{"id":192,"date":"2014-01-10T07:00:55","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T15:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/health\/?p=192"},"modified":"2014-01-11T07:24:04","modified_gmt":"2014-01-11T15:24:04","slug":"kevin-trudeau-tops-list-dirtiest-dozen-ducktors-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/health\/2014\/01\/10\/kevin-trudeau-tops-list-dirtiest-dozen-ducktors-2013\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Trudeau Tops the List of the Dirtiest Dozen Ducktors of 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

By William M. London<\/strong><\/p>\n

So many dirty ducktors to choose from! So hard to narrow the list down to just twelve!<\/p>\n

A dirtiest ducktor list could feature doctors who dirtied their profession with promiscuous prescribing of painkillers, but that would be a bit off-topic for the Healthy Skepticism Channel. Same for doctors, like\u00a0this one<\/a>,\u00a0who filed insurance claims for services never rendered or for doctors, especially chiropractors, providing unnecessary treatments to people involved in auto accidents in order to scam insurance companies.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the most obvious choices of doctors who could be described as dirty are sexual predators who use patients as prey. There were many stories in 2013, as in previous years, of doctors of chiropractic who were disciplined for manipulating breasts or genitalia instead manipulating spines (which chiropractors frequently do despite the\u00a0questionable therapeutic value of spinal manipulative therapy for back pain<\/a>). Chiropractic licensing boards tend to be willing to discipline chiropractors for dirty deeds involving sexual contact, but with few notable exceptions, they tend not to discipline chiropractors for using any of their many bizarre diagnostic and treatment techniques<\/a>).<\/p>\n

It’s also not unusual for state licensing boards for psychologists to discipline sexual predators. In April 2013, the\u00a0Pennsylvania State Board of Psychology revoked the license<\/a> of an especially egregious sexual predator, Richard\u00a0Scott Lenhart, Ph.D., who engaged in a multitude of inappropriate behaviors with one patient over a seven-year period and another over a fifteen-year period.<\/p>\n

Healthy skepticism is important for patients or clients encountering practitioners who try to convince them that sexual contact is needed as part of therapy. But focusing on these practitioners doesn’t really accomplish the goals of the Healthy Skepticism Channel.<\/p>\n

So let’s check out some promoters of\u00a0woo<\/a>, nostrums, and health superstition!<\/p>\n

But first, here are the official (which means made up by me) healthy skepticism criteria for dirty duckstorism:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The ducktor made diagnostic, therapeutic, or prophylactic claims in advertising or publicity for products and services offered to consumers.<\/li>\n
  2. The ducktor’s claims were implausible and either non-validated (inadequately tested) or invalidated (tested repeatedly with unimpressive results).<\/li>\n
  3. The ducktor was disciplined during 2013 in regard to misleading treatment of patients.<\/li>\n
  4. The ducktor was mentioned in Consumer Health Digest<\/a> in 2013.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The third criterion excludes many promoters of pseudomedicine who attracted the attention of skeptics in 2013. Let’s hope that there will be improvements in consumer protection law and law enforcement so that more medical renegades and rascals can be disciplined, and qualify as dirty ducktors for 2014.<\/p>\n

    The fourth criterion biases the list toward ducktors in the United States. I hereby acknowledge that other nations have ducktors that are as dirty as my nation’s ducktors. (Please keep them away from us!)<\/p>\n

    None of the criteria exclude from consideration people without doctorates. You don’t have to be a doctor to be a ducktor. But sounding like a duck can help to get you on the list.<\/p>\n

    Making the list makes no judgment about the personal hygiene or sexual proclivities of any of the ducktors (although it turns out that one did get in trouble for an inappropriate sexual relationship). Dirty ducktors can be pleasant people in many settings.<\/p>\n

    Dirtiness isn’t a matter just of dirty data. Michael Gregg famously pointed out: “We are always dealing with dirty data. The trick is to do it with a clean mind.”<\/a><\/p>\n

    In narrowing down the list to twelve and ordering the list, I tried to be clean-minded. I considered each ducktor’s record of severity of disciplinary action, actual and potential harm of promoted treatments, notoriety, promotional claims and rationales for therapies, and overall weirdness and irrationality. Nevertheless, lists such as this one are subjective judgments. You are free to disagree (politely please) with my picks and maybe you can help us learn more about aberrant health care.<\/p>\n

