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Consumer Health Digest #23-22
May 28, 2023

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


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Why doctors who spread misinformation don’t lose their licenses

According to Current Affairs writer Lily Sánchez, there are several reasons why physicians in the United States who spread pseudoscientific ideas and other misinformation usually retain their medical licenses and board certifications. In an article, she outlines a “troubling and long-standing problem with the regulation of the medical profession.”

Some of the factors behind the loose regulation include:

*** Media, judges, and regulators often regard this activity as free speech.

*** Most people with whom medical pseudoscience spreaders communicate on the Internet are not their patients.

*** Some political appointees to state medical boards oppose public health measures.

*** Many right-wing legislators are hostile to medical regulation.

*** State medical boards, which typically are underfunded, tend to focus on complaints about individual impairment such as alcohol or drug abuse, or other inappropriate conduct.


Sánchez concludes:

*** There’s also an argument to be made that physicians are not just private citizens who may say whatever they want. The free speech rights of the physician which would allow misinformation have been conceived of in terms that are too libertarian for public safety. We have to bring the balance back in favor of public health and the public good. . . .

*** I would also add that medical misinformers and their ilk have made a mockery of their profession. Medicine isn’t wizardry. Medical education and licensure do not transform a person into some kind of genius who can come up with and proclaim whatever they think sounds good despite the facts and despite potential harms to patients and listeners. I don’t think some doctors quite realize this, and their arrogance makes them think that their education and licensure mean something other than what it does.

*** Going after licensure is not enough. Doctors can and will continue to use their medical degree and grandfathered board certification status to confer legitimacy upon themselves to advance their (often commercial and political) agendas. We need a strong commitment from the public, public institutions, and from physicians about what we want medicine to be: based on good scientific evidence, prioritized on keeping the public safe from unproven, disproven, and unnecessary treatments, and free of the corrupting profit motive.

*** Although there is significant distrust in American healthcare, people still seem to trust doctors
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/02/how-a-for-profit-healthcare-system-generates-mistrust-of-medicine
. But if we don’t fix the problem of physician regulation, that trust may soon be gone.

[Sánchez L. Doctors who spread medical misinformation should lose their licenses. Why don’t they?
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2023/05/doctors-who-spread-medical-misinformation-should-lose-their-licenses-why-dont-they
 Current Affairs, May 22, 2023]

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Success By Health, VOZ Travel operators banned from multilevel marketing

The U.S. District Court in Arizona has ruled James D. Noland, Jr.
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/2023-05-11-579-FINAL-ORDER_0.pdf
, illegally owned and operated two pyramid schemes—Success By Health (SBH) and VOZ Travel—in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. The court also concluded Noland had violated a 2002 federal court order barring him from operating pyramid schemes
https://quackwatch.org/mlm/general/pyramid/
 and from misrepresenting multilevel marketing
https://quackwatch.org/mlm/
participants’ income potential.
[Federal court finds James D. ‘Jay’ Noland, Jr., operator of ‘Success By Health’ and ‘VOZ Travel,’ in contempt of court order barring pyramid schemes
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/05/federal-court-finds-james-d-jay-noland-jr-operator-success-health-voz-travel-contempt-court-order
. FTC press release, May 25, 2023]

The court action began in 2020 when the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sued Noland, his wife Lina Noland, Scott Harris, and Thomas Sacca, in connection with SBH
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2020/01/ftc-acts-shut-down-success-health-instant-coffee-pyramid-scheme
. The charges related to VOZ Travel
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2020/09/ftc-adds-new-charges-additional-defendants-case-against-alleged-pyramid-scheme
 were filed later that year. The FTC charged that the defendants operated both businesses as pyramid schemes and made outlandish claims “the masses” could make more than $1 million per month by following Noland’s system. Citing the “sheer volume of deceptive tactics and statements” associated with both companies, the court concluded:

The Nolands, Harris, and Sacca violated the FTC Act by operating SBH and VOZ Travel as pyramid schemes and used false promises of “financial freedom.”
Harris and Sacca were aware of the 2002 order against Noland, and thus all three were in contempt of that order.
Harris told an audience at one private SBH marketing event, “Is this one of those pyramid things? Hell, yeah it is. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be doing it. Do I look dumb enough to go get a job again?”
Noland told SBH and VOZ Travel members, “I’ve been financially free, completely time and money free since I was 36,” when at the age of 36, Noland “was living (or was about to start living) off credit cards.” Although Noland claimed to be a multi-millionaire, he reported in a January 2020 financial statement he had a negative net worth.
At a deposition in this case, “Noland was unable to identify a time he ever had a positive net worth.”
The defendants used false claims to boost their promises SBH affiliates would achieve their own financial freedom, like becoming millionaires, or having an income stream of $20,000 per month.
One “top retailer” in SBH earned less from those sales “than what an individual would earn from a full-time minimum wage job.”
The defendants committed multiple “acts of dishonesty,” including “destroying evidence, violating court orders, giving false under-oath testimony, and taking no accountability for the misconduct after being caught.”
The defendants found themselves to be “utterly incapable of operating an MLM business in a lawful manner.”
The current court ruling: (a) permanently bans the Nolands, Harris, and Sacca from any participation in multilevel marketing, and (b) imposes a $7.3 million judgment on Noland, Harris, and Sacca, the full amount sought by the FTC. Any money recovered by the FTC will be used for consumer redress. The case against a number of corporate entities named in the FTC’s suit against SBH and VOZ Travel is ongoing.

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Physiologist scrutinizes performance enhancement in mixed martial arts

Exercise physiologist Nick Tiller, MRes, PhD, has noted the UFC Performance Institute offers mixed martial arts fighters competing in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) a mix of useful and patently useless products and services. He suggests potentially hazardous services used by UFC competitors such as cupping, whole-body cryotherapy, and ice bathing are “more New Age than New Frontier.”
[Tiller N. Inside the UFC’s pseudoscience crisis
https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/inside-the-ufcs-pseudoscience-crisis/
. Skeptical Inquirer, May 17, 2023]

Tiller wrote:

When fans see their favorite fighters indulging in alternative treatments, it becomes clear how revered athletes might pioneer . . . trends in alternative medicines. This can have profound downstream implications for population health and clinical practice.

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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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