Quackwatch

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(Lawsuit: this doesn't appear to be from the Koren case at all)
(Weston Price and QuackWatch: the claims and the reality: this is way too long, and full of shit.)
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In addition it can be shown that Quackwatch ''is'' very sloppy with its research at times.  For example in "Stay Away from "Holistic" and "Biological" Dentists" Stephen Barrett states "Price made a whirlwind tour of primitive areas, examined the natives superficially, and jumped to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."<ref>[http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticdent.html Stay Away from "Holistic" and "Biological" Dentists]</ref>
 
In addition it can be shown that Quackwatch ''is'' very sloppy with its research at times.  For example in "Stay Away from "Holistic" and "Biological" Dentists" Stephen Barrett states "Price made a whirlwind tour of primitive areas, examined the natives superficially, and jumped to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."<ref>[http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticdent.html Stay Away from "Holistic" and "Biological" Dentists]</ref>
  
The problem is that Price did '''NOT ''' ignore these factors as demonstrated by these quotes from Price himself:
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The problem is that Price did '''NOT ''' ignore these factors. This is no way validates Price's lunatic other points - [[Holistic Dentistry]] is psuedoscience.
  
{{cquote|Since 1870 the average length of life has been increased by fifteen years, '''that marked reduction has occurred during this period in infant mortality and in mortality due to tuberculosis, typhoid, smallpox and many other diseases.''' <ref>Price, Weston (1923) Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic, cited in chapters Chapters 2 and 18 of Price's ''Nutrition and Physical Degeneration''</ref>}}
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This sloppy research is used by medical fraudsters as ammunition to claim that you cannot trust anything Quackwatch says.  Sadly many of these detractors are as sloppy with their facts as Quackwatch is:
 
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{{cquote|This physician stated that there were about 800 whites living in the town and about 400 Indians, and that notwithstanding this difference in numbers there were twice as many Indian children born as white children, '''but that by the time these children reached six years of age there were more white children living than Indian and half-breed children. This he stated was largely due to the very high child mortality rate, of which the most frequent cause is tuberculosis.'''<ref>Price, Weston  (1939) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects Paul B. Hoeber, Inc; Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers; Chapter 6</ref>}}
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{{cquote|The changes in facial and dental arch form, which I have described at length in this volume, develop in this age period also, not as a result of faulty nutrition of the individual but as the result of distortions in the architectural design in the very early part of the formative period. Apparently, they are directly related to qualities in the germ plasm of one or both parents, '''which result from nutritional defects in the parent before the conception took place, or deficient nutrition of the mother in the early part of the formative period.'''<ref>Price, Weston (1939) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects Paul B. Hoeber, Inc; Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers; Chapter 19</ref>}}
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{{cquote|It is important to keep in mind that '''morbidity and mortality data for many diseases follow a relatively regular course from year to year''', with large increases in the late winter and spring and a marked decrease in summer and early autumn. [...]  '''I have obtained the figures for the levels of morbidity for several diseases in several countries, including the United States and Canada.'''<ref>Price, Weston  (1939) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects Paul B. Hoeber, Inc; Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers; Chapter 20</ref>}}
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{{cquote|Dr. Vaughan in her reference to the data on the annual report of the chief medical officer, the Minister of Health, states as follows: '''Our infant mortality returns show that over half the number of infants dying before they are a year old die before they have lived a month'''..." <ref>Price, Weston (1939) Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects Paul B. Hoeber, Inc; Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers;  Chapter 21</ref>}}
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So, contrary to Quackwatch's claim, Price '''did''' address short life expectancy, high rates of infant mortality, and endemic diseases being eliminated by modern culture.
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As for the "the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities" claim, ''that'' is challenged by the foreword written by then Harvard University physical anthropologist Earnest A. Hooron for ''Nutrition and Physical Degeneration'' which states "(a) quantity of excellent evidence has been amassed which indicates that dental caries is, to a great extent, connected with malnutrition and with deficient diets."
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In fact, as is shown by this statement by Charles F. Bodecker, D.D.S. of the Laboratory of Histo-pathology, Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery, New York in a presentation delivered on November 3, 1933, Price was not alone in his view that there was a connection between malnutrition and tooth decay:
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{{cquote|The findings of the Agnews, Boyd and Drain, Eddy, Percy Howe, Hanke, Martha Jones, Marshall, McBeath, Klein and McCollum, May Mellanby, Price, and others show that dental disorders may be greatly reduced by a proper adjustment of the diet. Some of these investigators maintain that a lack of vitamin C is principally responsible for the activity of dental caries (Howe, Hanke). Weston Price regards vitamin B and mineral salts as the important elements in a caries free diet. Some believe that the lack of vitamin D is the offending factor (Mellanby). Finally, a disturbance in the calcium-phosphorus balance (which includes vitamin D) is the factor to which most recent investigators point as being responsible for the high activity of dental caries.<ref>[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1965672/pdf/bullnyacadmed00884-0037.pdf "Metabolic Disturbance in Relation to the Teeth"]</ref>}}
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It is this kind of inexcusable sloppy research that give Quackwatch's detractors the ammunition they need to claim that you cannot trust anything it says.  Sadly many of these detractors are as sloppy with their facts as Quackwatch is:
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* [http://www.21stcenturyhgh.com/quackwatch-hgh.htm Our Response to the Quackwatch Article] – from a supplier of "HGH Human Growth Hormone." Their response is summed up as, "Spend $60 on our product first and try it out!"
 
