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DL I

.l:iom.eJ2g_atl1y: A medical controversy Many question . doctors, devices found in state

Editor's note: This Is the first In an eight-part sarilB on tha birth and growth in Nevada ol an alter• nate form of medicine called home• opathy.

By Jerrlanne Hayslett Review.Journal

For years state Se~. James I. Gibson, a highly respected and in• Ouential Nevada politician, fought a losing battle with high blood pressure until 1979 when he went to a homeopath.

Gibson's wife, Audroy, f'lund little improvement In her diabetic condition and weight prublem un­til 1980 when sho wu treated by a homeopath.

'l'wo ol the couple's six children also had chronic disorders con• trolled by homeopathic treat•

"'··' -~):-·· .,· ...

manta. Gary Thompson/Review-Journal Those experlencea and stor!ea TAKING A READING• Las Vegas homeopath calf of Orem, Utah, with an electrodiagnosls

of similar successes with bomeop- F. Fuller Royal evaluates patient Karleen Met- device· called an Accupalh 1 Q00. athy convinced Gibson that ev- /\ eryone should have access to that to take nuclear dirt but.we sure \ f-,\ • performed breast enlargement t.ype of treatment and that ho- will take m~ginal doctors." Rx for Nevada surgery on her. . • meopaths should be free to prac- Within two years of its forma- Maxwell, who came to Nevada tice without ·harassment from tion, the homeopathy board Ii- TRICK OR TREATMENT 11nor !using II California chiro• conventional doctora or govern- canaed four)>eople who had talal• practlc license for illegal practices, ment officials.· fied their applications. The bogus when a woman died. after newly is serving an 18-year prUl<ln aen•

The Henderson Democrat's credentlala !Ima to light In 1985 licensecl.i41.o ..New\R!kMaxweU tence for tho woman's death. He conviction· and infiuance gave nAK .L :JUI and the other three lost their Ii• birth in 1983 t.o the Nevada State r-::========~==========----=....., censes. Board of Holi1eopaLhlc Medical Audrey Gibson, now a homeop• Examiners to regulate what some Despite the recruitment 01 powerful politicians and prominent lemllles, athy board 1number herself, · caliu , hall aa a whole new branch of homeopaths and their supporters Insist that homeopathy In Nanda was the Maxwell situation tragic, but . medicine, others call an antiquat• neither planted nor lortlllzed with ulterior motlvea, collusion or Influence 110 re11S011 to di,iband the bot1rd ur ad medical philosophy and still peddling. defrock tho praotitionera, others think hr pure quackery, re- Legislative lobbyist James Joyce, who worked voluntarily lor pesaage ol But Maxwell and the three oth• plote with ln~mpetent doctors. the bill to create a separate llcenslng board for homeopaths, says he era who submitted false creden• i

Giving homeopaths their own believes th\ rapid growth or homeopathy In the state was nothing more tlals, are not th11 only applicants board" raised the hackles of many than the coincidental converging of potent forces. with questionable backgrounds of the state's conventional physi- However, a number of lormer medical and corporate associates of those who have received Nevada ho• cians who say it perpetuates Ne- responsible for bringing homeopathy to Nevada and former stalf workers In meopathic licenses: veda's image as 8 anake oil mecca homeopathic clinics dispute such disclaimers. They would talk to the whore charlatans and physicians• Review-Journal only on condition ol anonymity, voicing rears or reprisals, I At least 10 of the remaining

• ble bill f Intimidation and harassment from influential and powerful people Involved · 32 people the board haa approved of quesUona a ty ore ree to in the homeopathy movement - including the current and past set up shop. . Also homeopathy promoter Floyd E. Weston, through a homeopathic president ·or the board _ have

"We seem to be the dumping organization he heads, tried In state and federal courts last summer to • encountered trouble with medical ground for all the M.D.a who-have block the newapaper's alfons to see public records concerning eppllcanta boards in other atatea-for~ques­lost their llcensea In other states," end llcenseea. U.S. District Judge Lloyd George ultlmalely rtjeetld We1- tlonable ._.. In aome cuea, illegal says H, Treat Cafferata. a paat ton's altlmpta to seal the recoRls. . I ...... president of the Washoe County And Weston claims his associates spent $8,000 to hire a private lnvesU• pract ces. · Medical Society. "We don't want gator to foHow a reporter researching this story and check her background. Pieaae seo HOMEOPATHY 117 A

;Homeopathy--- better known and understood. "You have to take people where

they are," says Royal, a member of , the homeopathic board since it was·· created. "Homeopathy has a track record, it's not a totally new idea. If you were to talk in new terms you would lose them so fast."

From 1A · ■ Las Vegas homeopath Robert Vance was charged with illegally prescribing controlled drugs. He

· had been stripped of his Utah os• teopathic license in 1981 for using unapproved medical methods, in­cluding prescribing treatments of laetrile injections and enemas for a boy with bone : cancer. The boy died after 10 days of treatment ad­ministered in a motel room by one of Vance's employees. ■ Abram Ber was granted a Ne­

vada homeopathic license even though his Arizona medical license was canceled in 1982 after an in• vestigation of charges that he per• fom1ed inadequate examinati_ons and misdiagnosed patients. · ■ Reno homeopath Michael

' Gerber's California medical license was revoked in 1984 for prescribing

: toxic doses of vitamins and using unorthodox herbal treatment on a cancer patient, which left him with

. no active medical license. · ■ Mexican officials dispute an•

other licensee's claim that he holda an active medical license there. To be licensed in Nevada, a homeo• path must hold a medical or osteo• pathic license in some state or country. : Questionable doctors or impos•

ters may not be the only cause for concern.

'The Nevada Legislature may have been an unwitting tool in cre• ating a market for electronic de• vices that were developed and dis­tributed by the chief promoter of homeopathy in Nevada,· and for training courses marketed by the man who became the first presi• dent of the board, F. Fuller Royal, who also held an interest 'in the

Rx for Nevada TRICK OR TREATMENT ·

company th~t developed the elec• A close examination of the origin ~ronic devices. and growth of Royal's version of

Legislators may h_ave thought homeopathy also reveals that: they were voting on a homeopathy ■ The principle promoter of ho• bill, but the practice defined in the meopathy in Nevada is former Cal• law they passed is not homeopathy ifomia insurance agent Floyd Wes­in medically accepted terms. ton, who had ambitious plans to

Classical homeopathy Is a nearly develop a major marketing and dis· 190-year-old practice based on the tribution scheme for diagnostic theory that certain diseases can be equipment and homeopathic reme• cured with minute doses of sub- dies through a network of clinics. · stances, which in a healthy person ■ Weston, who has held high and in large doses, would produce offices in the Mormon Church, symptoms of the disease. . says he came to Nevada on instruc•

Nevada's homeopathy, however, tions from Church President Ezra is a sort of hybrid of homeopathic Taft Benson. Officials deny any and acupuncture principles and the connection between the church use of electronic devices. and the homeopathic movement

The devices, called electrodiag• here .. nostic machines, were unknown in ■ Royal, who was set up in prac•. homeopathy until recent years and tice by Weston, formed a business still are not used by practitioneP.i _ partnership with a friend to 11)_1µ'•

of classical homeopathy, according ket a $345 correspondence course to Harris Coulter, a recognized ex• that the board,· with Royal as pres­pert and historian of the practice. ident, accepted as post-graduate

Neither is acupuncture part of education required for licenaure. classical homeopathy, although The handbook for their course can Nevada practitioners argue that be used by applicants during an both techniques involve the body's open-book portion of the licensing "vital force" and "energy flow." examination, which Royal's friend

Royal, who worked to pase ho• wrote, administers and grades. meopathy legislation in 1981 and ■ Royal and his friend, Brigham 1983, concedes that the Legislature Young University instructor Craig actually legalized a whole new form K. Mayfield, have no business Ii• or medicine he calls bioenergetics · cense for their correspondence under the guise of homeopathy. course company, based in Utah, as

Royal says proponents of the leg- required by law. Nor did they regis­islation called it homeopathy in- ter with the state as offering post• stead of coining a new term that secondary education courses, would more accurately defme what which could be prosecuted as a they asked the Legislature to ap\ misdemeanor, prove because homeopathy WU\

1 _. ■ Part of the homeopathic Ii• censing e:wnination pertains to electronic diagnostic devices not used in classical homeopathy, handicapping applicants who have

I not taken Royal and Mayfield's course on how the equipment worka. The devices lack U.S. Food

: and Drug Administration approval. 1 ■ Weston plans to turn Nevada

into a combination Lourdes and Fountain of Youth by importing a proclaimed rejuvenating process and a purported miracle cancer cure he says are available only in F.umne.

:..~r• '.i-lM~· ~.

bilitating inner-ear affliction Me­niere's disease and a virus-induced condition called shingles that con-· ventlonal physicians say are poasi­b\e to control, but not cure.

Claims like Royal's and the uae of electronic devices to diagnose disorders and prescribe remedies prompt conventional doctors, like Las Vegas proctologist Burchard E. Winne, to call homeopathy witchcraft. .

Homeopaths argue that their form of medicine is not only effec­tive, but is safer than conventional m~dicine because it docs not in­volve surgery or toxic doses-of po-· tent drugs.

Russell Ylp/Ravlaw.Jour. ,al LATEST LAS VEGAS HOMEOPATHIC CLINIC'· The Institute for Homeopathy on East Saraha Avenue Is the most recent of the six

Royal and his collegues also counter critics' contentions that homeopathic remedies are ineffec­tive substances given to placate pa­tients who respond readily to sug­gestion, by citing examples of success with infants and animal, on whom the power of suggestion would not work.

But physicians like Laa Vegas dermatologist Kenneth Landow

homeopathic clinic~ to open in Las Vegas. . ~ .. ,,. :·· ..... . . sey · that although the · :emedles

may be harmless, people with aeri• ous disorders can be lulled into thinking they are improving while the disease progresses beyond the reach of effective treatment. •

moler also formed a corporation with prominent Las Vegas resi• dents as board members to manage the clinic, operate a homeopathic remedy laboratory and manulac• ture electronic diagnostic devices.

He also made political contacts, worked on elec~ion campaigns, be­came acql!ainted with influential people and lobbied tor legislative recognition of homeopathy.

The first push In 1981, which would have added homeopaths to the state Board of Medical Exam• iners, resulted in the appointment of a three-member homeopath ad­visory committee to the board. But the committee members say the medical board neither consulted them on issues nor notified them of board meetings.

A renewed offensive in 1983 made Nevada the third state in the country with a board of homeo• pathic examiners. .

Arizona established a board in 1981, and a board in Connecticut dates back to 1893 when about 15 percent of the country's physicians practiced homeopathy.

The Nevada bill passed the Leg• islature with little opposition ex• cept for grumbles among main•

■ A clinic employee of the cur• stream physicians , th~t it would rent board president hu been de- perpetuate Nevada s image as a ported u an illegal alien, and Roy- sa~ctuary for fringe elements capl­al, In apparent violation of state · tahzlng on unorthodox or fraudu­law, has employed nurses in his lent treatments and doct?rs who. clinic who did not hold Nevada had encountered trouble m other nursing licenses. While Royal aa atates. . truident of a atate licensing board T~a~ Image, _some conventional was charged with regulating a med- phys1c1ans say, 1s the. reason home­ical practice .he dismissed the need opathy promoters picked Nevada to regulate 'nursea who work for to launch their business. him because he would just have to • "I ,think there is more sh)'.Bte~­"deprogram" their conventional ism m Nevada than there 1s m training. Europe or even the rest of the ■ The homeopathic board is United States because Nevada is so

proposing legislation to expand wide open,'' says . Joel ~ower, a therapies homeopaths are allowed Clark County Medical Society past to ~ and curtail public access to president: "'fhe attitude see~s f:<> information about license appli- be, try 1t m Nevada and 1f 1t cants. doesn't work there, it' won't work

anywhere." The first of this new breed of But Roynl says Nevada was a

homeopaths to open a clinic in Laa · natural choice because "it is the Vegas were brought to Nevada in last bastion of freedom where it is 1980 with funds Weston amassed not so regimented that you can't from about 10 investors. try new methods."

The insurance agent-turned-pro• Royal and Weston. also .,ay ho-

meopatliy · will bro~den the state's economic base.

"Nevada needs something to counterbalance gambling," Weston says. Alternative medicine offers "great possibilities" for the state.

Yet before the board was barely established, Weston's Laa Vegas­baaed Health Management Corp. faced financial problems. ·

Weston sold moat of his interest in the Las Vegas enterprises in 1983, moved to Southern Utah and relocated his Nevada homeopathic . businesa activities in Reno. Reno, he says, has an image more amena­ble to the East Coast business peo­ple he wants to attract.

Weston's business dealings, Ne­vada's lax licensing procedures and homeopaths' legal problems have not deterred thousands of homeop­. athy devotees who flock to Nevada clinics from across the country and other parts of the world.

Royal says that more than 16,000 patients, 80 percent of whom live out of state, have visited his Nevada Clinic since it opened in Las Vegas six years ago.

The Century Clinic in Reno schedules P,atients six months in advance and sends prospective pa• tients information on local motel& and rental car agencies offering special rates to its patients.

Royal, who emphasizes healthful living and avoiding pollutants and allergins, claims 100 percent sue-

Upcoming stories

Some d1.ctors base their opposi­tion on the pratitioners, rather than the practice.

"My _objection is not to homeop• athy, but to those who call them• selves homeopaths and why," saya Laa Vegas family practitioner An-gela Clarke.

Clarke says she wants to know who the applicants are, where they were trained and why they want licenses in Nevada.

She says that after the homeo­pathic board was formed, the Clark County Medical Society, of which she waa president, and the state medical usociation started getting queries from doctors in trouble with medical boards in other states.

Royal and his fellow homeopaths say conventional physicians are . closed minded. "Here in this town; my greatest critics call me a quack and denounce me, but ·they have · never come out to investigate what I am doing," Royal says. "I know . how they practice because I used to practice that way, but they don't know how I' practice."

- Tommorow: A profile of the : man who brought homeopathy to · Nevada.

TOMORROW: A profile of the promoter who established a network of homeopathy-related businesses, then cultivated polttlcal contacts to smooth the way for a law to create a market for his products.

TUESDAY: How the teglslallva process worked and a look at the · flrst homeopathy board that Hcensed four people with false credenllats, one of whom subsequently was convicted of kltnng a woman with a drug overdose.

WEDNESDAY: The praclltlonars, who they are and the legal and licensing problems some have had In othet states.

THURSDAY:-The apparent laxlty of the board In checking Iha backgrounds of lour homeopaths who fatsllled their licensing appllcatloos to hide their lack of credentials. ·

FRIDAY: The people wt,o go to homeopaths and why, Including a trip through a clinic with an arthritis patient who a year later says he ts completely. cured.

SUNDAY: The remedies, electronic devices and non-homeopathic treat• ments that do not have U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval, and can be dangerous to some people.

MONDAY: The future of homeopathy In Nevada as envisioned by Its promoters and practitioners.

