You didn't answer the question about what's true regarding Wallach's claims. I laid out 3 general ones that you simply ignored.
There are no statistics on "naturopathic" doctors because they can't be placed in a scientific study since any person can claim to be "Holistic". In other words, there is no scientific course or graduate body for the field "Naturopahy". It is simply a hobby for those who partake in it.
My argument isn't against "naturopathic" or Holistic Doctors. If it suits you better to see them for your healthcare needs then more power to you. My argument is against "Doc" Wallach specifically and his outlandish claims and untruths he spouts to profit on the gullible, as so many in this thread have also stated for the record.
You should really take a look at: http://skepdic.com/wallach.html . Here are some excerpts you will find illuminating if you really can independently think and not be blinded by your bias of the medical establishment; which I admit there are malpractice claims and bad doctors a lot of the time -- i don't deny that. But painting every MD with a broad brush is dangerous business in my view.
Here are the excerpts:
The basic danger of Wallach's theories is not that taking colloidal minerals will harm people or even that many people will be wasting their money on a product they do not need. Many of his claims are not backed up by scientific randomized control studies, but are anecdotal or fictional. The basic danger is that because he and other naturopaths exaggerate the role of minerals in good health, they may be totally ignored by the scientific community even if they happen to hit on some real connections between minerals and disease. Furthermore, there is the chance that legitimate scientific researchers may avoid this field for fear of being labeled a kook.
Wallach falsely claims that there are five cultures in the world that have average life spans of between 120 and 140 years: the Tibetans in Western China; the Hunzas in Eastern Pakistan; the Russian Georgians and the Armenians, the Abkhasians, and the Azerbaijanis. He also mentions the people of the Vilcabamba in Ecuador and those who live around Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia. The secret of their longevity is "glacier milk" (water full of colloidal minerals). The basis for these claims seems to be Wallach's imagination.
The label on the "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" tape says "Learn why the average life span of an MD is only 58 years." On his tape, Dr. Wallach claims that "the average life span of an American is 75 years, but the average life span of an American doctor is only 58 years!" Maybe dead doctors don't lie, but this living one certainly does. According to Kevin Kenward of the American Medical Association: "Based on over 210,000 records of deceased physicians, our data indicate the average life-span of a physician is 70.8 years." One wonders where Dr. Wallach got his data. The only mention in his tape of data on physician deaths is in his description of a rather gruesome hobby of his: he collects obituaries of local physicians as he takes his mineral show from town to town.
On his tape, Wallach says
"...what I did was go back to school and become a physician. I finally got a license to kill (laughter), and they allowed me to use everything I had learned in veterinary school about nutrition on my human patients. And to no surprise to me, it worked. I spent 12 years up in Portland, Oregon, in general practice, and it was very fascinating."
Wallach is not a physician, but an N.D., a doctor of naturopathy. It is unlikely that most of the people in his audiences know that naturopaths aren't really physicians and that there is a big difference between an M.D. and an N.D. He also claims he did hundreds of autopsies on humans while working as a veterinarian in St. Louis. How does a veterinarian get to do human autopsies?
"...Well, again, to make a long story short, over a period of some twelve years I did 17,500 autopsies on over 454 species of animals and 3,000 human beings who lived in close proximity to the zoos, and the thing I found out was this: every animal and every human being who dies of natural causes dies of a nutritional deficiency."
If he really did do all those autopsies and then concluded that every animal or human who dies of natural causes dies because of a nutritional deficiency, then he qualifies for the Ignoble or Ignoramus Prize. To accomplish his autopsy feat, he would have to have done six autopsies a day, working 5 days a week for 12 years, taking only a 2-week vacation each year. He was allegedly performing all these autopsies in addition to his other duties and presumably while he was writing essays and books as well.
an attack on doctors and a panegyric to minerals
Wallach's "Dead Doctors Don't Lie" tape is both an attack on the medical profession and a panegyric for minerals. The attack is vicious and mostly unwarranted, which weakens his credibility about the wonders of mineral supplements. He does not come across as an objective, impersonal scientist. He delights in ridiculing "Haavaad" University and cardiologists who die young from heart attacks, many of whom went into the field because of congenital heart defects.
Wallach seems to ignore the importance of genetics in human diseases. He reverts to name-calling on several occasions, as well. Doctors, he says, routinely commit many practices that would be considered illegal in other fields. At one point he claims that the average M.D. makes over $200,000 a year in kickbacks. This ludicrous claim didn't even get a peep of skeptical bewilderment from his audience. [The tape is of a live recording of one of his shows.] He sounds like a bitter, rejected oddball who is getting even with the medical profession for ignoring him and his "research," much of which consists of studies on such things as "hair analysis," a common mark of the quack. His bitterness toward science-based medicine makes Wallach attractive to those with an axe to grind against the medical profession.
