Hawaii Public Radio is not Worthy of Your Pledge

This continues a discussion started here: https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6428282971150371816#editor/target=post;postID=3049990968625625546;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=postname
When Dr. Kathleen Kozak, MD, stopped regularly hosting naturopath Diana Ostroff on her radio show and letting her run her scams unchallenged, I was optimistic that Kozak had finally done her homework and responded to a barrage of criticism from medical doctors and from myself. I was wrong.

I now suspect that Ostroff herself ended her appearances on Kozak’s show because she was drawing too much heat. When using fraudulent diagnostic and therapeutic methods a certain amount of discretion is essential. If you already have enough pigeons to fry there’s no point advertising for more and drawing attention to yourself.

 On June 13 Kozak hosted a different naturopath and she once again displayed her abysmal ignorance, dishonesty, irresponsibility, and wanton violation of ethical principles both as a physician and as a broadcaster. Here are some examples.

Dr. Kozak introduced the naturopath as, and repeatedly called him, “a naturopathic medical doctor.” But there is no such thing. Naturopaths append “ND” to their names, not “NMD.” He never corrected her. It is surprising that someone so enamored with naturopathy does not know what its practitioners are called.

Naturopaths love anecdotes and Kozak’s guest told about a woman who, he said, suffered from hypothyroidism and fatigue. He treated her with thyroxine, which is what a medical doctor would do if the hypothyroidism were confirmed by a blood test. That is the standard treatment for most cases. But, typically, the ND added a bunch of unnecessary and potentially dangerous nostrums such as testosterone, progesterone, and intravenous vitamins and amino acids.

There is almost never a reason to give nutrients (other than saline) intravenously, but Kozak, typically, did not ask what benefit they or the sex hormones provided. Nor did she ask whether such treatments have been written up in peer-reviewed journals. Instead, her attitude was like that of young Tommy listening to Mr. Science explain some wonder of the world. Gosh, Mr. Science, what healing miracle will naturopaths come up with next?

Then Kozak let the ND run the tired old candida scam, which involves tricking people into believing they have a disease that doesn’t really exist, then selling them all kinds of nostrums to cure it. She didn’t have a single skeptical or intelligent comment or question about this nonsense, so it came as no surprise when she let him promote his bogus stem-cell therapy for chronic back pain. She didn’t tell her audience that there is no good evidence for the expensive treatment and that it’s not FDA approved.

The ND described another preposterous treatment he uses for chronic pain. He injects homeopathic solutions into acupuncture points. Homeopathy is 100% quackery and acupuncture is 98% quackery. But Kozak is NAV-positive (new-age virus positive), which causes serious brain damage, and she seems to have lost all capacity for critical thinking. She expressed no skepticism whatsoever. Like so many of her shows, this one could have been a paid infomercial. Kozak is more a propagandist for nonsense than a medical reporter or educator.

To repeat what I said in the previous blog post, naturopathy, like tobacco, is hazardous to your health when used as directed. Its standard of care necessarily results in bad medicine and malpractice. It is irresponsible, unethical and dishonest of Kozak to promote it to trusting listeners. Since she can’t think of intelligent questions to ask, at the very least she should host knowledgeable critics and accept calls from skeptics who disagree with NDs.

And, also to repeat, it is intolerable that HPR's only show relating to health and medicine should be largely dedicated to the uncritical promotion of misinformation, quackery and fraud while it withholds crucial information. It is irresponsible, unreasonable and unethical by any standard, and it is in gross violation of the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. It is also in violation of HPR’s mandate and mission as most people understand them.

 Kozak should answer the questions I posed in this post: http://nogivetohawaiipublicradio.blogspot.com/2016/02/hmsa-also-gets-cozier-with-quacks-aids.html

 Or she should host a debate between an ND and a critic. But I know she won’t, so I renew and continue my call for rational people, especially health care and education professionals, to protest rather than pledge.

