FYI: Center for Inquiry Doesn't Like Alternative Medicine

Robert Cohen · medicine forum Guru Wannabe Joined: 28 Apr 2005 Posts: 116

April 2005

Dear Friend of the Center for Inquiry,

As you probably know, science and reason are under attack in virtually
every area of society. Nowhere is this more dangerous than in matters
of public health.

The Center for Inquiry is dedicated to free and scientific inquiry. You
share these goals and you are likely to be as worried over the epidemic
of irrationalism, pseudoscience, and quackery that is invading medicine
and mental health practices as we are. Now you can do something about
it.

Former New England Journal of Medicine editors Marcia Angell, M.D., and
Jerome Kassirer, M.D., said, "It is time for the scientific community
to stop giving alternative medicine a free ride. There cannot be two
kinds of medicine -- conventional and alternative. There is only
medicine that has been adequately tested and medicine that has not,
medicine that works and medicine that may or may not work."

On April 14, defenders of science-based medicine suffered another major
setback when a U.S. District Court in Utah overruled the Food and Drug
Administration's decision to ban the sale of potentially deadly herbal
remedies that contain the powerful stimulant ephedrine. After
collecting a decade of evidence linking ephedra-containing supplements
to more than 150 deaths, the FDA banned these products as a danger to
the public. Despite this evidence, the court ruled that federal law
prohibits the FDA from banning a dietary supplement based on weighing
its risks against its benefits.

Many hospitals and medical centers have jumped on the lucrative
alternative and complimentary-medicine bandwagon to offer therapies
that aren't supported by scientific evidence, while medical schools are
integrating irrational and pseudoscientific practices into their
curricula.

The mental health fields are also in crisis. The public's perception of
mental health practice is shaped far more today by self-help books,
radio psychologists, and sensational media stories of dramatic "cures"
than by objective scientific evaluations. Self-proclaimed gurus are
often heralded in the mass media, even though their treatments have not
been submitted to scientific study.

In response to this alarming epidemic of antiscience in medicine and
mental health practice, CFI established the Commission for Scientific
Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH) in November 2003. The Commission
began by taking over sponsorship of the CFI's two peer-reviewed
publications, The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine (SRAM) and
The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice (SRMHP).

Click here to learn about current projects of CSMMH and future plans.

It's time to start holding alternative medicine accountable. You can
help stop the erosion of the scientific foundations of medicine and
mental health practices. We are outmanned, outgunned, and clearly
out-funded.

Demonstrate your concern by joining us and making the most generous
contribution that you can to support the investigations, programs, and
publications. We need to keep healthcare practitioners and YOU (the
public) informed of the danger of "New Age" therapies now flooding the
market.

It's easy and so important. Just click here to learn how you can make a
gift that will truly make a difference, or feel free to mail a donation
to us at: CSMMH, Center for Inquiry, P.O. Box 741, Amherst, NY 14226.
Or, if you prefer, call us at 1-800-335-1095 and speak to us about
additional giving opportunities. However you decide to give, please do
so today, so we can continue to make a difference tomorrow.

Thank you very much for all your past, present, and future support.

With best regards,

Andrew Skolnick
Executive Director
Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health

P.S. -- We are a non-profit receiving no government funding ... our
main source of income comes from informed and interested people like
you.

For other examples of how the public is being endangered by alternative
medicine, click here.

Click here to learn more about the threat to mental health.

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