National Council Against Health Fraud

The National Council Against Health Fraud is a US-based organization headquartered in Peabody, Massachusetts. It describes itself as a "private nonprofit, voluntary health agency that focuses upon health misinformation, fraud, and quackery as public health problems." The NCAHF and its co-founder Stephen Barrett have occasionally litigated against practitioners of alternative medicine and producers of products whom they believe to be in violation of the organization's governing principles. The litigation has had mixed results.

Mission statement

According to NCAHF's mission statement, its activities and purposes include:

• Investigating and evaluating claims made for health products and services.
• Educating consumers, professionals, business people, legislators, law enforcement personnel, organizations and agencies about health fraud, misinformation, and quackery.
• Providing a center for communication between individuals and organizations concerned about health misinformation, fraud, and quackery.
• Supporting sound consumer health laws
• Opposing legislation that undermines consumer rights.
• Encouraging and aiding legal actions against those who violate consumer protection laws.
• Sponsoring a free weekly e-mail newsletter.

NCAHF's positions on consumer health issues are based on what they consider ethical and scientific principles that underlie consumer protection law. Required are:

• Adequate disclosure in labeling and other warranties to enable consumers to make proper choices;
• Premarketing proof of safety and efficacy for products and services that claim to prevent, alleviate, or cure any disease or disorder; and
• Accountability for those who violate consumer laws.

NCAHF states that its funding is primarily derived from membership dues, newsletter subscriptions, and consumer information services. Membership is open to everyone, with members and consultants located all over the world. NCAHF's officers and board members serve without compensation. NCAHF states they unite consumers with health professionals, educators, researchers, attorneys, and others.

Incorporation Status

Chartered in 1977, The National Council Against Health Fraud, Inc. is headquartered in Peabody, Massachusetts, but is not a Massachusetts corporation. Previously located in California, the corporate status of NCAHF is shown as suspended in California and that the "Agent for Service of Process Resigned on March 22, 2003." The most recent Internal Revenue Service list of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions includes NCAHF as a non-profit organization ("a public charity with a 50% deductibility limitation").

Position on Health Issues

Acupuncture

The NCAHF asserts that acupuncture is scientifically unproven as a modality of treatment. The NCAHF says (as of 1990) that research during the past twenty years has failed to demonstrate that acupuncture is effective against any disease. Perceived effects of acupuncture are, argues the NCAHF, probably due to a combination of expectation, suggestion and other psychological mechanisms. The NCAHF points out that acupuncture was banned in China in 1929 but underwent a resurgence in the 1960s. The organization also advocates that insurance companies should not be required to cover acupuncture treatment, and that licensure of lay acupuncturists should be phased out.

Amalgam Fillings

There has long been controversy regarding the use of amalgam fillings by dentists, because the amalgam contains mercury. Some forms of mercury are toxic to humans, but the NCAHF cites the CDC in stating that there is no evidence that "the health of the vast majority of people with amalgam is compromised" or that "removing amalgam fillings has a beneficial effect on health". The NCAHF criticizes those who they believe exploit unfounded public fears for financial gain. NCAHF asserts that breath, urine and blood testing for mercury are inaccurate. Other tests for mercury exposure described by the NCAHF as invalid can include skin testing, stool testing, hair analysis and electrodermal testing.

Chiropractic

The NCAHF contends that chiropractic can be dangerous and lead to injury or permanent disability.[8] However, the NCAHF does not categorically oppose the practice. NCAHF differentiates between what it considers good and bad chiropractic practices. The former should advance only methods of diagnosis and treatment which have a scientific basis. For example, NCAHF claims there is no scientific support for subluxation.[9] Their view is that chiropractic doctors should restrict the scope of practice to neuromusculoskeletal problems such as muscle spasms, strains, sprains, fatigue, imbalance of strength and flexibility, stretched or irritated nerve tissue, and so forth. Chiropractors should refer cases involving pathology to qualified medical practitioners.