    So without further ado, here is my dirtiest dozen list of 2013 followed by descriptions of the activities of each ducktor:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Kevin Trudeau<\/li>\n
    2. Toby Carl McAdam<\/li>\n
    3. Greta S. Armstrong<\/li>\n
    4. Brandon Lee Babcock, D.C.<\/li>\n
    5. Carol Ann Ryser, M.D.<\/li>\n
    6. Ronald R. Wempen, M.D.<\/li>\n
    7. Jeffrey Piccirillo, D.O.<\/li>\n
    8. Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.<\/li>\n
    9. David Steenblock, D.O.<\/li>\n
    10. Malcolm Hooper<\/li>\n
    11. David Ray Toftness, D.C.<\/li>\n
    12. David Manago, D.C.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      #1. Kevin Trudeau<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Trudeau<\/a> not only earned the top spot for 2013. He is also the first inductee into the Hall of Shame for Lifetime Contributions to Duckstorism.<\/p>\n

      Trudeau has a lengthy history of battling with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) about false advertising for products.\u00a0An\u00a0index of case documents regarding Trudeau<\/a>\u00a0is provided at Casewatch.<\/p>\n

      In 2004, in one of the cases,\u00a0a federal judge ordered Trudeau to pay $2 million to consumers and prohibited him from using infomercials to advertise any products except books<\/a>\u2014but books would be permitted only if (a) they did not refer to any other product Trudeau was marketing and (b) the infomercial did not misrepresent the content of the book.<\/p>\n

      In 2007, Trudeau advertised that the plan in his weight loss book was easy to follow. The FTC disagreed and initiated both\u00a0criminal<\/a>\u00a0and civil contempt proceedings in a federal court in 2011.<\/p>\n

      In November 2013, a federal jury took less than an hour to find the notoriously slippery infomercial pitchman guilty of criminal contempt<\/a> in connection with his advertising of his book\u00a0The Weight Loss Cure “They” Don’t Want You to Know About<\/em>. The supposed “cure” was centered around the use of injections of human chorionic gonadotropin<\/a>. However, studies have demonstrated that these hormone injections don’t cause weight loss. Regulatory actions by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Food and Drug Administration have curbed their use in the United States.<\/p>\n

      Also in November 2013, Trudeau lost his appeal<\/a> to the\u00a07th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago challenging a damage award by a U.S. District Court in Chicago in\u00a02007 of more than $37 million\u00a0to compensate consumers for their losses\u00a0fromTrudeau’s violation of a 2004 Federal Trade Commission settlement. Trudeau has repeatedly claimed that he doesn’t have assets to pay the fine despite compelling evidence to the contrary and jailings for contempt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      An\u00a0informative summary<\/a> of Trudeau’s activities is available in the Skeptic’s Dictionary. Stephen Barrett, M.D. provided a detailed analysis<\/a> of Trudeau’s infomercial for his bestselling book Natural Cures \u201cThey\u201d Don\u2019t Want You to Know About. <\/em>The\u00a0New York State Consumer Protection Board warned consumers<\/a>: “From cover to cover, this book is a fraud.” Hundreds of complaints about Trudeau are posted at Ripoff Report<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      #2 & #3.\u00a0<\/b>Toby Carl McAdam and Greta S. Armstrong<\/strong><\/p>\n

      These individuals, doing business under various company names, illegally marketed more than 40 unapproved new drugs and adulterated or misbranded dietary supplements.\u00a0Several of the products were corrosive salves (commonly referred to as “black salves)” that contain bloodroot and other caustic substances. Corrosive salves are unsafe against skin cancers<\/a>\u00a0and, unlike standard skin cancer treatments, their\u00a0therapeutic effectiveness is not established<\/a>. Other\u00a0products marketed by McAdam and Armstrong included oils and capsules claimed to be therapies for breast cancer, asthma, anemia, epilepsy, and other serious diseases.<\/p>\n

      Beginning in 2006<\/a>, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) repeatedly warned Armstrong to stop illegally marketing unapproved drugs. Despite repeated FDA inspections and warnings, McAdam and Armstrong broke their promises to stop and continued to promote their nostrums.<\/p>\n

      In November 2013, McAdam and Amstrong were found in civil contempt for violating a 2010 consent decree.<\/b><\/a>\u00a0under which they were ordered to stop illegally marketing unapproved products for the treatment of cancer and other serious diseases. The prohibition included all topically-applied products derived from bloodroot or graviola plants.<\/p>\n

