinary diseases, tuberculosis, and AIDS.
• Nutrition, Inc., of Arvada, Colorado, was ordered to stop stating or implying that its Silvicidal, when administered orally or intravenously, was nontoxic, FDA-approved, and was a broad-spectrum antibiotic that killed bacteria and all virus and fungal infections. In addition, it was falsely claimed to be effective against a long list of specific diseases.
• Reseau International of Cincinnati, Ohio was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was a "natural antibiotic and anti-inflammatory immune system stimulant" and that it was effective against cancer, staph, strep, influenza, general body infections, inflammation, impaired immune system, fungus toxicity, tonsillitis, Meniere's symptoms, whooping cough, shingles, syphilis, cholera, and malaria. The labeling also stated that colloidal silver could cause major growth stimulation of human tissues and can regenerate
• Silverado Inc., of Bountiful, Utah, was warned to stop making false claims that its colloidal silver product was effective as an antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anti-viral, and anti-fungal agent and that it could stimulate the immune system.
• Unic, of Carmichael, California, was ordered to stop claiming that its colloidal silver product was effective against many diseases and could heal burn-damaged tissue without scarring.

In October 1996, the FDA proposed to ban the use of colloidal silver or silver salts in over-the-counter products [8]. A Final Rule banning such use was issued on August 17, 1999 and became effective September 16th. The rule applies to any nonprescription colloidal silver or silver salt product claimed to be effective in preventing or treating any disease [9]. Silver products can still be sold as "dietary supplements" provided that no health claims are made for them. During 2000, the FDA issued warnings to more than 20 companies whose Web sites were making illegal therapeutic claims for colloidal silver products.

In 2000, the Federal Court of Australia banned Vital Earth Company Pty Limited and its director Darryl John Jones from falsely representing that the colloidal silver produced by their "Vital Silver 3000 Zapper," "Vital Silver 2000 Automatic" and "Vital Silver 2000":

• Can kill all disease-causing bacteria, fungi and virus within six minutes of contact
• Has no harmful side effects; that colloidal silver could be used as an antibiotic for all the acquired diseases of active AIDS
• Is effective with more than 650 different pathogenic bacteria and virus types
• Has been used successfully against diseases including AIDS, cholera, diabetes, leprosy, leukemia, lupus, skin cancer, syphilis and whooping cough.

The company was also ordered to pay AUS$9000 in costs and to provide refunds [10].

In 2001, the FTC obtained consent agreements with two companies:

• Robert C. Spencer and Lisa M. Spencer, doing business as Aaron Company (Palm Bay, Florida). Colloidal silver has been medically proven to kill over 650 disease-causing organisms in the body and is effective in curing diseases ranging from cancer and multiple sclerosis to HIV/AIDS [11].
• ForMor, Inc., doing business as ForMor International, and its president, Stan Gross (Birmingham, Alabama) agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims that colloidal silver is effective in treating over 650 infectious diseases, has no adverse side effects, and is effective against arthritis, blood poisoning, cancer, cholera, diphtheria, diabetes, dysentery, gonorrhea, herpes, influenza, leprosy, lupus, malaria, meningitis, rheumatism, shingles, staph infections, strep infections, syphilis, tuberculosis, whooping cough, and yeast infections [11].

In 2002, the FTC obtained a consent agreement with Kris Pletschke, doing business as Raw Health, agreed to stop making unsubstantiated claims that its colloidal silver product could treat or cure 650 different diseases; eliminate all pathogens in the human body in six minutes or less; and is medically proven to kill every destructive bacterial, viral, and fungal organism in the body, including anthrax, Ebola, Hanta, and flesh-eating bacteria [12].

In 2002, the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration amended its rules so that water-treatment products containing substances like colloidal silver for which therapeutic claims are made must meet the requirements of medicines included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. This means that such products can no longer be legally marketed without proof that they are safe and effective for their intended purpose. The amendment was based on clnclusions that:

• There is little evidence to support therapeutic claims made for colloidal silver products;
• The risk to consumers of silver toxicity outweighs the value of trying an unsubstantiated treatment, and bacterial resistance to silver can occur
• Efforts should be made to curb the illegal availability of colloidal silver products, which is a significant public health issue [13] .

References

1. Product brochure. Changes International, 1997. Downloaded in 1998.
2. Seasilver International Product Information, accessed October 12, 1998.
3. Fung MC, Bowen DL. Silver products for medical indications: risk-benefit assessment. Journal of Toxicology and Clinical Toxicology 34:119-26, 1996.
4. Gulbranson SH and others. Argyria following the use of dietary supplements containing colloidal silver protein. Cutis 66:373-374, 2000.
5. Hori K and others. Believe it or not -- Silver still poisons! Veterinary and Human Toxicology 44(5):291-292, 2002.
6. Blue Is the color of my candidate's skin. Associated Press, Oct 2, 2002
7. Cohen LE and others. Effects of Internet quackery: Argyria in the silver state. Federal Practitioner 21(4):9-17, 2004.
8. Federal Register 61:53685-53688, 1996. (To access this document, search the 1996 volume for "colloidal silver.")
9. FDA. Final rule: Over-the-counter drug products containing colloidal silver ingredients or silver salts. Federal Register 64:44653-44658, 1999. Download PDF version
10. Refunds for buyers of alternative therapy devices. News release, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission., May 5, 20
11. "Operation Cure.All" wages new battle in ongoing war against Internet health fraud. FTC news release, June 14, 2001.
12. FTC announces first two enforcement actions against purveyors of bioterrorism defense products. FTC news release, Feb 27, 2002.
13. Regulation of colloidal silver and related products. Therapeutic Goods Administration Web site, Aug 19, 2003.

For Further Information

Rosemary Jacobs, an argyria victim, has made a detailed study of the colloidal silver marketplace and is willing to answer questions.



Quackwatch Home Page



This article was revised on May 5, 2004.

Quackwatch is the stupidest web site there is. This site goes after a lot of the Alternative Medicine companies and the people behind it. Just for an example they go after Dr Hulda Clark and they also go after Gary Young of Young Living Essential Oils. These two people have helped my mother greatly and other that I know to fight cancer.

Don't waste your time or energy on anything Quackwatch says.

[gpond]

Gary Young of Young Living Essential Oils

http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/young.html

They really go after him and his multi-level marketing operation here:

Quackwatch Home Page

A Critical Look at Gary Young,
Young Living Essential Oils, and Raindrop Therapy

Stephen Barrett, M.D.

This article describes the background and activities of self-styled naturopath Donald Gary Young, his multi-level marketing company Young Living Essential Oils, his Young Life Research Clinic Institute of Natural Medicine, and his special technique called Raindrop Therapy. Also known as Don Gary Young, D. Gary Young, and Gary Young, he was born in Salmon, Idaho on July 11,1949 and graduated from the Challis, Idaho high school on May 23, 1967 [1]. This is only legitimate educational credential that I have been able to verify.

