Consumer Health Digest #07-13
March 27, 2007
Current # of subscribers: 11,751
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by
Stephen Barrett, M.D., and cosponsored by NCAHF and Quackwatch. 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. Donations to help support
this newsletter can be made conveniently through PayPal or Amazon via
http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/donations.html###
Dubious "nutrition" activities questioned.
Quackwatch has posted a report about how bogus tests are used to
prescribe expensive dietary supplement and herbal products sold by
Standard Process Laboratories of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The report,
based on documents collected over a 35-year period, concludes:
"Standard Process Laboratories products have been promoted with
preposterous claims for more than 40 years. After the company and its
founder were prosecuted for criminal misbranding, the claims
gradually became less traceable to the company and now appear to come
from independent sources. The products were-and still are-promoted
for many conditions that are outside the legitimate scope of the
practitioners (mainly chiropractors) who sell them. I advise people
to avoid both the products and anyone who sells them." [Barrett S.
The shady history of Royal Lee and Standard Process Laboratories.
Quackwatch, March 29, 2007]
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/lee.html###
Leading "NICO" proponent gets five years' probation.
Wesley R. Shankland, II, D.D.S., who operates the Central Ohio Center
for Facial Pain in Columbus, Ohio, has settled charges against him by
entering into a consent agreement under which (a) his dental license
will be suspended for six months; (b) he must complete 300 hours of
continuing dental education that includes at least 40 hours in
ethics, (c) he must not utilize any "alternative" dental or medical
treatment without informing the patient that the procedure is
nonstandard, (d) his ability to prescribe narcotics and psychiatric
drugs will be restricted during 2008, and (e) his records must be
available for review and monitoring by a physician or dentist who is
experienced in the management of chronic pain. Shankland is a leading
proponent of "neuralgia inducing cavitational osteonecrosis" ("NICO")
http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cavitation.html and
improperly advises that amalgam fillings and root-canal-treated teeth
are problematic. The dental board's complaint not specify whether any
of its concerns are related to these nonstandard theories and
practices.
Shankland publicly represents himself as having earned a masters
degree in human anatomy from Ohio State University in 1994 and Ph.D.
in human anatomy in 1997. His Web site and various other publications
do not indicate where he obtained the "Ph.D." However, a curriculum
vitae filed in a recent court case identifies the source as "Summit
University of Louisiana." This entity, a correspondence school that
operated from about 1993 through 2000, was never accredited, had no
legal or academic standing, and certainly did not require the amount
of knowledge and effort that reputable universities require for
doctoral degrees. A 1999 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education
described Summit as a "diploma mill" located in a "converted bedroom"
in a small house on the outskirts of New Orleans. ]Selingo J.
Louisiana tries to close loopholes that allow suspected diploma mills
to thrive. Chronicle of Higher Education, May 14, 1999, p A40]
http://www.collegedegrees.com/news2/html/body_louisiana_to_close_diploma_mil.html###
Intercessory prayer research blasted.
Medscape General Medicine has published a brilliant commentary
calling for an end to wasting scarce research dollars on studies of
remote prayer. Its key points include:
**Research into "intercessory prayer" are attempts to study whether
miracles (extraordinary events manifesting divine intervention in
human affairs) exist.
**One very simple experiment that would leave little or no doubt
could involve the regeneration of an amputated limb. The
investigators could use as many universities and people as
possible-all the willing believers in the country, if necessary-to
pray every day for a year that at least one amputee would have a limb
regrown and then examine all the thousands of amputees for signs of
regenerating limbs.
**"Complementary and Alternative" procedures such as acupuncture and
herbal supplements are at least based on something physical, a
substance and/or a process, and, as strange as many of these
procedures may seem to be, they are still within the testable
universe of physical science. Intercessory prayer is another matter
entirely, and should not command the attention and resources of
science.
[Gaudia G. About intercessory prayer: The scientific study of
miracles. Medscape General Medicine. March 20, 2007]
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/552742 (Free registration on the
site may be required to access the article.)
###
Arkansas rejects antivaccination bill. The Arkansas Senate Committee
on Public Health, Welfare and Labor has rejected SB911, which would
have lowered the amount of mercury in the vaccines for children under
8 and for pregnant women by August 1, 2008.
http://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/ftproot/Bills/2007/public/SB911.pdf It
was introduced by a Senator who apparently believes that the tiny
amount of thimerosal (a preservative that contains mercury) in flu
vaccine might trigger autism or other neurologic disorders. Several
health care professionals testified at a hearing that there is no
proven health hazard and said the bill would discourage some people
from receiving vaccinations that can be life-saving. [Lyon J.
Committee rejects bill to reduce mercury in vaccinations. Arkansas
News Bureau, March 27, 2007]
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2007/03/27/News/341460.html###
Other issues of the Digest are accessible through
http://www.ncahf.org/digest06/index.html. For information about the
National Council Against Health Fraud, see
http://www.ncahf.org/about/mission.html. If you enjoy the newsletter,
please recommend it to your friends.
To help prevent this email newsletter from being filtered out as
spam, please add broadcast-chdigest@ssr.com to your address book or
other "whitelist." To unsubscribe, send a blank message from your
current e-mail to chdigest-unsubscribe@ssr.com and reply to the
message that asks for confirmation. To change your address,
unsubscribe from your old address and resubscribe by sending a blank
message to chdigest-subscribe@ssr.com
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Board Chairman, Quackwatch, Inc.
NCAHF Vice President and Director of Internet Operations
P.O. Box 1747, Allentown, PA 18105
Telephone: (610) 437-1795
http://www.quackwatch.org (health fraud and quackery)
http://www.acuwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.autism-watch.org (guide to autism)
http://www.cancertreatmentwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.casewatch.org (legal archive)
http://www.chelationwatch.org (chelation therapy)
http://www.chirobase.org (guide to chiropractic)
http://www.credentialwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.dentalwatch.org (guide to dental care)
http://www.devicewatch.org (under construction)
http://www.dietscam.org (under construction)
http://www.homeowatch.org (guide to homeopathy)
http://www.ihealthpilot.org (guide to reliable information))
http://www.infomercialwatch.org (guide to infomercials)
http://www.mentalhealthwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.mlmwatch.org (multi-level marketing)
http://www.naturowatch.org (naturopathy)
http://www.nccamwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.nutriwatch.org (nutrition facts and fallacies)
http://www.pharmwatch.org (under construction)
http://www.ncahf.org (National Council Against Health Fraud)
http://www.chsourcebook.com (consumer health sourcebook)
Editor, Consumer Health Digest
http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/chd.htmlDonations to help support Quackwatch can be made conveniently through
PayPal or Amazon via
http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/donations.html