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

HMSA Also Gets Cozier with Quacks; Aids and Abets Fraud

 HMSA’s decision to let members choose naturopaths (NDs) as their primary care physicians raises many questions. Actually, these questions should have been asked long ago when ND licensure was being rammed down our throats and critics like myself were being treated like mangy mutts during the legislative hearings.  But better late than never, so here are a few of the questions that will eventually have to be answered:

If an ND advises a client family with young children to avoid all vaccinations (or to deviate from the CDC recommended schedule) because they are dangerous and ineffective (as per their dogma about “toxins”), should the ND be paid for the consultation?

If the children in that family then contract, say, measles or pertussis, and return to the ND for treatment (assuming the parents are that foolish), should the ND be reimbursed for the subsequent rounds of high colonics, megavitamins, toxic herbal teas, painful manipulations and other modes of child abuse common to their trade?

If a person with severe arthritis is treated by an ND according to the naturopathic standard of care, which means taking several dozen vitamins, minerals, glandulars, homeopathics, enzymes, herbs, amino acids and the like (often 50 to 100 pills per day, which the ND happens to sell from his or her office), should the ND be paid for the consultations? And who pays for the worthless and often toxic nostrums?  

Since the 1980s NDs have been denouncing anti-retrovirals as worthless and deadly, and claiming that they can cure HIV/AIDS and cancer with herbs, megavitamins, diets, acupuncture and the like. But Magic Johnson and millions of others are alive and well thanks to anti-retrovirals, while those who believe(d) the NDs die(d) prematurely by years, even decades.

Though it would be difficult to calculate with precision, there is undoubtedly a high body count associated with the fraudulent activities of naturopaths and the fools in government, the media and the insurance industry who aid and abet them. (That count would make a great subject for a PhD dissertation.) If a person with HIV/AIDS or a potentially-lethal cancer is dissuaded by an ND from undergoing proven medical therapy in favor of the usual grab-bag of “natural” therapies that do no good and are often harmful, should the ND be paid for the consultations and the worthless treatments?

About one half of ND training and practice is in homeopathy, which they put to good use. Homeopathy is the bread and butter of the trade and NDs often sell expensive little bottles of the holy water or holy pills (there is nothing in them but water and/or alcohol and sometimes sugar) from their offices. But homeopathy is now being exposed for the silly, preposterous scam that it is. After a series of blistering critiques and exposes, the British Health Service has finally come into the 21^st Century and moved to stop reimbursements for homeopathic holy water and consultations.

Meanwhile HMSA is doing its best to further integrate quackery and fraud into mainstream healthcare. This raises serious ethical and legal questions about criminal and civil liability for complicity and conspiracy to defraud. What did they know and when did they know it? I have been explaining to all the relevant health professionals, legislators, and regulators for 20 years that naturopathy is an opportunistic, eclectic collection of claptrap that adds up to systematic quackery and criminal fraud.

What about when an ND diagnoses an alleged disease that MDs don’t recognize (say, yeast hypersensitivity syndrome), using unproved diagnostic devices and methods that have no scientific basis, followed by treatments with pharmaceutical anti-fungals, dozens of mega-nutrients, herbal drugs and other dangerous nostrums? Should the ND be compensated for these worthless services and products?

Did HMSA deciders learn anything about naturopathy before they got cozy with it? Do they know, for example, that many NDs use computerized diagnostic gadgets that magically analyze a patient’s vibrations to find the appropriate homeopathic and herbal remedies for that person with those symptoms at that time?

A medical doctor who uses such an unapproved and fraudulent device could lose her license, be fined and even go to prison. But it’s okay for NDs because it’s their standard of care to use all kinds of unproved diagnostic methods and treatments, and to lie to their clients about them. Because they are licensed and have their own standard of care they are exempt from anti-fraud, consumer-protection laws.

