Robert Baratz

Last updated
Robert Sears Baratz
NationalityAmerican
Other namesRobert S. Baratz
Alma mater Northwestern University
SpouseYes
ChildrenTwo
Awards1992 Presidential Citation from the American Dental Association, 1993 Good Neighbor award from Newton, Massachusetts [1]
Scientific career
Fields Dentistry, Medicine
InstitutionsSouth Shore Health Center
Thesis Development of the rat dorsal lingual keratinizing epithelium: morphology and protein biochemistry  (1975)

Robert Sears Baratz is an American dentist and skeptic who practices in Braintree, Massachusetts. [2] Baratz has practiced dentistry since 1972 and emergency medicine since 1991. He was formerly the executive director of the National Council Against Health Fraud (NCAHF). [3]

Contents

Education and academic career

Baratz holds three doctorates (M.D., D.D.S., and Ph.D.). He is board certified in oral medicine, and completed his residency in internal medicine at the Carney Hospital. He received his PhD from Northwestern University in 1975. As of 2002, he was a faculty member at Northeastern University, [4] as well as at Boston University School of Medicine, where he has been a faculty member since 1976. [5] [6]

Views

Baratz has harshly criticized spending money on researching alternative medicine. [7] Baratz has also criticized include the use of the Heimlich Maneuver on drowning victims, which he has referred to as "human experimentation" and which he says "violates the basic rules of medical ethics," [8] [9] as well as insulin potentiation therapy. [10] In addition, Baratz, along with the American Dental Association (for which he is a spokesperson), believes dental amalgams to be safe and their alleged adverse health effects unproven. [11] [12]

Baratz has also voiced opposition to chiropractic, and appeared in an episode of Frontline called "A Different Way to Heal?" which questioned the scientific foundation of alternative medicine. In the episode, he said that "The chiropractic theory of manipulation as being curative of disease or in terms of diagnosing disease, is based on a false premise." [13] The episode was harshly criticized by Daryl Wills, then-president of the American Chiropractic Association, who wrote in a letter to PBS that he "found it ironic that a program titled "Scientific American Frontiers" would completely ignore the scientific foundation of the chiropractic profession" and also questioned the NCAHF's neutrality with regard to alternative medicine-related topics. [14] In reply, Baratz posted a response on the NCAHF's website in which he argued that "The fact that one does research on chiropractic does not make it "evidence-based." One can research scams and collect statistics on them. They are still scams." [15] Baratz is also a scientific advisor to the American Council on Science and Health, [16] and co-authored the book Consumer Health: A Guide to Intelligent Decisions along with Stephen Barrett, Harriet Hall, William London, and Manfred Kroger. [17]

In 2006, Baratz filed a complaint about Victoria Wulsin's endorsement of malariotherapy as a treatment for AIDS to the State Medical Board of Ohio; as of 2008 the complaint had been closed. [18] In 2009, Baratz teamed up with Kimball Atwood, Wallace Sampson and Elizabeth Woeckner to write an article in the Medscape Journal of Medicine which harshly criticized the use of chelation therapy as an alternative medical treatment. [19]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

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.

A subluxation is an incomplete or partial dislocation of a joint or organ. According to the World Health Organization, a subluxation is a "significant structural displacement" and is therefore visible on static imaging studies, such as X-rays. Unlike real subluxations, the pseudoscientific concept of a chiropractic "vertebral subluxation" may or may not be visible on x-rays.

Insulin potentiation therapy (IPT) is an unproven alternative cancer treatment using insulin as an adjunct to low-dose chemotherapy. It was promoted by a paper in the controversial and non-peer reviewed journal Medical Hypotheses. It is not an evidence-based cancer treatment, and the costs of IPT are not covered by health insurance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Naturopathy</span> Form of alternative medicine

Naturopathy, or naturopathic medicine, is a form of alternative medicine. A wide array of practices branded as "natural", "non-invasive", or promoting "self-healing" are employed by its practitioners, who are known as naturopaths. Difficult to generalize, these treatments range from the pseudoscientific and thoroughly discredited, like homeopathy, to the widely accepted, like certain forms of psychotherapy. The ideology and methods of naturopathy are based on vitalism and folk medicine rather than evidence-based medicine, although practitioners may use techniques supported by evidence. The ethics of naturopathy have been called into question by medical professionals and its practice has been characterized as quackery.

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."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quackery</span> Promotion of fraudulent or ignorant medical practices

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chelation therapy</span> Medical procedure to remove heavy metals from the body

Chelation therapy is a medical procedure that involves the administration of chelating agents to remove heavy metals from the body. Chelation therapy has a long history of use in clinical toxicology and remains in use for some very specific medical treatments, although it is administered under very careful medical supervision due to various inherent risks, including the mobilization of mercury and other metals through the brain and other parts of the body by the use of weak chelating agents that unbind with metals before elimination, exacerbating existing damage. To avoid mobilization, some practitioners of chelation use strong chelators, such as selenium, taken at low doses over a long period of time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Barrett</span> American psychiatrist (born 1933)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Quackwatch</span> American alternative medicine watchdog website

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.

