Combination of | |
---|---|
water | 94% |
camphor | less than 0.01% |
Clinical data | |
Other names | trimethylbicyclonitramineoheptane chloride |
Routes of administration | injected, inhaled |
Legal status | |
Legal status |
|
714-X, also referred to as 714X or trimethylbicyclonitramineoheptane chloride, is a mixture of substances manufactured by CERBE Distribution Inc and sold as an alternative medical treatment which is claimed to cure cancer, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia and other diseases. [1] There is no scientific evidence that 714-X is effective in treating any kind of cancer, [2] and its marketing is considered health fraud in the US. [3]
714-X was developed by Gaston Naessens, a native of France and tried there for practicing medicine without a license. Naessens moved to Quebec and continued his research from the early 1970s.[ citation needed ] In 1989 he was arrested but acquitted from charges of accessory to murder, after a cancer patient using 714-X died following refusal to take conventional medical treatment.[ citation needed ]
The name "714-X" was chosen by Naessens to symbolize his initials (the 7th and 14th letters of the alphabet) and the year of his birth (1924, as X is the 24th letter). [4] The marketers claim that 714-X works by counteracting the harm done by "somatids", a purported life form which is not bacterial, viral, or fungal, but which instead belongs to a distinct domain unknown to science and medicine. [5]
Sales of 714-X have been banned in the US by the Food and Drug Administration, and in 1996 Charles Pixley was tried and jailed for advocating and distributing it. During proceedings Pixley claimed it was the re-branding of a homeopathic beverage, known prior to the establishment of the FDA, however Naessens later said that it was completely different and has nothing to do with homeopathy.[ citation needed ]
714-X is advertised as containing camphor combined with excess nitrogen, ammonium salts, sodium chloride, and ethanol. [4] An analysis by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that 714-X was 94% water, with small amounts of the other salts and less than 0.01% camphor. [3]
714-X is typically injected into the lymphatic system through the groin. Alternatively, it may be inhaled via a nebulizer. [5]
No studies have been published on the safety or efficacy of 714-X in humans, and the few available animal studies have shown no beneficial effect. [4] The American Cancer Society has stated: "There is no scientific evidence that 714-X is effective in treating any type of cancer or any other illness." [2]
The FDA has banned both import and sale of 714-X as health fraud, and at least one prison sentence has been handed down for importing it into America. [3]
714-X is manufactured in Canada, where it is legal to purchase for personal use through a physician under the Special Access Programme [6] of Health Canada, a law which provides access to non-marketed treatments for terminal illnesses when no marketed alternative exists. However, in October 2004, Health Canada told the manufacturer to remove all references to the compound from its website. [2] On July 28, 2006, Justice François Lemieux of the Federal Court of Canada granted a request for judicial review undertaken by a group of 714-X patients. The judgment voided Health Canada's policy statement and restored access to 714-X under the Special Access Programme under certain conditions.[ citation needed ]
Alternative medicine is any practice that aims to achieve the healing effects of medicine despite lacking biological plausibility, testability, repeatability or evidence of effectiveness. Unlike modern medicine, which employs the scientific method to test plausible therapies by way of responsible and ethical clinical trials, producing repeatable evidence of either effect or of no effect, alternative therapies reside outside of mainstream medicine and do not originate from using the scientific method, but instead rely on testimonials, anecdotes, religion, tradition, superstition, belief in supernatural "energies", pseudoscience, errors in reasoning, propaganda, fraud, or other unscientific sources. Frequently used terms for relevant practices are New Age medicine, pseudo-medicine, unorthodox medicine, holistic medicine, fringe medicine, and unconventional medicine, with little distinction from quackery.
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a disease in healthy people can cure similar symptoms in sick people; this doctrine is called similia similibus curentur, or "like cures like". Homeopathic preparations are termed remedies and are made using homeopathic dilution. In this process, the selected substance is repeatedly diluted until the final product is chemically indistinguishable from the diluent. Often not even a single molecule of the original substance can be expected to remain in the product. Between each dilution homeopaths may hit and/or shake the product, claiming this makes the diluent "remember" the original substance after its removal. Practitioners claim that such preparations, upon oral intake, can treat or cure disease.
The National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF) was a not-for-profit, US-based organization, that described itself as a "private nonprofit, voluntary health agency that focuses upon health misinformation, fraud, and quackery as public health problems."
Quackery, often synonymous with health fraud, is the promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices. A quack is a "fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill" or "a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, qualification or credentials they do not possess; a charlatan or snake oil salesman". The term quack is a clipped form of the archaic term quacksalver, derived from Dutch: kwakzalver a "hawker of salve" or rather somebody who boasted about their salves, more commonly known as ointments. In the Middle Ages the term quack meant "shouting". The quacksalvers sold their wares at markets by shouting to gain attention.
The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) is a United States government agency which explores complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). It was initially created in 1991 as the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), and renamed the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) before receiving its current name in 2014. NCCIH is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the United States Department of Health and Human Services.
Reflexology, also known as zone therapy, is an alternative medical practice involving the application of pressure to specific points on the feet, ears, and hands. This is done using thumb, finger, and hand massage techniques without the use of oil or lotion. It is based on a pseudoscientific system of zones and reflex areas that purportedly reflect an image of the body on the feet and hands, with the premise that such work on the feet and hands causes a physical change to the supposedly related areas of the body.