Finally, suppose the NDs who are chosen to be PCPs refer their patients to other NDs, and to chiropractors, acupuncturists, energy healers and other pretenders rather than to properly-trained medical doctors. Help! Is there an adult in the house? Who will be liable for the unnecessary injuries and deaths? Do NDs pay insurance premiums commensurate with their increasing responsibilities (and irresponsibility) and consequent potential to harm clients?

And will it ever be possible to hold an ND criminally or civilly accountable for grave injury when their standard of care necessarily results in bad medicine and malpractice? Naturopathy, like tobacco, is legal and, like tobacco, is hazardous to your health when used as directed. But unlike tobacco, it carries no warning label. As with tobacco in the old days, the media promote naturopathy through ads and propaganda disguised as journalism, and refuse to investigate its dirty underbelly.

If you think I’m exaggerating about the absurdity and dangers of naturopathy, see for yourself by reading a naturopathic text that is popular with the ND/student/client community, Better Health Through Natural Healing: How to Get Well Without Drugs or Surgery by Ross Trattler, ND, who used to live on Maui. This 600-page book is proof that NDs get downright medieval on their clients. It recommends all the nonsense cited here and a great deal more. Neither Trattler nor his publisher has responded to my repeated requests for references to support the bizarre prescriptions and claims. None are provided in the book.

It is too costly, health-wise and financially, to indulge everybody’s favorite fantasy about how the body works. The emergence of a plethora of imaginary alternative physiologies to justify the alternative medicines is so far beyond absurd that an adequate expletive for this rot has yet to be coined. Being proudly eclectic, NDs embrace them all -- acupuncture, homeopathy, herbal drugs, spine cracking, megavitamins -- anything they can make money on. It is clear that health-care outcomes will continue to deteriorate while costs rise until we abandon the separate but equal standard of care nonsense and apply one standard to all healthcare practices and claims. That standard must be science-based and evidence-based. In other words, let's get real already. 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Hawaii Public Radio's War on the English Language

Suppose HPR’s Dave Lawrence delivered the news in Hawaiian pidgin and said things like “Today da Presiden wen talk story wit da Speaka of da House.” 

Or, what if he spoke the black slang known as ebonics and said things like “Yo, da Prez met wif da prime minister; knome sayin? 

It is safe to say that listeners would loudly protest and demand that newscasters speak proper (standard) English. Yet Lawrence and other HPR talkers get away with speaking in the horrible slang that I have dubbed broadcast pidgin. Here is the text of one of several emails I sent to NPR's Word Matters:  

Please, I’m on my knees begging you, please tell me why radio announcers, especially David Lawrence and others at HPR and NPR say things like, “Police reporting that a woman dying…” when they mean, “Police reported that a woman died…” It drives me crazy that you guys talk like this. No one else does. Even a third grader knows that it’s poor grammar. But nine out of ten times Lawrence and others at Public Radio put it like this.  

I bet you guys didn’t talk this way until you became radio announcers. Why? How does this unlearning good English come about? If your kids talked like this their English teachers would surely correct them. If they wrote this way their grades would suffer.  

I really, honestly want to know how HPR announcers learned this broadcast pidgin, which hates the verb “is” in all forms; and hates the simple past tense (-ed), and insists on the hideous and illogical pseudo-participle (the –ing form without some form of the verb “is”) instead. Was it from instructors in college classes or from bosses on the job? Or is it a bad habit you picked up from other radio talkers?

Thank you very much for information on this intriguing topic.  

No matter how much I inquire and complain, I get no explanation, no reply at all. And these announcers make many other grammatical errors, which come at the rate of several each minute. Here are some examples (the proper forms for the intended meanings and omitted words are in parentheses):

 The Dow dropping ten points (…dropped ten points); Humpback whales spotted in the waters off Maui (….whales werespotted); A police officer arrested (…officer was arrested); Japanese media reporting (…media reported); The President expected to (…was expected to); Obama says French, U.S. relationship strong (…the French and U.S. relationship isstrong); At least two people killed in fire (…people were killed in a fire); (It) looks like our high-surf warning (is) down to a high-surf advisory; Today (is) your last chance to get involved; Police reporting (reported that) a man (was) arrested; Tuesday concluding (concluded) eight days of testimony; Research shows that (the) Hawksbill turtle (is) rebounding more slowly.... 

