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Quackwatch

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Quackwatch is the primary website of Quackwatch, Inc., and is part of a network of websites dealing with related subjects. Its stated purpose is to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct," and its primary focus is on what it defines as quackery-related information that it claims is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere.<ref>Quackwatch - Mission Statement</ref> The website also contains articles and other types of information related to consumer advice and strategies. Quackwatch is operated by Stephen Barrett, M.D., a retired psychiatrist, with input from his board of advisors and help from numerous volunteers. <ref name="rosen">Rosen, Marjorie (October 1998). Interview with Stephen Barrett, M.D. Biography Magazine</ref> The website has won numerous awards and is quoted extensively in the press and medical journals. Critics feel the site is unbalanced and should be considered unreliable.

Contents

[edit] Mission and scope

Quackwatch reports that its activities include the following: <ref>Activities as per mission statement</ref>

"investigating questionable claims, answering inquiries about products and services, advising quackery victims, distributing reliable publications, debunking pseudoscientific claims, reporting illegal marketing, improving the quality of health information on the internet, assisting or generating consumer-protection lawsuits, and attacking misleading advertising on the internet."

The website contains essays on what it deems to be misleading or fraudulent health-related therapies and enterprises, loosely termed "quackery". The essays are not, and do not claim to be, peer-reviewed scientific papers, but are mainly critical descriptions of treatments, commercial products, and health providers, mainly written by Barrett and his board of advisors for the non-specialist consumer. The essays generally explain in detail the reasons Barrett considers them fraudulent, misleading, or ineffective. They usually include references and links to sources used, as well as to sources for further study. Quackwatch is especially critical of those therapies that it considers potentially dangerous.

The site contains information about specific people who perform, market, and advocate what Quackwatch considers to be dubious therapies, in many cases providing details of convictions for past marketing fraud. The website also presents lists of sources, individuals, and groups which Quackwatch considers questionable and non-recommended, sometimes without explanation or justification. <ref name="nonrecsource">Barrett SJ. Nonrecommended Sources of Health Advice Quackwatch. Retrieved July 19, 2006.</ref><ref name="nonrec">Barrett SJ. Questionable Organizations: An Overview. Quackwatch. Retrieved July 19, 2006.</ref> Among those mentioned critically are Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling (for recommending "mega-dose" vitamin C treatment of cancer), <ref name="pauling">Barrett SJ. (May 5, 2001) The Dark Side of Linus Pauling's Legacy.</ref> and integrative medicine proponent Andrew Weil.

[edit] About the site

Quackwatch engages the services of 150+ scientific and technical advisors, who author articles and help to "evaluate web sites, answer health-related questions, review books, help prepare articles, and engage in other projects that foster the spread of accurate information on the Internet." <ref name="advisors">Scientific and technical advisors</ref> As of 2003, 67 medical advisors, 12 dental advisors, 13 mental health advisors, 16 nutrition and food science advisors, 3 podiatry advisors, 8 veterinary advisors, and 33 "other scientific and technical advisors" were listed. <ref name="advisors"/>

Quackwatch has no salaried employees and "...operates with minimal expense, funded mainly by small individual donations, commissons from sales on other sites to which we refer, sponsored links, and profits from the sale of publications. If its income falls below what is needed for the research, the rest comes out of my pocket... The total cost of operating Quackwatch's many [22 sites] Web sites is approximately $7,000 per year." <ref name="funding">Barrett SJ. "Who Funds Quackwatch?"</ref>

The site is part of a network of related sites, such as Homeowatch (on homeopathy), Credential Watch (devoted to exposing degree mills), Chirobase (specifically devoted to chiropractic, cosponsored by the National Council Against Health Fraud and Victims of Chiropractic), and others, each devoted to specific topics. <ref>There are 22 web sites affiliated with Quackwatch.</ref>

Quackwatch was started in 1996 <ref> Quackwatch - Mission Statement</ref> and is operated by Quackwatch, Inc., an American non-profit organization founded in 1969, and incorporated in the state of Pennsylvania. <ref> Pennsylvania Department of State - Corporations </ref>

[edit] Notability

Quackwatch has received numerous awards and honors, <ref>Quackwatch: Awards and honors</ref> as well as being mentioned, referenced, and quoted favorably in the media and various journals:

