I admit it. I love telling a good story. Give me a chance and I’ll drag out the good parts, throwing in laughs here and there.
Opinion by Consumer Advocate Tim Bolen
The story, of course, I’m telling today is about the Doctor’s Data v Stephen Barrett Federal Court case, which is, by far, the most important court case involving health care in North America.
Today I’ve got a BIG laugh for you – unless, of course, you are a quackbuster – then you are not going to find this story funny at all – you are going to, once again, call me names – nasty names. Ready?
Let’s go.
The National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), also a Defendant in this case, has a Twenty member Board of Directors. I have a copy of the last publicly listed Board just below. In short, they are named in this case because the so-called “Consumer Health Digest,” supposedly a weekly newsletter to its approximate 12,000 subscribers, is supposedly a joint effort of Stephen Barrett and the NCAHF, co-edited by Barrett and William London. Articles in that newsletter are named in the case itself.
I suspect that the mailing list for the so-called “Consumer Health Digest,” once subpoenaed, and made public, is going to be a treasure trove containing key information on how the quackbuster conspiracy works. People whose names, I think, are on this list, will become targets of health freedom groups for years to come – and they should be. Any, and every, government employee, at any level, on this list, should immediately be a highly focused-on target.
In February of 2008 I released an article called “The Six Components of the 2008 Quackbuster Operation…” which was an outline of the quackbuster conspiracy as it was operating then. In it I talked about the role of the so-called “Consumer Health Digest” and why it was dangerous:
(1) The Quackbuster Communication Network has five parts:
(a) The Consumer Health Digest is a newsletter with mailing list of over twelve thousand names. The newsletter is sent out weekly to the mailing list. The list is made up of lower and middle level employees of county, state, and federal health administration and enforcement agencies, and employees of health insurance and medical malpractice insurance company employees. The so-called “Digest” is a simple tool to do two things: (1) propagandize those lower level employees into believing that the targets of the so-called articles are “bad people,” criminals, doubtfuls, etc., and (2) convince those employees that they should devote time to investigating, prosecuting, or, at the very least, watching, the targets constantly.
If you, or yours, are the subject of any article on this newsletter – beware, for the readers of these articles are not the brightest people in the world, and would tend to believe what they read.
You can see the danger to Doctor’s Data in this publication, for, obviously, if the readers were 82 IQ “Investigators” for State agencies, dumb enough to take Barrett as an expert, those investigators would come after any doctor in their State that used Doctor’s Data as a laboratory, falsely believing that Doctor’s Data was, as Barrett screeches, “conspiring to commit fraud, blah, blah, blah…”
So, you can see the importance in suing the NCAHF also, for, allegedly, according to Barrett anyway, the newsletter was a joint operation of Barrett, the NCAHF, and William London (who we will get back to later).
The question arises; “What, exactly, was the NCAHF’s role in the newsletter?” Personally, I suspect that Barrett was just using the NCAHF name to puff up the newsletter’s importance, but, then again, we won’t know until we ask the Board members of the NCAHF.
But, let’s look at the situation in an either/or format: (1) If the NCAHF was actively involved in the newsletter then they have direct liability for the contents, including any articles about doctor’s Data. (2) If, as I suspect, Barrett was using the NCAHF name to puff up the newsletter’s importance, and got no input from the NCAHF, then the NCAHF is still liable for the content because the Board has fiduciary responsibility for what is done in its name.
Period.
So, now comes the question “Are the NCAHF Board members PERSONALLY LIABLE for what happened here?” I believe they are – and below will tell you why I think so.
Those NCAHF Board Members should have done their “due diligence” a long time ago. They should have asked someone, with knowledge, what two legal terms mean in terms of being a Board Member with responsibilities of a non-profit corporation: they are (1)“Fiduciary Responsibility,” and (2) “Piercing the corporate veil.” One activity, or lack of it, leads to the other.
Legally speaking, what those terms mean is that if YOU accept a position on a non-profit corporation, like the NCAHF Board of Directors, then you accept, by law, the responsibilities that come with that position. The NCAHF, itself, is a Defendant in that lawsuit for good reason.
Example:
(a) The corporate veil can be pierced if a party is tricked or misled into dealing with the corporation rather than an individual. Whenever the corporation does correspondence with a third party, the officers and directors of that company need to make it clear that they are acting on behalf of the corporation and not themselves individually. All the documents need to clearly be entered into on behalf of the corporation otherwise there may be a conflict that could arise that would pierce the corporate veil.
Stephen Barrett and Robert Baratz used the NCAHF name to sue over forty Defendants in California without getting permission of the Board and set themselves up as “Expert Witnesses” to make money for themselves.
(b) If the corporation is set up to never make a profit or always be insolvent it is considered too “thinly” capitalized. This could be when the corporation is formed without sufficient capital to meet potential liabilities and debts. This often occurs when an individual or group of people uses a corporation as a form of shield from liabilities instead of a legitimate business.