I should not have to point out that it makes a big difference whether a cop arrested someone or was arrested, whether the President expected to do something or was expected to do something. Words do matter, more than NPR's Word Matters editors realize.

 No one else talks this way and no one writes this way, not even the announcers themselves. I’m sure that even they don’t talk this way in regular conversations, but do so only on the radio. Why? They refuse to say. What happened to NPR's commitments to excellence and openness? 

These newscasters imagine that they have no obligation to the language that is the lifeblood of their profession and no obligation to explain to their audience why they deliberately mangle that language. This is not just annoying; it is irresponsible and arrogant. As broadcasters they can easily spread infectious, defective memes far and wide, and they have a responsibility to avoid doing this. 

Some say that broadcast pidgin is inspired by cellphone texting in which we save time and money by minimizing the number of words. But broadcast pidgin started spreading years before cellphones were common. Others say that broadcast pidgin is akin to newspaper headline writing and this may be true; perhaps they are speaking in headlinese. However, headlines are written in incomplete sentences for reasons of space; there is a certain logic to it and the grammar goof isn’t repeated over and over throughout the story. 

What’s radio’s excuse? Surely they aren’t so pressed for a few seconds each hour that they have to trim and sacrifice the language itself, like so much unwanted fat. These people do not appreciate the logic and beauty of simple proper English spoken in complete sentences. They don’t realize that their headlinese is unpleasant to listen to, an assault on the auditory cortex.

Hawaii Public Radio announcers, especially Dave Lawrence and his editors (if he has any), need a crash course in basic high-school level English grammar, a subject they somehow missed on their way to college degrees in communications. 

Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com. 

Hawaii Public Radio: Health Care Professionals Should Protest Rather than Pledge

We have a serious problem in Hawaii as one of several states that have legalized the purported healing system called naturopathy. The practitioners, who call themselves naturopaths, use and promote a wide variety of worthless and often dangerous nostrums and procedures as remedies for scores of serious ailments. Most of these are not only unproved but disproved and thoroughly discredited. Most of their practices and claims, made in public promotions and private consultations, violate state and federal anti-fraud laws as well as food and drugs laws and medical device laws. 

However, their rogue profession was legalized (in very shady procedures corrupted by secret cash bribes to legislators) and naturopaths are now licensed by the state, so they are exempt from these consumer-protection laws. They can use and promote all the worthless methods they choose (and they have scores to choose from) because they would be in compliance with the naturopathic standard of care, which is this: anything goes as long as it can somehow be construed as "natural." This gives them immunity to fraud and other charges. For more detailed critiques see my book Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”, Quackwatch.com and Sciencebasedmedicine.org. 

This is the kind of legalized scam that we expect good journalists to investigate and report on. Unfortunately, since the earliest days of newspaper and radio the media have always given health fraud a free ride and profited from it by selling advertising to the scammers. We expect better from nonprofit public radio, but we rarely get it. Any purported remedy that is promoted as alternative, complementary, integrative, natural, organic, mind-body, preventive, wholistic, holistic or holy has sacred cow status and is presented by Hawaii Public Radio and most NPR affiliates as Revealed Truth.  

The “Body Talk” show on Hawaii Public Radio is a case in point and an example of egregious media irresponsibility. This call-in talk show is broadcast each Monday in the late afternoon. The host is Straub medical doctor Kathleen Kozak, who is certified NAV-positive (infected with the New Age Virus). Her medical relativism (all healing systems are equal, even those that contradict each other) puts her among a tiny minority of physicians, surely well under one percent. She thinks it is important for the public to learn the wonders of all kinds of methods not used in conventional medicine “so people can make up their own minds.”