Young moved to British Columbia and married his first wife, Donna. He claims that while he was working as a logger in 1973, a falling tree struck him on the head. According to an account on his Web site:

After three weeks in a coma and four months in intensive care, Gary found himself paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for life, according to the doctors' prognoses. Following two years of intense pain and depression and three suicide attempts, he resolved to regain control of his life. He fasted on juice and water for almost a year and finally regained sensation in his toes, marking the beginning of his long and painful road toward recovery. Later he embarked on a worldwide investigation of natural medicine, from herbology and acupuncture to nutrition and naturopathy. This relentless research coupled with an iron determination enabled him to eventually regain his mobility and ability to walk, although not without pain. . . .

It was this pain that eventually led him to discover the potential of a powerful but little-known form of natural medicine -- essential oils. Within a very short time, Gary cast off the persistent pain that he had borne for almost 13 years as he began tapping the power of essential oils. by 1986 he was able to run a half-marathon, finishing 60th out of 970 participants [2].

This description suggests that before Young embarked on his health-related career, he was mentally unstable and possibly even brain-damaged. I seriously doubt that he can substantiate his claim that the products he used actually cured him.

By 1981, Young moved to Spokane and opened the Golden Six Health Club in Sprague, Washington. Although he had no training in obstetrics or midwifery, he decided to deliver his wife's baby underwater in a whirlpool bath at the health club. He left the baby under water for almost an hour, causing the death of an apparently healthy infant on September 4, 1982. Although the coroner said that the baby would have lived if she had been delivered in a conventional manner, Young was never charged in that case. His plans for an underwater delivery the previous year had been thwarted when a health department caseworker threatened to prosecute him if he followed through with the plan [3-7].

In March 1983, Young was arrested in Spokane for practicing medicine without a license when he offered to provide an undercover agent with prenatal services and to treat her mother for cancer. He claimed falsely to be a graduate of "The American Institute of Physioregenerology." But the institute's owner said that Young attended only a few classes, did only 1/3 of the homework, and owed $1,800 in tuition [3-7]. The prosecuting attorney's statement of charges in the case said:

UNLAWFUL PRACTICE OF MEDICINE committed as follows: That the defendant, Donald Gary Young, in Spokane County, Washington, on or about February 24, 1983, then and there being, did then and there offer or undertake to diagnose, advise or prescribe for a human physical condition, or offer to penetrate the tissue of another human being, by means as follows: offering to deliver a baby of another person; by offering to treat another person for cancer and to detect the presence of cancer in another by. means of a blood sample which he would draw and by a blood test which he would interpret; and by offering to determine the nutritional needs of another person during pregnancy by drawing blood and interpreting the results of a blood test; the defendant at such time not having a valid unrevoked license to practice medicine [8].

Young pled guilty to the the unlawful practice of medicine and was sentences to a year of probation. In the plea document he "explained" that he "was engaged in consuling [sic] people in alternative cancer therpy [sic] and offering dietary help in order to give people a program that would work." [9]

From Spokane, Young moved to Mexico. By this time he had divorced Donna and married his second wife, Dixie. In Mexico, Young ran a clinic for the treatment of cancer with laetrile [10]. Laetrile is a fraudulent cancer treatment that is both ineffective and dangerous [11].

After Mexico, Young, claiming then to be a physician, established a clinic in Chula Vista, California. He was arrested in California in 1988 for misleading and deceptive advertising and for selling supposed cures [12-14]. An undercover agent submitted a sample of her blood with a fictitious male name for the bogus "blood crystallization" test also known as "live blood cell analysis." Young reportedly told her that she had prostate cancer with cells that could act in a "potentially aggressive manner." Other charges against Young included selling unapproved medical devices and unapproved new drugs, manufacturing medical devices and drugs without a license, advertising drugs and devices to cure cancer, and practicing medicine without a license.

After leaving California, Young lived in Sparks, Nevada; Spokane, Washington; Seattle, Washington; and Post Falls, Idaho. By 1992, he had divorced Dixie and married his third and current wife, Mary Billeter Young. He then started his current multilevel marketing company, Young Living Essential Oils (YLEO).

Young's biographical sketch on the YLEO web site and a multitude of independent distributor web sites describes Young as a naturopath and praises him as "one of North America's foremost authorities on essential oils." He claims he was invited by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization to speak at Anadolu University in Eskisehir, Turkey in 1995 [2]. He states that Bernadean University awarded him a masters degree in nutrition in 1984 and a doctor of naturopathy degree in 1985. However, Bernadean is a notorious mail-order diploma mill that has never been authorized to grant degrees [15].

Young ihas never been licensed, as a naturopath in Utah or in any other state [16]. In April 2002, the Young Living web site used the title N.D. (naturopathic doctor) after Young's name and stated that Young was a naturopath. In April 2002, a physician who telephoned Young Living was told that he was licensed to practice naturopathy in Utah. The Web site of the Utah Division of Professional Licensing (USOPL) lists the numbers of all licensed naturopaths, but the Young Living employee who was asked for Young's license number, said it could not be given out. After the physician complained to the UDOPL, Young Living removed the title N.D. and references to Young as a naturopath from the its Web site, but this misleading information still appears all over the Net on distributor Web sites.

Young's mail-order "degree" does not entitle him to become licensed in the state of Utah [17]. Actually, he would have no reason to acquire a license because in Utah it is illegal for a licensed naturopath to "own, directly or indirectly, a retail store, wholesaler, distributor, manufacturer, or facility of any other kind located in this state that is engaged in the sale, dispensing, delivery, distribution, or manufacture of homeopathic remedies, dietary supplements, or natural medicines." [18}

What about Young's claim to be an authority on essential oils? The publisher of the Journal of Essential Oils (JEOR) has confirmed that Young co-authored at least one paper in the JEOR. The publisher also pointed out that the JEOR did not verify his credentials. The JEOR deals only with the basic science of essential oils, not with their clinical application, medicinal or otherwise [19].