      The\u00a0judge’s 2013 order<\/a>\u00a0required McAdam to: (a) immediately cease all manufacturing, processing, packaging, labeling, holding, selling, and\/or distributing all products intended to be ingested by, or applied topically to, humans or animals, including any drugs and\/or dietary supplements; (b) immediately shut down his website and the Risingsun Herbal Health Facebook page; (c) remove all products from Amazon.com, (d) remove any related telephone listings from phone books unless the FDA permits him to resume business, and (e) pay $80,000 in liquidated damages plus $4,936.48 for attorneys’ fees.<\/p>\n

      #4. Brandon Lee Babcock, D.C.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      This chiropractor pitched a bogus nutritional cure for diabetes. But,\u00a0as reported December 9th, 2013 by\u00a0<\/a>The Salt Lake Tribune<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0his scheme bilked older adults in Utah of thousands of dollars. To recruit patients, he offered\u00a0free gourmet dinners where attendees were shown video testimonials and given information about Babcock’s supposed “diabetes breakthrough.” He\u00a0tricked patients\u00a0into signing papers that established lines of credit with Chase Health Advance and he maxed out the $6,000 limit when patients tried to withdraw from his services. Some patients testified that Dr. Babcock and his staff misled them into signing up for credit without their knowledge or consent. Others said Babcock refused to provide refunds despite a 30-day opt-out guarantee and a promise of 100% satisfaction.<\/p>\n

      In 2008, the Utah Department of Occupational and Professional Licensing (DOPL)\u00a0issued a “non-disciplinary cease-and-desist order<\/a>”\u00a0after finding that he advertised treatments for conditions he wasn’t qualified to treat: depression, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, learning problems, attention deficit disorder, allergies, hormone replacement relief, sleep problems and memory loss.<\/p>\n

      In April 2012,\u00a0the DOPL suspended Babcock’s chiropractic license by emergency order<\/a>. In August 2012,\u00a0West Jordan City revoked Babcock\u2019s business license.\u00a0The Salt Lake Tribune<\/em>\u00a0noted, however, that he continued to lead seminars promoting his program to reverse Type II diabetes.<\/p>\n

      In October 2013, a jury convicted him of\u00a0six third-degree felony counts of exploiting a vulnerable adult. In December 2013, he was sentenced to six months in jail.<\/p>\n

      #5: Carol Ann Ryser, M.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Dr. Ryser, operated Health Centers of America (HCA) in Kansas City, Missouri. The HCA Web site described the clinic as “dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of chronic illnesses,” providing an “integrated approach” that combines traditional and alternative medicine. Although Dr. Ryser had been board-certified in pediatrics, HCA’s main focus appeared to be on diagnosing and treating “chronic Lyme disease” with long-term antibiotics,\u00a0an approach criticized by the Infectious Disease Society of America<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      In March 2013, she surrendered her medical license and agreed to shut HCA down as part of joint agreements under which she and her husband Michael pleaded guilty to fraud and tax evasion.<\/p>\n

      The Missouri Courts case register<\/a>\u00a0indicates that since 1997, Ryser and\/or HCA were listed as a defendant in more than 35 cases and that she and\/or HCA had 16 judgments recorded against them. Eighteen of the suits were malpractice actions filed between August 2005 and April 2012.<\/p>\n

      An ongoing malpractice suit alleges that she (a) diagnosed a woman with Lyme disease, hypercoagulation, lupus symptoms, beta strep, infections, and other disorders, (b) told her that she had “bugs’ living in her “biofilm,” and (c) used inappropriate lab tests to persuade her that she had diseases and health problems that she did not actually have.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Ryser’s plea agreement<\/a>\u00a0bars her from ever practicing again or owning or working in any capacity for any health care provider. The agreements also include payment of $51,789 in restitution and recommended sentences of 24-30 months of imprisonment for Michael and 6 months of home detention followed by 30 months of probation for Carol.\u00a0Quackwatch has additional information and document links<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      #6.<\/b>\u00a0Ronald R. Wempen, M.D.<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

      Dr. Wempen operated the Environmental Medical Center of Orange County, California, where he offered non-validated uses of chelation<\/a> treatments.<\/p>\n