The problem is that she presents only positive propaganda and false claims about the methods and never examines them critically, allows callers to criticize them or invites alternative-medicine skeptics as guests. People cannot make rational decisions when presented only one side of an issue. The producer of the show, the station management and the Ombudsman of National Public Radio have all ignored my complaints.  

Below I present the text of letters I have sent to Dr. Kozak and Hawaii Public Radio in the last several months. In the conclusion I make the case for protesting the Body Talk show by withholding donations.


(For another example of media sacred cows see www.bigtimepsychos.blogspot.com, post on Mad Man Deepak Chopra.)
Open letter to Dr. Kozak:

You are a serious hazard to listeners of HPR and probably also to your patients at Straub. You continue to dogmatically promote NDs (naturopaths) yet you refuse to answer reasonable questions about their philosophy and practices. Yesterday I heard you say that NDs handle some health problems better than MDs. Don't you think you owe it to your listeners to specify which problems are better dealt with by NDs? Which treatments that NDs use do you approve of? But then, you never answered the simple questions I asked months ago, to repeat:  

Did you know that at least 50% of the class time of naturopathic students is devoted to homeopathy? Did you know that no homeopathic remedy (there are hundreds) has ever been shown to be effective for anything? In fact, most of these "remedies" contain no active ingredients. Each remedy is a kind of holy water for specific symptoms. Homeopathic dogma violates firmly established laws of chemistry and replaces scientific pharmacology with impossible mystical hogwash.

Other gems of naturopathy include: no vaccinations; no anti-retrovirals; no antibiotics; blood-type diets and lots of other nutritional hooey; high colonics for many ailments; massive mega-vitamin doses for most ailments -- both prevention and treatment; and a whole lot of other worthless and dangerous woo.  

Back in the 1990s when the first effective HIV meds were being introduced, Honolulu naturopaths were screaming bloody murder -- aided and abetted by the gullible, incompetent, irresponsible local media -- and claiming that HIV could be treated with acupuncture, herbs and dietary concoctions. They claimed these things are natural and therefore good, while medical interventions are unnatural and therefore bad. They never define “natural” or explain how a treatment that works can be unnatural and bad.  

You have repeatedly hosted a naturopath who uses a notoriously fraudulent diagnostic method, EAV (electro-dermal BS) and lots of other nonsense.  Is it gullibility or corruption? Are your shows disguised commercials for which you're getting paid by quacks? 

Intellectually dishonest, unethical, irresponsible, narrow-minded (you read only quack propaganda and refuse to read the critiques) and possibly corrupt. These traits make you a serious hazard to your patients and your listening audience.  

If you don't specify which health problems are better dealt with by NDs and which by MDs, you will leave people with the impression that they are equal professions and that every disease and symptom can be just as well treated by an ND as by an MD.  NDs would love people to believe that, and no doubt they are very grateful to you for helping them mislead the public. But surely you know it's not true.  

Shouldn't you at least tell people that for HIV/AIDS, cancers, liver disease, TB and other serious infections, blood in the stool, complications of pregnancy, suspected melanoma, and seizures one should go to an MD and not an ND? (The list should be much longer.) And what about pertussis or measles contracted because a parent believed an ND's anti-vaccine lies? Would you recommend the child be taken back to that same ND for treatment? If so, be prepared for her to be subjected to worthless treatments that amount to child abuse -- including extreme enemas, foul-tasting toxic herbal teas, toxic doses of vitamins, and painful and dangerous manipulations.


You owe it to your listeners to tell us what symptoms and diseases you believe are best diagnosed and treated by naturopaths rather than medical doctors, and why you believe it.