·conventional medicine '

opposes horneoQatt:,y _ : Homeopathy, defined in 'b.ody of scientific proof, accord-

modern terms as holistic medi- ing to recent ~tudies, and that cine, has been a point of con-. ~forms the basis of orthodox med­troversy in medical circles since ~icine's opposition. 19th Century German physi- Homeopathy does appear to cian Samuel ·Hahnemann devel-...;., be effective,.in treating allergies,

· oped it as an alternative to . says Richard Rothenberg, an harsh practices of the times, } Ef official in the Chronic Disease such as bleeding and purging. 41 ~ Division of the U.S. Centers

Homeopaths view the body · for Disease Control. as a complex inter-related sys- Giving a person small doses tern, whose individual organs of a substance to which the per-and systems cannot be treated son is allergic tends to defuse independently of each other or . t}je.J>ody's aggressive reaction to the whole. . d;e substance, Rothenberg

By the early _1900s about says. 15,000; or one in six, physicians ·. in the United States used ho- ,' Hom!op~ths, howe!er, ap~ly meopathy jn their practices. that pri_n~1ple to a wide _variety

But lack of professionalism of conditions. The premise of within its ranks and opposition home~pathr may ~ot be fal~e, he from the American Medical says, but it certamly doesn t Association contributed to its have scientific basis." eventual decline.. Scientific evidence of effec-

Homeopathy promoter Floyd tiveness is sparse, but the results E. Weston touts homeopathy as of a controlled study published nodn-to.xhic and non-invasive in the Oct. 18, 1986, issue of the an. ~it out side effects,:while British medical journal, Tµe claimmg that conventional Lancet, reported improvement in

· medicine relies on "poisons and hay fever victims being stud-cutting." ied, with no evidence that place-. ~lthough clinical evidence bo action fully explained their mdicates homeopathy can be ef- responses to homeopathic reme-. f ective, the practice lacks a dies. } f). A • ·

L V homeopatbydefends his medical specialty By Jerrlanne Hayslett Review-Journal

F. Fuller Royal has treated a patient with injections of his own blood, urine and pus; told others to get their dental fillings removed and flushed the veins of arterial disea~e victims with chemicals that can cause kid­ney failure.

Some conventional physi­cians call such practices voodoo. But that doesn't stop the 52-year-old doctor from practicing what he considers a medical · specialty.

"I just want a place where I can practice my kind of medi­cine," he said. "That is the most important thing to me."

Royal has crusaded for a se­cure, if not totally favorable, cli­mate in Nevada for himself and others who share his philos• ophy.

Royal is a homeopath. He is one of 32 homeopathic doctors licensed in Nevada, and was the first president of the state Board of Homeopathic Medi-cal Examiners created by the 1983 Legislature. .

But the homeopathic board may be misniimed aince it regu­lates practices unknown to ·

.•. followers of the classical method ··devised about 190 years _ago.

•Royal· calls' the blend of ho­m~opathic principles, acupunc­ture and electronic diagnosis "bioenergetic medicine," because it involves energy fields of the body. ;

He sees himself as ~ pioneer in this new form of medicine

Some conventional physicians call treatment voodoo that he bclievP.s is superior and mort accurate in diagnosiqg and trea:,ng people.

He talks of vital forces, en­ergy flows and blocked channels in the br,dy. To most tradi­tionalist$, he sounds like a radi-cal. ·

But with half-frame glasses perched on his nose, thinning brown h.'lir and an "I care" button pinned to his light bh .. e physiciaa's smock, he is the image c:· a trusted famil}' doctor.

Ro)·al. a product of the South, 1,t.tenc.led Wake Forest Unive?$ily and Bowman Gray Medical School and served as a U.S. Air Force fligh surgeon.

Lea,·ing the military in 1964, Royal, who had become a Mormon, set up a general practice in Eugene, Ore. There he and his wife, Marie, raised their four children.

Royal first stirred contra• versy in the 1970s when he took public stands agaiost sex edu­cation in public schools and treatment of Eugene's water supply with fluoride, which he consid<!rs toxic.

He attracted more attention, this time from his medical peers, in th .. late 1970s when he gravitated to homeopathy. He telli of becoming disillusioned . with conventional treatment after

· . yP.m of being unable to h~lp

a parade of patients who marched through his office.

He discovered electrodiagno­sis while on a trip to Europe fi. nanced by a group of inves-tors organized by former California insurance agent Floyd E. Weston, who wanted to bring that diagnostic tech-nique to the United States.

Royal met Weston, also Mormon, through a fellow Mor­mon Weston did business with in Eugene.

Weston's funding ·or Royal'a European trip included buying an electrodiagnostic machine, called a Dermatron, for Royal to experiment with in Eugene.

Royal said his· initial reac• tion to an instrument that could diagnose disorders echoed oth• ers in conventional -medicine.

"I thought, what kind of nonsense is this?" he said

But the more he used it, · the more excited he became, he said, and finally was con• vinced it works in ways conven­tional medicine never could. He said it cut time needed to make allergy evaluations from three days to an hour and his patients responded more quickly to treatmenL

But Royal's medical breth-ren did not share his enthusiasm and in 1979 he was investigat• ed by the Oregon Board of Med­ical Examiners.

Royal said he never knew the specific charges or who initi­ated the complaint.

"He did know," said John Ulwelling, executive secretary of

Oo.y /

I ~ - ... ,,.,• •-••q .,,

.PIONEERING ~SICIAJS~ Homeopath F. Fuller Royal studies patients' records in an examining room of The Nevada Clinic in Las

Gary Thompson/Review-Journal '. Vegas. An Accupath 1000, an electronic device he uses to diagnose and determine prescrlp- · tions, is In the background.

the Oregon medical board. "The investigative committee communicated the nature of the complaint and askedfl.r his response." I •

The records, however, e confidential since no hearing was held.

Rather than wrangle with the Oregon medical board, Royal decided to move.

"There were some people down here (in Nevada) who were patients and they encouraged us to come here," he said. "l felt this was one of the few places -maybe the last place - left where I could express myself."

Royal and other practitio­ners of alternative medicine claim they are harassed by conventional physicians on the

·-

unfounded premise that home­opathy has not been proven safe or effective.

Consequently, Royal said, mainstream medicine limits peo­ple's freedom to choose ho­meopathic treatmenL He said that was wrong.

"I wouldn't want anyone to dictate to me what kind of ther­apy I can or cannot have," he said.

Royal said he and Weston searched together for the best place to set up business and after deciding on Nevada, Wes­ton set Royal up in business in 1980 in The Nevada Clinic of Preventive Medicine in Las Vegas.

Concurrently, the two men worked to gain legislative recog-

" -

nition of homeopathy. Royal also helped establish a homeo­pathic remedy laboratory and assisted in developing and build­ing a computerized electro­diagnostic device called the Ac­cupath 1000.

While sitting as the first president of the homeopathic board, Royal and a friend. Craig K. Mayfield, developed and marketed a correspondence course on homeopathy, which the board accepted as post­graduate work required for licen­sure. It remains the only com­prehensive course approved by the board, of which Royal is a member.

Also, Mayfield, I\ Brigham Young University general educa- -

Pl~~.!!~.!~• ROYAU18A

tiuri" .fnst~~ctor, wrote, administers and grades the license examina• tion. · Mayfield's Provo, Utah, home is the address of the R/M Co. he and

· Royal formed to market the corre• spondence course. But R/M does not have a business license as re• quired by Provo and is not regis­tered with Utah's post-graduate commission. Commissioner Ster• ling Provost said that omission could bring R/M a fine and a ban from doing business in Utah.

Royal referred q4estions about licensing and registering the com• pony with the appropriate agencies to Mayfield, who said he did not know about the requirements • . The two men also conduct $350•

a-person seminars for a Utah com­pany that makes an updated ver• sion of the Accupath. The company, Esion, also not regis• tered with state or local officials, is headed by the physicist who devel­oped the Accupath. Also counter to its advertising claims, Esion does not have a registered trademark for its equipment.

The Nevada board's acceptance of the · RIM Co, correspondence course, the marketing of the elec• trodiagnostic devices for which the correspondence textbook serves as an instruction manual, and the course authors' role in who gets licensed have caused consternation among some license applicants.

Gregory F. Miller of New Alba­ny,' Ind., protested in a December 1984 letter to Royal,

"A good part of your examina­tion was spent on questions that were drawn from Prof. Mayfield's book on the Accupath,11 Miller wrote. "Since you are the co-au­thor of that text and since one of your holding companies leases the Acupath (sic) to health care practi­tioners for a $750 per month fee, I feel that there is a dermite conflict of interest·in the promotion of the Accupath by what is supposed to be a state board entity. In addition, the homeopathic physicians that are using the Accupath do not make up the mainstream of current Hahnemann classic homeopathy."

Royal said electrodiagnosis makes up only about-IO percent of the examination. He insists there is no conflict of interest and that he obtained a state attorney gener• al's opinion saying so.

Despite criticism from the .con• ventional medical community and some license applicants, Royal said his biggest problem has been with the news media. · "They only want to report the black side," he said. ''They ignore the results we are getting here."

He said people with chronic vas­cular diseases, arthritis and skin disorders that conventional physi­cians said were incurable are now free of symptoms.

But criticisms and appearances · of conflicts of interest do not worry Royal, who has severed financial ties with Weston's company that developed electrodiagnostic de­vices. And, although he still serves on the homeopathic board, he passed the presidency to Reno practitioner Yiwen Y. Tang last year.

Now, he said, he has more time to do what he really wants to do -."Help people get well."

. .

Advbt~ate lauds homeopathy patient with an electronic device called a Dermatron, Weston de­scribed his pwn problem.

Although Weston was out -of

Editor's note: In the second part of an eight-part series on homeop­athy, today's story profiles Floyd Weston, who brought this alterna­tive form of medicine to Nevada.

By Jerrianne Hayslett Review-Journal

More than a decade has passed since Floyd E. Wes ton learned he had cancer of the colon.

funds, Voll agreed to treat him. must be an alternative out there "He did a great number on me somewhere and I was prepared to and now I'm in great health," travel anywhere." · Weston said. "Th9:t was when I

Acquaintances told him about came to the conclus1?n that ho~e­medical successes doctors in Eu--- apathy was an absomte necessity rope were having with alternative in the United States." Leaning back on a plush red

sofa in the living room of his spa­cious condominium in St. George, Utah, Weston, 65, recalled the hopelessness of his situation.

medical practices. Taking a leave Weston's experience ,vith Voll of absence from his northern Cali- and the Dermatron marked his fornia insurance agency in 1977, conve~ion to alternative medical Weston took his life savings and · practices and his commitment to set out on his quest. tell the world about their superior-After four surgeries in 2½ years,

he was discouraged by his physi­cian from seeking chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

His search was futile until, ity over conventional medicine. nearly out of money and hope, he He has pursued his objective arrived in Germany "where I with the same zeal that gripped made the greatest discovery." him nearly three decades earlier "My oncologist told me confi­

dentially that he would never take what he prescribes for. his pa­tients;" said Weston, the father of seven children. "I decided there

There he found physician-phys- following another conversion. icist Reinholt Voll. As a young man, Weston be-

After watching Voll correctly came a Mormon and dedicated diagnose and treat patient after himself to bringing_ as many peo-

FLOYD E. WESTON ... homeopathy advocate

pie as possible into th~ Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

As he succeeded in converting others and assumed positions of responsibility in the church, he became a popular speaker, detail-

ing his experiences in bringing people to the faith.

In the same way he told of Mor-. mon converts, Weston now relates stories of countless patients who have been cured with homeopa-thy. .

His fervor for his beliefs has carried over to people he has met through the years.

He has built an extensive net­work of acquaintances that in­cludes national politicians; super­star athletes and heads of state.

Among notables he lists as pa­tients at Nevada hqmeopathy clinics are former Nevada Gov. Robert List, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, U.S. Sen. Orrin , Hatch, R-Utah, .and Mormon. t Church President Ezra Taft B~n- ; son. i

"Floyd knows everybody," says one longtime acquaintance.

But impressions of Weston vary among those who know him.

State Sen. James I. Gibson, D­Henderson, sponsor of legislation ~

Please see ~OMEOPATHY/4A /I

... ~

4A/Laa Vegas Rovlew.Joumal/Monday, March 2. 1987 C

Homeopathy nearly went bankrupt In about Weston concedes that his "Public Scrutiny," Weston touted 1983, so he ana fellow clinic phys!- search for alternatlvea to conven• the wooden of electrod!agnosis clan Leonard Haimes bought the tlonal medicine and funding hla and the computerized electronic

From 1A clinic. Halmes later moved to 'enterprlsea In Nevada were eo1tly, device, the Accupath 1000, hla Lai that aet up a state homeopathic ■ Discord dlvldH llrms/1 B Florida leaving Royal and hia wife, but he would not dlscuu the n- Vegas nrm developed. Ha 1l10 ex-llcenalng board, deacribe1 hlm aa Marie, aa sole owners. nanclal aapectl . . tolled The Nevada Clinic, Dollaoa "a very dynamic person." dent of the U.S. Homeopathic .A•· Weston also negotiated a deal He said the Cllnda came from a remedies and Royal aa the out-

"I think · he is quite obaeued eoclation after buying rights to the with Dollaoa, a French homeo- group or about 10 Investors Crom etandlng practitioner of electro-with the need to rmd alternatives name and lo.a Crom Its founder, pathlc remedy company, to open a Nevada and "other areas aa a • dlagnosb and homeopathy ln th~ to re,ular medicine that can go Chicllg') businesswoman Christine laboratory near The Nevada Clln- purely philanthropic endeavor." country. Carther than othen have BODI to DeZuteL DeZutel had diaeolved le In Blasco'• development at Tro- But even thou1h Weaton But Weston did not mention his help people." the organization In 1985. plcana Avenue and Jones Boule• amaBSed money Cor corporata ven• own financial Interests in the Fonner Arizona homeopathy No one disputet Weston'• role van!. tures, he waa a defendant In at equipment, the clinic or remedies. board pmldant Harvey Bl1alaen aa Cather oC modem-day homeopa• But when Health Management least 10 lawaults concerning dis- Weston no longer praisea the conalden W11ton "a big promoter thy In Nevada, a movement he could not satisfy the contract, putes over unpaid billa In the put Accupath or Dolisos products and of a lot of thinp. He makes 101pe capitalized on by forming home• Royal said the French firm bought 10 )'e&n. Writs or gamlahmant haa changed his allegiance (rom clalma I don't buy." · apathy-related companies. out all but 5 percent or the corpo• · were isaued agalnat him to collect Royal to tho current slata home• La■ Ve1a■ developer Joseph He haa been at the helm. or on ration's lntereat In the lab, judgments In two or thnae 1ulte, opathy llcenalng board president,

Blaaco, who had bualneaa deallnp the boerds of at least Cour compa• While directing his companlea' which eventually were aatlafted. Reno homeopath Ylwen Y. Tang. with Weston, critlcizea his bual• nlea In Nevada, starting with operation,, Weston engineered Desplta Weston'• zeal In bring• Weaton uld Tang prefers the neaa acumen but extola his aalea· Health Management Corp. which legislation to creata a state ho• Ing converts to the church and German-made Dermatron, and manahlp. he Cormed in 1979 In Laa Vegas meopathlc licensing boanl. opening door■ Cor homeopathy, that tha German-made HEEC ho•

AD official with a national ho· with Cunda Crom lnveators. "I went Into atete office, and people who have known him aay meopathla romodlea ho markets meopathy organization baaed In He would not Identify the lnve■• ,aid, 'here', what I've got. .I would he la egotlatlcal, Intimidating, vln• through a Reno company he Washington, D.C., uld thet poup tors, but alata Incorporation docu• like to heve a welcome from the dlctlve and talla to keep promises. formed 1n· 1986 are ouperior to dlaavow1 any conneotlon with ments llat aa directors Laa Vegas 1tate or Nevada.' " Alan Krata nld ho moved hla Dolleos. Weaton or the producta he pro- attorney Joaeph M. Foley ot the Ha said he wae directed to Gib• homeopathic remady company, • motes. prominent Nevada Foley Camlly eon, slata Senate majority leader Althou1h Weaton moved to

Smanne Roethel. executive di• and Lu Vegas developer Bluco. at the time. HoBoN, Crom Florida to Laa Ve-Utah, he did 11ot give up his ho-

rector of tha National Center for Foley, Cather or former alate "He ls a very thorough man and gas on an oral agreement with meopathlc lntarests In Nevada.