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You are wrong about Selenium being the "secret" mineral Wallach talks about. Even Noory on his programs with him sometimes says to listeners that "Wallach will not give away the mineral" when discussing certain ailments the the person is "nutritionally deficient" in.
If you he gives a list of everything as you say -- then why charge the prices he does on his "website store" if everything can be picked up locally at your drug store?
Again, I quote:
Wallach seems to be most famous for a widely circulated audiotape he calls "Dead Doctors Don't Lie." [It is also available in video tape and book form.] The label on the tape notes that Wallach was a Nobel Prize nominee. This is true, but meaningless. He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in medicine by the Association of Eclectic Physicians "for his notable and untiring work with deficiencies of the trace mineral selenium and its relationship to the congenital genesis of Cystic Fibrosis." The Association of Eclectic Physicians is a group of naturopaths founded in 1982 by Edward Alstat and Michael Ancharski. In his book Let's Play Doctor (co-authored with Ma Lan, M.D., M.S.) Wallach states that cystic fibrosis is preventable, is 100% curable in the early stages, can be managed very well in chronic cases, leading to a normal life expectancy (75 years). If these claims were true, he might have won the Prize. He didn't win, but he gave a lot of false hope to parents of children with cystic fibrosis. The fact is that Wallach's "research" on cystic fibrosis was, to put it kindly, incompetent. The "people he studied were self-selected, and not randomized; he did not follow an appropriate data-gathering protocol; his diagnoses were made with a questionnaire; and his report made claims about other data that were either unsupported or unreferenced."* In fact, cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that "causes the body to produce unusually thick, sticky mucus that:
--Clogs the lungs and leads to life-threatening lung infections.
--Obstructs the pancreas and stops natural enzymes from helping the body break down food and absorb vital nutrients."*
"Many people with the disease can now expect to live into their 30s, 40s and beyond,"* but not because of mineral supplements or thanks to anything Wallach did.
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...In the early 1980's, Wallach called himself a "Manner Metabolic Physician'' and treated cancer patients with laetrile, a substance that should not be used to treat cancer. In 1990 he also worked with Kurt Donsbach at the notorious Tijuana clinic Hospital Santa Monica. In 1995, Wallach was using chelation therapy for heart disease, a common misuse of this therapy by quacks. A relative of one of Wallach's patients reported his concerns to the National Council Against Health Fraud when the patient died in Wallach's care. The relative expressed concern that "Wallach had convinced the patient not to be treated by his regular physician; thus he did not seek proper medical help and died."*
There is no scientific data supporting the claim that all diseases are due to mineral deficiencies. A deficiency or excess of zinc can cause serious health problems. Iron deficiency is a well-known health problem. And there is a good reason for magnesium being a common ingredient in laxatives and antacids. But unless one has a specific deficiency, there is no known health benefit from ingesting daily supplements, colloidal or otherwise, unless one considers it a health benefit to feel that you are in control of your well-being by taking supplements. Numerous studies have failed to find any health benefit from taking supplements "just in case" you might be deficient in one or more vitamins or minerals. Editors at the Annals of Internal Medicine put it this way:
Most supplements do not prevent chronic disease or death, their use is not justified, and they should be avoided.... After years of study and mostly disappointing results, enough is enough. What we've found time and again is that the supplements are not working… we don't need to go on studying them forever....most of the 53% of U.S. consumers who use supplements are wasting money, to the tune of $28 billion a year.*
Since one-third of U.S. adults take supplements despite the lack of scientific evidence in support of the practice, characters like Wallach have a large market of eager customers waiting to be told lies that make them feel they can control their health with minimal effort just by opening their mouths and their wallets. The only reputable scientific study I know of that found a "modest" reduction in the risk of cancer from taking daily supplements was published in the Journal of the American Medical Society in 2012. The study involved over 14,000 male physicians over four years. One group got daily multivitamin tabs, the other group got a placebo.
Wallach claims that minerals in foods and most supplements are "metallic" and not as effective as "plant-based" colloidal minerals, which is nonsense because colloidal minerals are also "metallic," i.e., contain trace amounts of aluminum and heavy metals. Being colloidal has more to do with the origin, size, and structure of the mineral particles that with their effectiveness. Being metallic is irrelevant. Wallach claims that metallic minerals (i.e., regular vitamins and minerals) are only 8-12% absorb-able while colloidal minerals are 98% absorb-able. No data support this claim; Wallach seems to have made it up.* (A colloid is "a substance that consists of particles dispersed throughout another substance which are too small for resolution with an ordinary light microscope but are incapable of passing through a semipermeable membrane." --Merriam-Webster)
And probably most important that cannot be overstated:
Wallach makes his claims about minerals despite the fact that in 1993 a research team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, reported the results of a 13-year study on 10,758 Americans which failed to find any mortality benefits from vitamin and mineral supplements. The study found that even though supplement users smoke and drink less than non-users, eat more fruits and vegetables than non-users, and are more affluent than non-users, they didn't live any longer than non-users. The study also found no benefit from taking vitamin and mineral supplements for smokers, heavy drinkers, or those with chronic diseases.