Several true experts in the field of essential oils, all on the JEOR editorial panel, have commented on the transcript of Young's tape "The Missing Link" which is posted widely on the Internet. This tape, which summarizes Young's bizarre notions about the healing powers of essential oils, is his manifesto. The experts concurred that his ideas are pure junk science. Robert P. Adams (Baylor University, Waco, Texas) wrote, "Pure garbage. Nothing else." [20] Rodney Croteau (Washington State University, Pullman, Washington) wrote, "Mr. Young's writings are among the most unscientific and intellectually unsound that I have ever read. There is no doubt that Mr. Young is a genuine quack." [19] And Robin Clery (Quest International) wrote that Young's statements "are at best misleading, mostly wrong, and at worst could lead others to misuse essential oils with potentially dangerous consequences." [22]

In 1998, Butch Owen, an American essential oils exporter living and working in Turkey, investigated Young's claims of Turkish credentials and found them to be unsubstantiated. Professor Dr. Mustafa Keviz, a lecturer on the Agricultural and Plants faculty of Anadolu University, stated that Gary Young had never given any lectures there. The United Nations Development Organization never sponsored Young or invited him to speak. He showed up uninvited and convinced some officials to permit him to present on two topics. Professor Dr. K. Husnu Can Basar (then director of the Medical and Aromatic Plant and Drug Research Center, Anadolu University) described Young's presentation as inconsequential [23].

Young also claims expertise in the design of equipment for the distillation of essential oils and says that he has designed and built several distillers for producing his oils. However, records from the Utah Occupational Safety and Health Division (UOSHD) suggest otherwise. On August 17, 2000, one of his homemade distillers ruptured at the lid/cover joint, fatally wounding a worker at Young Living Farms in Mona, Utah. The UOSHD's investigation concluded that "No consideration was given in the design and construction of distillation vessels with respect to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) requirements pertaining to the design and construction of pressure vessels." The agency's report said that the vessel had not been equipped with any type of device that could relieve overpressurization within it. Young Living was fined a total of $10,280 for seven safety violations found in the investigation of this accident. The report also noted that in 1999, two other distillation units had been taken out of service after the inspector found violations [24].

Young's book Aromatherapy: The Essential Beginning has a whole chapter on ancient and modern equipment used for steam distillation [25]. Although the chapter emphasizes that "the best quality of oil would be produced when the pressure was zero pounds during distillation," the UOSHD report noted that steam had delivered to the vessel at 125 p.s.i. (pounds per square inch) of pressure.

That is the background of Gary Young. He is a man with no scientific medical training, with inflated credentials and a history of arrests for health fraud. Now let's examine his company.

Young Living Essential Oils

Young and his third wife Mary Billeter Young started Young Living Essential Oils (YLEO) in Utah in 1992. A biographical sketch describes her as previously quite successful at a multilevel marketing company [26], which I believe was Sunrider International. Building on her experience, the Youngs established YLEO as a typical MLM company in which "independent distributors" are said to earn money by selling products and by earning a percentage of the sales of the distributors they recruit [27]. The company is claimed to have more than 250,000 distributors in 20 countries.

YLEO's November 2002 catalog includes 71 single oils; 55 oil blends; 11 oil kits; 12 essential waters; 63 toiletry items; 79 nutritional supplements; accessories; promotional items; and equipment such as diffusers, water purification systems, and titanium cookware. The company justifies high prices by claiming that its products are purer than those of its competitors, but it provides no comparative information to support these assertions. The names of many products could mislead consumers by implying clinical effects where none exist. Examples include Brain Power to "clarify and support concentration," ImmuPower "for building, strengthening and protecting the body," and Thyromin to "maximize nutritional support to the thyroid."

YLEO's current Web site avoids many of Young's more extravagant claims. All product descriptions include the disclaimer, "This statement has not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease." The FDA has warned the company not to claim that certain products are intended to treat, prevent, cure, or mitigate disease [28,29]. However, blatantly illegal claims and testimonials still appear on the sites of many YLEO distributors.

The top sales leaders publish newsletters for their downline (distributors below them in the hierarchy). One newsletter touts the supposed Egyptian and biblical use of essential oils as evidence of their medicinal effectiveness, even though the mere fact that a substance was used by past cultures does not prove that that it is safe, effective, or useful for any disease state. Another newsletter suggests that independent distributors target church groups by offering seminars on "biblical healing." The distributors could then take advantage of the assembled groups to attract new customers [30]. Another sales leader suggests stopping complete strangers while grocery shopping, telling them about YLEO, and then deducting the gas mileage for the shopping trip as a business expense [31]. In a 1995 training video, Young states that he persuaded a reluctant user to try his oils by "appealing to his ego," assuring him that he would "make history." [32] One current user of YLEO products told me confidently that when Young cured his serious disease with essential oils, he would "make history." This suggests that Young continues to deliberately manipulate his customers.

Essential Science Publishing, of Orem Utah, sells books, videotapes, and audiotapes, some of which propound Gary Young's ridiculous theories and claims for essential oils. This enables false claims that would be illegal in advertising to reach consumers through channels protected by freedom of the press.

Young Life Research Clinic Institute of Natural Medicine

In October 2000, Young opened the ambitiously named Young Life Research Clinic Institute of Natural Medicine in Springville, Utah. Since he had run into legal trouble over his lack of a license in two other states, he needed licensed doctors to staff his clinic and to carry out his idiosyncratic brand of healing. His medical staff has included Roger Belden Lewis, M.D., a board-certified family physician, and Sherman Johnson, M.D., a pediatrician who is not board certified.

The Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL) web page shows that Johnson has a disciplinary record. Johnson's license was suspended from 1994 to 1999 for felony medical misconduct related to the misprescribing of narcotics [33].Two archived articles in the Salt Lake City Tribune provide more details [34,35]. These reports state that Johnson was married for 28 years but also had a long-time friend named Donna Jones for 14 years. Jones was mentally ill with multiple personality disorder, and Johnson acted as her doctor even though (a) pediatricians normally don't treat adults or people with serious mental problems, and (b) romantic involvement with a patient is considered unwise and unprofessional and, in many states, is grounds for disciplinary action. Jones apparently believed that she had cancer. She didn't, but she shaved her head and toted an oxygen tank to look the part. And she became addicted to narcotics prescribed by Johnson for her nonexistent cancer pain. In fact, in the final six months of her life Johnson prescribed 386,000 milligrams of Demerol, an enormous dose. Eventually Johnson injected her with a lethal overdose of Demerol and she died in his arms. He falsified the death certificate and she was buried. He even sang at her funeral. Later, a nurse raised suspicions. The body was exhumed, the overdose confirmed, and no evidence of cancer found. Asked why he never examined his patient, Johnson said that she was "too modest." Asked why he never ordered any tests or work up for cancer, Johnson said that tests were unnecessary because his friend wouldn't lie to him. She had told him that the cancer was injected into her body by "a coven of gay witches and doctors." Johnson avoided a homicide trial by pleading guilty to manslaughter. In a presentencing hearing, the district attorney recommended a sentence of 1 to 15 years in the state penitentiary. Instead, the judge sentenced him to a mere 90 days in the county jail. Johnson was allowed to go home nights and weekends for the final 60 days. He was also fined $12,500. Johnson stopped working for Young during the summer of 2003 and now operates a clinic where he administers hyperbaric oxygen for questionable purposes.

