In fact, from day one, the first precursor to @NIH_NCCIH, the Office of Unconventional Medicine, soon renamed the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM), was intended by its creator Sen. Tom Harkin to provide scientific validation of quack treatments. 2/
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Sen. Harkin, if you'll recall, believed that bee pollen cured his allergies. He also took the legislative step of creating this office because of two constituents lobbying. 3/
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One of those constituents, Berkley Bedell, believed that colostrum derived from the milk of a Minnesota cow had cured his Lyme disease and that 714-X, derived from camphor in Quebec by Gaston Naessens, had prevented recurrence of his prostate cancer after surgery. 4/
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The other, Frank Wiewel, had long been a champion of immunoaugmentative therapy for cancer. Made in the Bahamas, this mixture of blood sera was barred from import by the
@US_FDA. He also operated a referral service for quack cancer treatments. 5/Show this thread -
The office was initially set up with an acting director and an ad hoc panel of twenty members, many of whom Harkin hand-picked, including advocates of acupuncture, energy medicine, homeopathy, Ayurvedic medicine, and several varieties of alternative cancer treatments. 6/
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Here's a hint: Deepak Chopra was one of those founding members of the OAM advisory panel. Critics of quackery were also consulted and considered for panel membership but—surprise, surprise!—were not selected. 7/
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These panel members became known as the "Harkinites," and they decided what OAM did. 8/
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The first director of the OAM, Joseph Jacobs, almost immediately ran afoul of Harkin and the Harkinites by insisting on rigorous scientific methodology to study alternative medicine. Ultimately Jacobs resigned under pressure from Harkin, who repeatedly sided with the quacks. 9/
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That Jacobs became tired of fighting and finally resigned is especially noteworthy given that Jacobs himself had been picked to run OAM precisely because of his openness to the idea that there were gems to be found in the muck of alternative therapies. 10/
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Later, in 1998 after the then-NIH director Harold Varmus had tried to impose more scientific rigor on the OAM, Harkin sponsored legislation to elevate the OAM to a full center, and thus was the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) born. 11/
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Not coincidentally, the NIH director has much less control over full centers than over offices. The
@NIH_NCCIH director in essence answers more to the advisory council than he does to the NIH director. 12/Show this thread -
By NCCAM's charter half the members of this advisory council must be from alternative/CAM/integrative medicine practitioners and experts. In other words, they must be true believers in integrative medicine. 13/
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In 2014, NCCAM was renamed
@NIH_NCCIH , finally getting the word "alternative" out of its name. I speculated at the time that it was a retirement gift to Sen. Harkin, who had decided not to run for reelection that year. 14/Show this thread -
Sure,
@NIH_NCCIH publishes five year strategic plans that sound science-y, but I summarize them as, "Let's do some real science for a change!" Nothing ever changes. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/nccih-strategic-plan-2016-2021-or-lets-try-to-do-some-real-science-for-a-change/ … 15/Show this thread -
Most recently,
@NIH_NCCIH has latched on to the opioid crisis as a raison d'être, the idea being that, now, more than ever nonpharmacological approaches to pain management are needed. 16/Show this thread -
In essence,
@NIH_NCCIH is trying to claim the brand of "nonpharmacological management of pain" as solely its bailiwick, damn the crappy evidence it uses. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/an-overhyped-review-of-cam-for-chronic-pain-by-the-nccih-and-mayo-clinic-dont-put-away-your-opioids-just-yet/ … 17/Show this thread -
When Josephine Briggs stepped down as
@NIH_NCCIH director last year, a naturopath, Wendy Weber, ascended to the post of acting deputy director. She could well become permanent. 18/ https://nccih.nih.gov/bout/staff/weber …Show this thread -
The
@NIH_NCCIH Director, Division of Extramural Activities is currently a chiropractor named Partap S. Khalsa. 19/ https://nccih.nih.gov/about/staff/pkhalsa …Show this thread -
To sum it up, it is incorrect to think that the purpose of
@NIH_NCCIH was ever rigorous investigation of alternative medicine treatments. Its true purpose, expressed by Sen. Harkin at the very beginning, was to provide a scientific justification for quackery. 20/Show this thread -
Don't believe me? Listen to Harkin himself: "One of the purposes of this center was to investigate and validate alternative approaches. Quite frankly, I must say publicly that it has fallen short..." https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/senator-tom-harkin-disappointed-that-nccam-hasnt-validated-more-cam/ … 21/
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"... It think quite frankly that in this center and in the office previously before it, most of its focus has been on disproving things rather than seeking out and approving." Gee, Sen. Harkin. You say that as though it were a BAD thing. 22/
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Basically, validating quackery was Harkin's vision for
@NIH_NCCIH. It was ALWAYS Harkin's vision for@NIH_NCCIH, RIGHT from the very beginning. 23/Show this thread -
directors might try to enforce scientific standards, but they are swimming upstream, fighting an institutional structure designed to promote quackery. That is the reality. 24/24
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Forgot to mention: A chiropractor is in charge of deciding where NCCIH grant money goes. 24a/24 and now the end for real.
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OK, I lied. I forgot to mention that
@NIH_NCCIH's longtime patron Tom Harkin is also a huge booster of Herbalife. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/congress-will-soon-lose-its-foremost-supporter-of-quackery/ … OK, NOW I really am done. 24b/24 THE REAL END.Show this thread
End of conversation
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