One of those cases mentioned above went against the Board, and the Defendants were awarded over $100,000 – which was never paid by the NCAHF, simply because they were undercapitilized “to meet potential liabilities and debts.”
(c) When the corporation fails to follow corporate formalities where the corporation is located, it can be pierced. A few of the corporate formalities are meetings, minutes, stock ledger. If the corporate entity fails to do some of these duties the judge can rule that it is not a proper corporation.
I can’t find any record that shows that the NCAHF has had a formal meeting of any kind, in any place, for a very long time. A few years ago their California non-profit corporate status was suspended for exactly these reasons.
(c) The biggest mistake small corporations usually make is not keeping separate accounts for the corporation. If an individual moves funds from their bank account into the corporate bank account, and vise versa then the court will disregard the corporate entity.
Robert Baratz, as far as we know, kept the corporate records in a cardboard box under his hair removal salon table.
(d) If the corporation is engaged in illegal enterprise where it is ruled that the corporation was setup as a sole means for those involved to partake in an illegal activity, the corporate veil can be pierced. For instance, a corporation will not be tried for murder. The individuals responsible will be tried for it. The same thing can be applied for all kinds of cases such as drug trafficking, etc.
Think RICO…
So, what does this mean? In short, what I think this means is that the twenty million dollar claim Doctor’s Data has against Barrett, the NCAHF, and Quackwatch Inc. has found some potential payers. Barrett does not have enough assets to pay the claim, for sure. But, now we have the question “Do the nineteen other NCAHF Board Members have enough assets?” Probably not, but their combined net worth ought to add up to something.
Hold it! Don’t start feeling sorry for these people, just yet. You haven’t read the section below yet…
Remember, it MAY be that Barrett used the NCAHF name without permission, but he did it for a long time. Board Members have a “Fiduciary Responsibility…” They had every opportunity to stop him from using their name… and did not.
So Who Are These NCAHF Board Members, and Why Are They on the Board?
Good questions. For years all we ever heard about, or from, was Stephen Barrett, then Robert Baratz. You’d have thought that was all there was. The rest of the Board just seemed to be on the masthead. But, were they?
Nope – they all had a role.
Let’s see what those roles were. Seven of the members (including Stephen Barrett) are members of the “Skeptic” organization, and four are Registered Dieticians, and, are now, or have been, ranking members of the American Dietetics Association.
To start with, Barrett seems to have taken everyone’s name, except his own, off the NCAHF website. But never fear, I copied a lot of useful (like in Court cases) information off their website and Discussion Groups long ago.
So, we’ll start with the list itself:
Officers
- President: Robert S. Baratz, MD, DDS, PhD
Newton, Massachusetts - Vice President: Stephen Barrett, MD
Allentown, Pennsylvania - Secretary: Janice Lyons, RN
Arden, North Carolina - Treasurer: Daniel Oliver, DDS
Leucadia, California
Board of Directors
- Clara Lawhead, RD, Chair
New Port Richey, Florida - Paula Benedict, MPH, RD
La Mirada, California - Paul E. Brown, MD
Waconia, Minnesota - Ellen Coleman, MPH, RD
Riverside, California - Charles E. DuVall Jr, DC
Akron, Ohio - Tim Gorski, MD
Arlington, Texas - Saul Green, PhD
New York, New York - Robert Imrie, DVM
Seattle, Washington - William T. Jarvis, PhD
Loma Linda, California - James Kenney, PhD, RD
Miami, Florida - Melvin H. Kirschner, MD, MPH
Van Nuys, California - James Lowell, PhD
Tucson, Arizona - Loren Pankratz, PhD
Portland, Oregon - Linda Rosa, RN
Loveland, Colorado - Wallace I. Sampson, MD
Los Altos, CA - Russell Worrall, OD
Colfax, California
Then let’s look at the individuals:
(1) Robert S. Baratz MD, DDS, PhD, NCAHF Board President.119 Foster Street, Building R, 2nd Floor, Peabody, MA 01960, Phone: 978-532-9383, Fax: (978) 532-9450 .617-594-7776; imcsi@rcn.com or ncahf.office@verizon.net.
I’m not going to write any more about this goofball here. Just go to the article “Quackpot Baratz goes on trial in Wisconsin July 14th, 2003…” and laugh about the real bobbie baratz).
Baratz is simply a buffoon who doesn’t show up to testify any more if he thinks I am involved in the case.
He was dangerous for a while but few take him seriously any more. He was easy to beat. He just wasn’t much of anything.
Baratz brags about being a Skeptic.
(2) Janice Lyons, RN, NCAHF Board Secretary, 3175 Sweeten Creek Rd, Asheville, NC, (828) 684-8822,cinam@cinam.net, or jalyons@myexcel.com.