* [http://www.21stcenturyhgh.com/quackwatch-hgh.htm Our Response to the Quackwatch Article] – from a supplier of "HGH Human Growth Hormone." Their response is summed up as, "Spend $60 on our product first and try it out!"
 
* [http://www.raysahelian.com/quackwatch.html Is Stephen Barrett a Quack?] – by Ray Sahelian, M.D., who has authored books on "natural supplements" and "herbal products." His opinion is that Dr. Barrett is reliable but terribly biased…and besides, he hasn't embarked on a crusade against "the worthless cold and cough medicines sold by pharmaceutical companies and drug stores" the way Dr. Sahelian has. So nyahhh nyahhh nyahhh.
 
* [http://www.raysahelian.com/quackwatch.html Is Stephen Barrett a Quack?] – by Ray Sahelian, M.D., who has authored books on "natural supplements" and "herbal products." His opinion is that Dr. Barrett is reliable but terribly biased…and besides, he hasn't embarked on a crusade against "the worthless cold and cough medicines sold by pharmaceutical companies and drug stores" the way Dr. Sahelian has. So nyahhh nyahhh nyahhh.
 
However, it is not the lawsuits but the blatant disregard for accuracy as demonstrated regarding Weston Price's research that discredits the considerable database of information provided by Quackwatch against dozens, if not hundreds, of bogus "medical" services because once you demonstrate they are misrepresenting facts in one area the issue of what '''else''' are they misrepresenting comes up and their whole credibility gets shot to blazes.
 
  
 
==References==
 
==References==

Revision as of 10:55, 17 May 2013

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Quackwatch is a nonprofit that combats and keeps tabs on all manner of quackery. They started with medical woo and have expanded to all manner of woo. It is largely the work of Stephen Barrett, a longtime critic of alternative medicine. The website has great content, but could use the work of an adept website designer to bring the aesthetics up to date.

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Sister sites

Quackwatch also runs a number of other sites, including:

Lawsuit

Interestingly, if you do a Web search for Quackwatch, you're likely to come across a large number of blaring announcements like this: "Quackwatch founder loses in court!" "Quackwatch exposed as quack!" "Quackwatch loses lawsuit!" Nearly all of these accusations are on pseudo-scientific and untrustworthy "medical" Web sites of dubious quality. This also means that if you attempt to use Quackwatch as a verifiable source to prove that a "medical" Web site is lying or worse, they will immediately point to this accusation in order to "prove" that Quackwatch is not a reliable source. (For example, here's a link to The Cure Zone's mirror of the announcement calling the Quackwatch site untrustworthy: [1]) This all springs from one lawsuit that has been dragged through the courts for years – not by Quackwatch, but by Koren Publications, a chiropractor supply company. Quackwatch explains this lawsuit at these pages:

The short answer seems to be that Stephen Barrett sued Koren for defamation, but his case was dismissed; he then appealed, but the appeal was denied. One side of the case (namely Koren) made a lot of noise about it, repeatedly trumpeting bulletins such as this on many different quack-medicine Web sites:

There's even a Web site out there especially dedicated to slamming QuackWatch, called Quackpotwatch. Take three guesses as to who's managing and contributing to this Web site.

Moreover, in the 2005 Defamation Case article above it was stated:

At trial, under a heated cross-examination by Negrete, Barrett conceded that he was not a Medical Board Certified psychiatrist because he had failed the certification exam. This was a major revelation since Barrett had provided supposed "expert testimony" as a psychiatrist and had testified in numerous court cases as such. Also, Barrett had said that he was a "legal expert" even though he had no formal legal training. The most damning testimony before the jury, under the intense cross-examination by Negrete, was that Barrett had filed similar defamation lawsuits against almost 40 people across the country within the past few years and had not won one single one at trial. During the course of his examination, Barrett also had to concede his ties to the AMA, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

In a 2002 lawsuit against King Bio Pharmaceuticals, a homeopathics company, it was ruled that Stephen Barrett could not be regarded by the court as an expert on the legality of homeopathic drugs and had too much personal interest in opposing alternative medicine to be regarded as an objective source on the subject.[1]

Weston Price and QuackWatch: the claims and the reality

In addition it can be shown that Quackwatch is very sloppy with its research at times. For example in "Stay Away from "Holistic" and "Biological" Dentists" Stephen Barrett states "Price made a whirlwind tour of primitive areas, examined the natives superficially, and jumped to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."[2]

The problem is that Price did NOT ignore these factors. This is no way validates Price's lunatic other points - Holistic Dentistry is psuedoscience.

This sloppy research is used by medical fraudsters as ammunition to claim that you cannot trust anything Quackwatch says. Sadly many of these detractors are as sloppy with their facts as Quackwatch is:

  • Our Response to the Quackwatch Article – from a supplier of "HGH Human Growth Hormone." Their response is summed up as, "Spend $60 on our product first and try it out!"
  • Is Stephen Barrett a Quack? – by Ray Sahelian, M.D., who has authored books on "natural supplements" and "herbal products." His opinion is that Dr. Barrett is reliable but terribly biased…and besides, he hasn't embarked on a crusade against "the worthless cold and cough medicines sold by pharmaceutical companies and drug stores" the way Dr. Sahelian has. So nyahhh nyahhh nyahhh.

References

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