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National Council Against Health Fraud
From SourceWatch
Website: http://www.ncahf.org/
Produces a free weekly e-mail newsletter Consumer Health Digest in association with Quackwatch (http://www.quackwatch.org/)
The organization has rankled promoters of "alternative health" programs, some of which have questioned or attacked the credibility of the organization. For example, here is a quote posted to Usenet by Duane Weed, a chiropractor and vendor of herbal products [1] :
- I refer anyone who is interested in the truth about the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) to get a copy of the excellent book, RACKETEERING IN MEDICINE, THE SUPPRESSION OF ALTERNATIVES by James P. Carter, M.D., published by Hampton Roads Publishing Co. Inc., 1993, (ISBN 1-878901-32-X). A perusal of the index will indicate 12 places in the book where the NCAHF is mentioned.
- The National Council Against Health Fraud is an outgrowth of theCoordinating Conference on Health Information (CCHI), which was formed by the AMA in 1964. The CCHI is actually an offshoot of the AMA's Committee on Quackery that was originally established for the sole purpose of eliminating the chiropractic profession. It has since been proven in a 13 year federal court battle--(Wilke et al., the AMA lost)--that their motives were strickly self-interest; that is, the AMA perceived the growing chiropractic profession as an economic threat to their pocketbooks and so they tried to eliminate them and thus eliminate their competition. They disseminated lies about the profession in order to discredit the profession. As a result of this law suit, a federal judge issued an injunction against the AMA. The National Council Against Health Fraud, has turned their attention to other alternative "threats" to the medical establishment. Sometimes actual fraud is involved, but more often it is just a means of harassing and discrediting an alternative treatment in order to protect the medical status quo.
- My advice is to ignore anything that you read that has been put out by the National Council Against Health Fraud. They are not a credible organization. I strongly recommend that you read the book I mentioned above.