Janice Lyons, RN, MAEd, is the Director of CINAM, Inc. (Current Issues In Alternative Medicine). CINAM is a nonprofit, tax-exempt, Christian research and information organization focusing on evangelical perspectives on alternative medicine.
CINAM, Inc. , P.O. Box 16855, Asheville, NC 28816, Phone (828) 684-8822
She writes articles, to the Christian community, like: Letting Quackery and Occultism in the Back Door of the Church, Alternative Medicine in the Church, Christianity Today Looks at Therapeutic Touch, and New Age Cures: Subtle Infiltration
(3) Daniel Oliver, DDS, NCAHF Board Treasurer, Leucadia, California. oliver@alum.mit.edu
I have no idea why this guy is on the NCAHF Board. He doesn’t seem to have ever been involved in anything. The only thing I could find about him is what is written in the NCAHF history, and all that happened thirty-three years ago. He may, or may not be, alive. See below.
“Later that year, Jarvis learned about UC Berkeley’s Dr. Thomas H. Jukes’s interest in combating health misinformation and quackery through his many articles in the scientific literature. Jarvis visited Jukes and learned that he and oncologist-hematologist Wallace I. Sampson, MD, had formulated plans to organize a group with similar objectives to those of Jarvis-Rick’s group. The Jukes-Sampson’s group had drafted articles of incorporation, but had not filed them. These were given to Jarvis who passed them to volunteer attorney Cyrus (Jack) Lemmon, Jr., who revised and used them to establish the Southern California Council Against Health Fraud in December, 1977. Five individuals — William Jarvis, Nuts Among The Berries author Ronald M. Deutsch, LLU faculty member and Raymond West, MD, Daniel Oliver, DDS, and Joan Oliver, RD — signed the Articles of Incorporation as required by California law. SCCAHF listed 22 original members and began operations as part of Jarvis’ community dentistry activities. Although antifluoridationism and cancer quackery were primary issues, SCCAHF included all controversial consumer health issues within its scope.”
(4) Clara Lawhead, RD, NCAHF Board Chair, Pasco County Health Dept., 7511 Little Road, New Port Richey, FL 34654, 727-869-3900 ex 120: FAX 727-863-9734, clara_lawhead@doh.state.fl.us
Listed as the NCAHF Board Chairman, and the head of the Florida division of the NCAHF, Clara Lawhead, is worth investigating further. Professionally she seems to be a State of Florida Health employee listed as
“Community Health Promotion – Clara Lawhead, MS, RD, LD, FADA Division Director ”
More info is available here:
http://www.doh.state.fl.us/chdpasco/DI_Web/dihome.htm
Lawhead is a signer on several NCAHF documents. The NCAHF website was clearly emphasizing her position as a State employee, intimating, it appears, that she speaks for the State of Florida in these matters. The two documents I found immediately are attacks on (1) the science of Homeopathy and (2) Alternative Treatments in Veterinary practices.
Two questions need to be asked: (1) “At a Director level in the Florida State health structure, does Lawhead have the ability to influence other State agencies in deciding who to prosecute and for what?” We know, of course, that the Doctor’s Data lawsuit specifically talks about a case against a Florida doctor who uses Doctor’s Data lab. (2) “In her work does she represent the official policies of the State of Florida or the wild-eyed positions of the quackbuster conspirators?”
So far. I have received no response from the State of Florida on these questions.
(5) Paula Benedict, MPH, RD – NCAHF Board Member – PBenedic@dhs.ca.gov
Paula Benedict Griffin, M.P.H., R.D. (Author of the Protein Foods Chapter)
Public Health Nutrition Consultant III (Specialist) WIC Supplemental Nutrition Branch, California Department of Public Health
According the State of California website:
“Paula Benedict Griffin, M.P.H., R.D., has worked for the Department of Health Services since October 2000, first with California Project LEAN (Leaders Encouraging Activity and Nutrition) and moved to the Breastfeeding Promotion Unit in the WIC Supplemental Nutrition Branch in September 2004. She has been active with the American Dietetic Association serving as the Chair of California Delegates and a Program Reviewer/Site Visitor for the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE). She received her Master of Public Health from Loma Linda University and Bachelor of Science from CSU Long Beach.”
Benedict is a signer on several NCAHF documents. The NCAHF website was clearly emphasizing her position as a State employee, intimating, it appears, that she speaks for the State of California in these matters. The two documents I found immediately are attacks on (1) the science ofHomeopathy and (2) Alternative Treatments in Veterinary practices.
Benedict seems to have high contact with State groups; She is, apparently, the leader in a State run project called “Community Based Social Marketing: The California Project LEAN Experience” where she comes in contact with, and has influence over, many State leaders and groups.