The clinic administrator is David K. Hill, who is identified as a chiropractor who has been practicing since 1996. However, my search of the DOPL database found no evidence that he is licensed.

How does the Young Life Research Clinic operate? A set of eight case histories [36] presented at the June 2002 Young Living Grand Convention indicate that the patient is asked to bring real medical records to the initial consultation. This supplies the clinic with the established medical diagnosis. Then the clinic doctors perform a variety of quack tests, such as iridology, testing with a Quantum Xrroid device, live blood cell analysis, and so on. The patient is then given some new bogus diagnoses such as "low immune function," "poor nutrition," and/or "parasites." Some of this is described in a testimonial by singer Merrill Osmond, whose son Shane works at the clinic. The story, which is posted on Young's Web site and has been used in a newspaper advertisement, describes how live-cell analysis was used to guide his treatment. The article mentions that Hill explained things to him but does not indicate whether Hill provided diagnostic or treatment services.

Next come the therapies, a wide array of unsound alternative treatment, such as Bio-electric field enhancement (BEFE), colonic irrigation, and Young's own invention, raindrop therapy (see below). Of course, large quantities of essential oils and nutritional supplements sold only by Young Living are required. The bogus diagnostic tests are repeated and the patient pronounced better. Of course, to maintain the new-found health, the patient is advised to continue using Young's products.

The eight case reports were not presented in the scientific manner or format used for standard medical reports. All lacked complete histories, explanations for the diagnostic tests chosen, alternative diagnoses considered, and rational explanations for the treatments selected. Seven of the cases included identifying information about the patients -- actual names, birth dates, occupations, etc. Information on the Internet indicated that two of the eight had died less than four months after the presentation.

Treatment at Young's clinic is not covered by most health insurance plans. Each patient must pay $349 to register, and must sign a form stating that he or she is not a reporter or law enforcement agent. The recommended one-week stay costs $2,000 to $3,000 [37]. The actual price depends upon the treatments administered. The patient also pays for transportation, meals, and lodging.

Raindrop Therapy

YLEO promotes a technique invented by Young called Raindrop Therapy (RDT), or Raindrop Technique, which involves dropping essential oils, some undiluted, along the spine and feet and massaging gently [38,39]. According to a proponent Web site:

The Raindrop Technique combines the science of aroma Technique with the techniques of Vita Flex, reflexology, massage, etc., in the application of essential oils, which are applied on various areas of the body to bring structural and electrical alignment. It is designed to bring balance to the body with its relaxing, mild application. It will also help to align and clear the energy centers of the body without using force or excessive pressure. When you combine the electrical frequency and the intelligence of the body and the oil, a greater healing process begins [39]

In a videotape, Young demonstrates what he does on a woman who lies face-down on a massage table. He applies oil to her feet, massages them, and claims that various points on the feet represent organs located throughout the body. After dripping oil near her spine, he strokes or massages her back, concentrating on the muscles around the spine. Some portions look like an ordinary massage, but Young claims that his procedures cause an "electrical exchange" between the practitioner and the client that "carries energy" to the body's organs. Among other things, he cautions that wearing jewelry would block this process and that the oils must be dropped from within six inches of the client's body because:

You want to be sure you are dropping oil within the etheric field or the electrical field of that person. . . . Most people's electrical field will emanate more than 2 or 3 feet from the body, but the strongest part of that electrical field is within the first 6 inches. . . . The oil drops through their electrical field then harmonize with their electrical frequency and it energizes that oil in balance." [39]

Young initially claimed that RDT could effectively treat scoliosis by affecting toxins and viruses, which he said cause scoliosis [38]. There is no scientific basis to this claim because there is no evidence that either viruses or toxins cause scoliosis. However, the undiluted oils can cause a burning sensation and skin redness, which the raindrop therapist alleges are evidence that viruses and toxins are leaving the body. In actuality, it is only a local skin reaction to irritation.

RDT uses seven single oils plus two blends formulated by YLEO. The concentrations of several oils exceed recommended safe doses [41] and can cause skin irritation, sensitization, phototoxicity, and essential oil toxicity. A thorough analysis of the potential problems associated with each of the oils is detailed in the National Association of Holistic Aromatherapists' White Paper on Young Living Oil's Raindrop Therapy [41]. Most RDT practitioners are Young Living independent distributors who learned the technique from brief seminars and training tapes. Such therapists may have no other formal training and thus lack the capacity to recognize complications of the treatment. Many claim that RDT is effective against an variety of medical conditions. Young even advocates using RDT in veterinary medicine, especially for horses [41]. But there is no evidence that RDT is effective for any human or animal medical condition.

Young claims that he developed RDT in part from the teachings of the Lakota Sioux medicine man Wallace Black Elk. However, Black Elk's assistant told me that Black Elk did not collaborate in any way with Young to develop the technique, did not teach any specific massage strokes as alleged by Young on his RDT videotape, and does not endorse RDT [41].

Summary

• Gary Young is an uneducated huckster with a track record of arrests for health fraud. He has repeatedly inflated and falsified his education and credentials. His inability to recognize the limits of his knowledge and training contributed to the death of his own child. Sherman Johnson, M.D., medical director of The Young Life Research Clinic, deliberately administered a lethal dose of narcotics to a long-time friend, and then attempted to cover his actions by falsifying the death certificate. There is no reason to believe that either Young or Johnson has sufficient judgment, skill, or ethics to appropriately care for seriously ill patients. Young Living's essential oils cannot treat or cure any medical illness.
• Patients visiting the Young Life Research clinic can waste large sums of money on worthless treatments, and will gain only false hope. Patients risk being guided away from effective legitimate medical treatments. At best, their life will be needlessly complicated by the prescription of elaborate irrational regimens requiring overpriced products sold only by Young Living. At worst, patients may suffer direct harm from the misuse of essential oils and other dubious treatments.
• Treatment at the Young Life Research Clinic seems unwise and expensive. Proper medical care can be obtained elsewhere from legitimately educated, licensed, and experienced health care providers.
• Raindrop Therapy is potentially unsafe. Essential oils for aromatherapy use are available from many suppliers do not make ridiculous claims and whose prices are not inflated by dubious multilevel marketing practices.