      In 1998, he was charged with gross and repeated negligence in connection with his management of a female patient. Documents indicate that he failed to take an adequate history, failed to perform an adequate physical examination, treated the woman for several conditions without evidence that she had them, failed to investigate when lab tests showed that the woman showed signs of intestinal bleeding, and failed to maintain adequate records. Wempen settled the charges by signing a\u00a0consent agreement<\/a>\u00a0under which he was ordered to pay $8,000 for administrative costs, serve on probation for five years, undergo an assessment of his medical skills, and complete 40 more hours per year of continuing medical education courses than were required for license renewal.<\/p>\n

      In 2009, the Medical Board of California charged him with gross and repeated negligence, failure to maintain adequate and accurate records, and failure to release medical records on request. The\u00a0charges<\/a>\u00a0were based on his management of a woman who died in 2010 after taking Captomer (DMSA), a chelating drug that Wempen had prescribed without adequately investigating whether it was appropriate and whether she could tolerate it. After the woman died, Wempen told an insurance company that her records had been lost; yet he subsequently sent a copy to the medical board. The charges were settled in 2013 with an agreement<\/a>\u00a0under which Wempen surrendered his license.<\/p>\n

      #7. Jeffrey Piccirillo, D.O.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Like Ducktor #6, Dr. Piccirillo has engaged in aberrant practices of diagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease.\u00a0In 2011,\u00a0The\u00a0Chicago Tribune<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the\u00a0South Bend Tribune<\/i><\/a>\u00a0reported on his activities.<\/p>\n

      In June 2013, under\u00a0a\u00a0settlement<\/a>\u00a0with Iowa Board of Medicine , he was required to pay a civil penalty of\u00a0$10,000, placed on indefinite probation, and prohibited from treating Lyme disease. Iowa’s action was based on charges from 2012 that he had (a) diagnosed patients with Lyme disease despite the fact that they did not meet standard diagnostic criteria, (b) treated these patients with long-term intravenous antibiotics even though such treatment is not recognized as medically appropriate, and (c) engaged in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female patient.<\/p>\n

      Dr. Piccirillo had practiced orthopedic surgery beginning in 1994, but that led to numerous lawsuits from patients and their families. Around 2008, he attributed his severe hand tremors to his self-diagnosed “chronic Lyme disease.”\u00a0In 2009, following charges of\u00a0professional incompetency and practice harmful or detrimental to the public in his orthopedic practice,”<\/a> he signed a settlement agreement<\/a>\u00a0with the Iowa Board of Medicine prohibiting from practicing surgery under his Iowa license. He was also fined $5,000, prohibited from doing surgery, and placed on indefinite probation subject to counseling and monitoring of his medical practice and his mental health.<\/p>\n

      After being disciplined in the state of Iowa,\u00a0Dr. Piccirillo, was placed on probation in Illinois beginning September 22,\u00a02009; on August 2nd, 2013 his license to practice in Illinois was suspended for engaging in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient under his care.\u00a0(See\u00a0Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation<\/a>.)
      \n<\/a><\/p>\n

      #8. Jonathan V. Wright, M.D.<\/strong><\/p>\n

      Like Trudeau, Dr. Wright has a record that gets him entry into the Hall of Shame for Lifetime Contributions to Duckstorism.<\/p>\n

      He was\u00a0the president of the\u00a0American Quack Association<\/a>, which operated between 1985 and 1989. From 1993 to 1998, he helped lead the\u00a0National Health Federation<\/a>, an organization that promote\u00a0“freedom of choice” in health matters, which is\u00a0doublespeak<\/a>\u00a0meaning: opposition to consumer protection laws against marketers deceptively promoting non-validated and invalidated products and services to consumers.<\/p>\n

      He is\u00a0founder and medical director of the Tahoma Clinic<\/a>, in King County, Washington. The clinic’s Web site describes Dr. Wright as “a pioneer in holistic medicine and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy” and as “a for-runner [sic<\/em>] in research and application of natural treatments for healthy aging and illness” who “has taught natural biochemical medical treatments since 1983 to thousands of physicians in the USA, Europe, and Japan.”<\/p>\n

      In May 2013, the Washington Medical Quality Assurance Commission\u00a0suspended Wright’s license for 90 days, to be followed by 30 months of probation, and ordered him to pay a $7,500 fine<\/a>\u00a0after concluding that he engaged in unprofessional conduct by:<\/p>\n