Two questions need to be asked: (1) “At a Director level in the California State health structure, does Benedict have the ability to influence other State agencies in deciding who to prosecute and for what?” (2) “In her work does she represent the official policies of the State of California or the wild-eyed positions of the quackbuster conspirators?”
So far. I have received no response from the State of California on these questions.
(6) Paul E. Brown MD – NCAHF Board Member
I have no idea why this guy is on the Board either. He doesn’t seem to have ever been involved in anything. The only thing I could find about him is what is written in the NCAHF Newsletter from November 2001. He seems to be anti-Chiropractic. See below.
“CHIROS TREATING CHILDREN
In July, 1993, Paul E. Brown, MD, did a phone survey of 100 chiropractic offices in the Minneapolis- St.Paul area. Posing as a parent with a 4-yr-old child with ear problems, he asked five questions to office personnel or available chiros: Do you treat children? (99% yes) Do you treat ear infections? (80% yes) Do you treat allergies? (69% yes) Do you sell vitamin supplements from your office? (78% yes) Do you do applied kinesiology (21% yes)
Some chiros told him that the first cervical vertebra is often out of place and that this affects nerves and blood so that ear problems occur. Others said that dietary practices such as using cow’s milk leads to excessive mucous which contributes to the problem.
For further information, contact: Paul Brown, MD, Park Nicollet Medical Center, 14000 Fairview Dr, Burnsville, MN 55337.”
(7) Ellen Coleman, MPH, RA, RD – NCAHF Board Member, Riverside, California – ecolemanrd@aol.com
According to the website “The Sport Clinic,” which is an offshoot of the Community Medical Group of Riverside:
“Ellen Coleman counsels athletes at The SPORT Clinic in Riverside California, and lectures extensively on the dietary needs of athletes and active people. She has consulted with the Los Angeles Lakers and Anaheim Angels. Coleman is an endurance athlete, having completed the Hawaii Ironman Triathlon (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run) twice and has competed in numerous marathons and 200-mile bicycle races.
Coleman is a registered dietitian of the American Dietetic Association (ADA). She is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutritionists (SCAN), a dietetic practice group of the ADA from whom she received the 1994 SCAN Achievement Award. She is also a board member of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF).”
(8) Charles E. DuVall Jr, DC – NCAHF Board Member, 2307 East Ave, Akron, OH 44314
(330) 745-2141 –
This is a REALLY STRANGE situation – even for the “totally nutbag” quackbuster conspiracy. To start with this guy Charles Duvall, Jr, it seems, was appointed to replace his father on the NCAHF Board after his father died. See the excerpt from the Jan/Feb 1990 NCAHF newsletter below:
“Charles E. DuVall, Sr., MT, DM, DC passed away on January 13 following a stroke. Dr. DuVall was an ardent supporter of science and consumer protection. He worked hard to bring badly needed reforms to his profession. He was often maligned by DCs who cringed when he exposed the shortcomings of chiropractic. They wanted professional silence; he wanted professional standards of conduct, integrity and accountability. He was apparently more confident than his “mum-is-the-word critics” that spinal manipulative therapy has value and can stand scientific scrutiny. He was willing to accept whatever limitations upon SMT or DCs that scientific investigation might bring. He placed the public’s interest above that of the chiropractic guild. Dr. Duvall distinguished himself by becoming the first chiropractor elected to the NCAHF Board of Directors in 1988. He was also a founder and director of the Ohio Council Against Health Fraud. His son, Charles E. DuVall, Jr., DC, will serve out the remainder of his term on the NCAHF board.”
Dynamic Chiropractic Magazine says about Duvall:
“Last April when New Jersey chiropractors were fighting against extremely restrictive and essentially unscientific “care pathways” instituted by the New Jersey Health Benefits Commission, Charles DuVall,Jr,DC, made a presentation instructing the commission how to deal with chiropractic patient complaints.
More recently, Dr. DuVall has sent a letter to a South Dakota,MD, to explain why “chiropractors are like cockroaches.” (Please see “South Dakota DCs Fighting for Right to Perform School Athletic Physicals — Charles Duvall,DC, Advises MDs How to Derail DCs” also in the June 14, 1999 issue.)
So who is Dr. DuVall? Why has he taken an adversarial stance against his own profession? Part of the answer can be found on the Chirobase website which promotes itself as:
A Skeptical Guide to Chiropractic History, Theories, and Current Practices”
Charles E. Duvall, Jr., DC, who claimed to be the President of the National Association of Chiropractic Medicine was appointed, in 2002, to theAdvisory Committee for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs.