References

1. The Challis Messenger, May 18, 1967.
2. The story of a man and his mission. Young Living web site, accessed Dec 10, 2002.
3. Prager M, Hansen T. Police arrest "doctor." Spokane Spokesman-Review March 9, 1983
4. Hansen T. Man arrested on medical charge. Spokane Spokesman-Review March 9, 1983.
5. Prager M. Arrest result of attempt to police all professions. Spokane Spokesman-Review March 10, 1983.
6. Wagoner R. Man fined for offering medical care. Spokane Spokesman-Review June 28, 1983.
7. Clark D. He seems able to cure everything but a poor memory. Spokane Spokesman-Review, Oct28, 1986.
8. Colwell CD. State of Washington v. Donald Gary Young. In the Superior Court of the State of Washington in and for the County of Spokane. Information No. 83-1-0235-5., filed March 8, 1983.
9. Young DG. State of Washington v. Donald Gary Young. In the Superior Court of the State of Washington in and for the County of Spokane. Statement of defendant on guilty plea, June 27, 1983.
10. First International Symposium on Integrated Aromatic Medicine, March 21-22, 1998.
11. Wilson B. The rise and fall of Laetrile. Quackwatch web site, Revised Sept 9, 2000.
12. Himaka M. Clinic given order of restraint. San Diego Union, March 8, 1988.
13. Callahan B. Court blocks ads, sales by Chula Vista clinic. San Diego Union, March 11, 1988.
14. Judge orders Chula Vista medical clinics to shut down. San Diego Union, June 18, 1988.
15. Barrett S. Bernadean University: A mail order diploma mill. Quackwatch, revised March 19, 2002.
16. Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing and personal communication with Steve Davis, Utah DOPL, April 2, 2002.
17. Utah Naturopathic Physician Practice Act 58-71-302 Section 1 d i, ii, and iii
18. Utah Naturopathic Physician Practice Act 58-71-801 Sections 1a, 1b, and 2
19. Allured J. Personal communication. Jeb Allured, Nov 25, 2002.
20. Adams RP. Personal communication to Dr. Eva Briggs, Nov 28, 2002.
21. Croteau R. Personal communication to Dr. Eva BriggsNov 27, 2002.
22. Clery R. Personal communication to Dr. Eva Briggs, Dec 6, 2002.
23. Owen B. Personal Communication to Dr. Eva Briggs,
24. Utah Labor Commission, Occupational Safety and Health Division, Inspection No. 303609242, File Number 7609242.0, Inspection Date 8/18/00, Report Date 12/7/2000.
25. Young DG. Aromatherapy: The Essential Beginning. Salt Lake City, Utah: Essential Science Publishing, 2001, pp 41-64
26. Employee's Bios. © 1998 Young Living Essential Oils. Accessed on YLEO independent distributor's Web site, Dec 10, 2002.
27. Barrett S. The mirage of multilevel marketing. Quackwatch, revised Aug 17, 2001.
28. Foret JB. Courtesy warning letter to David Stewart, Dec 20, 2000.
29. Foret JB. Courtesy warning letter to Paula Turner, Oct 7, 2002.
30. Stewart D. "Scriptural oil program notes."
31. Lynn J. That's My Dollar.
32. Young DG. 1995 Workshop II training video.
33. Ogden physician's license will be suspended 5 years. Deseret News, May 19, 1992.
34. Henetz P (Associated Press). Did doctor beat charge of murder? Woman's death still haunts friends; did doctor get away with murder? Salt Lake City Tribune, Sept 19, 1993.
35. Anderson V (Associated Press). Doctor, wife say they were victims of dead woman's lies. Salt Lake City Tribune, Sept 20, 1993.
36. Clinic case histories. Salt Lake City, Utah: Essential Science Publishing, 2002.
37. Young Life Research Clinic brochure.
38. Young DG. Aromatherapy: The Essential Beginning. Salt Lake City, Utah: Essential Science Publishing, 2001, pp. 77-84.
39. Raindrop Technique. Salem, Utah: Essential Science Publishing, 2001.
40. Allen D. Raintrop technique. WebDeb Web site, accessed Dec 12, 2002.
41. Barber K., Gagnon-Warr J. National Association of Holistic Aromatherapists' White Paper on Young Living Oil's Raindrop Therapy. Revised May 12, 2002.
42. Brandt N, Vonn Harting M. Videotape: Raindrop Technique for Horses 2000
43. Herman-Tarwater C. Personal communication to Dr. Eva Briggs, Nov 22, 2002

Quackwatch Home Page



This article was revised on October 16, 2003.

Quackwatch Rebuttal Executive Summary Alternative and complementary medicine are on everyone's radar screen. Not only are more Americans visiting alternative practitioners than primary care physicians, but the U.S. government's National Institutes of Health organized the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) to find ways to integrate alternative medicine into conventional medicine. The downside to the explosion of knowledge about nutrition, natural alternatives, and increased health is that detractors are springing up determined to halt choice in healthcare. Organizations like Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch and Robert Baratz's National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) have seemingly bottomless pockets to attack natural health proponents with lengthy articles on their websites and through expensive lawsuits. Stephen Barrett solicits reader donations on his website. He no longer practices psychiatry. How is he funding his expensive lawsuits? Because you can't patent nature (and thereby profit from it), pharmaceutical companies apparently are threatened by the rise of natural medicine and people seeking improved health through nutrition and the use of essential oils. Some even believe they may be the deep pockets behind these front organizations. D. Gary Young and his company, Young Living Essential Oils, have come under attack on the Internet. A lengthy article on Barrett's website has rumors, gossip, and innuendo presented as if they were fact. Gary Young is not the only natural health proponent whose integrity is being questioned. Several hundred people have made the list on Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch site with articles assailing their beliefs and their personal lives. Others who Stephen Barrett has gone after are Andrew Weil, M.D., Julian Whitaker, M.D., Ralph Moss, Ph.D., Gary Null, Ph.D., Earl Mindell, R.Ph., and Bernie Siegel, M.D. Even the late Dr. Linus Pauling has become a target. A person's right to determine what type of healthcare they choose is a valuable freedom that no one, including Stephen Barrett, has the right to endanger. Freedom is costly to uphold. If you are seeking answers, we urge you to become informed by reading this important document.

[silverraider]

Originally Posted by thedee

Quackwatch is the stupidest web site there is. This site goes after a lot of the Alternative Medicine companies and the people behind it. Just for an example they go after Dr Hulda Clark and they also go after Gary Young of Young Living Essential Oils. These two people have helped my mother greatly and other that I know to fight cancer.

Don't waste your time or energy on anything Quackwatch says.

Ive read enough articles on Quackwatch to know their interest lies with the pharmacutical companies. They like to dispute natural products and remedies that do work. It dosent take long to see that they follow the same pattern on all their topics of discussion. I wont say they dont have any truthful information on their site, but they definitely are looking out for someones best interests.Unfortunately its not ours.

[dissident]

Quackwatch is a waste of time. If they want to go after overpriced products that don't work, they should focus on pharmacutical drugs.

With that said, although colloidal silver is good, hydrogen peroxide is better... use the power of oxygen.

[bigjon]

Quackbuster Stephen Barrett:

"Not an Expert," Declares Judge!

Stephen Barrett, the Wizard of Odds, played his odds and lost. He just hasn't had a very good year.

Stephen Barrett has attacked some of the most successful alternative therapies in the world. He has issued threats and initiated lawsuits, and until last year, got away with all of it. Then, his world began to crumble.