Homeopathy, 1814 the center'■ S~n. Helen Foley who co-1pon° la oriented to the person In the Weston that HoBon would not be His homeopathy product mar-part of The Nevada Clinic. "But memben an disturbed becauae eored the 1983 homeopathic legla0 1treet." Weston said. "He took a that promlae wu not kept,• Krata keting company, Homeopathy

We1&o11 hu u,ed their 11am11 lation, wu Health Manegement'a careful look at It (homeopathy). said. Inc., and the U.S. Homeopathic without permiuion In hla promo-. attorney and resident agent £or He tried it on hla Camily and said, Auoclatlon office are In Reno. He tional actlvlU... about five years.. 'He)', this is great.'• Weston said Yet, deapite connlcta and dla· talka of plana to move beck to

Lu Vegas homeopath F, Fuller Blasco, developer of the Foot• Gibson Introduced homeopathy to aentlon Krat1 aald he ■aw at tha Neyada and win support Crom Ro)'AI. who lobbied with, Weston hilla Centar location oC the ho- other legialators. clinic, he wu lmpreaaed with the Gov. Richard Bryan and other for a Nevada homeopathic board meopathlc clinic Weston estab- During testimony at 1983 legla- medical personnel there. "I give atate officlala Cor new types or and became the r1r■t preaident of llshed, waa a Health Management lative hearinp on the homeopathy Floyd a lot of credit for 1ettln1 therapie■, including a purported the board when It waa created In Corp. director Cor two years. bill, Weston !lated hlmaelf aa a Sood people together," he ■aid. cancer cure he saya Is available 1983, calla b\m a "public relatlona Weston alao set up a homeo• National Health Federation boerd Al~housh Krata and othera only In Bel1ium. man, par axcellence. • pathlc remedy company and member. The federation promotes talked Creely about W11ton, aome Ht alao talka about a achoo),

'Bu\ ev111 Wea ton'■ haraheat brought In eiectronlca and phy1lc1 alternative medical practlcea. acqualntancea and former UIO• American University with head-critlca voice little doubt about hl1 experts to davelop a computarlzed William Jatvia, a California clata, apoke only if their Iden title■ quarter■ In San Diego, sterting a deslra to help people, although venion of the electronic device medical school proCesaor and prea• wera not revealed. pro1ram In Reno that will offer a eome aay hla primary •motl,-etlon that Voll used In dlallJh)llng Wea- !dent or Ute National Council "I've been there before, q said . degree In Oriental medicine, even la to meke money. ton'a illneas. Agalnat Health Fraud, said the one describing his deallnp with though officials In California and

Weaton'• own accounts or him• Weaton said he chose Nevada aa Cederatlon'■ board or BOVernora Weston, which he said reaultad In Nevada know ot no such program salf and his activities do little to the focal point Cor homeopathy reads like "the Who'• Who In haraeament and Intimidation. nor of a university by that name clarif) l,la Image and objectives. and his buslne11e1 at the lnatruc• medical quackery," "Everythlns la nne IC you III along In California.

. His ttllditlona of events and epl• tlon ot LDS Church President Jarvis said the federation hu with him, but if you queatlon him Although some oC Weston's am• sodea vary Crom vmlona other Benson and becauae the alata la no 1tandln1 In the conventional on anytlung, he'll harasa )'OU to bltloua plans for altarnative medi-people teU, and often don't agree "the last bastion of free agency.• medical community, "It la made · death." · cine In Navada have been slow to with official eourcea. Benson, who at the time was pres- up primarily of people who have mataralize, he is still enthusiastic

For lnalance, he said he wu ident or the Quorum of the been convicted oC health fraud." Said another: "IC you look at over the potential. prealdent ot The North Wat LIie Twelve, declined to comment. Jarvis said Cederatlon member■ Floyd Weston'• wake, you wUI find - And Nevade la the natural set-Assurance Co. of Canada. When Despite Weaton'• hand In vehemently opposed ftuorldatlon a lot of unhappy and dlaeppolntad t-lng, Utah la unacceptlng, he said, asked why the presldant of a Ca- launching homeopath)' companies oC public water supplies, lmmunl•. phyalciana. • beuuae the medical community 14 nadlan company lived and worked in Southern Nevada, he haa not zatlon and milk pasteurization.

Royal, who haa known Weston too bigoted.

In California, he said he wu preai• been actively Involved In thosa "They argue Crom the point 0£ Weston aaid bringing therapies dent or North Weat'• California buainesaea alnce 1983 when he health freedom, yet they are very Cor about 10 years, aald the pro• to Nevada that are not openly operatlona. · eatabllahed new · operation• In · much two-faced. They say physl• motar can use his public relatlona practiced elsewhere in the United

But an officer In the company', Reno, and 1ubaequently moved his clana 1hould be able to do any- skills against people and luuea aa State• can anawer the 1tate'1 need headquamn In Vancouver said re91dence to Utah. thing with the patient that the weU u to promota them. for economic diverslllcatlon. Ne-that while Wea&on'a lnauruce Different mana11ment now patient agreea to, yet they rail Weston'• promotional ability vada, he ■aya, "neod1 something to aganey had an exclualve contract controls hla ·formar Lu Vegas against conventional methode of helped attract some of the more countar,balance against gambling. to eeU North West product& In firms. Two are In bualneas, while treating cancer." than 16,000 patients The Nevada We can do thet with alternative California, he waa never on. tha Health Manegement is inective. Jarvis said the federation's pri• Clinic hae seen since it opened In medicine like gang bustara." compuy'■ payroll and North Royal. medical director of one mary goal la to legaliza medical 1980. Tomorrow: How the Nevada West never named him pmldent of Health Managament'• aubsld• quackery, Legislature may have been used or Its California operatlona. larles, The Nevade Clinic, aaid the Weston countera that Jarvis In a 1981 radio Interview with to create a market for a new

West.in acquired another title corporation waa mismanaged. and anti-fraud groups want only an editor ot National Health Fed· . form of medicine under the last year when he ~e preal• He . said Health Management to promote their own Interests. eratlon'a monthly newaletter, name of homeopathy.

'l

I Discord divides homeop·ath~ firms By Jerrianne Hayslett . . · . ice and manuracturera or homeop• Revle~ .· • ... • .. - . ·.. Rx or Nevada athy remedies and. electro-.• F\oydE. Weston arrived in.Ne• t--~'<-=========--.diagnostic equipment. ..... . vadi·aeven years ago ·'Yith,..wide-· ,,_ ________ .. Foley said the French hoaieo-ranging ideas for homeopathy. Al• pathic ·manufacturer, Dollaoa, was though his plans have not yet lured to Las Vegas on the premise fully materialized, he has not of cancer cures and rejuvenation:· that the electrodiagnoatic ma• abandoned them. Las Vegas lawyer Joseph M. chine, the Accupath 1000, was go•

•He· expects to see up to JOO Foley, former resident agent for Ing to revolutionize homeopathy. clinics throughout Nevada within Weston's Las Vegas companies, He said Weston's company,

' five years, and hopes to make 1he said Weston talked about develop• Health. Management Corp., was .state a mecca for people in search ing a nationwide network of clln• supposed to develop a market for

Doliaoi products 'in· the United States·· by promoting clinics na­tionwide that would use the Accu: path. '.'It (Health Management) didn't ,develop that market, so Doliaos bought out Health Man• agement's interest."

Foley said he saw a touch of genius in the way Weston plaMed to build a network of homeopathy businesses.

"I think Floyd Weston had a great idea here." he said. "It's too bad that whatever upset the plan did upset it."

F. Fuller Royal, a homeopath and owner of The Nevada Clinic, and other former Weston asso­ciates · say Health Management

was m~AR 2 lffl "For 40 percent or what we took

in, they were supposed to keep the books, pay the bills and manage the whole thing for us (the doc• tors), but they grossly misman­aged everything," Royal said. "Even though we were doing quite well, the money was going out faster than it was coming In."

Court documents in a suit filed against Health Management in 1983 listed the clinic's earnings at $90,000 a month. in.. •

A former clinic empl ~e who did not want to be identified, said clinic profits were used to develop a computerized electronic device.

Physician Leonard Haimes, Royal's partner for a time after they bought the clinic from Health Management about three years ago, said the clinic's income was about $1.7 million a year. He said he and Royal turned the bal· ance sheet from a monthly loss of several thousand dollars under Health Management to about a $10,000-a-month profit.

Royal said he and Haimes bought the clinic, for a su:n nei­ther physician would disclose, to rescue It from Health Manage­ment's rmancial difficulty.

The company's problems brought developer Joseph Blasco onto the b04nl of directors.

Blasco leased space in his Foot• hills shopping center to Health Management and contracted to remotlel it for The Nevada Clinic.

Please see COMPANY/38

Ms1tar Plan Aaaocl■IH, Inc., Insurance Agency Cllmlno, C&fl. • 1...,_.iad In California In 1967 Wllh Floyd Weston as presldonl and 0ovg1as c. Shepatd as aoent.

Health Management Corp. 197910,,,-• Umb<ella company Weston establahad wllh slbsldl­arles lor a hameopalhlo cllnlc, a remedy laboralory, and a maket and -or ol elec:ltodlagnottlc equi>ment. Weslon sar,ed as prolidanl untQ 1983. Board memben haw Included Calffomlans Wllllarn Housslan. Shepard, and long-limo la<Arila advocala Bouy Lee Morain: Laa Vegans F\lllar Royal, deYelopar Joseph Blasco, and ollomay Joseph M. Foley, Foley was roplacod In 1985 as rnldenl agent by Laa Vogu atlorney Bryan A. Lowt.

Health Ra■aarch lnatltuta 19791o 1983 • &mldialy lot~ pn,ductl and~ noalic oqq,menl 111111 Included Wnlon. Sltepanl, "°"I', and Moralos as boan:I m..-..

HRI-Doll101 America 19112 lo ptU«II

• Replaced Haalh Aetaan:11 lnslftuto. Dobos ol l'nllce and Haallh Management each held l50 per cant lnl-L Boatd member lncM!ed Weston, Royal. Foley, 811d T,-M.Cook.

The Nevada Clinic of Preventive Medicine August 19/U lo pr/1/18111 • Ortglnally a 111.tJsldiBly ol Heallh Managemeril, now owned by Royal and hll wllo, Mana Royal.

Homeopathy, Inc. July l9IU la Apd 1986 • w~!::'::1~=~~-=-~ as olllcors and lonnlll' llevada Gov. Robo,t Usl u resldlnl agent Tho """'e1a1y o1 11a1.-, o111ca l9YOlrad n, _.i1on ci,a,!e, In Aptll 1986 al!et Homoopalhy Inc., lallad lo pay annua11 ....

U.S. Homeopathic Asaoclallon JB/1, 30, 191/8 lo pre!/1/11 • OlliceB Include Woslon. Ills Insurance agency pa,!nar Shapard 811d Dulll1o, Tlte assocllllion was owned lot yean by Chicago businesswoman Clvisliae Dez.tel until she dJo. solved It and sold Waston rlghls lo Ille name and logo.

Consumer Expreu, Inc. I-•'"" in rJel>tw/1/tl, Oct. 11, 19IU

• Mulll•lavel mal1<allng """"""Y wbll heodqua,ttts In Louisiana. lllrough ""lch We•on pn,..,.ed Ille ota1 chelation P<Oduct, Maller Che, ho said Ra,o homeopalh Ylwen Y. Tang dOYelopad lor him. Ha sawr&d his..,... nedion with Consumer Express in 1986. Ha contlnun 10 matfcal Iha product uooer Ille name Utlra Che, made by a Catffomla oompany called Nutrition lor Lio, a mulll-lovol martcetlng oompany based In Anaheim.

Monday, March 2, 1987/Ly Vegas Revlew-Journal/38

:1 Monday, March 2, 1987/Las Vegas_Revlew-Journal/3B

Homeopathy enterprises of Dr. Fuller Royal and associates

Nevada Cllnlc visits

-::~

$250 to $600 (monthly earnings In . 1983: $90,000 .

~".! .,,;,;..-:-.~ ❖,• .:X;.... • ~•rmacy sales unknown .

Three-day seminars $350 to $375 (threo held In on the use of lnterro, recent months with a total of an updated electro- 75 enrollees: approx.: ~6,250) diagnostic device• _ iIU'il!tle.%1!!tt~;,~1§JQ0.0lt..'1.Ql~---•contJucted similar sem"!nar for.Es/on Corp., at San Diogo thlsJanusiy tar 75 pa,tlcipants. Eslon Is a Utah finn whldl manufactutn and •Bs lnrfHl'O.

Company------From 1B .

"The reason I got on the board of directors is because they didn't come up with all the money they owetl me," Blasco said.

To collect $38,000 he loaned Weston in June 1982, Blasco took Health Management to court. 'rhe judgment was satisfied 1 ¼ years later after writs of garnishment were ·served on The Nevada Clin­ic, HRI · Dolisos America and Hehlth Research Institute.

Weston's business dealings in Reno are more obscure. His Ho­

. meopathy Inc. and U.S. Homeo~ pathic Association are upstairs from the Century Clinic, owned

and operated by homeopaths Yiwen Tang and Katrina Tang.

Although Weston's name is not listed on the clinic's business fil. ings, a source familiar with the

· clinic's pperations said Weston frequently meets with the Tangs at the clinic and refers patients there when he is on promotional circuits around the country. . .

Also as late as mid-November, Weston said Yiwen Tang had for­mulated a homeopathic product for him and was going to teach homeopathy, acupuncture and electrodiagnosis at a new teaching center Weston said is opening in . Reno.

Gr6up tried to bar records release · As presiden~ of the U.S. the ·group in 1985~ .

Homeopathic Association, Floyd. ■ Homeog.,!tl¥.Promoter She said ·weston bought . Weston tried last ·summer to praffff'd71A, · · the rights to the association's . block release of public records name and logo, but not its · on applicants for homeopathy lation as the medical doctors." membership or ·assets. "We licenses. But the medical board did technically went out of busi-. · The association attempted . . not restrict disclosure of its re·- ness and liquidated all our as-'to prevent the Nevada Board of cords until a 1985 amend- ' sets, which we donated to Homeopathic Medical Exam- .· ment to its statute:. Neither (charitable organizations)." iners from complying with the Gibson nor the association's Weston filed Nevada incor- · Review-Journal's request for attorney, Kenneth Cory, ex- pornlion papers for the nssocin-public documents that license plained why the homeopathic tion in January 1986. Associ-seekers must submit with · board statute was not amended ation officers include his former their applications, which the at the same time. ' California insurance agency board uses to evaluate the · Gibson and the homeo- . partner, Douglas C. Shepherd, person's qualifications. pathic board knew abo,ut _the· former California optometrist . Although board members medical board amendements Alex Duarte, and former Nevada •

discussed ways they·could keep because Gibson asked medical Gov,' Robert.List· as resident ·the information confidential, board secretary Robert Clift . ~gent. · ·MA. ·R .-2 ·. \_ffl ... ·tn. • they voted unanimously to let. to obtain homeopathic board · ·· 1•~

··the newspaper· s~e the docu~. · . president F. Fuller Royal's WeSton opened his U.S.· . ments. after repeated warnings approval of the proposed Homeopathic Association office from the· state attorney .gen- a~endments before they were in. April upSta'irs from I:teno eral's 'office .that they could not . submitted to the Legislature. , homeopath Yiwen ,Tang's -Cen-·· legally deny access.··· · But·they·did not take the tury Clinic.. · · ·, · ·· ' }n resporis~ to th.e vote, opportunity to· change the ho- Homeopathy expert and the U.S. Homeopathic Associa- meopathy law. · historian Harris Coulter calls· tion tried urisui::c,essfully in .The bor.rd_ is now asking . '.the U.S .. Homeopathic Asso- ·. · state and federal· court to bar · the 1987 Legislature to make ciation an "insignificant" orga~ the boa~d from releasing the supporting documentation on nization. documents. · applications confidential. The

Sen James I. Gibson, D~ · only information that would Coulter, author of several Henderson, who sponsored the •'· be releaseq. would be an appli- _books on homeopathy, provides 1983 legislation creating the cant's name, business address, advice and backgr9und to homeopathic. board, supported medical school attended and · congressional homeopathic· lob-restricting access to the re- date of graduation, apd_ when byiSta! cords. . ·. a license was granted or denied. He said.mo~t homeopathic

· : Gibson filed an affidavit in The history of the U.S. physicians consider the National U.S. District Court, saying it · Homeopathic Association is rel- . Center for Homeopathy· in .

