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Consumer Health Digest #22-15
April 10, 2022
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/william-m-london., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D
http://www.quackwatch.org/10Bio/bio.html. It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; news reports; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making. Its primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. To subscribe, click here
http://lists.quackwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/chd_lists.quackwatch.org###
Holistic-clinic doctor sentenced to prisonRobert Jay Rowen, M.D., of the RowenSu Clinic in Santa Rosa, California, has been sentenced to serve 18 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to income tax evasion. The prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $242,156 in restitution plus a $95,000 fine. In 1997, he was sentenced to 10 months of probation (including two months in a halfway house and eight months in home detention) and ordered to pay $10,003.91 in restitution plus a $2,000 fine after pleading guilty to a federal felony charge of “corrupt endeavor to impede” an agent of the Internal Revenue Service.
In 1990, Rowen spearheaded passage of a bill to make it difficult for Alaska’s medical board to stop doctors from using “alternative” medical approaches. In 1993, Alaska’s governor appointed him to a four-year term on the state’s medical board. In 2014, he was designated “Member of the Month” by the American College of Advancement of Medicine, the primary group that promotes chelation therapy
https://quackwatch.org/chelation/. In 2020, the Federal Trade Commission warned the RowenSu Clinic to stop making unsubstantiated claims that “innovative biologic treatments” offered at the clinic were effective against COVID-19.
[Barrett S. Robert Jay Rowen, M.D., sentenced to prison (2022)
https://quackwatch.org/11ind/robert-rowen-sentenced-to-prison-2022/. Quackwatch, April 7, 2022]
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COVID-19 immunization and vaccination-card fraudster pleads guiltyCalifornia-licensed naturopath Juli Mazi has pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and making false statements related to health-care matters. An investigation into the case revealed she had:
*** marketed homeoprophylaxis
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/homeoprophylaxis-vaccination-health-canada-bc-homeopaths-1.5036538(also known as homeopathic prophylaxis) immunization pellets that she claimed would give lifelong protection from COVID-19
*** provided fake CDC COVID-19 vaccination cards for more than 200 individuals
*** provided fake immunization cards to more than 100 individuals for use in meeting mandatory requirements for childhood vaccinations
*** provided homeoprophylaxis pellets in place of childhood vaccinations required for attendance at school
Mazi’s sentencing is scheduled for July 29, 2022.
[Naturopathic doctor pleads guilty to fake COVID-19 immunization and vaccination-card scheme
https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/naturopathic-doctor-pleads-guilty-fake-covid-19-immunization-and-vaccination-card. U.S. Attorney’s Office Northern District of California news release, April 6, 2022]
The California Naturopathic Medicine Committee’s website lists Mazi’s license as current and in good standing
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Substantial reporting bias found for homeopathic studiesBecause studies with positive outcomes are more likely to be reported than studies with negative outcomes, some methods may appear to be more effective than they really are—a situation called “reporting bias.” To counter this problem, the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki
https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/calls for researchers to register all clinical trials and report their outcomes, and the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) has agreed to publish results only for trials that are registered beforehand in a public registry. A recent analysis of homeopathic clinical trials found:
*** 38% of homeopathy trials remain unpublished while 53% are unregistered
*** 25% of registered trials altered or changed the primary outcome measure in the publication
*** unregistered homeopathy trials tended to have larger treatment effects than registered trials
While noting that non-reporting of clinical trial results is a problem not limited to homeopathy, the researchers wrote their findings “suggest a concerning lack of scientific and ethical standards in the field of homeopathy.” It concluded:
"Registration of published trials was infrequent, many registered trials were not published and primary outcomes were often altered or changed. This likely affects the validity of the body of evidence of homeopathic literature and may substantially overestimate the true treatment effect of homeopathic remedies."[Gartlehner G and others. Assessing the magnitude of reporting bias in trials of homeopathy: A cross-sectional study and meta-analysis
https://ebm.bmj.com/content/early/2022/01/30/bmjebm-2021-111846. BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine, March 15, 2022]
Edzard Ernst, M.D., Ph.D., described the study’s outcome more bluntly in a recent article titled “The body of evidence on homeopathy is rotten to the core
https://edzardernst.com/2022/03/the-body-of-evidence-on-homeopathy-is-rotten-to-the-core/.”
Another commentator pointed out that “homeopathy is based on prescientific concepts more akin to sympathetic magic than it does to any science” and “arguing from basic science alone, homeopathy can’t work.”
[Orac. Why are so many clinical trials of homeopathy “positive”?
https://respectfulinsolence.com/2022/03/23/why-are-so-many-clinical-trials-of-homeopathy-positive/Respectful Insolence, March 23, 2022]
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“Abortion pill reversal” claims criticizedThe Guttmacher Institute has reported that eight states have enacted laws intended to compel doctors to tell patients about “abortion pill reversal” and 12 states have had similar bills introduced. The “reversal” procedure involves administering progesterone to block the second step of a two-drug method used to stop pregnancy
https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/abortion/the-abortion-pill/how-does-the-abortion-pill-workwhen administered within one or two days after intercourse. The Abortion Pill Rescue Network, backed by anti-abortion organization Heartbeat International
https://www.heartbeatinternational.org/, claims that “using the natural hormone progesterone, medical professionals have been able to save 64-68% of pregnancies through abortion pill reversal.” But the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecology
https://www.acog.org/advocacy/facts-are-important/medication-abortion-reversal-is-not-supported-by-sciencesays that such claims are based on studies with small sample sizes, no ethics approval, no control groups, underreporting of data, and no reported safety outcomes.
[Putterman S. How an unproven abortion ‘reversal’ treatment has advanced in the US
https://www.politifact.com/article/2022/apr/04/abortions-reversible-how-unproven-abortion-r/. Politifact, April 4, 2022]
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Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Consumer Advocate
7 Birchtree Circle
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Telephone: (919) 533-6009
http://www.quackwatch.org (health fraud and quackery)
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