Letter to HPR Management and Body Talk’s Producer

Today's edition, on 8/4/14, was perhaps the worst of a long line of Kozak shows that irresponsibly and dishonestly promote outrageous, dangerous health frauds. These shows expose HPR to liability for harm that may befall people who follow the scammers' advice.

Her guest for the show was "Doctor Jack Ebner," who she deceived listeners into believing is a qualified physician. Kozak didn't inform them that he is a chiropractor, but called him "Doctor Ebner" and gave him free reign to give medical advice and run his frauds on the audience. She let him promote HIV-denying quacks Harvey and Marilyn Diamond and their health hoax book Fit for Life, which made them and Warner Books millions of illicit dollars. They call themselves "Doctor" on the basis of bogus degrees.

Kozak did not inform the listeners that Ebner has absolutely no expertise that would qualify him to sound off on human health and ailments such as HIV/AIDS and Ebola. She defended him from one critical caller by essentially saying that we all have our own truths and we should respect each others' ideas and theories. Complete medical relativity. All healing methods, theories and systems are equal. Diploma mills and chiroquackery schools are as good as accredited medical schools. She's Dr. Oz on steroids plus meth and HPR is acting like the Weekly World News in giving her and her parade of fraudster airtime.  

HPR has now been put on notice. By knowingly allowing Kozak and her guests to mislead and defraud listeners, HPR is risking getting dragged into a tort and even criminal charges of complicity in fraud and reckless endangering. Punitive damages could be imposed in a tort because HPR should know better and has all the resources to learn that many of Kozak's shows are dishonest and dangerous. HPR even has a respected medical doctor on its board of directors.

Please know that HPR editors, talkers and producers can consult with me any time they want at no charge. I'm sure other rational health-care professionals and consumer advocates would also donate time for this. There is simply no excuse for HPR to be complicit and to be aiding and abetting frauds that may harm their listeners. Kozak may be getting paid by the quacks she promotes; I hope HPR producers are above that. (END)

Letter to HPR Management and Body Talk’s Producer

I have repeatedly complained to HPR about Kozak’s relentless promotion of health fraud on her Body Talk show. I've never received a reply. On Dec 1, 2014, Kozak presented yet another example with her frequent guest, Naturopath Diana Joy Ostroff.  

On this show she expressed no skepticism, or even curiosity about the details, when Ostroff:  Claimed to have cured a man of throat cancer, using unspecified naturopathic methods, after conventional therapy had apparently failed;  Claimed to routinely cure colds using unspecified naturopathic methods;  Claimed that her naturopathic methods get at the root cause of disease by assessing "cellular health" and treating deficiencies therein;  Claimed to have tests that can be used on the spot to determine which herb an individual with a fever or other symptoms would best respond to.


This is all brazen criminal fraud. The latter refers to a completely discredited system of skin probes, herbs, and a computer with software akin to astrology software and common to NDs. Kozak refuses to discuss these things in an objective manner and allows only promotional questions and comments. She said to me, after her screener hung up on me for being skeptical, "You are free to believe or not believe." To her it's all a matter of faith and belief, not facts, science and evidence. One healing system is as good as another, even if they completely contradict each other. One naturally wonders why she bothered to go to medical school. 

In these quackery-promoting shows Kozak withholds critical information, which is irresponsible and unethical. She promotes the lie that NDs are on a par with MDs, and doesn't tell her audience the following facts:

NDs are licensed in only a handful of states, and there are important and valid reasons for this;  ND training in diagnosing and treating patients, especially those seriously ill or injured and in a hospital, is woefully inadequate and not comparable to MD training;  Half of ND schooling and practice is in homeopathy, a 19th Century quackery cult that has been utterly disproved and discredited;  There is no evidence for Ostroff's claim, adopted from chiroquackery, that "spinal evaluation" can help in the diagnosis or treatment of any systemic ailment; There is no evidence that ND's "body cleansing" (high enemas, fasting, etc) is an effective remedy for anything;  Naturopaths' hostility to vaccines is a dangerous dogma that most NDs adhere to; And there is certainly no evidence to support the diagnostic and treatment claims made for the unapproved gadgets and devices naturopaths rely on and fraudulently promote to the public.

