Dubious Allergy-Related Practices: Clinical Ecology and the Feingold Diet
Clinical ecology is a nonrecognized medical “specialty” centered around the notion that a wide array of common physical and psychological symptoms can be triggered in susceptible persons by low-level exposure to chemicals or foods. Patients are said to be suffering from “environmental illness,” “multiple chemical sensitivity,” “brain allergy,” “food addiction,” “ingestant intolerance,” or total allergy syndrome,” or are “allergic to the 20th Century,” or “allergic to everything modern.” In the mid-1980s, clinical ecologists began calling themselves “environmental medicine specialists.” [1] In the mid-1990s, “multiple chemical sensitivity” became the most often used term to describe a syndrome of symptoms perceived by people who believe themselves to be adversely affected by a wide variety of substances. Kurt describes these in detail [2]. Clinical ecology was founded by …
Continue Reading >Anthroposophical Medicine
The international Anthroposophical Society was created by Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925,) who had led the German section of Theosophy but had split off to form a group that would follow his personal revelations of the “spirit world.” Anthroposophy was derived from anthropos “man” and sophia “wisdom,” in reference to the wisdom that comes to humans when they are able to perceive the spiritual as well as the material world. In Steiner’s doctrine, Christ is a sun god come to earth, not to redeem humanity from sin, but to help the human race balance between the influences of Zoroastrian gods of light and darkness, Lucifer and Ahriman. Steiner’s revelations typically blurred religious, scientific, and historical topics. His version of history includes epochs on the lost continents of …
Continue Reading >Body Toddy
Body Toddy™ (BT) was marketed as water from “an ancient sedimentary deposit of prehistoric plant origin.” It was said to contain “7 major minerals and 53 trace minerals.” BT is amber-colored and tastes like rock filtered water (unless flavorings have been added). BT was peddled with the promise that it will improve a person’s health in some way. “The stay young hucksters,” by Kevin Krajick (Longevity August, 1989) provides details on the questionable marketing of Body Toddy.The sales pitch went something like this: The body needs minerals for life. [True] Nearly all diseases are due to the failure to supply the body with the proper minerals. [False] Humans rely upon the foods they eat for their minerals.[True] The food gets its minerals from the soil as …
Continue Reading >Bee Pollen
Bee pollen is plant pollen carried by bees to the hive where it is gathered by placing brushes at the hive’s entrance knocking the pollen off the bees as they enter. Bee pollen is said to consist of 40% plant carbohydrate, 5% plant fat, and 5% plant protein–the remaining 50% is fungus, bacteria, insect body parts and hairs, mites, and bee fecal material [1]. As anyone with hay fever knows, pollens are among the most allergic substances in nature [2]. The popularity of idea that bee pollen is healthful is hard to understand considering the widespread public knowledge of allergies. However, one must also take into consideration the fascination many have with any bee-related substance. Other bee-related items that have caught the public’s fancy are …
Continue Reading >Misuse of the Term “Allopathy”
The term “allopathy” was invented by German physician Samuel Hahnemann (1755-1843). He conjoined allos “opposite” and pathos “suffering” as a referent to harsh medical practices of his era which included bleeding, purging, vomiting and the administration of highly toxic drugs. These practices were based on the ancient Greek humoral theory which attributed disease to an imbalance of four humors (i.e., blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile) and four bodily conditions (i.e, hot, cold, wet and dry) that corresponded to four elements (earth, air, fire, and water). Physicians following the Hippocratic tradition attempted to balance the humors by treating symptoms with “opposites.” For instance, fever (hot) was believed due to excess blood because patients were flush; therefore, balance was sought by blood-letting in order to …
Continue Reading >Barley Green
Barley GreenTM (BG) is a dietary supplement multilevel marketed by the American Image Marketing (AIM) company of Nampa, Idaho. BG was developed by Yoshihide Hagiwara, a health food entrepreneur in Japan. AIM alleges that the Hagiwara Institute of Health is “a world leader in cancer research.” This description appears to be aimed at creating the illusion that BG can play a role in cancer prevention or treatment, a claim that has gotten BG distributors in difficulty in several states. One BG distributor boasted that “across the border of Mexico there are 18 cancer and rehabilitation centers which are also using Barley Green in their treatments!” It is not disclosed that Mexico border clinics are notorious promoters of quackery. NCAHF has received complaints of cancer claims …
Continue Reading >Access to Medical Treatment Act
Congress has bought into organized quackery’s main ploy, which is to disguise its promotions in a cloak of consumer freedom of choice. A proposed bill is: To permit an individual to be treated by a health care practitioner with any method of medical treatment such individual requests… The law would require the individual to be warned that: This food, drug, or device has not been declared to be safe and effective by the Federal Government, and any individual who uses such food, drug, or device, does so at his or her own risk. It is obvious that the only freedom that this act would confer is freedom from accountability to health care providers who traffic in dubious alternative / complementary medicine. People do not want …
Continue Reading >Berkley Bedell
William T. Jarvis, Ph.D.Berkley Bedell is a former U.S. Congressman from Iowa who served from 1974-1986. Bedell ran for congress after becoming independently wealthy through his Berkeley fishing tackle line. Bedell experienced prostate cancer. Although Bedell had standard therapy, like many cancer patients, he appears to have been emotionally traumatized by his disease, and the inability of honest physicians to assure him that his cancer was completely cured. In his quest for certainty, Bedell explored the world of “alternative” cancer remedies. He visited Gaston Naessens, a Canadian with a long history of promoting unproven cancer remedies [1]. Naessens apparently convinced Bedell that he was a kind of medical Christopher Columbus who was unappreciated for his genius–a victim of narrow-minded “conventional medicine.” Naessens claims that through …
Continue Reading >Applied Kinesiology
Applied Kinesiology (AK) (also known as Contact Reflex Analysis, Dental Kinesiology, or Behavioral Kinesiology) is a procedure in which resistance-response (aka, “muscle strength testing”) explorations of an extended arm or leg is “tested” while a person is subjected to various influences (foods, vitamins, herbs, homeopathic remedies, music, colors, etc.). Weak responses are interpreted as “bad,” and strong responses as “good.” These form the basis for making diagnoses, prescriptions, food selections, or other health-related choices. Note: AK is not part of the science of kinesiology (the study of the principles of mechanics and anatomy in relation to human movement). AK has been associated with a number of cases of serious harm. A New York chiropractor used it to demonstrate alleged improvements in learning disabled children [1,2]. …
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