Barrett filed a lawsuit against King Bio Pharmaceuticals, makers of homeopathics. Now, science has already established the value of homeopathy, but Barrett, ignoring science while pandering to the pharmaceutical industry, just had to do something. The result? Here is an excerpt from the judge's decision:

As for his credential as an expert on FDA regulation of homeopathic drugs, the Court finds that Dr. Barrett lacks sufficient qualifications in this area. Expertise in FDA regulation suggests a knowledge of how the agency enforces federal statutes and the agency's own regulations. Dr. Barrett's purported legal and regulatory knowledge is not apparent. He is not a lawyer, although he claims he attended several semesters of correspondence law school. While Dr. Barrett appears to have had several past conversations with FDA representatives, these appear to have been sporadic, mainly at his own instigation, and principally for the purpose of gathering information for his various articles and Internet web-sites. He has never testified before any governmental panel or agency on issues relating to FDA regulation of drugs. Presumably his professional continuing education experiences are outdated given that he has not had a current medical licence [sic] in over seven years. For these reasons, there is no sound basis on which to consider Dr. Barrett qualified as an expert on the issues he was offered to address. Moreover, there was no real focus to his testimony with respect to any of the issues in this case associated with Defendants' products.

C. Credibility of Plaintiff's experts

Furthermore, the Court finds that both Dr. Sampson and Dr. Barrett are biased heavily in favor of the Plaintiff and thus the weight to be accorded their testimony is slight in any event. Both are long-time board members of the Plaintiff; Dr. Barrett has served as its Chairman. Both participated in an application to the U.S. FDA during the early 1990s designed to restrict the sale of most homeopathic drugs. Dr. Sampson's university course presents what is effectively a one-sided, critical view of alternative medicine. Dr. Barrett's heavy activities in lecturing and writing about alternative medicine similarly are focused on the eradication of the practices about which he opines. Both witnesses' fees, as Dr. Barrett testified, are paid from a fund established by Plaintiff NCAHF from the proceeds of suits such as the case at bar. Based on this fact alone, the Court may infer that Dr. Barrett and Sampson are more likely to receive fees for testifying on behalf of NCAHF in future cases if the Plaintiff prevails in the instant action and thereby wins funds to enrich the litigation fund described by Dr. Barrett. It is apparent, therefore, that both men have a direct, personal financial interest in the outcome of this litigation. Based on all of these factors, Dr. Sampson and Dr. Barrett can be described as zealous advocates of the Plaintiff's position, and therefore not neutral or dispassionate witnesses or experts. In light of these affiliations and their orientation, it can fairly be said that Drs. Barrett and Sampson are themselves the client, and therefore their testimony should be accorded little, if any, credibility on that basis as well.

This was just one loss in court. The story gets better!

Some of you know how we here at the Wellness Directory of Minnesota have taken an stance against fluoridation. The stuff is just not what the American Dental Association has been preaching. I do not drink the stuff and I have just three fluoride treatments a year…and then detox the heck out of myself.

Well, Darlene Sherrell ( http://www.rvi.net/~fluoride ) has a web site dedicated to fighting Fluoride Poisoning. She has been under attack by Stephen Barrett and his ilk for some time. She fought back and attacked Barrette. Barrett filed a libel lawsuit against her. He's threatened many people with defamation of character lawsuits (including yours truly) but this was the first time it has gotten to court.

Here is the background, from the Health Freedom Law web site (www.healthfreedomlaw.com):

In the summer of 1998, Darlene Sherrell, challenged Barrett to come forward to name a study demonstrating the safety of current fluoride levels in drinking water and the effect excessive daily intake of fluoride as a possible cause to chronic fluoride poisoning. At the time, in response to Sherrell's challenge Barrett was "careful to state that he is and was aware of hundreds of studies pertaining to the safety of fluoridation of drinking water..." However, "...He did not testify that any study demonstrates the safety of current fluoridation levels..." Barrett had rebuked Sherrell's continuous challenges and sent a message to her stating that she (Sherrell) was "delusional."

Long story short, case was dismissed. Barrett who claims to be backed by the FDA, FTC, DHHS, NCI, HIH, AMA, and ADA showed up with one witness and his own lame testimony. Barrett claimed to have hundreds of studies, but couldn't produce one.

Next, Barrett attacked that famous quack, Dr Hulda Clark who says she can cure all diseases. Now, personally, I don't believe anyone can cure all diseases. There is something very mystical about healing. And Dr Hulda is probably a bit whacko. But, I still love her. She has some darn good ideas and science is beginning to prove her out. Well, Barrett lost his case against her too!

Now, this isn't over yet, because there are laws against filing frivolous lawsuits and Barrett is just beginning to feel the backlash of his programmed stupidity. He's been slapped left and right with lawsuits for filing frivolous lawsuits, and it is estimated that he now owes somewhere close to half a million dollars.

After years of threatening everyone and everything with lawsuits, Barrett is on the losing end of every single one of them. This being the case, he dropped his lawsuit against Dr Joseph Mercola, who runs one of the best alternative medicine web sites in the world (and much of what we find and pass on to you comes from the good doctor).

So, to all those wonderful organizations who give credence to the garbage published at Quackwatch (and their ilk) and to the URAC (www.urac.org) that certifies Medically Sound Web Sites (Barrett's web site is certified by URAC!), we say, your time is running out. Barrett is no expert, he has no science to back up his claims, and his web site has enough BS to fertilize all the farms in Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska.

Medicine as we know it, is on the brink of destruction. Healing is where the heart is. The future of Medicine is going to be based upon what Edison and Socrates tried to tell us long ago: "We are what we eat" along with what ancient texts, including the Bible, have told us for centuries: Our Creator (Nature) has supplied us with all the medicines we will ever need. Now, if we can stop the corruption of our environment by monied interests, heck, Paradise isn't too far off.

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Who’s Watching the Quackbusters?

By Jorg J Mardian RHN, RNCP, CPT
www.prohealthjournal.com
September 11, 2005


In the course of doing my research, I came across a bewildering, militant, and pro medical website named “Quackwatch.org”. Essentially, this is a non-profit corporation whose supposed purpose is to combat health-related fraud. However, after even the most cursory of searches, I found this site to be a basic hate and rejection of all natural health means.

Dr. Barrett, the site author, superciliously assumes that medical skills and scientific evidence are the foremost and only viable solution to the ills of the world. In the battleground for lasting health, this shows the grave risk we face from those who tout the dubious benefits of a drugged society. Their view is that everything is an ailment, a disease, a disorder, or a symptom for which we need to embrace pharmaceutical or surgical intervention.