' was· his ~ntent "and, so far as · atively short. · Wa h' gt D C d th · I s m on, . ., an e n-1 am aware; the intention of the The organization was ternational Federation of Ho-

. Nevada Legislature in passing founded in 1981 by Christine • meopathy in Ber~eley, Calif., .

. Chapter 630A, to provide that DeZutel, a Chicago· construe- "the only legitimate organiza- ·.. _

. licensed homeopathic physi- tiori company executive, to tions. '·The others are' really.· · · cj!lns· enjoy the same rights and "promote and promulgate ho- , pretty niuch fly-by-night." ,.

'·ti ""'.JJ __ ·e""."'·. ~--ub:-d--ec_t-: .. ~7.o_t~h1e_s_a_m_e.;..r_e_gu_-~· :-·-· -:-m_e_op-:-a __ t_hY-:-•-''.--D_e_z_u_te..,.l_d_is_s_o_lv~ed_~--::---.,~--·-J_e_rr_la..;.n.:.~..:.!_H.;..a~y-s;_· le;.:.·~ t_t ,._,;: '111_ .. " Jt ' , .

'f"\ .-.i~•;., ·, \~... ·, :· :': ~:. :!.'• l .-,•~

DAAf 3'

.. Homeopathy bill m~t little resistaric·e. Editor's note: In the third part of

an eight-part series on homeopa­thy, today's story details how the Nevada Legislature may have been used to create a market for a new form of medicine.

By Jerrianne Hayslett Review-Journal ·

Nevada, a pioneer in legalizing such controversial medical thera­pies as acupuncture, laetrile and Gerovital, has been a beacon to · doctors punished in other states for· using alternative medical methods.

· The beacon brightened in 1983 when Gov. Richard Bryan signed a bill creating a state . licensing board for homeopaths. ·

The bill passed with little oppo­sition, although conventional physicians worried that it would cement Nevada's reputation as a

■ History of board marked by turbufence/1 B

haven for charlatans, quacks and incompetent doctors. ·

rJ. Treat Cafferata, president of th"e Washoe County Medical Soci­. ety when the bill was introduced, thinks the lawmakers fell for a dazzling display at legislative hearings. . "The dog-and-pony show for. the homeopathy legislation was really something," he said. "They had all kinds of anecdotal tales of marvelous ways people had been miraculously cured of all kinds Qf diseases." ·

One witness was an Arizona ho­··meopath ·who had lost his medical license in that state. Also testify­ing were the president of a Las

Vegas homeopathic remedy man­ufacturer and a homeopathic product promoter, both with vest­ed interests in passage of the bill.

Part of supporters' pitch was a play on the state's need for eco-nomic diversification. ·

But Nevada legislators may have unknowingly ~en used to pass a law that would create de­mand for electronic devices devel­oped and marketed by the chief promoter of• hl9meopathy in the state, and for training courses sold by the inan who became the first president of the board. The board president, r~ Fuller Reyal, also held an interest in a company de­veloping the electronic devices.

Although the bill established. a sta~ Board of Homeop~thic Med­ical ··Examiners,. th~ practice· de-Please see H(!MEOPATHY/4A

--~-.,...---,.----------------------...--,-..,.~-~-~--------· -. ~. ...~ . ~--

· • . Review-Journal SUPPORT - Sen. James I. Gibson, D-Henderson, spoke in the ·

.· Senate chambers in 1983 to support his bill creating the Nevada State Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners .

.. :,·- . .,

4AIL•• Vega, Revlew-JournalfTuasday, March 3, 1987 b

Homeopathy----------.-•. From.1A · fined In lhe law leglalat.on paased 11 no\ homeopathy in ·medically accepted 111'1111.

ffomeopa&l\y la a 190-year-old pracUce·ln which physicians give

, I their patients highly diluted IOlu• , I.Iona or ■ubatan- that produce

1yn1ptoma of the dilord■r. The ra111edl11 are ■uppo■ed to ■trengthen the-Immune ■yalem'a re■ponae to the ailment.

Royal, who lobbied lor paa■ap or bomaopat.hy legl■lat.lon In 1981 and 1983, concede& th■\ the Leg• lalatura actually legalized a whole new form of medicine he calla blo­enerpt.lCI that incorporalel ho­meopathy, acupuncture and UH of thi electronic devlcel.

He and ot.har proponenta of the lep■lallon 1111d a. more familiar tarm becaUH they reared tho lea·

. lalalOrl would not. be able to pup a 111W concop&. . ' Stata Son. Randolph Town•

11nd, who voled lor lhe homoopa• &l\y legi■latlon, · aald he did not kMw that any or the wltneues wan Involved In bu■lnuaa■ that could benaftl directly from pU• up or the bUL And, he aald, wit­_._ cradanllall were eccepled at race value.

Arizona homeopath Stanley R. Olalyn wu l:llroduced a\ a hear­Ing u a director of a propoud Arl10na Medical Homeopathic College. But Harvey. Bigelaen, pra■ld■n\ or the ArllOna Bnard or Homeopathic Medical Ewnlnara a\ the time, uld then waa no propoul for IIIICh a coU11e and any atlelllpt to 11tabllah It "II an llleglllmate one."· . .

Olalyn ailO. ta■tlned that be WU 8 medical doctor and 1111d "MJ)," with hi■ name. But Olu· tyn bad eurnadered his ArllODI medical llcen■e the pm,loua ~ artar an lnve■tlptlon on cbarpe of mlsdlagao■lns and Improperly treating patient&. · The promoter, Floyd B. -Wu• &on, who bad formed a number or

~ homeopathy-related co111panle1, ,. Identified blmaelf u a board :~ lllllll!Jer·ol ~;National Health .

\by hu enjoyed a re■urgance In difficult for them to ba treated recent yeara, fairly by board■ made up oC main•

Weal.on Introduced a modern•, alream practlllonan. day version or tho practice to Ne• Wat.on'• nnawed ■rl'orl In 1983 vada In 1979 by lormln1 bomoop. led to cn■t.lon or a Nplflta board. a thy product companl11 and Olb■on, often chuactarlzed aa on■ rundlnc • clinic, ol the mo■t powarlul people In \be

At the ume time ha cultivated . Legi■la\ure, ■pon■ored the bill r,.oli\lclan■ and o\bar, Influent.._. alo111 wl\b Sena. Poley, Floyd people, and probed the poe■lbllit.y Lamb and WWlam Hem■tadt. of ga\tln1 ho-pathlo rap,-n. Within two :r■ar■ altar the tatlon on \be ■tata Board ol Medi· board bapn lta work, howawr, a cal Examlnan. woman died altar underaoln1

He hired Laa Vegaa a\tornq braut enlarpm■nt aurpry per­JOHph M, Foley to draw up cor- formed by former California chi• porate papen for hla companle■, ropractor Leo Newt.on MuwaU. and talked \o homeopathy adher- who had baen clv■n a Nevada ho· eat atate Sen, Jamea L Olbaon, D, rneopatblo licenH three mon\b■ Henclenon, about ■pon■orln1 a earlier. • blU to add homeopath■ to the The homeopathy boanl ,evoked ■tale medical board. _ Muwell'a llcanu and the lice-

Foley In tum arranged Cor Laa Vegaa advartlllng e:aequtlv■ SS, Roglcb to orpnlD a lectwe on

.._.,_ o •-•· r 1o I bomeopa\by to whlcb prominent r .... ration, me ..... 0 a nat na naldenta were Invited, lncludln1 orpnlutlon aplnal health freud Foley'■ daughter, Halen A. Foley, a,.y the federation bu no ■tandlnc 8 a\ate aen■lor al I.ha &Ima.

of three or hla u■ocl■ta■ lor lDlal• lyin1 their cndentlala. Muwell pleaded pallt.y to man■lauptar In the drug OYlrdo■e daatb of the woman and wu slvtn u II-year prlaon aenie- Two ol tb■ otb• en 0ed the ■tate befole faclnc pro■eoutlon and cbuae■ qala■t the ot.har were droppecl for coop. eratlng In the lnvt■ tlpllon.•

In malnalrtam medicine. · Helen Foley, who CHJICllllllrad Aa■emblyman Marvin Sedway, · . the 1983 bill, aald ■be wu Im•

D-Laa Vegu, uld be bad ■arlou■ prar.-d wl\b what ■be heard "ba­reaervallon■ about \he homeo• cauu or \ha pnventlve upecta ot pa\blc bW even \hough he voted homeopathy u oppo■ad to tha CU• for I&. ratlve upecta ol co11ve11tlonal

Tho■e lnclduta, bowevtr, did little to dim legialatlve aupport for the board.

"I bad queatlon■ about I.hair medicine," Glbaon called the eplaade "u

unfortunate 11perlance that hu been IO-hat or • ■at.back" far homeopathy Iii the ■tale.

(homeopath■') capabilltlu, \heir \raining and their type or prac• tlce," aald Sedway, a practicing optome\rla&. But, be added, u long aa \hey a\ay within the con• fin11 or their practice, "I think their ,patlenta are entitled to that ■ervlce."

Blue Shield or Nevada and the Nevada Medical A11oclatlon voiced \ha only appo■ltlon to the bUL .

Several ■tatea bad aeparate ho­meopathy bnarda baron the turn of the century when nearly 15 per• cent of all doclOrl In the United State■ were homeopath■, The practice declined In POPUiarity with the advent or acien\irJCBlly· bued medicine. But, rldln1 on the coattaU■ or the holistic . health 1DOY11111nl In \be 1970a, homeopa•

Sb■ aald w· knew her lather bad an atlamay-cllent relation• ablp with a bomeopa\blc•relaled company, but \he tla bad no bear­Ing on bar eupporl of the 1983 bllL-

Aaaemblyman Sedwa, uld he doean't thlnJc the four wllo■a II• cen■a1 wara nvoked rapraenled the majorlt.y of bo,aeopathlc prac~ tltlonan. "They were unique,• be ■aid. "Thay bad Pfflll»' crea.nt1a1■ and wan not true homeopa\b■."

Sedway, who doe■ not IIICliur­Uy ■ubacrlbe to the tenet■ or ho­meopathy ■aid, "Somttlma th■

But committee mamben araled ■tale, In Ill lnftnlta wisdom, hu at their uae1ee■na■a. to ■\and back and allow people to

Glbeon'■ 1981 blU that would have added homeopath■ to the atate medical boanl raaulled In the formation of • \brae-member advlaory coaimlttee to the ealat­ln1 medical board.

"We bad no notlncatlon or I.ha make \heir own daolalo111 - al· (medical board) mntlnp, and though that doean't mean we can were never conaulled about any allow murder.• laaue■," aald Royal, a co-lUet TOMORROW: The homeo• member. pdthlc ·practltlonera, who tlley

Weal.on &aid conY111tlonal pby- lf8 and the llcenalng and legal alclana are l'nqu111tly antagonla,1c1 problema aome have had In olh­toward homeopa\b■, making It .er 1ta\81.

·_History of homeopathy board marked by turbulence, change Bv jerrlanne Hayslett licensed who holds a valid medi-Review.Journal Rx for Nevada cal or osteopathic license any-. Turbulence and change has be- where in the world and has com-

set the state board that regulates TRICK OR TREATMENT pleted specified· homeopathic the medical practice of homeopa- post-graduate training. thy during the nearly four years meopaths. Shettles resigned without be-since the Nevada Legislature ere- But the other P,hysician, Las coming licensed himself. ated it in 1983. Vegas gynecologist Landrum B. "I could h1tve paid the re·e, but I

The law establishing the board Shettles, had never been a ho- thought, 'Well, I won't do this' had been violated even before the meopatlr. because I didn't agree with the licensing body gathered for its Louis Test, a former Reno city sequence of what they were do~ first meeting. Within a year, two attorney now in private practice, ing," he said. · · members resigned, largely in dis• was the lay member.. Although eye problems and po­agreement over licensing proce- Within a year of their appoint• tential surgery contributed to dures, and the next year a board ments, however, Shettles, 77, and Young's decision to resign, he membership requirement was re- Young, 71, resigned. Both men said he joined the board believing !axed. believed licensed homeopaths that a Nevada medical license

Initially, the Board of Homeo• should first hold state medical Ii- was a requirement for homeo-pathic Medical Examiners had to censes. pathic licensure. · include four members who held "I just sensed they were going "I was very much disappointed .either medical or osteopathic Ii- to push people through," said to find out that was not the case,• censes in Nevada and who had Shettles, who became inte:ested he said. p~acUced homeopathy in the in homeopathy in the early 1980s Young, trained in classical ho­state for more than two years. after testing remedies. "IC some- meopathy at an accredited ho­Tli_e remaining member was to be one from another state applied meopathic medical school in a lay person. for a Nevada license, I thought Pennsylvania, had also assisted

Three of the first board mem• they should have a regular Neva- his grandfather in his homeo­bers - F. Fuller Royal, W. Doug- da medical license first, then go pathic practice. las Brodie and David G. Young· for the homeopathic license." Las Vegas 1-!omeopaths Robert Jr. met requirements as ho- The law allows anyone to be Please see BOARD/6B · --------~,-. ___ .:.,_ ____ ..,.._-_ ..... _-._--..------.....;.-

Rene Germanler/Ravlew.Journal TELEPHONE MEETING - Las Vegas homeo- of Homeop.athic Medical Examiners, discuss paths Willem Khoe, F. Fuller Royal and Robert aspects of proposed legislation In a telephone Milne, left to right, members of the stata Board. conference. call with· board m,embersJn R'!_no.