Naturopathy is rooted in, and still wedded to, mysticism, cultism and 19th Century pseudoscience. It does not have a track record even remotely comparable to that of science-based medicine with its dramatic progress in the prevention and treatment of scores of diseases. Yet Kozak consistently portrays NDs as equivalent to MDs or better. She says and implies that the two routinely collaborate and refer patients to each other. This is just bullshit. Her attitude is to hell with the truth and with consumer protection.


There are, and always have been, thousands of bogus remedies available and promoted. Dr. Kozak's job is presumably to help listeners find the few pearls in the very large dung heap. But she apparently believes her job is to convince the public that there is no dung, only mountains of pearls.

It is intolerable that HPR's only regular show relating to health and medicine is largely dedicated to the uncritical promotion of misinformation, quackery and fraud while it withholds crucial information from listeners. It is irresponsible, unfair, unreasonable and unethical by any standard, and it is in gross violation of the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. It is also in violation of HPR’s mandate and mission as most people understand them.

Since HPR has been unresponsive to my legitimate concerns, I have to consider other methods. I will now embark on an effort to educate Hawaii health care professionals and ask them to protest this dreadful show and the lack of opportunity for rationalists to comment on the nonsense and fraud. (END)

 Conclusion

Dr. Kozak and Hawaii Public Radio have abandoned science and consumer protection and embraced medical relativism and quackery. Like it or not, Kozak, if allowed to continue for years, could become the face of the medical profession in the mind of the Hawaii public even though her views are way out on the fringe. She misleads and endangers the patients of legitimate health professionals while giving the profession (especially Straub Clinic) an aura of anti-science hucksterism to rational people. 

Kozak’s show is HPR’s kick in the teeth to responsible health professionals and to all rational people.

I suggest we kick back by quitting memberships, withholding contributions, and telling HPR why we’re doing it.

Addendum on 3/24/15 (too short for a separate blog post):

Coincidentally, while I sparred with HPR about its biased and dishonest promotion of naturopathy, disillusioned former ND Britt Hermes started her critical blog www.naturopathicdiaries.com. I tried to email HPR about it and suggest Hermes be invited to be a guest on Body Talk. I learned that my emails are automatically rejected as spam. I had a friend send the message from another account. This time I learned that the message had been rejected because HPR has blackballed Hermes' URL. That is what the automatic "failure notice" said, blackballed.

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Links to all my blogs: www.KurtButlerBlogs.blogspot.com. 

For more detailed critiques of various forms of quackery, including naturopathy, see my book A Consumer’s Guide to “Alternative Medicine”. It was expertly edited by legendary quack buster Stephen Barrett, MD.  The critics say:

"Superb!" -- Dr. Victor Herbert in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Excellent" -- National Council Against Health Fraud.

"Five Stars" -- Cooking Light.

"Thought provoking; a great book" -- American Journal of Health Promotion.  

When the book was published almost 30 years ago it was strongly praised by responsible health experts and the rare responsible media, but trashed by new-age critics and even vandalized in bookstores by new-age fanatics. It is as true and relevant as ever, and has been mostly vindicated by time. Yet my courageous and far-sighted publisher, the venerable Prometheus Books, is still sitting on lots of copies. Please help validate their integrity by buying a copy. Or two or more as gifts. Perhaps 10 for your local school library and health classes. See their website for assorted discounts. Make them an offer. (My royalties are insignificant; this little promo is for the benefit of one of the world's great publishers, Prometheus Books.) 

Maui's future foretold: Barbarians In Paradise -- Terror Comes to Maui. This is a prophetic flash novel about a future police state and those who rebel against it. Available in paperback and ebook at Amazon.com.