But change is in the air. Natural health is becoming a billion dollar business for one reason only - society wants to be healthy, not medicated. Dr. Barrett and others like him would have us believe that the natural health movement is a passing phase; one where disillusioned and illiterate people are conned by dubious schemes of con-men who bilk them out of their hard earned saving.

I beg to differ. The current health movement is actually in the midst of a great paradigm of change; one where intelligent people search for the cause of their ailments, instead of accepting the predictable diagnosis and treatment of drugs and surgery.Consumers are looking for a crystal clear prognosis of how to deal with disease; not just more excuses.

Day after day we hear proclamations that this or that cure that is just around the corner, but when push comes to shove, conventional medicine and science has nothing new to offer. As long as they continue their fight against degenerative disease from the basis of effect instead of cause, we’ll continue to see only mounting death rates.

There is in fact, very little incentive to change the status quo – it’s too lucrative. The war on disease seems to benefit only those who make a profit from it. The "quackbuster" assemblage, an organized absurdity, is nothing more than an attempt to keep their medical backwardness legitimized in the eyes of the public.

Who Funds Quackwatch?

Are organizations which make fortunes from the misery of others funding overzealous attacks through sites such as Quackwatch? Not if we are to believe Mr. Barrett. But looking at his background, it’s important to understand that his words are little more than the characteristics of good propaganda. He feigns at being a fair and unbiased consumer advocate, yet his relationship and affiliations within the medical field prove his words unsound.
Dr. Barrett charges as preposterous the idea that Quackwatch is a front for the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical industry or the "medical establishment. He also denies that Quackwatch has any financial ties to commercial or industrial organizations.

Many people believe such claims and find it difficult to believe that the media deceives them through the manipulation of large corporation PR. Co-authors John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton of the Center for Media and Democracy, expose the shenanigans of the public relations industry in their book, “Trust Us We’re Experts,”

This book tells us that there are two kinds of "experts" in question -- PR spin doctors and "independent" experts such as scientists or doctors who have been “paid off” to promote the views of corporations. The book offers a candid and shocking portrayal of the real and potential dangers of media manipulation to hide the risks.

According to public relations philosophers, the public reacts emotionally to topics related to health and safety and is incapable of holding rational discourse. This is not unlike the assumptions of Quackwatch. The public must understand that most such groups or media outlets take industry and government grants, favours and benefits, or may be the nonprofit arm of industry.

No other theory holds water. Clearly the language of undemocratic ideals, intolerance, and irrational scientific discourse spewed forth by Quackbusters are meant to eventually gain ever-tighter controls for the medical/pharmaceutical industry.

Quackbusters advocate and defend dubious practices whose safety is, at the very least, controversial. This raises the question: is it really consumer protection they’re after, or rather a system of healthcare that happens, not coincidentally, to be tied to strong economic interests?

Why else fight with such venomous and unprovoked harassment; such biased diatribe; such hypocritical tirades? Looking for a smudge in the natural health, they fail to see the outright filth in their own backyard. Is it really just a case of protecting ideals? I don’t think so!

The words “prevention or self-health” are anathema in orthodox circles. Why? Because sickness and disease is a billion dollar business and those with money and power do not like to have their foundations shaken. Change is to be resisted and put down through any means possible – be it through an enforcement arm, coercion, threats, personal attacks or the legal system. Modern medicine does not want to lose their piece of a lucrative pie.

Method of Attack

Dr. Barrett states that the current goal of Quackwatch is to emphasize practices related to bad science rather than to poor medical practice. He apparently does not feel the need to investigate medical incompetence, malpractice, false billings, claims, unnecessary procedures or tests.A bad doctor to him would merely be one that practices alternative modalities, not one that kills his patients. No, these get off with the slap-on-the-wrist defense, “I prescribed the proper course of drugs”. How does he hide statistical evidence proving that medicine is only the illusion of health? By using the language of attack.

It’s exceptionally hard to argue with cold facts, so Dr. Barrett, the industry’s self proclaimed debunker of junk science scares the uninformed with simple-minded myth-making, something which bears no trace of journalistic fact, examines no case files, takes into account no personal experiences, and does no follow-ups with current treatment.

Is his attack based on scientific evidence? Hardly! It concentrates on attacking personal character, credentials, and mounts a general smear campaign of disinformation and harassment. He gives the persistent portrayal of the alternative care-giver as a snake-oil salesman trying to connive the uninformed out of their hard earned cash. He also portrays natural therapies and nutritional supplements as unproven' or discredited and worthless.

Worthlessness however is a relative term. There are reams of scientific, well designed, randomized double-blind studies in orthodoxy's own peer review journals, on the various merits of natural health therapies. Unless one is blind, it’s hard not to stumble upon these.

"Before doctors rush to condemn the weak evidence base underpinning these alternative therapies they should pause and consider the record of orthodox medicine."

Ulrich Trohler, Prof of history of medicine at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

What Is Sound Science?

Dr. Barrett’s site is also peppered with consistent pretensions to sound science, putting down natural health means as pseudoscience or junk science, and validating the orthodox medical model.

He writes, "Nonetheless, as believers in science and evidence, we must focus on fundamental issues -- namely, the patient, the target disease or condition, the proposed or practiced treatment, and the need for convincing data on safety and therapeutic efficacy.”

What he really means, is that the term “scientific” is applied only to the dominant medical model. In his book “Racketeering in Medicine," Dr James Carter, MD says the entrenched powers battle the encroachment of alternatives using two main methods:

1. "Negative peer review - usually authored by doctors and researchers who know little, sometimes nothing at all about the alternative methods they have been asked to criticize."
2. "Sloppy or contrived research has, at times, been used to debunk an alternative therapy."

Logically speaking, if natural therapies can convincingly demonstrate a cause and effect relationship between the application of a procedure or administration of an agent and the improvement in a patient's well-being, then isn't that therapy 'scientific'? Ultimately, is scientific progress not based on what works?

Dr. Barrett also discredits subjective patient testimonies regarding health improvement, because patients are said to be unreliable witnesses, incapable of determining cause-and-effect relationships. Symptoms relieved by diet, therapy, or supplements are said to be unproven and misleading, because most ailments are eventually said to resolve themselves naturally.

However, when we examine how a medical doctor determines whether a particular drug or therapy is working to relieve subjective symptoms, there is almost a total dependency on patient testimonial for case management. Has your family doctor never asked how you feel the week after prescribing drugs? Of course he/she has and to deny this fact runs counter to clinical practice.

Then there’s always the denunciation of the placebo effect. “It’s all in their mind”, they’ll say with a mischievous wink and write it off as a case of abnormal psychology. But in reality, throwing this term around so blithely is merely an unwillingness to come to a real understanding of how the treatment actually works.