"Dr. Stephen Barrett, a psychiatrist, seeks to expose unproven medical treatments and possible unsafe practices through his homegrown but well-organized site. Mostly attacking alternative medicines, homeopathy and chiropractors, the tone here can be rather harsh. However, the lists of sources of health advice to avoid, including books, specific doctors and organizations, are great for the uninformed. Barrett received an FDA Commissioner's Special Citation Award for fighting nutrition quackery in 1984. BEST: Frequently updated, but also archives of relevant articles that date back at least four years. WORST: Lists some specific doctors and organizations without explaining the reason for their selection." <ref name="forbes">Forbes.com, Best of the Web website reviews: Quackwatch.</ref>

Quackwatch has also been cited or mentioned by journalists in reports on therapeutic touch, <ref name=kolata">Kolata, Gina (April 1, 1998). A Child's Paper Poses a Medical Challenge. New York Times</ref> Vitamin O, <ref name="siwolop">Siwolop, Sana (January 7, 2001). Back Pain? Arthritis? Step Right Up to the Mouse. New York Times</ref> Almon Glenn Braswell and his claimed baldness treatments, <ref name'eichenwald">Eichenwald, Kurt and Michael Moss (February 6, 2001), Pardon for Subject of Inquiry Worries Prosecutors. New York Times </ref><ref name=AP">Associated Press (September 13, 2004). Man Once Pardoned By Clinton Again Faces Prison.</ref><ref>Another Dubious Pardon - U.S. News & World Report</ref> dietary supplements (especially when sold by health care providers), <ref name="fessenden">Fessenden, Ford with Christoper Drew (March 31, 2000). Bottom Line in Mind, Doctors Sell Ephedra. New York Times</ref> Robert Barefoot's coral calcium claims, <ref>Leon Jaroff, (March 14, 2003), Coral Calcium: A Barefoot Scam, Time magazine</ref> Noni juice, <ref>Noni Juice Might Lower Smokers' Cholesterol. Forbes article</ref> shark cartilage, <ref>Leon Jaroff, (Sep. 29, 2004), Medical Sharks, Time magazine</ref> infomercials, <ref>Damon Darlin, (April 8, 2006), Words to Live By in Infomercial World: Caveat Emptor, New York Times</ref> and the Mexican clinic where Coretta Scott King died. <ref name="mckinley">McKinley, James C Jr. (February 1, 2006). 'Eclectic' Hospital With a Founder Prone to Legal Problems. New York Times</ref>

[edit] Criticism

A website review entitled "Watching the Watchdogs at Quackwatch" by Joel M. Kauffman, Ph.D. (Professor Emeritus of the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at University of the Sciences in Philadelphia), <ref>USP - Faculty</ref> was published in the Journal of Scientific Exploration which provides a forum for scientific research on topics outside established disciplines of mainstream science.<ref name=”Kauffman”>Kauffmann JM (2002). Website Review: Alternative Medicine: Watching the Watchdogs at Quackwatch., Journal of Scientific Exploration, 16, 2</ref> Kauffman is also the author of Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year and How to Protect Yourself. <ref>Joel Kauffman, Malignant Medical Myths: Why Medical Treatment Causes 200,000 Deaths in the USA each Year and How to Protect Yourself. Infinity Publishing (January 30, 2006) ISBN 0-7414-2909-8</ref> His website review in JSE examined eight Quackwatch articles for factuality, fairness and scientific currency; Kauffman claimed the articles were "contaminated with incomplete data, obsolete data, technical errors, unsupported opinions, and/or innuendo" and cited the peer-reviewed literature in support of his conclusions. Kauffman wrote that:

"Hostility to all alternatives was expected and observed from the website, but not repetition of groundless dogma from mainstream medicine...It remains a mystery how they [Quackwatch] and I have interpreted the same body of medical science and reached such divergent conclusions.....It is very probable that many...vistors to the website have been misled by the trappings of scientific objectivity...At least 3 of the activities in the Mission Statement...have been shown to be flawed as actually executed...Medical practitioners such as Robert Atkins, Elmer Cranton and Stanislaw Burzynski, whom I demonstrated are not quacks, were attacked with the energy one would hope to be focused on real quacks. The use of this website is not recommended. It could be deleterious to your health."