Detoxification is a type of alternative-medicine treatment which aims to rid the body of unspecified "toxins" – substances that proponents claim accumulate in the body over time and have undesirable short-term or long-term effects on individual health. It is not to be confused with detoxification carried out by the liver and kidneys, which filter the blood and remove harmful substances to be processed and eliminated from the body. Activities commonly associated with detoxification include dieting, fasting, consuming exclusively or avoiding specific foods, colon cleansing, chelation therapy, certain kinds of IV therapy and the removal of dental fillings containing amalgam.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Applied kinesiology</span> Alternative medicine technique

Applied kinesiology (AK) is a pseudoscience-based technique in alternative medicine claimed to be able to diagnose illness or choose treatment by testing muscles for strength and weakness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hal Huggins</span> American dental campaigner

Hal Alan Huggins was an American alternative dentistry advocate and campaigner against the use of dental amalgam fillings and other dental therapies that he believed to be unsafe. Huggins began to promote his ideas in the 1970s and played a major role in generating controversy over the use of amalgam. Huggins's license to practice dentistry was revoked in 1996 after a panel found him guilty of gross negligence. Since then, he continued to publish on the topic of mercury and human health and believed that dental amalgam and other dental practices were responsible for a range of serious diseases. Many of Huggins' health claims have been criticized as pseudoscientific and quackery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Hall</span> American medical doctor and skeptic (1945–2023)

Harriet A. Hall was an American family physician, U.S. Air Force flight surgeon, author, science communicator and skeptic. She wrote about alternative medicine and quackery for the magazines Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer and was a regular contributor and founding editor of Science-Based Medicine. She wrote under her own name or used the pseudonym "The SkepDoc". After retiring as a colonel in the U.S. Air Force, Hall was a frequent speaker at science and skepticism related conventions in the US and around the world.

James R. Laidler is an American anesthesiologist in Portland, Oregon, who is known both for his activism for, and later his opposition to, alternative autism therapies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimball Atwood</span> American medical doctor, researcher and alternative medicine critic

Kimball C. Atwood IV is an American medical doctor and researcher from Newton, Massachusetts. He is retired as an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and anesthesiologist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Rashid Ali Buttar was an American conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer and licensed osteopathic physician. He was known for his controversial use of chelation therapy for numerous conditions, including autism and cancer. He was twice reprimanded by the North Carolina Board of Medical Examiners for unprofessional conduct and cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for illegal marketing of unapproved and adulterated drugs. An analysis found that Buttar was one of the top twelve individual and organization accounts producing up to 65% of all anti-vaccine content on Twitter and Facebook.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William M. London</span> American professor of public health and consumer advocate

William M. London is an American professor of public health and a consumer advocate. He is the editor of the Quackwatch network's weekly electronic newsletter Consumer Health Digest and has written for both professional and general audiences. Health fraud figures prominently among his writing and research interests.

References

  1. ↑ "Advisory Board". DrBicuspid. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
  2. ↑ "Dr. Robert S. Baratz". HealthGrades . Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  3. ↑ Baratz, Robert S. (10 September 2001). "Testimony before the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging". Quackwatch . Retrieved 10 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Robert Baratz, on season 12, episode 10". Scientific American Frontiers . Chedd-Angier Production Company. 2001–2002. PBS. Archived from the original on 2006-01-01.
  5. ↑ "Bios". Dental Watch. Quackwatch. 23 January 2013. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  6. ↑ "Robert S. Baratz". BMC.org. Boston Medical Center . Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  7. ↑ McMillen, Matt (2004). "A Walk in The Wild". The Washington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2014.
  8. ↑ Spivak, Todd. "Fighting for Air: Drowning and the Heimlich Maneuver". Houston Press . Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  9. ↑ Baratz, Robert S. (29 May 2006). "New Letter to The Enquirer, from Robert S. Baratz, MD, PhD, DDS". The Cincinnati Beacon . Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  10. ↑ Baratz, Robert S. (31 August 2013). "Why You Should Stay Away from Insulin Potentiation Therapy". Quackwatch . Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  11. ↑ APPublished: March 16, 1991 (1991-03-16). "Dental Fillings With Mercury Are Safe, Scientific Panel Says - New York Times". The New York Times . Retrieved 2013-12-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  12. ↑ Baratz, Robert S. (24 September 2004). "Key Points about Amalgam Safety". Dental Watch. Quackwatch . Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  13. ↑ "A Different Way to Heal Transcript". Scientific American Frontiers . 2002. Archived from the original on October 17, 2015. Retrieved 28 January 2014. Alt URL
  14. ↑ "Viewer Mail". Scientific American Frontiers . Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  15. ↑ Baratz, Robert S. (17 June 2002). "My Reply to the American Chiropractic Association". NCAHF website. Retrieved 28 January 2014.
  16. ↑ "Scientific Advisors". ACSH website. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  17. ↑ Consumer Health at Amazon
  18. ↑ Rhee, Joseph (3 July 2008). "Democratic Congressional Candidate's Ties to Bizarre AIDS Research". ABC News . Retrieved 14 April 2014.
  19. ↑ Atwood, K. C.; Woeckner, E.; Baratz, R. S.; Sampson, W. I. (2008). "Why the NIH Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT) should be abandoned". Medscape Journal of Medicine. 10 (5): 115. PMC   2438277 . PMID   18596934.
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