,,

68/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Tuesday, March 3, 1987

Board \ From 1 B .,. ed two more non-medical positions \ Milne arid Willem Khoe replaced to the board. " · .. Shattles and Young. Reno homeo• Gov. Richard Bryan, -who ap-

. '·path Yiwen Y. Tang, 64, replaced pointed the replacement board Brodie, 61, who was not reappoint- members, also named · insurance ed. Tang became board president agent Frank Guisti of Reno and last year. - Audrey Gibson of ;Henderson to

. Board· secretary-treasurer Test, the board. : 36, and Royal are the only original Gibson, 60, is the wife of home-'. board members. apathy legislation sponsor Sen. . Test said that when he was ap• James I. Gibson, D-Henderson, · pointed to the board, "The fint who said he was surprised at his \ thing I had to do was to look up the wife's appointment. . . · .

definition." · "I didn't even know she wanted He remained skeptical about ho• to be on the board," he said. "That

meopathy for nearly three years was her doing. She called the gov­but gives it more credibility since emor." · · he was treated by Khoe· last year Audrey Gibson said that al• for stomach flu. . though she is pleased with.~, h~-

He said he was concerned about meopathic care she and her family applicants who have had problems have received, she reviews appli• with medical boards in other cants for lice~ure with a queition-statea. . . . ing mind. : "You'll notice that my voting re- · Despite problems and criticisms cord is less favorable for those who that should have unified the board, · have had disciplinary actions in rifts surface at some meetings. other jurisdictions, but the major- In January, board president ity rules," he said. · Tang said a homeopathy traininr

He does not accept arguments p.rogram he offen satisfies the from the board's homeopath mem- post-graduate work license require­bers who say those people should ment and _is superior to a corre­not be held responsible for using spondence course Royal and a uni­illegal treatments in other states varsity instructor friend developed. that are allowed in Nevada. · "Dr. Tang announced to the

"I believe they (physicians) have board the Drs. (David) Edwards · a moral obligation to abide by the and (Philip) Davia had studied un- -law and those who have gone ahead der him, although they did not with a practice even though they have anything in ~eir folders (do­knew it was illegal ••• should have cumenting) that training," Royal · gone to a jurisdiction where it la said. . . legal," he said. . He said the original board ap- ,

Test said the board tries to proved his course after asking htm check applicants' backgrounds, but to develop it. . . admits that some, like four whose ,.Then Dr. Tang comes along

. licenses were revoked, slipped and says what· he's teaching la · through. · three. times more valuable and in•

The board has tried to avoid sinuatea that I had a conflict of more slippage .by requesting proof interest and that I have made mon•

: of education, training and licensing ey off that course," he said. . "But • credentials directly froin institu- believe me, I've never gotten rich · tions, agencies and medical l'acili• off that course." . . ties instead of having appHcanta . Board records show that at least

· ~ agencies to send document&- 18 people 12 of whom have re-. t1on to the board. ' · · ·

The 1985 Legislature dropped ceived licenses, have taken Royal'a th . .. ... L_., th board' course for $345. e requiremen., wm.. e s homeopath memben hold Nevada Royal said Tang has not submit­medical or osteopathic licenses, al· ted a course outline, subject matter lowinr them to hold medical. or or· textbooks for board approval. osteopathic licenses in any state or "No one has any idea what he's country. The Legislature also add- teaching them," he said.

Background of bomeopatbs ·diverse . . . .. \. ' L--- "· JIAJ'J. - \P. MAR ~- \SITT

. Edit~r s note: In _the fourth part f'-0 r~ Many conventional h sicians of an eight-part series on homeop- Rx for Nevada believe the practice : ~ess a thy' today :l. stories look at some TRICK OR TREATMENT but antiquated It is in fact, con-of the practitioners. r-----=.;..;...- · · ' s1dered to be the antecedent of By Jerrianne Hayslett modem orthodox medicine. Review-Journal meopathy." Milne is one of only 10 homeo-·

Five years ago Robert D. Milne The book, he said, set him on paths in the state who also hold faced frustration on two fronts. the road to a medical discipline Nevada medical licenses. But,

At work, the doctor could only he had not heard of in 15 years of like Milne, most of the 32 people offer drugs to suppress symptoms medical education and practice. with active Nevada homeopathic of patients with chronic condi- With it he cured his daughter's licenses have had no legal or dis­tions but could not cure them. At colic, discovered what he calls ciplinary problems related to home, he lost sleep nightly over pre-disease conditions in his wife their practices. · . his infant daughter's colic-in- and healed many of his patients. Conventional physicians, how-duced crying. On June 16, 198•1, Milne be- ever, are critical of those who

"l t-ried every medicine known, came the 10th person to receive a have experienced problems and of but nothing helped," Milne said Nevada license to practice home- what they call lax homeopathy of the child's distress. "I was real- . opathy. licensing procedures. ly disappointed. I thought, if I Homeopathy is a nearly •190- Some critics, such as former can't treat my own daughter for year-old practice based on the Clark County Medical Society colic, how was I going to treat• theory that certain diseases can president Angela Clarke, say the other people with more serious be cured with minute doses of state has created a haven for diseases?" ~ubstnnces, which if administered practitioners who had trouble in

Milne found his answer on the to II healthy person in large doses other states. top shelf of a bookstore in a vol- would produce symptoms of the Until last montb;only two peo-ume called "'I'he Science of Ho- dii:ease. Please see DOCTORS/11 A

. . Review-Journal • Dl~GNOSING - Ho!lleopath Robert Milne probes acupuncture

points of a patient's toes with an electronic diagnostic device to determine the cause of the patient's disorder.

From 1A ' pie granted homeopathic licenses had been longtime Nevada resi­dents before they applied for licen­sure. • · Of the 32 now licensed, 19 live and practice in Nevada. Three of them received licenses in January . .... Some out-of-slate homeopaths, such as Frank W. Coutcher, of Tampa, Fla., say they applied for Nevada homeopathic licenses be­.~ause they may move here. . Although Coutcher was licensed :in 1985, his claim of having a valid Mexican medical license appears questionable. Nevada statute says that to be licensed as a homeopath by the state, a practitioner must hold a medical or osteopathic li­cense· in some state or country.

Manuel QuiJano-Narezo, coord1~ nator general of the Commission of International Affairs for the Mexi• can Secretariat of Health, said Coutcher is registered in Mexico as a homeopathic doctor, surgeon and obstetrician, but "he was denied the certificate to practice in this country." Coutcher holds no other medical license . . : Quijano-Narezo said Coutcher completed medical school and re­ceived a degree in Mexico, but iieeds to clear up his immigration status before he can practice medi­cine in that countzy. .. Coutcher said in a recent tele• phone interview that he has the right to practice because he passed Mexico's professional examination in I 982 after graduating, and has verifying documents from the .American Embassy in Mexico on ;file with the Hillsborough (Fla.) -County Court Clerk. ~- He said he has not met Mexican 1rnmigration requirements hut ar­·gued his license is valid. :. "You ha\·e to have your immi­gration status in order to exercise Jhe right of licensure," he said." ·-"But f have my license in hand." ::· A copy of the Mexican license · 'Coutcher sent to the Review.Jour­nal is dated Aug. 21, 1986, which is 11 year after the Nevada homeo­pathic board gave him a license and three months before Quijano­N arezo's Jetter saying Coutcher was not certified to practice in Mexico. ·'. Nevada homeopathic board sec­re,tazy Louis Test, when questioned last month, expressed concern over. the disparity in dates. ' :: Test and F. Fuller Royal, a board member and past president, said. they had misgivings about Coutcher's Mexican license when lie applied' for a homeopathy li­cense, "but we checked and dou­bled checked," Royal said. "We even asked the attorney general's office to help us and it all came back clear." ;Test said other board members·: contended that Mexican medical ~ool ~duates are automatically

BOARD PRESIDENT • Reno homeopath Yiwen Y. Tang, president of the Nevada Board of Homeopathic Medical

licensed upon passing that coun­try's professional examination.

But an organization that tests foreign medical graduates who want to practice in ihe United Statf:s said non-Mexican nationals must meet Mexican immigration and labor requirements to practice medicine in that country.

An official of the organization, the Educational Commission for· Foreign Medical Graduates, said that based on Quijano-Narezo's ex­

. planation of Coutcher's status, the commission would not consider Coutcher licensed in Mexico.

The official, Ray Casterline, also said Coutcher had not passed the commission's examination despite taking it four thnes.

Passing the examination became a Nevada homeopathic licensing requirement for foreign medical graduates in November 1984, after Coutcher applied for a license but

, before his license was granted.

Bolstering conventional physi­cians' concerns are legal problems five homeopaths have had related to their Nevada practices or . li­censes.

Four of those - Leo Herm1m Newton Maxwell. Frank L. Watts Davison, John Leon Minasian and Sophia Alexandros Stamatopoulos de Garcia - lost their homeopath­ic licenses after they were charged with a variety of criminal offenses.

Robert B. Vance, initially grant­ed a temporary license, was charged with prescribing drugs without proper certification and misrepresenting himself as licensed to practice osteopathy in Nevada.

Royal, first Nevada homeopathy board president, said the violations resulted from technicalities. Vance has since received a permanent ho­meopathic license and practices in Las Vegas.

Vance is one of at least 10 ho­meopaths with active Nevada Ii-

, Ed Vogel/Review-Journal Examiners, lis!ens during a recent board telephone conference call meeting.

censes who encountered problems with medical boards in other states. At least five lost medical or osteopathic licenses in other states.

Six had problems with medical boards for u.<1ing the contro\·ersial cancer treatme11t Laetrile, a deriv­ative of apricot pirs that contains cyanide. Laetrile is not allowed as a cancer treatment in some st.ates, but is legal in Nevada.

Homeopathic board president Yiwen Y. Tang's California medi­cal license was placed on inactive status in 1982 after a California medical board investigated his use of Laetrile as a cancer therapy and charges of negligence and incompe­tence in diagnosing and treating a patient allegedly burned during treatment.

Hearing records say Tang re­lerred the patient, ~1orton Levy, to a podiatrist after incorrectly diag• nosing the bum as dermatitis. Tang said he was treating Levy's

poor circulation with an electro­stimulation device that could not possibly have burned him. Levy, however, received $125,000 in an out-of-court settlement.

That was one of ·at least four lawsuits that have been filed against Tang.

Another was filed by the hus­band of a patient who died of breast cancer in 1976 after more than a year of "unorthodox" treat­ment by Tang, according to court records. The records state that Ru­bina Thulin saw Tang soon after discovering a lump in her breast. The records say Tang prescribed a non-toxic diet, vitamins, enzymes, Laetrile and chelation and referred her to a psychic.

Thulin's attorney, William B. Smith of San Francisco, said even though Tang was a trained sur­geon, he ignored signs of advancing breast cancer and discouraged rec­ognized methods of treatment.

Tang said Thulin came to him for nutritional advice.

"l don't treat cancer patients,'' he said in an interview. "I know that they are always trouble."

Tang said Thulin brought Lae• trile to his office and begged him to give it to her. He said other physi­cians had diagnosed her with can­cer but she refused to have surgery or chemotherapy.

Also, in violation of state law, several who do not have Nevada medical licenses advertise them­selves as M.D.s, without specifying that they are licensed in Nevada to practice only homeopathy.

Deputy Attorney General Jac­queline Fitzpatrick says homeo-' paths without Nevada medical or osteopathy licenses "may refer to themselves by their medical de­grees (M.D. or D.O.) only when accompanied by the express words 'practitioner of homeopathic. medi• · cine."1

Nevada's homeopaths say their problems are rooted in professional jealousies, arrogance and politics in the conventional medical commu• nity. They claim to be on the cut­ting edge of the future of medicine, and offer non-toxic treatment with emphasis on preventive practices.

Royal calls the treatment medi­cal boards mete out to homeopa­thy-practicing physicians "out• right persecution."

"What is happening to these doctors is wrong,'' he said. "Wrong. And it's happening to doctors all across the country."

Many applicants for Nevada ho• meopathy licenses said they learned about the licensing from each other and provided each other with letters of recommendation to satisfy a licensing requirement.

For instance, Paciana Acosta, of Texas, said he heard about it from Coutcher of Florida. The two men met at a Mexico City medical school, Escuela Libre de Homeopa• tia, where they both studied. Both men Mid Nevada homeopathy Ji. censes.

Abram Ber, who lost his Arizona medical licen11e after an investiga• tion of charges that he performed inadequate examinations and mis• diagnosed patients, recommended· Minasian, one of the four who lost· their Nevada homeopathy licenses. for falsifying his application. ·

Ber called Minasian one of the· finest physicians he had ever met. "His personal moral standards and: his humanitarian outlook are a beacon to all homeopath&,'' _Ber said in his May 17, 1984, letter." ... I consider •John ·-my m~nd. -and teacher and I am grateful to the Father in Heaven that I have been privileged to meet such an enlight­ened soul."

Tomorrow: A look at four peo• pie who falsified their homeopa• thy applications to hide their lack

_ of credentials.

· Ne·vada h·omeo·pat~s practi.cing:

;-with questionabl~ credential.s ::.In addition to Frank Coutcher and -Xiwen Tang, other homeopaths licensed by Nevada either had problems with medi­cal boards in other states or made ques­tionable statements on their license appli­catfons: .. .'■ Abram Ber's Arizona medical license

was canceled in 1982 after an investigation of charges that he performed inadequate examinations and misdiagnosed patients. He was licensed in Arizona ·as a homeo­path, but the loss of the medical license left him with no active medical or osteo­pathic license in any state or country when he applied for a Nevada homeopathic li­cense in 1984.

:F. Fuller Royal, Nevada board president at the time, explained that the Nevada attomey general said Ber, who practices in Amons, could be exempted from the med­ical license requirement because he got his Amona homeopathic license before his medical license was canceled. ■ Brian Briggs, of Minot, N.D., lost a

Minnesota medical license in 1982 for us­ing controversial and illegal therapies. Illi­nois, Virginia and California canceled Briggs' licenses in .those states based on .the Minnesota action. North Dakota's medical board gave him five years' proba­tion in 1984, prohibiting him from using unorthodox practices.

Minnesota medical board hearing re­cords say Briggs' medical history-taking procedure included discussing the patient's religious beliefs, and treating patients by annointing them with oil and praying to· "cast out demon.. if he believed one wais

present." Briggs said in a June 1983 letter to the

Minot (N.D.) Daily News that if he be­lieved the need for prayer, diet or a drug was appropriate, it would be part of the therapy. ■ W. Douglas Brodie's California medi­

cal license was suspended in 1978 and he was given 18-month probation on charges he overprescribed narcotics. Brodie suc­cessfully appealed the medical board's rul­ing in California Superior Court and cleared his licell&l'.

Brodie, of Reno, was named in a wrong• ful death lawsuit in which pathologists said a woman he treated in Califomia with Laetrile in 1979 died of cyanide poisoning - a charge Brodie disputes.

He wu convicted of tax evasion iu 1977 and in 1986. He is appealing the 1986 conviction, for which he was fined and sentenced_ to. one year in prison and five

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-BOGUS LICENSE - This is a certificate presented to the Nevada Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners. by Katrina Tang, wife of the current board president, testifying that she was licensed in Alabama to practice naturopathy, an herbal form of medicine. Alabama does not license naturopaths.·

ttAR 4 1987' years' probation. tion from Cabfornia physicians talked ■ Daniel P. George told the homeopath- about referring patients to him. having

ic board trust be held a medical license in patients in common and his depth of care lclori,ui. But Florida"s Department of Pro• for his patients. •, · fessional Regulations 11aid it has no record California officials say George was not of George being licensed in any profession licensed by any medical professional board in that state, now or in the past, and that there. ln an int.erview, he said he just Florida has no state homeopathic board. "helped" other doctors with their prac•

George, who moved to Las Vegas last tices. · year, said in an interview that he earned a · An official of thoi California medical 10-year license in 1983 by taking an ex- board said that generally if physicians re­amination, paying $250, and being inter• fer patients to someone who is unlicensed viewed by the state homeopathic uaocia- and the referral is for diagnosis and treat­tion board at its headquarters in Palatka, ment "then they are being referred for the Fla. He said the association pre.iident was purpose of practicing medicine," in which a :nan named Baker. case George would have been practicing

Diana Hull, direct.or of information for medicine without a license. the Florida DeJ)artrnent of Professions, In Nevada, G.:orge holds only a homeo• Mid Tracy Raker, pr1eside.nt of a group pathic licenl!B. Hut, in violation of state called ,.be Florida Ho1uoop11thic AIISOl.:ia-law, he lists himself in 11dvert.ist:ments and tim,. was gi,·en a five-year prison sentf:nce in a "New Dime11sio11s of Las Vegas" mag• in 198.5 for practicing medicine 11o·ithout a azine article u an "M.D." without specify: license. ing that he is licensed only to practice

George ,;aid on his application that his homeopathy. 20-year 1>ractice included nine years in B Reno homeopath Michael Gerber's

· California. Also, letters of recornmenda- California medical license was ·revoked in

· 1984 for prescribing toxic doses of vita- Khoe's California medical license is val-mins and using unorthodox herbal treat- id, although the medical board there ment on a cancer patient, which left him charged him in May 1981 with "gross neg­with no active medical license. ligence and incompetence regarding use of

The Nevada board licensed him anyway, homeopathy, electro-acupuncture, vitamin two weeks after former Gov. Robert List therapy and diet" based on complaints of said he would seek "a judicial remedy," if three patients. The charges were dismissed Gerber's certification were delayed. in 1984, after an invest.igation and hearing.