[edit] Other critics

There are several more critics of the Quackwatch website. Many of the critics are also critical of Stephen Barrett, the owner and founder of the website:

  • Alternative medicine proponent Burton Goldberg wrote: "In the paradox of 'quackbusting,' the quackbusters say they're protecting public health, but in fact, they're abandoning the public to their own suffering to protect the financial interests of conventional medicine, which has no interest in or ability to produce benefits for these conditions. The 'quackbusters' say they're serving the public, but the truth is they're grossly disserving patients." and "As alternative medicine continues to grow more popular-an estimated 42% of Americans now use it-the "quackbusters" are growing more clamorous in their denunciations of our field. They have to be-they're almost a minority view." <ref name="goldberg">What's Eating Stephen Barrett?, Burton Goldberg, Alternative Medicine Digest, July 1998 available online</ref>
  • Ray Sahelian B.Sc (nutrition), M.D. and Board certified in Family Medicine, is the author of health related books, including Natural Sex Boosters, an expert in nutrition and a proponent of supplements, <ref>Index of Hundreds of Health Topics</ref> asks: "Why has Stephen Barrett, M.D. focused most of his attention on the nutritional industry and has hardly spent time pointing out the billions of dollars wasted each year by consumers on certain prescription and non-prescription pharmaceutical drugs?" and "Another point I would like to make regarding Quackwatch is that Dr. Barrett often, if not the majority of the time, seems to point out the negative outcome of studies with supplements (you can sense his glee and relish when he points out these negative outcomes), and rarely mentions the benefits they provide." <ref> Quackwatch review. Accessed Sept. 3, 2006</ref>
  • Dr. Elmer M. Cranton, author of Textbook on EDTA Chelation Therapy, has responded to criticism of chelation therapy by Quackwatch, stating: "There exist a small number of self-styled medical thought-police who call themselves 'quack busters'. They even have their own website, QuackWatch. This organization has the mission of attacking alternative and emerging medical therapies in favor of the existing medical monopoly." <ref name="Cranton">Cranton EM.Rebuttal to "Quackwatch" Website Opposing Chelation Therapy</ref> He further stated: "I will answer below, point by point, a critical article on the Quackwatch website by Dr. Saul Green entitled 'Chelation Therapy: Unproven Claims and Unsound Theories', <ref name="Green">Saul Green. Chelation Therapy: Unproven Claims and Unsound Theories</ref> in which Dr. Green attempts to discredit EDTA chelation using half-truths, speculation, and false statements." <ref name="Cranton"/>
  • Dr. Gerhard N. Schrauzer has responded to a Quackwatch article written by James Pontolillo <ref name="Pontolillo">James Pontolillo. Colloidal Mineral Supplements: Unnecessary and Potentially Hazardous</ref> that criticizes Dr. Joel D. Wallach: "The present account shows that Dr. Wallach's academic record is unassailable, and that his opinions and views are generally well substantiated. If he startles some of his critics this may be because developments in his area of expertise are not generally known or ignored by the largely drug oriented conventional medicine." <ref name="Schrauzer">Schrauzer GN. QuackWatch Rebuttal</ref>
  • Peter Barry Chowka, journalist and a former adviser to the National Institutes of Health's Office of Alternative Medicine, has said that Barrett "seems to be putting down trying to be objective." He went on to state that "Quackwatch.com is consistently provocative and entertaining and occasionally informative,.....But I personally think he's running against the tide of history. But that's his problem, not ours." <ref>Donna Ladd, Diagnosing Medical Fraud May Require a Second Opinion, The Village Voice, June 23 - 29, 1999 available online</ref>
  • Timothy Patrick ( Tim ) Bolen is the webmaster of Quackpot Watch, <ref>Quackpot Watch: email newsletter archive</ref> a website that challenges Barrett and some of the views presented on Quackwatch. Bolen characterizes Quackwatch.com as dubious<ref>For Quackbuster's NCAHF - It's All Over But The Shouting..., Tim Bolen, QuackPotWatch.com, July 9, 2003. available online</ref> and as the "bible" for the quackbusters, the place where all the "quackbusters" send their unsuspecting victims for allegedly "good information". <ref>The American Medical System is Broken..., Tim Bolen, QuackPotWatch.com, May 27, 2004. available online</ref>

[edit] References

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[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Favorable

[edit] Critical

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