Wikipedia says of Duvall’s National Association of Chiropractic Medicine:
“The exact time and nature of the demise of the association is not published, but in the April 9, 2010 issue of Dynamic Chiropractic, the editorial staff wrote:
The National Association of Chiropractic Medicine (NACM) apparently no longer exists. Responding to an inquiry regarding the organization’s status from another chiropractor, a March 6, 2010 e-mail sent by NACM’s national executive director, Ronald Slaughter, DC, said it all: “All good things come to an end. We tried. We failed. Chiropractic is a ‘failed’ profession….
As of press time, the NACM Web site (www.chiromed.org) is no longer accessible. Exactly how long the site has been down is anyone’s guess. The last recorded existence of the site is May 30, 2008. Like the National Association of Chiropractic Medicine, it too has disappeared with little notice.”
It is not known, at this time, whether or not Duvall is still on the Veteran’s Affairs Advisory Board.
(9) Tim Gorski MD (OB/GYN) – NCAHF Board Member, 1001 North Waldrop Drive #815, Arlington, TX 76012, (817) 792-2000, info@obgdoc.comOR xenomed@dnamail.com
This guy is one of the two reasons, I think, the NCAHF lost ALL credibility, and began to disappear. If it wasn’t for the laughable, but serious to him, antics of Robert S. Baratz (the president of the NCAHF) lighting up the health care sky, Timothy Gorski MD, all by himself, could have brought down the organization.
Why do I say that? Because this guy is a bumpkin – one of those that opens his mouth and inserts both feet, and is momentarily startled when he falls on his ass.
The primary example of Tim Gorski’s incredible stupidity is his “testimony” in front of the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging September 10th, 2001. He called his testimony “Current Issues in protecting the public from health fraud: “Dietary Supplements” as a public health problem.”
Huh? Dietary supplements are a public health problem? Now there’s an interesting concept… (sarcasm intended).
But, Gorski’s main assault, in his writing, was a whining, near caterwaul, against those that criticized (rightfully so), pregnant horse urine based Hormone Replacement Therapies, which Gorski, as an OB/GYN, is clearly as an apologist for. It looks to me that he was nearly hysterical in his speech when he bleated out “Most of these products are being promoted as substitutes for hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and fraudulently as well, because they either assert or imply that HRT is suspect, dangerous, or even that it causes cancer and other diseases.”
More, just below, you read carefully, Gorski’s lament over what was clearly coming for pregnant horse urine based HRT:
In fact, although HRT is not necessarily for every woman, it offers significant benefits to most. We know, for example, that HRT prevents osteoporosis, which is itself a serious public health problem. Osteoporosis affects nearly 20 million American women and results in more than a million fractures annually. Of those with hip fractures, half never walk again and about 20% are die within a year. These numbers are expected to increase as the U.S. population grows older. There is also very strong theoretical and epidemiologic evidence for HRT’s having cardiovascular benefits. Although the HERS study failed to show that it reduces coronary events in women who already have heart disease, HRT has been proven to reduce coronary risk factors in healthy women, particularly for those with Lipoprotein(a). HRT has also been shown to reduce the risk of colon cancer, the third leading cancer among women.
Although many women fear that HRT causes breast cancer, and promoters of “dietary supplement” products intended to treat menopause symptoms make an effort to arouse and increase those fears, the scientific evidence for a connection has never been compelling. Rather, the hormonal link with breast cancer appears to operate much earlier, with women who have early onset of menstrual periods, late or no childbearing, and late menopause showing a clear increased risk of breast cancer. Breast cancer mortality is not increased among women using HRT and, in fact, mortality from all causes is reduced. HRT also improves quality of life with users having more frequent and satisfying sexual relations, reduced tooth loss, and less risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
We all know what happened to HRT – OFFICIALLY. What we don’t know is the number of Gorski’s patients he inflicted with pregnant horse urine based HRT – and what happened to those women victims in Gorski’s care.
It is time for a little humor. Here is what Gorski, in his Magnum Opus, concluded:
“It is not going to be easy to start picking up the pieces and setting things right. But further delay is not going to make it any easier. The National Council Against Health Fraud and other groups and individuals whose concerns are truly for consumers, science, compassion, and true freedom of choice in the medical marketplace can be relied on to assist in this task.”
And what did the US Senate conclude from Gorski’s report? (1) Well – the US supplement industry, in 2010, is alive and doing quite well, and no one finds them to be a danger to the public health – in fact, the opposite. (2) Pregnant horse urine based HRT is dead – as it well should be.
It could be said that Gorski, in his arguments, is beating a dead horse. Pun intended.
Tim Gorski is a member of the North Texas Skeptics.
(10) Saul Green PhD – NCAHF Board Member
Saul Green is dead. Green, it appears, was a cancer researcher employed by Sloan-Kettering in New York. For a number of years he was a quackbuster mainstay – and I never understood why.
