Welcome!

The Savvy Health Seeker Volume 1 Issue 5 October 2008

This Issue: Medical health care charlatans.

Dear savvy health seeker,

Welcome! As a board-certified medical physician with a very strong interest in natural and alternative medicine, I put together this newsletter with a very specific purpose and goal: To provide the most up-to-date, educational, and factual information available regarding natural supplements and their uses. It is buyer beware out in the marketplace. People can and do say anything to sell a product. I thoroughly evaluate certain supplements, whether they be herbs, minerals, vitamins, or supplements, provide necessary evidence to support or refute the purported claims, and provide you only the most succinct, “bottom line” recommendation. Supplements that have been thoroughly researched and have been shown to actually work for a given condition will be added to the website on a rolling basis. This is a totally free service. Why? Because I’m passionate about finding and reporting the facts, not media or marketing hype.

As an actively practicing physician, and after spending an exhaustible amount of time researching natural supplements and making recommendations to my patients, I have found a wealth of information that I believe is largely ignored by the medical profession, yet not fully appreciated by alternative health care practitioners. The internet is rife with health claims made by people who at the very least have no authority to make them, and at the most should probably be jailed for what they are doing. The amount of fraudulent health care claims are mind-boggling.

Medical charlatans:

As David Hannum (not P.T. Barnum!) once said, “There’s a sucker born every minute”. In fact, if you read the story behind why Mr. Hannum made that statement back in the 1860’s regarding the “Cardiff Giant Hoax”, you will realize that this STILL happens today.

As I peruse the internet and various retail online outlets, I continue to be astounded at the amount of shear, utter, wholesale fraud and deception that occurs on a daily basis in the health field. These people set themselves up to be “experts” in the field of whatever ware they are peddling, and yet, they make claims that defy any reasonable query.

I have had no intention to call these charlatans out by name. But there is one who is so egregious as to warrant particular attention. This charlatan is “Dr.” David Williams. When you have to scroll down the fine print to find that he is not a medical doctor, but a chiropractor, you know you are in trouble. He hasn’t spent one day in medical school. I don't have anything against chiropractors. In fact, I refer some of my patients to them on occaison. But it's the deception here that Williams leads you to believe he is a medical doctor, when in reality he isn't. He has claimed (or lead us to believe) that he has received multiple Ph.D.'s in the past. Yet his bio on his current webpage doesn't mention anything about these.

Just one example of his many horrendous “research findings”, is that cholesterol is not tied to heart disease. Oh, really. With all of his ads plastered on his website, one would assume he is very confident about his findings. I would invite you to ask “Dr.” (chiropractor) Williams:

1. From which scientific studies did you get your information?

2. Where did you gain your medical degree? Your Ph.D’s?

3. How many medical patients do you see on a daily basis?

4. What is the difference between a double blinded, placebo controlled study and a metanalysis? How many of your recommendations are supported by these studies?

5. How much training did you have to professionally interpret these scientific studies?

6. When was the last time you read a peer-reviewed medical journal?

7. Why are testimonials NEVER used in the New England Journal of Medicine or Journal of American Medical Association as valid research?

8. What kind of malpractice insurance do you carry when one of your readers stops taking their cholesterol medication and suffers a heart attack or stroke then tries to sue you?

9. Explain to me physiologically what is happening when someone has a heart attack.

10. How many people have you personally met who have had a stroke which has paralyzed half of their body?

The medical charlatans such as these are the worst kind--that is--instead of peddling you modern day “snake oil” like the charlatans of old that are no more harmful (or effective) as a teaspoon of sugar, they go farther and imply that traditional medical doctors are idiots. These charlatans tell naïve followers that they should avoid traditional medical treatments such as cholesterol medications, because they are “evil“ or something to that effect. Unscrupulous followers stop taking their cholesterol medication, some suffer debilitating strokes or heart attacks, and “Dr.” Williams goes on his merry way, peddling more of his costly “cures”, while completely unaware of the destructive wake his advice causes.

Why do I appear so intolerant of these charlatans? Because as a practicing medical physician who sees patients in my clinic every day, I have personally met people who have been instructed by these charlatans to stop their medications, then have suffered severely (e.g. heart attack or stroke) after doing so. These people are changed for as long as they live. I, as a family doctor, must medically treat these patients and their families for life. Charlatans like “Dr.” Williams are mere drive-by flashes-in-the-pan who will never know the true catastrophe they have caused in these people’s lives. Because they aren't practicing clinicians, they will never know the mess they leave us, the practicing clinicians, for years to come. PLEASE, PLEASE! I implore you to BE SMART, BE WISE, BE INTELLIGENT and BE INFORMED in your health decisions. You only have one of you!

Next issue: Updates in the field of Omega-3. Stay tuned!