Stephen Joel Barrett is an American retired psychiatrist, author, co-founder of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF), and the webmaster of Quackwatch. He runs a number of websites dealing with quackery and health fraud. He focuses on consumer protection, medical ethics, and scientific skepticism.
Quackwatch is a United States–based website, self-described as a "network of people" founded by Stephen Barrett, which aims to "combat health-related frauds, myths, fads, fallacies, and misconduct" and to focus on "quackery-related information that is difficult or impossible to get elsewhere". Since 1996 it has operated the alternative medicine watchdog website quackwatch.org, which advises the public on unproven or ineffective alternative medical remedies. The site contains articles and other information criticizing many forms of alternative medicine.
The Burzynski Clinic is a clinic selling an unproven cancer treatment, which has been characterized as harmful quackery. It was founded in 1976 and is located in Houston, Texas, in the United States. It offers a form of chemotherapy originally called "antineoplaston therapy" devised by the clinic's founder Stanislaw Burzynski in the 1970s. Antineoplaston is Burzynski's term for a group of urine-derived peptides, peptide derivatives, and mixtures. There is no accepted scientific evidence of benefit from antineoplaston combinations for various diseases, and the Clinic's claimed successes have not been replicated by independent researchers. The therapy has been rebranded in various ways over the years to mirror fashions in medicine, for example as a kind of "immunotherapy". The therapy is administered through the ruse of running a large numbers of clinical trials, which long-time Burzynski lawyer Richard Jaffe has described as "a joke".
Oscillococcinum is a homeopathic preparation marketed to relieve flu-like symptoms, although it does not provide any benefit beyond that of a placebo.
Anthroposophic medicine is a form of alternative medicine based on pseudoscientific and occult notions. Devised in the 1920s by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) in conjunction with Ita Wegman (1876–1943), anthroposophical medicine draws on Steiner's spiritual philosophy, which he called anthroposophy. Practitioners employ a variety of treatment techniques based upon anthroposophic precepts, including massage, exercise, counselling, and administration of substances.
Hulda Regehr Clark was a Canadian naturopath, author, and practitioner of alternative medicine. Clark claimed all human disease was related to parasitic infection, and also claimed to be able to cure all diseases, including cancer and HIV/AIDS, by "zapping" them with electrical devices which she marketed. Clark wrote several books describing her methods and operated clinics in the United States. Following a string of lawsuits and eventual action by the Federal Trade Commission, she relocated to Tijuana, Mexico, where she ran the Century Nutrition clinic.
The biological terrain assessment or BTA is a set of tests used to measure the pH, resistivity, and redox of a person's urine, blood, and saliva. The measurements were first used by L.C. Vincent, a French hydrologist, in the early 1900s. It is often associated with homeopathy and holistic health. The usefulness of the test is debatable and according to physician Stephen Barrett BTA is outdated, apart from pH measurement, and is an inferior assessment technique that should not be favored over more modern techniques.
Hoxsey Therapy or Hoxsey Method is an alternative medical treatment promoted as a cure for cancer. The treatment consists of a caustic herbal paste for external cancers or a herbal mixture for "internal" cancers, combined with laxatives, douches, vitamin supplements, and dietary changes. Reviews by major medical bodies, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, have found no evidence that Hoxsey Therapy is an effective treatment for cancer. The sale or marketing of the Hoxsey Method was banned in the United States by the FDA on September 21, 1960 as a "worthless and discredited" remedy and a form of quackery.
The National Health Federation (NHF) is a lobbying group which promotes natural medicine. The NHF is based in California and describes its mission as protecting individuals' rights to use dietary supplements and alternative therapies without government restriction. The NHF also opposes mainstream public-health measures such as water fluoridation and compulsory childhood vaccines.
Krebiozen is a disproven cancer treatment that is made available as an alternative cancer treatment. While the substance has been marketed as a cure for cancer, originally sold for thousands of dollars per dose in the 1950s and early '60s, Krebiozen is not known to possess any therapeutic value. Attempts to analyze its composition have shown that Krebiozen consists only of the amino acid creatine dissolved in mineral oil, and some samples sold as Krebiozen consist solely of mineral oil with no other discernible ingredients.
Liquid oxygen supplements are products that claim to add extra oxygen to the human body, most often through a chemical process in the digestive system, like the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide or magnesium peroxide. While the FDA describes these products as being inert, and has penalized some producers who made explicit medical claims, it has not prohibited their sale.
Black salve, also known by the brand name Cansema, is an ineffective and unsafe alternative cancer treatment. The product is commonly classified as an escharotic—a topical paste which destroys skin tissue and leaves behind a scar called an eschar. Escharotics were widely used to treat skin lesions in the early 1900s, but have since been replaced by safer and more effective treatments. Escharotics, such as black salves, are currently advertised by some alternative medicine marketers as treatments for skin cancer, often with unsubstantiated testimonials and unsupported claims of effectiveness.
Anthony J. Sattilaro (1931–1989) was an American physician and vegetarianism activist best known for promoting macrobiotics as a cancer cure. His views were criticized by medical experts as quackery.