In contrast, what the NCAHF considers bad are those chiropractors who believe the adjustment will cure or alleviate a variety of diseases, such as infection, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, nutritional deficiencies or excesses, appendicitis, blood disorders, or kidney disease. These practitioners may use unproven, disproven, or questionable methods, devices, and products such as adjusting machines, applied kinesiology, chelation therapy, colonic irrigation, computerized nutrition deficiency tests, cranial osteopathy, cytotoxic food allergy testing, DMSO, gerovital, glandular therapy, hair analysis, herbal crystalization analyses, homeopathy, internal managements, iridology, laser beam acupuncture, laetrile, magnetic therapy,and so forth.

Diet Advice

The NCAHF is opposed to dietary recommendations and practices not supported by scientific evidence that NCAHF recognizes, including behavior-related claims. Unverified assessment methods such as iridology, applied kinesiology, and routine hair analysis for assessment of nutritional status are routinely criticized or castigated. NCAHF and some of its members have long opposed implementation of beliefs that they characterize as unfounded or unscientific.

NCAHF also questions the health claims, marketing, safety, efficacy and lableling of herbal supplements. Herbal preparations are regulated as foods, rather than drugs, in the United States. The NCAHF advocates regulations for a special OTC category called "Traditional Herbal Remedies" (THRs) with an adverse reaction surveillence program, product batches marked for identification and tracking, package label warnings about proposed dangers of self-treatment, oversight requirements from outside of the herbal industry, and strong penalties for unapproved changes in herbal product formulations.

Diploma Mills

The NCAHF claims that many unqualified practitioners are able to mislead the public by using diploma mills or "degree mills" to get "specious degrees". Diploma mills are not accredited, and frequently engage in "pseudoscience and food faddism". NCAHF also alleges that "at least some of the 'faculty' or 'academic' advisors at several of these schools have criminal convictions in the area of health fraud". NCAHF considers diploma mills harmful to the "students" and to the public.

Criticism

• The NCAHF has been accused by outspoken critics of being a front for corporate medical interests and of using the guise of consumer advocacy to present false indictments of complementary and alternative medicine techniques such as chiropractic, homeopathy, acupuncture, herbal remedies, and naturopathy.

• U.S. Representative Dan Burton, former Chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform, has stated that it is not in the public interest for a health fraud watch group such as NCAHF to operate unrestrained and unendorsed by the government. Burton, described by the New York Daily News as a "powerful friend" of the dietary supplement industry, has received $79,249 in campaign contributions from the supplement industry since 1994 and has a "long history of supporting unorthodox treatments", going back to the now-discredited cancer treatment laetrile.

• In his book Racketeering in Medicine: The Suppression of Alternatives, James P. Carter M.D. makes the following charges: "the NCAHF...receives funds from pharmaceutical manufacturers," and the NCAHF does not represent the consumer but rather "the interests of a select group of health-care providers - physicians in the private practice of medicine - and they represent the interest of pharmaceutical companies."

• In a letter to Lyn Behrens, PhD President of Loma Linda University, Julian M. Whitaker, M.D. explains how the NCAHF and some of its members have acted against numerous practitioners who were listed on their "Persons on the Quack List Data Base" containing 2,551 names. He writes: "Obviously, considering the number of physicians listed, the only criteria for being added to this defamatory list would be the 'opinions' of those within the NCAHF. Please note that the list includes 1,137 MDs, 167 PhDs, 236 DOs, 79 DDSS, 228 DCs, and 441 others (BS, RN, ND, HMD, CSW, MSN)... Many have university affiliation, have published in the peer-review literature, and are respected authors of books or even textbooks. Please note that this 'quack' list includes Linus Pauling, PhD."