The Nevada board's action was based on "A patient complained," Khoe said. Gerber's appeal of the California revoca- "When patients complain, the board in­tion, but the California attorney general's vestigates. There was nothing to it, so they office said last week that the appeal "died" threw it out." because Gerber did not press it and that ■ John Anton Richardson's California his . license will remain revoked unless medical license was revoked in 1976 for Gerber activates the appeal. Meanwhile, gross negligence, using Laetrile to treat ' officials in Kansas, the only other jurisdic- cancer and drug violations. : tion in which Gerber is licensed, said his He relocated his practice in Mexico, : license there was placed on inactive status where he said he was licensed. In 1984, he : pending the outcome of his supposed ap- moved to Reno after a lengthy fight with .: peal in California. federal and California officials over the : · ■ Ji-Zhou "Joseph" Kang in 1982 com- · illegal use and interstate transport of Lae- ,

plied for three months with Texas law trile. Convicted in a 1977 criminal trial : requiring ar.upuncturists without Texas that attract~d nationwide attention, Rich- ; medical licenses to be supervised by a • ard$on was fined $20,000 and placed on a ; licensed physician. He then started ork- three-year probation. . ; ing on his own. J b,tYl"""-A.t.1'1'tlO-U-."' Richardson said nine patients, four of :

Kang said physic18118 in is native i- whom died, listed in medical board disci- : . na can practice medicine after passing an plinary hearings were "conjured up by the ; examination and do not have licenses. licensing board." At least four malpractice ! Kang, who passed the examination, holds suits filed against him in California were : no other medical license. settled out of court. \ \ ,A , '.

Kang, now practicing in Las Vegas, said He also was sued by ble state ofCalifor- : the Texas attorney general ruled the re- nia on an assortment of charges, including • quirement unconstitutional, so acupunc- letting office workers practice medicine ; turists could practice without supervision. without being licensed. : But Texas Deputy Attorney General Colin Richardson suffered a stroke last year ; Carl, who wrote the opinion, said the law and is currently comatose. :: was not invalidated, only cleared of a tech- ■ F. Fuller Royal's Oregon medical Ji. ,: nical flaw. Also, the opinion was written in cense was placed on inactive status in 1980 z 1984, two years after Kang stopped work- after the Oregon medical board dismissed i· ing under a physician's supervision. charges of incompetency. . .:

In Nevada, Kang advertises himself as He practiced in Eugene, Ore., for 16 : an "M.D.," although he holds no Nevada years after serving three years as a U.S. ; medical license. Air Force flight surgeon. .: ■ Willem H. Khoe listed homeopathic Royal, now medical director of The Ne- :

licenses in Florida and California on his vada Clinic in Las Vegas, says the Oregon ~ Nevada homeopathic license application, investigation of his competency in 1979 : although those states have no homeopath- was prompted by his practice of homeopa- : ii: licensing boards. He said in an interview thy · and electrodiagnosis. The medical ; that he had certificates of membership board sealed the record because it took no ~ from homeopathic associations in those action after the investigation and Royal ~ states. said he was not informed of the actual :,

During a 26-yea~ practice 'in the Los complaint. f Angroles area, Khoe specialized in 11bdomi- ■ Katrina C. Tang, Yiwen Tang's wife, ·, nal surgery, served on the California Board told the Nevada homeopathic board she :· of Medical Quality Assurance and as chief was licensed in 1983 by the Alabama ;• of staff at Serra Memorial Hospital. He Board of Naturopathic Medical Examin- ~ · joined Royal's clinic in Las Vegas in 1980 ers. .. and moved to a separate clinic on South Alabama officials, however, say that · Jones Boulevard in 1981. Please see PROBLEMS/12A :

Problems---------From ·11A . . state has never had a naturopathic board of medical examiners.

. . Tang said she got the license after she took a course from a ho­meopathic institute in Florida. She

, said the Alabama board had "a re­\ationship" with a school called the Hahnemann Memorial Institute of Health Sciences she said she at­tended to leam ho;meopathic medi­cine. "They gave me a certificate. I couldn't very well turn it ·down, could I?"

. Tang said in an interview that she did not practice medicine after receiving her medical license in Taiwan in 1968, and had no plans to practice homeopathy because

"She doesn't "want the responsibil­ity."

However, patients of the clinic the Tangs own say she does prac­tice there. And, although she does not have a Nevada medical license, her name, follow.?d by "M.D.," ap­peared on billings along with the names of her husband and Frank W.~tts Davison as the clinic's three physicianl(._She also was listed on a· form sent to at least one prospec­tive patient as the doctor he would see at the clinic.

Tang said she applied for a Ne­vada homeopathic license when sh~ realized she met the qualifies-

.. o,•-•-····-.. , .. _ ....

tions only because she wanted to see if she could get it.

Although Tang told the Review­Journal that she held only manage­ment and clerical positions at her husband's clinic in San Francisco before the couple moved to Neva­da, an applicant for a Nevada ho­meopathic license who had worked at Yiwen Tang's San Francisco clinic said he received homeopath­ic training from "Dr. K. C. Tang."

And even though Tang claimed she did not practice medicine after she received her Taiwanese license, Georgia physician William C. Douglass in a March 1984 letter of recommendation to the Nevada homeopathic board praised her as one of the most outstanding doc­tors he had known in his 25 years of practice. "She has an empathy and understanding with patients that is truly remarkable," he wrote. ■ Robert B. Vance's Utah osteo­

pathic license was revoked in 1981 for gross negligence and unprof es­sional conduct based on investiga­tions of 35 cases in which he was charged with misdiagnosing ail­ments or treating patients for non­existent conditions.

He was found guilty in eight cases, including one in which he used Laetrile injections and en­emas to treat a boy for bone can-

cer. According to hearing records, the boy waa.not properly examined and was treated in a motel room by one of Vance's office employees without Vance in atteRdance.

The child died after 10 days of treatments of intravenous solu• tions of glucose, vitamin C and Laetrile; 73 pills and four enemas

. daily, all of which cost more than $3,000, hearing records say.

Vance lost a two-year battle to regain his Utah license that ended in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Vance, granted·a temporary Ne­vada homeopathic license· in 1984, was charged a f~w months later with prescribing :·drugs without a license and misrepresenting him­self as a Nevada licensed osteo­path.

Nevada District Judge- Paul Goldman placed Vance on a year's probation. Vance's attorney James B. Gibson, son of homeopathic leg, islation sponsor state Sen. James I. Gibson, said later that Vance was a victim of a "witch hunt" in Utah. The lawyer blamed the Nevada charges on a "technical violation."

Vance subsequently was granted a permanent homeopathic license and opened an office on Rancho Drive in Las Vegas. · - Jerrlanne Hayslett

! -· I

Legal :woes pl$gue hooieapaths: f- '

Editor's note: In the "fifth part of an eight-part serle11 orj homeopa­thy, today's story looks at five people .who have experienced · problems with their Nevada II•

censes. MAR . 5 .'. 1987 By Jerrlanne Hayslett I t1 Review.Journal r

In July, it will be two years since Gene and Alma Agnis first met Leo Maxwell. Gene will probably.remember the occasion. Almawon'L

She died four months later without regaining consciousness after Maxwell performed surgery on her at his new Las Vegas clin• ic.

The July meeting in a Beverly Hills condominium, was ar• ranged by Alma's hairdresser, Gigi, to discuss breast enlarge• ment surgery Alma wanted.

Gigi presented excellent evi• dence.,..of,Ma:1well'g._gkill at en- . l~n:-•ta. Gigi was Troy

_,,..,,~w~-.-- - - .. . . .

i Review.Journal JUDGMENT DAY - Leo Newton Maxwell faced charges last year In the death of a woman on whom he operated. He also _

/was. accu~ed of falsifying credential_s. . . . -----·--·------ = --------

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1l.x for Nevada

Williami Jr. before Mazwell op­erated on him. "Gigi is a guy and he was :converted to a woman," Gene Apia said during a hearing related to his wife's death.

Maxwell scheduled Alma'a op­eration :for Oct. 4. The couple arrived '.at his Eaatem Avenue clinic, made a $5p_g_,caah down payment, and Alma was ushered to a back room for surgery. Two hours later an ambulance whisked her to Humana Hospital Sunrise. She died Nov. 15 Crom a lethal mixture ofTalwin, Valium and Compezine that Maxwell al­legedly had given her.

Before the operation, tha Ag• nises had no qualma about Max- -well'a ability. Not only did Gigi attest to his skill, the couple also

..,....

had his buaineaa cards identify­ing him as an "M.D." and an "H.M.D." .- ·

He was neither. Moit recently· Maxwell had been a chiropractic products distributor and a surgi­cal asaistant for two doctora in Tijuana, Mexico •.

He hid lost a California chiro­practic license in 1983 for prac­

. ticing medicine without a licenae, and was placed on a five-year probation after being convicted by .a Superior Court of aimilar charges. _

Maxwell is aerving an 18-year priaon sentence for manalaughter and face.a a wrongful death suit Gene Agnis haa filed againat him, the. Nevada Board of Homeo• pathic Medical Examiners and a lengthy liat of other people and businessea.

Maxwell and· Sophia Alexan• dro.a Stamatopoulos, present dur­

Pleaae aee DOCTORS/12A r~ -

From 1A ing Agnis' iurgery, are two of five Nevada homeopaths who have ex• perienced legal problems related to their licenses sinc:t the board was established in 1983. A total or 36 people have been licensed to date.

The board revoked Maxwell's li­cense after he was indicted in Ag­nis' death.

An investigation of his licensing revealed that he had falsiried his credentials and had forged applica­tions for Stamatopoulos, Frank L. Watts Davison, also known as Frank Watts, and John Leon Min• asian. The board also revoked their licenses.

First board president F. Fuller Royal insists ~t ~ard IJl!m~rs exercised caution in co11S1denng applicants, but they apparently di~ not note discrepancies and susp1• cious similarities on applications the four submitted: - ■ All four applicants listed med­ical training 11t the same Mexican rl\edical school during approxi­mately the same time period. ■ Three said they held various

types of licenses in Oregon. ■ Three claimed .to have natu-.

ropathy or homeopathy licenses in states that do not license those practices. ■ Two listed a non-existent col•

lege in Louisiana. ■ Two applications appear to

have been prepared on tha same typewriter. The same two con, tained identical misspellings of Ti­juana. . II Two applicants did not give I their correct ages. · Businessman Floyd E. Weston,

~ w~ brought homeopathy to Neva•

"'f',-··'f!

Board subsidization~urged. ,. ~ , _ . ;_ •

Some Nevada legislators have suggested that the state Board of HomeO: pathlc Medical Examiners should be subsidized with state funds to allow more thorough review of applicants' backgrounds and credentials.

The board operates on application fees, which ware $250 until 1985 when they wara raised to $300, and annual renewal lees of $100. Income has averaged about $640 a month since the board began Its work in late 1983, and expanses have averaged $500 a month. The board has licensed a total of 36 people and has a current bank balance of about $10,500.

That sum may be depleted by several thousand dollars In defending the board In a pending lawsuit filed by the family of a woman who died after surgery performed by a licensed homeopalh. The fees of one expert witness alone are $100 an hour for research and $200 an hour for time testifying in court and giving depositions.

The board, comprised of four homeopaths and three lay ·members, conducts Its own background checks of applicants. The only staff worker Is an employee of board secretary-treasurer Louis Test's Reno law firm. Sha works a few hours a montli for the board.

By comparison, the monthly Income of the state Board of Medical Examiners, which oversees about 1,500 licensed physicians, is $35,833 and average monthly expenses are $35,250. Also, the medlcal board, which has four full-time staff members, and the state Board of Pharmacy, jointly hired an Investigator at $24,000 a year In January.

da, says Maxwell is tlie only bad one in the group and the others were victims of his conniving.

"Frank Watts' (Davison's) cre• dentials are impeccable" as are Stamatopoulos', Weston said in an interview.

Weston said Maxwell, who en• rolled in Escuela Libre de Homeo• patia in Mexico City with the oth• era, offered to fill out their applications. Weston said the only mistake the others made was to sign the forms without checking to see if they were correct.

Mexican procedures require that a peraon'a official name include the mother's maiden name, which ac• counts for the different names for Davison, Maxwell and Stamato• poulos, who also is known as So­phia Alexandros de Garcia and So­phia Grigoratos.

Weston said he knew Davison before he brought him to The Ne­vada Clinic in Las Vegas in 1980 to give lectures on homeopathy.

Davison, 43, received a Nevada homeopathic license iri November 1984.

The following August, the board appointed Davison and the current board president, Yiwen Y. Tang, as proctors to administer and help grade licensing examinations.

The appointment was made 15 days before Maxwell, Stamatopou­los and Minasian were to retake licensing examinations they had failed two montha earlier.

Westen- says Royal, who was board president at the time, was solely to blame for licensing Max• well and not exposing the forgery on the other applications. He said Royal ruled the board with an iron

····• wanted to be up there (in Reno)," board president Tang said.

Katrina Tang, also a homeopath, called Davison an independent· contractor. "All the accounting was different. We didn't even have the same bookkeeper."

Yet billings for medications pre­scribed by Davison bore the Centu­ry Clinic heading and listed

fist and insisted. on investigating all applicants himself.

Even though all board members vote on each applicant, Weston said, "Some men, when they pre­side over a board, so dominate it no one w1ll vote against them."

Weston said Maxwell would nev­er have been licensed if Reno ho­meopath Tang, who succeeded Royal last year as board president, had been in charge in 1984.

"Dr. Tang is so meticulous, he is so thorough that nothing would ever get past him," Weston said.

Weston said Royal "got nervous" after he was pressured by an attor­ney representing Maxwell, and cfe. cided to allow Maxwell and the others to be licensed.

Royal bridled at tha charge. "You should ask Aim wlio inm,­

duced Frank Watts (Davison) to· The Nevada Clinic," he said. "Ask 11 him who engineered getting Frank Watts an attpmey to preaa for hia, license - in the person of Robert . List. He had just completed hia term of office as governor and wai , a very powerful man." '

List said in a recent interview that he did not know why Watts asked him to represent him in get- 1 ting his license.

Royal also said that if Weston considered Royal ·dictatorial in running the board, the public should see how it is run now.

. After Davison was licensed in 1984, he set up practice in Tang'a Reno clinic. Tang and hia wife, Katrina, who own and run the. Century Clinic, say Davison just leased apace from them.

"He was treating the sisters at S'aint Mary's (hospital) so he

"Yiwen Y. Tang, M.D.; Frank W. Davison, M.D.; and Katrina C. Tang, M.D." aa homeopathic praci titioners. . ··

License renewal fees tor the three were paid with a check drawn on the Century Clinic's account. ..

