National Council Against Health Fraud
| Against allopathy Alternative medicine |
|
| Clinically unproven |
| Woo-meisters |
The National Council Against Health Fraud is a nonprofit, American-based voluntary health agency that is "focused upon health misinformation, fraud, and quackery as public health problems."[1] It emerged from three separate organizations in the 70's, notably Quackwatch. It is heavily criticized by alternative medicine quacks, for using science to expose quacks, which causes quacks' blood pressure to boil over.
Mission Statement and Positions[edit]
Mission Statement[edit]
The mission of the NCAHF is based on customer protection and the scientific method. The first part of the mission statement details that everybody is a consumer, and therefore everyone deserves high quality and functional healthcare. This includes health officials and professionals, who must do their duty to help consumers protect themselves from quacks and alternative medicine promoters. They investigate fake or useless products in the pharmaceutical and medicine industry, and evaluate them. They also state that the scientific method is the best and only way to validate and improve health services. It is their belief that health products and services should be safe and effective, accurately and fully labeled, and advertised truthfully. They hold the Consumer Bill of Rights in high regard, adhering to its principles, supporting consumer health laws, and opposing any legislation that could undermine it.[2]
Selected positions[edit]
Acupuncture[edit]
The organization's official position on acupuncture is that it is an unproven form of treatment. From there, they state that it is based on primitive medicinal practices and beliefs, and that it has no basis in real scientific medicine. They cite that research has not demonstrated its efficacy, and that effects that are felt by the patients are probably due mostly to the placebo effect.