In May 2006, a committee of physicians impaneled by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that little information exists as to whether people should take supplements. The previous March the NIH noted that research suggests that vitamins and other supplements may do more harm than good, and that antioxidants are of little use.* Further research has found that vitamin supplements can even be deadly.* The simple fact is that there is no compelling scientific evidence that vitamin or mineral supplements beneficially affect the health or longevity of most people. Those suffering from a vitamin or mineral deficiency should take supplements, but there is no merit to Wallach's claim that most or all diseases are due to mineral deficiencies.
Wallach's basic appeal is to offer hope to people who fear or are mistrustful of medical doctors and scientific knowledge. He gives hope to those who want to live for a really long time. He gives hope to those who are diagnosed with diseases for which current medical knowledge has no cure. He gives hope to those who want to avoid getting a terminal disease. And he gives hope to those who want to be healthy but who do not want to diet or exercise. All we have to do is ingest a magic elixir of colloidal minerals and we'll be healthy. You can't just take your minerals in pill form, he warns us. You must take the colloidal variety in liquid form. Until he had a falling out with T.J. Clark & Co., this elixir had to come from special pits in Utah. After John H. Renner, M.D., President of the National Council Against Health Fraud, exposed the "distortions, bogus science, and outright lies" in Wallach's tape, T.J. Clark & Co. "severed its business relationship with him." Wallach then "revised his 'scientific' opinion and quickly moved on to find new partners."*
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Sorry for the long post, but it was important for this information to get out.
Well, Mike, I didn't mean to avoid three of your questions. There is just so much room for disagreement on this topic. I try to go for whatever is funniest, most passionate or easy to support. Maybe I didnt have strong feelings about your questions - i really dont know and this tablet is too small to see them at the moment.
For instance, some people might not respond to your concern about Wallach not being a doctor... simply because where I live, a naturopath IS a doctor, and is respected more than a doctor, especially by women. I have known several naturopaths personally. The whole argument about the professional label would seem retarded to me. I was just raised differently, in a different paradigm. Kind of like I wouldn't argue if someone said oranges are blue - it wouldnt even make sense for me to get involved in that part of a discussion because it would seem irrelevant.
From the shows I listened to, selenium was clearly the mystery mineral. That was very meaningful to me because selenium helps lots of things. But, like you say, it sounds like there are other things he keeps as a mystery.
The reason he lists all the nutrients is because he cares about people. The reason he sells specialized formulas is because shoppers with that kind of money don't want to make their own formulas. They can buy tasty, portion controlled versions right from Wallach, so it's more convenient. Because those kind of shoppers usually are well employed, and dont have time to mess around with homemade formulations or hodge-podge assortments. From Wallach, they can get compatible paks, without paying for redundancy. I dont know how much you have used or shopped for vitamins, but it can be very frustrating. Sometimes, calcium comes with magnesium and zinc, sometimes it doesnt. Should you then subtract magnesium and zinc from your regular multi-vitamin? Quandries like that. Dealing with simples and compounds, trying to piece it all together without specialized equipment. There are people who actually stuff their own gel tabs! They are sold at health food stores.
Plus, Wallach's products are easily absorbed (presumably), easy to take, and probably seasoned to taste.
It's kind of like how someone can get their cosmetics or tools in a haphazard fashion (as I do), or they can buy a big set, complete from the factory. A complete set might provide uniform coverage, uniform strength, and be nicely packaged and easy to store. Where, a hodge podge might be more versatile, but messier, with a variety of labels making the whole set more confusing.
Wallach works in alternative medicine. They don't care as much about patents and proprietary stuff, like Capitalist-mentality companies. Many alternative medicine providers are kind of anti-patent. Or would like a more consumer friendly patent system. If he gives away lists of nutrients, that could be why. Alternative providers tend to be more open and educational. He doesn't rely on traditional obsfucation to make a profit. But, he presumably wants to make a profit, so he does guard some of his knowledge. He profits from his skill and ability to "put it altogether" for consumers because, like you said, people can overdose on vitamins, and also because some busy people just don't want to take the time to make their own portions.
Vitamins and minerals are expensive. It would be easy for a working class person to justify paying more for expertise. "Ah, they already cost a lot. What's a little more for good service...". I don't know what Wallach charges, but if the add-on amount over generic vitamins is below a certain ratio, it could be easily justified.
Nutritional health takes time. It's not like a rehular prescription. I've heard it can take the better part of a year before curing a condition. I took an alternative homeopathic remedy for a couple years before I finally cured the condition. But the condition was truly cured, for over ten years. If I had gone to a regular doctor, I'd still be shelling out for a prescription.
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