In the year 2000 Green called me up one day to berate me for supporting author Hulda Regehr Clark PhD in her defense against the quackbuster assault. He was, I think, going to tell me the “way it is.” I interrupted him by asking him if he was the same Saul Green who used to do cancer research for Sloan-Kettering. When he said he was I told him that I didn’t have much of a file on him but that what I did know was that he had“worked in cancer research his whole life and had accomplished absolutely nothing… so I wasn’t impressed with any of his opinions.” He hung up on me.
He died of cancer.
(11) Robert Imrie DVM – NCAHF Board Member – Coordinator, NCAHF Veterinary Task Force
Robert Imrie is dead. Imrie was a small potato in the NCAHF. He ran a website against Alternative therapies in veterinary practice and a blog. Neither of which anyone seems to read. He wrote a book no one seems to buy, either.
(12) William T. Jarvis PhD – NCAHF Board Member – wjarvis@univ.llu.edu
Jarvis is a “has been” in the quackbuster conspiracy ever since his NCAHF operation was rudely evicted from Loma Linda University in California after the California division of the Health Freedom Movement successfully targeted him – and flushed him.
I wrote about Jarvis not too long ago. Here is a clip form that article:
William Jarvis PhD – Negrete deposed this guy once. It was in the NCAHF v MediaPower case. He testified as the “Secretary” of the NCAHF. Negrete had demanded that Barrett and Baratz, who were claiming to be paid expert witnesses, show up to be deposed, and they sent this guy instead. In the deposition Negrete asked him “how did the NCAHF determine how and why to sue the Defendant” and Jarvis testified that “Barrett and Baratz had instigated the NCAHF lawsuits without consulting the NCAHF Board at all, so there was no such meeting, and no such decision made by the NCAHF Board.” After his deposition Negrete demanded that NCAHF attorney Mehrban produce Barrett and Baratz immediately in California, as they were actually the Plaintiff, not expert witnesses. Negrete went to the judge when Mehrban refused, and got a Court Order. The NCAHF dropped the case by 5:00pm that same day.
Jarvis’s PhD is in Physical Education. He is one of the original board members of the NCAHF. He hosted the NCAHF at Loma Linda University. Julian Whitaker started the process of removing the NCAHF from Loma Linda. You can read about how bad life got for William Jarvis at the hands of the California Health Freedom Movement below. Jarvis virtually disappeared after this, below, happened:
https://bolenreport.com/archives/ncahf_posts_names_of_2.htm
http://whitakerhealthfreedom.com/index.cfm?tdc=dsp&page=successes_detail&recid=20
The counter-witness for this guy, of course, would have been Julian Whitaker MD.
(13) James Kenney, PhD, RD – NCAHF Board Member – kenn5883@bellsouth.net
I have never heard of this guy before. But, it seems, he is on the Pritikin Research Foundation Advisory Board. What his NCAHF function is remains to be discovered.
* PhD, Nutrition, Rutgers University
* Board Certified, Human Nutrition Sciences, American Board of Nutrition
* Fellow, American College of Nutrition
* Physiology Department, Assistant Professor, UCLA
* Biology Department, Assistant Professor, Lehigh University
* Board Member, National Council Against Health Fraud
Dr. Kenney, highly acclaimed nutrition researcher, author, and educator, offers expert advice on hot health topics such as Diet Wars (high protein vs. high-carb), Diabetes, Heart Disease, Hypertension, Cancer Prevention, and more.
For more than three decades, Dr. Kenney has traveled throughout the U.S., speaking at conferences for doctors, dietitians, and other health professionals on the relationship between diet and disease, and exposing the unscientific claims of many fad diets. He has published articles for scientific journals, including the Journal of Nutrition and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, as well as popular magazines, such as Self, Shape, and City Sports. He has been interviewed on many television and radio media, most recently Frontline and CNN News, and provides continuing professional education courses for dietitians, nutritionists and other health professionals.
His passion for helping people cut through the confusion and understand the real truth about nutrition and diets make his lectures both inspiring and eye opening. He also practices what he preaches. “Today, I enjoy the Pritikin Program as much as I did my steak-and-ice-cream diet of 25 years ago. Best of all, I’m in better health today, at age 59, than I was at age 35. Before starting Pritikin, my blood pressure was 150/100; my cholesterol was over 300. Today, my blood pressure is generally below 110/70, my cholesterol is 180, and my HDL ‘good’ cholesterol is 80. Plus, I eat a lot of great-tasting, satisfying food and never go hungry. I weigh 157lbs at 6’3”. That’s 40 pounds less than my weight in college. Our country would not have an epidemic of obesity, hypertension, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease if we could get everyone on the Pritikin Program.”
(14) Melvin H. Kirschner, MD, MPH – NCAHF Board Member –
Here is another mystery of the NCAHF. I have no idea why this guy is on the Board of the NCAHF. Below is a writing by Kirshner. He does not seem to fit the role of an NCAHF nitwit.