Canon City residents Christo• phar and Deborah (lehr, who filed

Please see DOCTORS/13A / ' ;

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·-Doctors---------------,--.from 12A ' licensed as a naturopath in Qdifor- did not renew it afts 1982. -auii ,apinst the Tanp.. Davison nia, as a Ph.D. in Idaho, and as a And Mnwell acted as his own and the dinic llfter Davison lost homeopath and Ph.D. in Florida. notary public verifying the authen­his Nevada lieeme, said they took Califomia, however, has no DA• tfciw of bis afpatme OD his On,­

•th•ir 2-year-old son to the Tanp' turopathic board and Florida baa gon application. The notuy's •la· ·dinic and were nferied to Davi- no homeopathic board, according nature, Leo H. Newton. in the son. • ,·. to officials in those stat.es. Neither aame haudwriting as the appli•

"The group I.' have dealt with Idaho IIOJ' Florida has any l'e!)Ord of cant's aignaime, is accompanied by an4d the practitiohen involved with Davison ever being liceneed in ·any an "o8icial seal" bearing his name.

'them are unprofessional and un- profeaaion in those states under Manell and Davison both told trained and lrrespoDSible quacks," the name of Watts or Davison. the homeopathic board they Gehr said in a ln&erview last · Florida officisls also refute Mu- earned bachelor's degrees from spring. . wall's c:laims thet ha is a licensed .Twin Cities College in Monroe, La.

He said Davison told him the psychologist and homeopath in Muwell aupposedly attended from family's insurance wol,lld cover his that state. 1964 to 1968 and Davison from son's tzeatlllqnt. which turned out However, Davison, Muwell, and 1966 to 1969. to . be untru,. The bm for five Minasian had all held California ' But officials with the city of months to~ed $4,122 for what chiropractor's licenses, which they Monroe and Louisiana Board of Gehr called:routine uaminationa did not mention on their Nevada Regents 881d there has never~ and medicatio1111. Plus, ha said, the applications. a Twin Cities .College there. . a..;::;.:.=:;...._,... child's condition did not improve Also, Maxwell, 47, gave his age Manell'a police record In Los FRANK WATTS DAVISON under Da~•s care. · • · as 37 on his Nevada application Angeles goes back -to the. late ••• falsified Information

SOPHIA STAMATOPOULOS ••• falsified Information

ROBERT BUSS VANCE ••• faced charges

Davison was not brought back 'to · dated May 1984,. which means· ha 1950&. when he was fined for mas-Nevada to face c:barges of falsifying would have been born in 1947. But querading, vagrancy and disorderly the Nevada homeopathic board Stamatopoulos also held an Oregon Vance had lost his Utah osteo-documenta to obtain his Nevada . his application says he enrolled in conduct. During the ensuing years, also varies from credentials he list- naturopathic license. pathic license in 1981, after an . homeopathic Ucense, although Loa Angeles City College in 1962 ha was convicted of writing bad ed on an application for an Oregon On her Oregon · application she investigation into the death of a Gehr said he believes Davison is in · and received his associate of arts checks, practicing medicine with- naturopathy license. said ihe graduated in 1975 from child suffering from cancer for Hennosa Beach, Cali£. -~ degree in 1963. Thet would have out a licenee (not COllll/!CtM with The name J.W. Hough, listed in the National College of Naturo- whom ha prescribed enemas, vite-

Davison did not ntum owner- --made him 16 and 16 at the time. the later chuges thet cost him his .Minasian's Nevada application as pathic Medicine in Portland. Yet min iJvections and an apricot pit ous DlllllllqeS the Review.Journal · An application· Muwell submit- chbopnctic license), Jewel conduct president of Fremont College, one she told the Nevada board she at- derivative called Laetrile. left on lil!i telephone amwering ted imder the name of Leo H. New- and two incidents of receiving sto- of the schools he said he attended · tended medical IChool In Mexico Royal saya he l1efieves Vance is a · Diachine in Hermosa Beach. · --· tqb • to the Oregon nsturopathic Jen property. . fn California, also appean in ~ City from 1974 to 1980. ~mpetent doctor and that his

Stamatopoulos and Minasian· board 11118 he graduated in. 1960 . A check. of infonnation Mina- application as president of the The Sept. 10, 1942, date of i,utb problems in Utah sesulted from a are also believed t.o be out of state. . &om the Hollywood College of Na- aian, 66. aupplied OD his Nevada · Oklahoma Board of Euminera of she listed on her Ozegon applica• "witch hunt" by an overzealous . Former homeopathic board pzea- turopathic Physicians, a achoo! not application, thowa he did not hold Combinatlaic Physicians. Minasian ticm wauld have made her 42 in and bigoted conventional medical ident Royal lllid the board checked noted on bis Nevada homeopathic a medicsl or osteopathic Jiceme is mmed • vice president. January 1986 when ahe· applied for community. . applicenta' credentials so thor• application, and lists his date of anywheie,asn,quiredforahomeo- Ray Switzer, the Oklahoma berNevadaliceme,yetahetoJdthe· TOMORROW: The people oughly, that one . board member' birth as Aug. 10, 1938, which pathic liceme: · . Board of Medical Evminen' chief Nevada boeid me was 38. who go to homeOpa_ths and ~ vjsited ~ls and hoepftals. would have made him 46 in 1~~ • He lilted 0~ as the only . ~• said Oklahoma baa no Another licensee, Robert Bliss _wh__,_V.;..• _______ _ while -~ a trip to Asia and ques- Muwell's Nevada application jurisdidion in which he held a licenaing board by that ~ Vance, was charged by Nevada au-tioned ~ about applicant& le.YB ha had an active homeopathic medical license. But the Oklahoma Minasian also told th,' N4'V&da tlloridea in 198C with obtaining who traillad or Practicecl ~- practice in Oregon while licensed ~ board 88id it has ~o record board that he held a homeopathic and dispen1ing drugs without ·

Yet the Re9iew.Joumal found as a natmopath from " _ '72 to .of an active or inactive medical or Jicense in Oklahoma. but Oldsho- pioper certification and in 1986 that. Davison had falsely ~ present.• But . the Oregon board osteopathic license for John ?4ina· Illa has no homeopathic licemiag with prac:tfciDg osteopathy~ .he held licenses in other states. said he did not even apply for a sian. board. a license. Distnct Judge Paul Gold.

ff~ told the Nevada board he was na&mopathy license until 1974, and Infomiation that Minasian gave Like Maxwell ~ Minasian, . man gave Vance a year's proba~n.

Patients' ., . . . 9p1n1ons

···diverse -· Editor's note: In the sixth part or

an eight-part aeries on hofJ!eopa• thy, today's story looks at the peo­ple. who seek this alternate form of med!~al care.

·· By Jerrlanne _ Hayslett · Review-Journal··: · ..... ,.

: . · Sis yeara ago when ihe Hurli• . mans' doctor.moved from ~gene, Ore., to Las Vegas, Mike urli­man quit his job, sold his ouse,.

. packed up his flimily and foltowed. · · Drastic? Yes. But Hurlimun. · and his wife, Judy, were desper• ate. '

F •. Fuller Royal was the only physician they felt wu succt!asful• ly treating their baby's rare heart condition • . ;"When· fuller cam, lntc,> our lives, It wu like God had walked in the door," Judy Hurllman says. . Conventional medicine offered only life-threatening surgery or ever~lncreasing doses of potent. drugs with unpleasant side effects to control spells that caused the infant's heart to race 250 to 400 beata a minute. , . But the Hurllmana say Royal,

._, L. ,.tf '.. .

. Jti ' r.'tii... . :_ . ◄ ...... ·•

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using the unorthodox practice of Review-Journal U59RP:5h;4broughtth~episodes HEALTHY,· HAPPY.AND GROWING· Judy- Hurllman credits unilir contioL The child, Jona• than, is now 8, large for his age homeopathic .treatments !Qr controlling her son ·Johnathan's . and an honor student in his sec• rare heart. condition. \~ • MAR .· 6 . 198~ -omf•,rade class. 11 · Morton Levy's story Is dl,Ter• of those suits were against. Tang.~. 1tnt. The more distance between ■ Mormons attracted Tang, president of the Nevada him and his former physician, . to homeopathy/SA State Board. of Homeopathic Ylwen Y, Tang, the better. Medical Examiners, and former

"I was being treated for circul11• al hospitalizations for skin grafts, president Royal, are among 32 t.ory problems in my feet, which I most .recently In December 1985. people · holding homeopathic Ii• subsequently learned I didn't Levy won a $125,000 settlement censes in the state. · have," says the 58-year•old San after suing Tang. Homeopathy is a 190-year-old Franciscan. "Part of the treat.• practice based on the Idea that

· ment waa deep.heat, which result• Tang lnsiSts his trenLments certain diseases can be cured by ed in third-degree burns on the could not have harmed Levy. minute doses of substances that in l:iqttcim of my foot." • Levy and the ,Hurllmans ar~ large doses would produce aymp• : -.~n, according to l.evy and · alJ!(lng thousands of people who• toms like those oC the disease.

· ·catifornia medical' board hearing · have been treated byductors Ne• · · Advocates say homeopaths try record&,. Tang misdiqnosed the vada baa licensed II homeo1iaths. to find and eliminate the cause or burns aa dermatitis end referred Whilo stories like Levy's are an illness, while conventional Levy t9 a podiatrist. rarer than the 'Hurlimans', he is medicine just treats symptoms,

The injury, which· occ-Jn'ed in one ofat leist 11 people who have Homeopathy almost died out at 1977 befo,e Tang moved from San sued doctors now licensed lo prac• the beginning of this century, .Francisco to Reno, ~qµii~~•"'.:'f:~. -:-tice h~meopathy in Nevada. Four Please see PATIENTS/SA

• ' .

• a . Friday, March 6, 1_987/La• Vegas Review-Journal/SA

Patients-----:-----------__,;_ ____ _____;.;;_....;........;...;.__'-----:--. From 1A · . "I owe mywliole existence to Dr. her father's chzouic high blood minut.es a day in a bath of apple believer." He began to have doubts tion could have coine fl'Om their

partly because it bad no PIOYen Royal," says Mu Dalton, a retired pressure, which previously had cider vinegar and drink a solution when be received no physical ex- dentist friend. ' · ac:ientific basis. But Las Vepa ho- aircraft maintenance inspector in only been ·controlled by conven- made from garlic grown in Japan,- amination. Instead, be was told to The man has since returned to

: meopath Chester Chin aaya it Is · Ogden,· Utah. Dalton, 60, aaya· ho- tional medication. she aays. Khoe also advised them hold a brass cylinder wrapped in conventional treatment which is undergoing a rebirth "because meopathic tleatments ended "dizzy Ahbough diacoatented patients to avoid pollution and not wear wet gauze while Khoe prodded his controlling his condition. •

-·•· there ~ many disillusioned pa- spella he and Royal say were · aren't as vocal, . "They an out digital watches. fingen and toes with probes wired · His wife, who had 4 weigJ:at pro!,)­. tients lookinjr for alternative treat- caused by an inner-ear disorder there,• says Joel Bower, a past Her husband, SO, an electronics to a machine containing a meter. lem, says Khoe rejected her as a

. . ments. They haven't found the an- c:alled Meniere'a disease. president of the Clark County expert who did not want his name "No pulse was· taken, no blood patient during her second appoint-awer from traditional medicine." "This man is wonderful," says Medical Society. "Some people used, says·be found no relief from a presauie, no vital signs of any ment when she questioned what

· The practice has received mb:ed Marguerite Henrikson, another may be embarrassed to come out ·of painful int.estinal condition. "It's kind," the patient says. "I didn't she thousht was conflicting die~ reviews from people who have victim of vertigo. Henrikso~ of the woodwork because they expect- one of those things where one will even disrobe.• advice. "He got irritated and said I

· sought homeopathic treatment. · Las Vegas. says she has bad· no eel 80ID8 kind of good nsults and grasp at anything that offers His wife says Khoe told him that . didn't have enough faith in his • . Some 1>4tients speak of homeo- blackouts or dizzy spells in the past didn't get it." . · hope." .· if be cbanged all the fillings in bis practice, so he couldn't help ~ ':

-·• paths with near-religious fervor. year. "He does miraculous things.• But not all dissatisfied patients . The man aays Khoe was recom- teeth, "that would perhaps dear up The couple's uperience was nqt ; "I can't praise him enough," aaya Laa Vegas .attorney Joseph M. are silent. · mended to him by a •dentist friend, his health pioblems." among OJlly four complaints ~t Sheldean Cluff, 31, of Show Low, Foley says homeopath Willem "In our aperienc:e, it was .a to whom Khoe bad sent patients to Khoa smprised the man by tell- have been filed with the homeo- .

, Ariz. Cluff says Royal deared up • Khoe cured his wife's t,ennia elbow joke," -.,a a Laa Vegas woman of haw their dental fillinp repJaced. · ing him be.had an intestinal disor- pathic hoard since it was formed.~ allergies, bladder infections and in one treatment. appalntmen~ she and her husband · The man says be went to the der and that his father had had 1983. While those complaints are :

· kidney problems that had made Foley's daughter, former state had with Khoe. · · homeopath with an open mind. "I tuhelculoaii. wbicb was ·true. But confidential becsuse the board 11¥ : her ill for :,ears. Seb. Helen Foley, says Khoe cured . · "We were told to soak for 1S was neither a-~ nor a non- the man'• wife aays ~t informa- · Please see PA TIENTS/15~

A

., A

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~-GA[La• Vegas Re,/lew.JoumalfFrlday, March 6, 1987 b ..

Des.pit~ ~-q· official link·, some Mofmons

attracted to tJpriJeopathy: . • BJ Jentanne Hayslett wi1llng to respond to- questions,•

!:.Aevfew.Joumll said LDS Church apok1111111n Don : No ofrlclal link ties homeopathy . t:,,,.-&'t"-=:i;;;:l~:;;-:;:=:w:=~ LeFevn, adding that any questions ' In Nevada to the Mormon Chun:&, ~--------- the Review.Journal wanted to uk

but the ahsred faith connecta many about his role in homeopathy In ..practltionen, patients and sup• where he had a family practice, Nevada weN "related to that.•• · porten or the altemative form of illustrates how church connections · Weston say& Benson c:a11s him medicine. have played a part in the growth of monthly to ask when he Is aolng to

Floyd Weston, credited with homeopathy. open a clinic In Salt Lake City, bringing homeopathy to the state, Royal met Weston In the 1970. headquarten of the Chun:h of Je­ls Mormon, as ls Las Vegas homeo- when Weatoa traveled to Eugene sus Christ of Latter-day Seiats. path F. Fuller Royal, who helped to buy lumber for a house he was But Weston said in a recent lntar­Westoa establish the alternative building. view that he Is not lateraled In

,,• form or medicine in the atata. "My homa teacher (from the opening a clinic there. Weston even claims he choae church) wu the man selling Floyd Weston said the medical com•

Neveda u the home for bis and the lumber. He Introduced us and munity In Utah Is too closed mind• "RayaTa ~ of homeopathy at - became aood friends,• Royal N- eel about alternative medical pnc­tha dlrec:tloa of Ezra Taft Benson.· calla. "He (Weston) told a lot of tlces for bom~thy to aucc:eed now president of tha Mormon· ~~ tales and began refer- there. MAR 6 . 1987 Chuzch, who ha say& has been nng patients to-me." "'· ---"""",.;_""-.....:;=--tnated at Royal's clinic. . . Weston subsequently set Royal I

Other Mormons who played up ia a clinic In Las Vegas. prominently la tllP Nevada homeo- Similar penonal referrals by pathic movemaat include: othan may be reapoasible for the

- State Sen. James L Gibson, clinic's nourishing business of primary sponsor or the blU creating mon, than 16,000 patients In seven the homeopathic board. yean, 80 pen:ent or whom live out

- Gibson'• wife, Audrey Gib- ol state. eon, wbo now sits on the state ho· "We have never ad,•ertiaed," meopathy bollld. Royal says. •

- Craig Mayfield, a Brigham Salt ·Lake City physician Nor• Young University pneral educa• man Lee Smith, a Mormon, says