• According to Victor Penzer, MD, DMD, The 'quackbusters,' ... have shown themselves closedminded and irrational on many occasions, having practiced, at the same time, deception, distortion, and untruth in compulsive efforts to achieve their goals. Most objectional, the NCAHF, having vociferously denounced and valiantly persecuted any kind of natural healing, meritorious or not, at the same time raises no objections to so many instances of fraud on the part of the orthodox practitioners or institutions, unless publicly exposed by law enforcement agencies previously. The National Council Against Health Fraud has been clearly hypocritical, and demonstrated again and again that they were substantially against Health, rather than against Fraud.

• The Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud (LVCAHF), one of the three constituents that eventually formed the NCAHF, was discredited as a source for information on chiropractic in 1979. A report ordered by the New Zealand Governor General and presented to the New Zealand House of Representatives stated that, "nothing he [Stephen Barrett, then chairman of LVCAHF and current vice president of NCAHF] has written on chiropractic that we have considered can be relied on as balanced." The report went on to say, "It is clear that the enthusiasm of the Lehigh Valley Committee Against Health Fraud is greater than its respect for accuracy, at least in regard to facts concerning chiropractic. We are not prepared to place any reliance on material emanating from the Lehigh Valley Committee."

The NCAHF denies all of these charges, saying:

"Such charges are apparently designed to draw attention from the true issues. NCAHF believes that consumers have a right to the information they need to make proper decisions, and that those who supply health products and/or services have a moral obligation to be truthful, competent, and accountable. NCAHF does not take sides in turf battles; it believes in one standard for all. Other than the common bond among those who believe that medical care should be based on science, NCAHF has no organizational ties to either organized medicine or the pharmaceutical industry. Nor has it ever received financial support from them. In fact, NCAHF is openly critical of the failure of organized medicine to take a more proactive consumer protection role and believes that medical discipline needs strengthening. NCAHF is also very critical of drug companies that market supplements, homeopathic products, and herbal products that are worthless, questionable, and/or unsafe. When pharmaceutical companies have marketed these products deceptively, NCAHF has exposed such activities and incurring the wrath of vitamin trade groups."

Lawsuits

Aroma Vera suit

In 1997, the NCAHF filed a lawsuit in California against Aroma Vera, a manufacturer of aromatherapy supplies, asserting false advertising. In 1998, the judge ruled that NCAHF lacked standing to file such a suit. In 1999 this ruling was reversed on appeal. In 2000, Aroma Vera settled out of court on the stipulation they would not make 57 of the disputed claims in advertising within California.

NCAHF v. King Bio

In 2001, NCAHF (Plaintiff) sued King Bio Pharmaceuticals (Defendants), a homeopathic pharmaceutical company, for false advertising and unfair business practices. The court granted a directed verdict for Defendants, after Plaintiff presented its case. Plaintiff suggested in its initial trial brief that it could not prove the elements of its claims, and argued that none or only "slight" evidence should be required to shift the burden of proof to the Defendant. Id. The court explained the general principle in civil actions - that one filing a lawsuit has the burden to prove its claims by a preponderance (51%) of the evidence.

Plaintiffs had no evidence, apart from the testimony of two "expert" witnesses, to prove any of the elements of their claims. The court stated that the testimony of both witnesses (Barrett and another member of the board of NCAHF) should be given little weight, because neither witness was qualified to testify as an expert on the issues raised. The court further stated that both witnesses were "zealous advocates" rather than "neutral or dispassionate witnesses or experts." Id.

The Court concluded with a sharp rebuke:

"The logical end-point of Plaintiff’s burden-shifting argument would be to permit anyone with the requisite filing fee to walk into any court in any state in the Union and file a lawsuit against any business, casting the burden on that defendant to prove that it was not violating the law. Such an approach, this Court finds, would itself be unfair."

King Bio subsequently won the 2003 appeal.

See also

• Alternative medicine
• Consumer protection
• Evidence-based_medicine
• Medical ethics
• Pseudoscience
• Pseudoskepticism
• Quackery
• Quackwatch
• Scientific skepticism
• Stephen Barrett

External links

• National Council Against Health Fraud - Official site
• Dynamic Chiropractic criticizes the NCAHF (critical)