Just because the lexicons of the various alternative systems expressing bodily functioning are unfamiliar to orthodox medicine, does not mean they’re primitive and unsophisticated. Still, Dr. Barrett writes, “whether a therapeutic practice is "Eastern" or "Western”, is unconventional or mainstream, or involves mind-body techniques or molecular genetics is largely irrelevant except for historical purposes and cultural interest….

In other words, he claims that any natural modality or practice around this entire world, no matter what the success rate, no matter what the public acceptance through actual physical evidence, or how many subscribe to it, this can be summarized as little more than “irrelevant except for historical purposes and cultural interest”.

This is a remarkably narcissistic statement in light of millennia worth of proven therapeutic tools, qualitatively different than the barbaric approach modern medicine offers. These are natural, non-toxic, gentle remedies and procedures which work according to the body's own natural healing capacity. It is uniquely self-important and almost entirely obtuse to abolish the collective body of human experiences that support the validity of non-orthodox traditions.

Credible scientific evidence is to be desired; no one argues against this fact. But we should seek it in a spirit of co-operation – unified in our quest to help others through any means possible. But when it is done in the spirit of selfishness – when modern medicine and medicinal science are married into an incestuous relationship of economic gain - this very thing is harmful to society. Health related studies so far have been carefully regulated and heavily biased to safeguard the profitability of treating disease at its end-stage, rather than taking preventative measures.

The Dark Side of Medicine

Let’s have a deeper look then at that vaunted medical field Dr. Barrett is so protective of – the one he so lovingly endorses and says we can confidently entrust our lives to. He’s a doctor; we can trust him, right? Not quite! Read on….

Drug companies are one of the most powerful industries on this planet. They spend billions on doctor influence and have the full force of Congress behind them through the largest political lobbying group. Since 1998, they’ve spend approximately $758 million on lobbying -- more than any other industry - (USA Today), April 26, 2005. That’s over half a billion dollars to dramatically influence how drugs are viewed politically.

So what do they want to do with all these approved drugs? Well here’s a real shocker: An MSNBC, July 11, 2003 report states that whistleblower Scientist David Franklin became part of a broad mission at pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert to deceive, even entice doctors to prescribe drugs to patients whether it was scientifically justified or not. (www.msnbc.com)

And according to the British Medical Journal (May 31, 2003; 326:1155-1156) information supplied to doctors by drug companies is often distorted due to sponsored advertising. If a journal publishes a trial that favors one drug over another, is that truly a scientific judgment or a business investment to be repaid in lucrative reprint sales? It’s a fact that many journals would simply not survive without sponsorship money and therefore there exists a great danger that undue influence is exerted on editorial content.

The same journal also states that in the United States an estimated 80,000 drug company representatives, backed by more than $19 billion of industry's combined annual promotional budgets, are visiting doctors every day.

So let’s recap:

• Pharmaceutical companies lobby hard to get certain lucrative drugs approved
• Pharmaceutical companies deceive and entice doctors to prescribe drugs whether scientifically justified or not.
• Information supplied to doctors by drug companies is often distorted due to sponsored advertising.
• An estimated 80,000 drug company representatives, with $19 billion to back them, are visiting doctors every day.

Dr. Barrett says the Quackwatch definition suggests “that the promotion of quackery involves deliberate deception, but many promoters sincerely believe in what they are doing. Hmmm, doesn’t that sound chillingly like what we just discussed – the pharmaceutical cronies sincerely wanting to deceive the consumer?

Are you aware that doctors can legally prescribe any drug to any patient for any condition? Drug companies can take advantage of this situation by bypassing FDA restrictions and paying doctors to promote "off-label" and frequently inappropriate and non-tested uses of these medications. Is your doctor prescribing drugs based on drug-company marketing rather than having the patient’s best interest at stake? What are the side effects to you? Does any of this worry you? It should!

This is the behaviour completely ignored by Dr. Barrett. He simply closes his eyes to such unethical ties between doctors, researchers, and drug companies. By being fixated only on the natural health field, he misses the fact that nearly $3 Trillion Dollars in spending is projected for US Health Care.(Health Affairs March/April 2002;21:207-217). Someone is making a lot of money on the illness of consumers!

So are drugs or surgery the answer to our health problems? Not on your life! The leading cause of death in the US is now admitted to be the practice of orthodox, medicine. A report entitled, “Modern Health Care System is the Leading Cause of Death, (www.garynull.com) states: “A careful study of medical peer-review journals, and government health statistics shows that American medicine frequently causes more harm than good.”

For example:

1. The number of people having in-hospital, adverse drug reactions (ADR) to prescribed medicine is 2.2 million.

2. The number of unnecessary medical and surgical procedures performed annually is 7.5 million.

3. The number of people exposed to unnecessary hospitalization annually is 8.9 million.

But even more horrendously, the report states that the total number of iatrogenic [induced inadvertently by a physician or surgeon or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures] deaths is 783,936.

The leading cause of death and injury therefore in the United States is its medical system. At 783, 936 annual deaths it tops those of heart disease and cancer, which in 2001 were 699,697 and 553,251 respectively.

While these figures are appalling, it gets worse. The article states that even with the most conservative figures from statistics, the next ten years project another 7.8 million iatrogenic deaths. Imagine for one millisecond that natural healing modalities had these types of horrendous statistics. Imagine the howls of outrage and fury from supposed health advocates like Dr. Barrett.

Conclusion

I’ve shown but a few of the darker sides of medicine; the very one championed by Dr. Barrett. Doctors enjoy high incomes, high social status, immense authority and command far more respect than they've earned. It amounts to a perverse religion of unnatural faith.

It’s easy for someone such as Dr. Barrett to put together a website, which makes a mockery of the natural health field. The internet presents us with many such “web soap operas”, which portray doctors as wounded warriors battling against the twin evils of ignorance and quackery.

It’s easy to understand why men such as Dr. Barrett (backed by the pharmaceutical/medical conglomeration) are becoming concerned. The natural health field is huge. Millions are becoming converts not because of being brainwashed, but in spite of such misinformation and drivel coming out of Quackwatch.

The medical monopoly is a conspiracy against the public in many ways, including raising prices, causing unnecessary pain and suffering, extending sickness and disease and hindering the development of natural products and services to help the sick.

However, to their dismay, the natural arts abound. All medical innovations are "alternatives”, and all alternatives must go through an initial phase of being labeled quackery; this is one sad law of medicine. Dirty names and fear-mongering headlines do not negate the fact that our largely monopolistic medical system kills at least 784,000 per year. Last time I checked, that’s a whole lot more serious than what the natural health field is accused of.

I have no ill feelings towards Dr. Barrett, but looking at his Quackwatch site one can see it’s filled with hypocritical, self-serving, and small minded lies. He does not understand that progress is always difficult to digest. As Albert Einstein stated: "Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds." In other words, great ideas are often undermined as quackery by mediocre minds. The future will tell who was right!

End