- In the editorial of Feb. 1, the Daily News favored the Kassenbaum-Kennedy Health Insurance Reform Act as a practical solution for the health insurance problem. The editorial states that “this is by no means an all-encompassing measure,” noting that it doesn’t address portability or the 41 million uninsured.The insurance companies and their health-maintenance organizations insure the healthiest group in the nation, so they’re much less expensive. Medicare operates on a nonprofit basis and almost all of the money goes to the care of its very sick population.The logical thing to do is combine the programs, thus diluting the cost of the care of the elderly and getting rid of the cost of marketing and corporate profits.– Melvin H. Kirschner, MPH, MD
- There is such a proposal being held up in the congressional committee system. It’s called the McDermott single-payer plan. It would cover all age groups with Medicare-like coverage. It would eliminate the cost of marketing, give back choice of provider and cover everyone. And it’s perfectly portable.
- The insurance companies spent a lot of money on marketing, administrative salaries and corporate profits. Their insurance is not portable and you may not be eligible for other insurance if you have an illness. Not so in Medicare.
- The editorial missed a very important point. We already have a system that works. It’s Medicare. It’s expensive because it insures the sickest group in the nation, the elderly.
(15) James Lowell, PhD – NCAHF Board Member – Tucson, Arizona
Lowell was quoted in an article on quackwatch written in 1997. That’s it.
http://www.ncahf.org/articles/c-d/cancell.html
(16) Loren Pankratz, PhD – NCAHF Board Member – loren.pankratz@comcast.net
I want you to remember this guy and his connection with the False Memory Syndrome Foundation when I bring up this group in a future article.
Copied from the website “Alex Constantine’s Blacklist” from an article named
CIA MIND CONTROL: Loren Pankratz, an FMSF Advisory Quack, on Dissociative Identity Disorder
Dr. Pankratz is an advisory board member of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation, a CIA front that discredits victims of ritual abuse and mind control. In his professional life, Pankratz practices a highly unusual psychological specialty – he studies malingering. Lately, he has been discrediting Vietnam veterans with traumatic or repressed memories. The impression he leaves with his anecdotal approach is that they are all “faking it.” The benefit to the government is obvious: if vets are lying about their condition, they have no claim to monetary and medical benefits. His “expert” arguments are as specious as you might expect, given that the FMSF is an appendage of a criminalized intelligence community. The damage that the organization has done to victims of ritual abuse is incalculable – the FMSF has programmed the public, with a redundant regimen of bald-faced lies, to believe that RA doesn’t exist, when in fact cult mind control has been a scourge in most cities, with religion concealing CIA connections. The Mockingbird press covers all of this up by adopting the FMSF line of rhetoric – which borrows heavily from Holocaust denial tactics – and blacklisting or defaming the victims and their advocates.
From the FMSF website listing Pankratz as an Advisor:
LOREN PANKRATZ, Ph.D.
“A fascination with the successful deceivers of history,” Dr. Pankratz says, led him to devote his teaching, writing, and speaking career to the exposure of quacks and charlatans. He has debunked faith healing, firewalking, mentalism, psychics and Satanic Ritual Abuse – all with equal fervor.
As Dr. Pankratz puts it: “My professional career has focused on understanding patients who deceive health-care professionals. I have published papers on malingering, factitious disorder, drug seekers, wandering patients, and pretenders of post-traumatic stress disorder.”
He invented his own syndrome, called the Dudley Moore Syndrome (after the movie comedian). And he has investigated an old, established syndrome, the Munchausen Syndrome.
In the academic world, Dr. Pankratz was a professor of psychiatry and medical psychology at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR. He was also a consulting psychologist at the VA Medical Center in Portland. However, he recently retired early to devote his time to independent consulting, speaking, and book collecting.
With his reputation for skepticism, it is small wonder that Dr. Pankratz is a fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal.
As a member of the ethics committee of the Oregon Psychological Association, Dr. Pankratz began to receive calls about problems caused by therapists. “It was one of these chance calls that eventually got me involved on the board of the False Memory Syndrome Foundation.”
Pankratz is a CSICOP (Skeptic) Fellow.
(17) Linda Rosa, RN – NCAHF Board Member – rosa@ezlink.com
Linda Rosa RN is a person, in Colorado, who, I think, can create a new, important sounding, position for herself in just a few minutes. An internet search will turn her up as the Executive Director of more instant organizations than Carter has liver pills. This woman could give lessons to bobbie baratz on how to puff a resume.
Rosa’s personal positioning tactics are typical quackbuster. You can’t go down a list of quackbusters without instantly observing the “puffing” of their qualifications. But, Rosa’s claim to fame (insert a loud snort here) seems to be the day she talked her nine-year-old into doing a school show-and-tell on “Therapeutic Touch” and with top Research Scientist (sarcasm intended) Stephen Barrett, actually got this show-and-tell published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (must have been a slow day down at the JAMA office). This article has become the touchstone for all of the quackbuster dimwits in their attack against Therapeutic Touch – to no avail, for TT is alive and well everywhere. It has even been approved for teaching by the Nursing Board of California.
Rosa, and a somewhat non-descript individual named Larry Sarner, team up to run the two person, but important sounding, “Colorado Council on Health Fraud.” I think they hold their annual meetings in a sleeping bag.
Linda Rosa is a Member of the Rocky Mountain Skeptics.
(18) Wallace I. Sampson, MD – NCAHF Board Member – wisampson@cs.com
I first ran into Wallace Sampson at a Federation of State Medical Board (FSMB) conference in San Diego in 1997. He was speaking on the subject of “alternative medicine,” and every word had its own sneer. I was there as a “Journalist,” so when the question-and-answer-period came around I, of course, baited old Wally asking him if “it wasn’t time to embrace Alternative Medicine since it was so popular with the public?” Wally seemed to get very angry.
Of course, my sense of humor drove me to go to one of the “break-out” sessions and bait old Wally with another salvo asking him “Why are you so afraid of it? Are you unable to grasp the science? Couldn’t you just take a course in it?” He got even angrier and left the room.
And I discovered how much fun it was to bait slow witted quackbusters.
But, old Wally, although pretty much sidelined by his personal ineffectuality, had his role. He wrote, or it was made to appear that he had written, a lot of junk, written along the same anti-AltMed theme.
As an example, just below, is a link to an article on a website for a group calling itself “Oregonians for Science and Reason,” another goofy self-styled “skeptic” group. Just below the link is a section from the article called “About the Author,” which tells a lot about Sampson.
“Dr. Wallace Sampson is a CSICOP Fellow, a member of the Bay Area Skeptics in San Francisco, and a frequent speaker on medical research, “alternative” treatments and medical scams. Sampson obtained his medical degree from UC San Francisco in 1955 and interned at Minneapolis General Hospital. Following medical school, he spent two years as a general medical officer in the US Army. He took residency training in pathology and internal medicine at UCLA and Harbor General Hospital, then a hematology fellowship at San Francisco General Hospital and the Children’s Hospital, San Francisco. He conducted research on the mechanisms of bone marrow toxicity and in nuclear medicine, especially iron metabolism.
Sampson spent thirty years in private practice, specializing in hematology and oncology in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, California, and taught at Stanford and the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, San Jose. He left practice in 1991 to become Interim Chief of Medical Oncology at Valley Medical Center until his retirement in November, 1997. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine where he developed the first course on analyzing aberrant medical claims of holistic, and later “alternative,” medicine. The course is entering its twentieth year.
In 1977, Sampson was a co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), also known as the National Council for Rational Health Information, and served as Chair of the Board of Directors from 1990 to 1998. He is also Chair pro tem of the State of California’s Cancer Advisory Council, serving on that body since 1983. He is a frequent expert witness for the Medical Board of California and the California State Attorney General.
Sampson recently founded and is now editor of the new research journal, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine published by Prometheus Books. He developed the idea after finding that accurate information about anomalous medical claims was difficult to find in the vast array of medical journals; he felt accurate information should be available in one place.”
Wallace Sampson is a member of the Bay Area Skeptics.
(19) Russell Worrall, OD – NCAHF Board Member – cvc@foothill.net
In the mid 1980s Worrall wrote a few articles that appeared in the weirdo Skeptic publications including a book published by Paul Kurtz’s Prometheus Press. For the most part they were about things to do with the eyes including Iridology.
Although quckbuster publications claim he is connected to University of California at Berkley there is no backup evidence for that.
There is no current (2010) information available about Worrall. I suspect he may be dead.
I believe Worrall was “filler” for an NCAHF Board that failed to attract mainstream professionals for obvious reasons. Below is an example of an article about him:
“Russell S. Worrall, OD, details the bizarre cranial manipulation method, “Neural Organizational Technique”, promoted by a New York chiropractor that was used on learning disabled children in Crescent City, California (see NCAHF Newsletter, p.3, March-April, 1988). NCAHF considers this case to be an outstanding example of irresponsible action on the part of school officials entrusted with the well-being of children. Dr. Worrall’s article provides insight into what transpired during that sad affair. (The Skeptical Inquirer, 15:40-50, Fall, 1990).”
I suspect he was an early Skeptic.
The last point…
Were these people, these NCAHF Board Members, or any of them, directly responsible for the attack on Doctor’s Data, and by association, the health professionals that use their service? That’s the question.
The answer is “Yes, I think so.” But you are going to have to wait until that article about who the 2010/2011 quackbusters really are comes out.
So, Stay tuned.
Tim Bolen – Consumer Advocate