• tloa professor who wrote and LDS Church mamben may be at• srades the Nl\-ada bomeopathlc tracted to homeopathy because of examination, and collaborated the trust they have In n,fernls with Royal on a homeopathic cor- rrom fellow Mormons and their In• respondna coune the board ac- terpretations or the Word or Wis• cepll for post-graduate credit. dom, the LDS Church health · - Lu Vegas lawyer Kenneth guide. Cory, who n,presenta the U.S. Ho• Smith attributn the trust Mor-meopathlc Auociatlon. mons have for one another to a , - WIUlam HOUBBian, a North• sort or circllag•the•waaons mental­em California bufinessman, who is ity that bu carried over from the the currant presic!en~ or a corpora- pioneering days when Mormons t.ion Waston set up to manage ho- moved WesL meopathy-related buslaesaes. "The settling or the West oc•

Many of Royal's patieata are curred during an anti-orthodox Mormons from Nevada and other medical revolutionary period whsn states who have heard about his there were also pioneer attitudes," practice from other memben of the said Smith. faith. Weston, who bu held high posi•

Sen. Gibson said he did not tlons la the church, and wa the know 1erp numben ot Mormons principal architect of the homeop­went to bomeopedll, but "I would athy movement In Nevada, con• usume that some, like myself are demns the orthodox practices of attracted to the nst.ural way of do· surgery and pnacribiag drup as Ing things like not Introducing "cutting and poisoning." chemical tblnp into their bodies." He and Royal say Benson and

But generallv, he said, religion members of his family have been Isn't the topic nf conversation treated by homeopaths for several when be aoes 1,1 a doctor. "I don't years. isk what religi-•:i he la and they Benson declined to be Inter• don't ask me if ;·,,1 LDS." . viewed. "He considen his medical

Nonetheless, :ioy_al's move to relationships to be personal and I.as \'er,a, frr , Eugene, Ore.,_ confidential and therefore is un•

Las Vegas surgeon Don L Chris-" IAIIICeptibla to medical quacmy type or \llldersrouiid ·that pie. , tenaen, apokeamaa for the LDS - published In a medical joumal aplaat churcb leadenhlp. Church In Southem Neveda, says for Mormon pl\yall:lana, says that Consequently, he ,•aya, the thal8 la no llak between homeopa• while altematlve practice, are chun:h ha ldvlaecl Ill memben to thy and the church. · · · _highly profitable, Monnona who ahuD UIIJlfOYIII treatments. ..

Royal says It Is "rldlculoul" to promote them ant 1111t ~ · The church's oJllclal policy oa SU.- that ha or ·Weston used chulatana, but rather may believe alternative macllclne itataa: • church connections In their busl• It's part of their LDS nlfalon. '"'nit church c11scouraps -· ness andeavon. "Many leel that .the rfpt to ben fkom uelng medical or health :"You don\ go Into a state In 'chooae even CW111ft1U1 r- of practbathatueethlcallyorleaJ•'

1980 and &ff a law puaed la 1983 quacllery Is part ol the dMae prin- ly que1tlonable. Local leadera tci set up a boud for a aepanta lcip1e of me apncy, ad that uy lhoald advlao -aien who have medical practice uniesa you're do- restrlctioD OD that fne chob fa health ~ to coasul& compe­fng something good,• he saya, 'To satanic." • ten& prolesaloaal practldoners who even 1uggest that (homeopathy Smith says althouih the church- an lfcemed In the countries wbe,e proponents usecl church conaec• began to embrace -tlonal they practice. Church membera tions) Is bad Joumallsm," l"" • medicine when lt became IClntUI- lhould not go to so-called lalth

Salt Lake City physician !'mith, ca1ly oriented soon after tha tum of haalen or aeek other blzami or whose article on why Mormons are the cen~, ~ mlnodtl! remaln_u •- 11111J1Ua1 heailnp or cures.•

Revlew-Joumal

MADE TO ORDER .. -. An employee of The Nevada Clinic . pharmacy P,ackages · an order of homeopathic remedies. One maker of. spch . remedies reports annual sales of $30 million.

. Homeopcitl.,s Cling to remedies . ~t~I, 8;1'1~1. -. ·. : · . · .,_ · · . ·- · ' . . .· Editor's note; In the seventh .part signatures· in protest dumped at

of an eight-part series on home.op-.· : . Rx· for_ Nevada the prime _minister's door," he athy, today's stori~sdloo_k. at_ thde · .TRICKORTREATMENT said.. . . . . remedies, electronic ev,ces an · --------- That· kind-·of· public ·demand

· treatments used by Nevada's prac- . helped win recogn· · ition 01_ om Par-titioners. ·· · · ·

; . _ . ping center. . . liament and homeopathy is an By Jerrianne Hayslett·· Houieopathywas'condemned in ac~pted component of the.medi-Review-Journal . . _ . Englanojust as it _ha$:been in-this cal community, Cook sai<t... · . ·

The year Trevor M. C9ok spent · · countty; he , said,~ even though · · He · would like to see the 8!lJile in Las Vegas watching houieopa-· . ·mem~ra· of G~- Britain's royal · thing happen 'in this co~try .. _: thy try to. bat~e its ·w11y iii~'. ac~ : ·: fSJP.UY~ inclu~' -Queen Eliza-_, . ~ntrat ~ classical homeopathy ceptability is l~ a rep~j),t:·his. ·· betli I(~ ~~ardeiit'advocates of .is a C'~w 6{ ~imilars," in -which ·a years as a· pharniacis~ in hifna.: .. -~~:p~~iice:.:··\h\ :: . :· .. - . . .. disease_~ cui:ed.~th.highly dilut­tive England.·::. · :: --··-;-_ • : · ·_-· · · CQoi;~afp~ident of the.Brit:- · ed doses ?f a_;substance t.hat

"It's the same .fig~t. all over ,. ish.· hQl'.iieopathic · remedy manu-. causes the same symptoms as the again," he said.::~· ' ·.::. : · · . facturer:,A. Nelson&· CQ., which disease.:The belief is the symp­.. Cook, 56, served as· president : he ~d s~pplied tht! roy~ fami!Y· · tolll;I result from the immunes~­for a year of Las Vegas-based HRl .· . · : "In. 1.9!8, the government tried tem Iii attempt .to fight off the ill­Dolisos, a homeopathic.-· remedy· ,to close:· down· the homeopathic· ness and that homeopathic maker. that supplies .its n~ighbor; ,. _hospitals. in the coq_ntry and in no. remedies give the.body's immune 'J'.he Ne~ada Clinic.of P.~ventive. ,time thei,e were~ lorry-loads. system~ ~~:-'.'.'">?E-:f··. -,:-;:;;;-.•-...,....-"~ Medlcine,' in ·a Las. Vegas_ shop~:. of pe~ • ~ wi~ half-~-million Please, ee PRACTICESl~A

.,...,, .. . ,

1 ,'

• • ~~~ 0uC \MIii remedies, like .,-··ttncture of tarantula 11nd extract

oC toad, read like witchea' potent&, Adding an almost mystical fac­

tor to the remedies is "potentlz• Ing," which Involves shaking, or "succussing" the remedy in a car• tain manner that "imparts the po­tential energy," Cook said, Reme• diea are effective without pcitentizing but the practice makes them even mure potent, he aaid.

Remedies have clumged little over the years. But diagnosing diseases with instrument& pur• ported to be able to measure elec• trical impublea in the body, as done by Nevada homeopaths, is a radical departure from classical homeopathy.

William McCoy, president or Connecticut's homeopathic board, said homeopaths practicing In that atate do not use electronic diagn1111tic devices.

Both claaaical and modern ho­meopathy fall short or believabll• ity for many chemiata, cunven• tional 1>hysii:ian11 and U.S. Food

· and Drug Administration inspec• tots.

Scic11LisL11 contend tlmt nut only is tht• ,,rcmillll 111' lhu haw uf 11imilars fnl11ciuW1 but lhe uctive 'mgmlieut.a arc IIO diluted they cannot be dctet.1.ed by .:hemical onolysiil.

"When they 01\u\e liUlllething further and further. they are-usiaig things so small that the must sen• sitive lab tests cannot detect

, them," said Las Vegas J)hysician : l<ennetb Landow. "If a chemis~

cannot find even one molecule, how ·can you expect anything to get to the lmmume system?"

Norman Lee Smith, a Salt Lake · City internist who writes Cor a . journal for Monnun physlclana.

says diluUug homeopathic prep•~ rations so much that nut even one

· molecule cun be found in a t.'\lbic . ceutiweter ·or tbe 110lutlo11, "ia the

IIIUlle as givi1111 the pat.lent auth• ' ing aL all"

· Homeopath& say it's. the energy of the substance, nut the aub­stance itself, that ia effective.

Former Doll- preaident Cook said the 11umber of people who have been helJ,IBd by homeopaLhlc remedies ia prouC uf their effec­tlv•n•u Alon h11 uitf .. t.hA r11mA•

..

dies lack adverse side eJ'fecta and potential fur 11ddiction often fuuud in c1111ve11tiun11l drugs.

Cook said homeopathy is highly individualized. 1-'or that reaaun, he debunks a ret.-ent trend lo market mass-produ<"ed, over-the-1.11unter homeopathic products'.

Homeopaths take extensive his• : toriea Crom their patle11ta, lnclud•. ing family background, wheri they have lived, lifestyle, ocl:'Upa• -Lion, ethnic origin and even phyal• cal characterlatlca, auch as size and coloring, he said.

1''or example, cunventional phy• aicians might prescribe 'l'ylenol for headaches but homeopaths'. patients might get headache rem• 11dies that differ from each other.

A humenpath, he aaya, "is not concerned just with the fact that you have a headache but goes Into what caused iL"

Alan Kratz, owner of the Laa Vegas homeopathy remedy com• pany HoBoN, said homeopaths get guod results because they spend time with I.heir patient& and Interact well with them.

Humeu1>athy also seetns to in• vulve the patient's mental otti• tude,

"'l'he 11rnclitinner lms r.onCi• dcnr.c in the remc.-dy and that con• fidence la transferred to the pa• tient,'" Kratz said. So in terms of effectiveness, "The remedy and the person prescribing it are of equal importance." ·

Smith, the Salt Lake City Inter• nist, attributes positive results In port to the patient's 11eed and state or mind. A 11ersun suffering from a .serluu11 illnt>.1111 or severe 11ait1 is vulnerable and auaceJ>Lible lo suggestio11, he said.

l{rotz, who also believes_ that energy, not the molecule, is the effective elenient In home1>1>Bthlc remedies, said remedy manufac­turers do not even need active Ingredients on hand.

By using a 1>roceas called Red!• unica, he· said, remedies can be

Quotable ,. .· •111 , The practitioner has confidence in the remedy and that confidence Is transferred to the patient.,

- Alan Kratz

mode by using cards coded with designs representing tho active in• gredients.

"Each herbal remedy has a de· sign that (Radionics developer) Malcom Rey created," he said. '"l'hat design . . . directs ene11,ry into a certain pattern which is picked up and imprinted on I.he solution base uf water or alcohol."

The process was more than the FDA could take and the agency ordered HolloN to discontinue it.

Kratz complied without protolt, saying Rodionica•developed remo• dies made up only about 1 percent of HoBuN's annual $200,000 in business.

The 1-'DA nlso told the comrmny tu Kt.011 ~elling VilliVosucll! nnd Delox>1111h• ns remcdim1 Cur insucl.i• i:id1: 1-uxiciLy h1•1:11usc U1cy cuu, tnim:d insecticides.

Kratz said the FDA does nut understand that the homeopathic prindrile of using extreme dilu• tiuns rendered the remedies harmle&&.

But FDA official Ed Nida in Washin1,>t.on said assertions about the safety uf homeopathic prepa• rations havu not been proved.

''Homeopathy advocates would like you to think they are safe," Nide said. "But no homeopathic 1>roducta have been tested fur safety and (effectiveness). No studies have been done on any of the product&."

Henu .. physician David Allen 1'.:dw&rd11 said clinical evidence proves homeopathic remedies wurk, muking scientific proof un• uecllllSllry.

Edwards, 40, who trained at ho• meupath Yiwen Y. Tang'.s Cantu• ry Clinic in Reno and received a homeopathic license in January, said a doctor's only jub la helping patients. ·

"Homeopathy focuses on re• sulta, not on how it works," ha said.

Edwards said he has been Inter• ·ested in homeopathy for about Cour years and baa been using ho• meupathic remedies to cure his migl'lline headache&

He also has seen patients who suffered Crom chronic conditions improve with homeopathic treat• menL

· Richard Rothenberg, with the - U.S. Canters Cor Dlseue Control,

said people apply a double stan• dard to conventional medicine and alternative therapies. ·

"We In established medicine are called on to provide scientific validation of whet we do," he said. ~•People demand that. Yet it's odd that In alternative medicine that same kind of validation la not re• quired."

FDA'a Nlde said many homeo­pathic producu are up to 90 per• cent alcohol and are Inadequately labeled.

In addition, some labels are In Latin instead of English and do not slate alcohol content, give 1negnancy warnings when appro• priote or list the monuCacturer's nnme nnd nddrcs.11.

An increasing number oC ho• meopathic remedy manufacturers in the United States, up from six in 1980 to about 60, has prompted FDA Inspections and argument& about whether homeopathic prep• · arationa should be available only by prescription. . I

The FDA also is on the lookout for unfounded claims. ;

'"fhere ore a lot of clinics open• ing up in Nevada using homeo• pathic remedies for every disease under the sun," Nide said. "A lot of products are going to people who are not. authorized to practice medicine. We need to establish what. our position Is about. who is authorized to dispense homeo• pathlc medications." -

Although homeopaths and their Please see PRACTICES/18A

: Practices.-. :::From 17A · advocates swear by the Mfety of ; homeopathic remedies, two Wis• :::consin physicians expressed con• · '.cern about one product in a recent :issue of the New England Journal :of Medicine. The doctors, Harry ·D. Kerr and Garland W. Yarbor­:ough, treated a man they said de­.:veloped an acutely inflamed pan•

· •'cress after taking a homeopathic :remedy, BHI Regeneration Tab• )ets, purported to be a cancer treatment.

Kerr and Yarborough said the _. lack of information in medical lit­

erature about possible adverse ef• fects may just reflect an inability

. to identify and investigate the remedies because of their uncon•

. trolled distribution. •· Interstate distribution is· legal· . . as long as the• remedies were on :the market when the 1938 Food, .1Drug and Cosmetic Act was en• acted, but combinations or mix• tures that have been developed since then are not protected by the measure.

William Nychis, of. the FDA's; Drugs and Biologics· Fraud' branch, said thti' increased mar• keting of homeopathic drugs for serious conditionsJias prompted a review of the agency's position on homeopathic mark~llnt: practices;· . Nida said the FDA "needs. to e~tablish what its position: iii oii" who is authorized to dispense ho'­meopathic medicines." Part of that process has been inspection, of laboratories·• cropping up around the country. .

, The FDA has cited HoBoN and '. Dolisos for numerous quality ccin­'. trol violations.

While Dolisos ha& taken rcme• dial action, such findings leave Cook undaunted,

"Any FDA official worth his · salt will find deficiencies," he said.

"No one is perfect. I'm satisfied j that our standards are exceedingly high," h~. said of the company that reports annupl sales of. $30< million. · •'

HoBoN's Kratz said that in ad:. dition to taking corrective action, employees in his company have attended FDA-approved or spon•. sored schools and he has hired a regulatory affairs consultant.

Kratz said that taking such steps will help make homeopathy more widely accepted.

Despite proponents' strong be• .N~ef in the practice, many say it is· ,t,not a panacea. but complements ;,"traditional medicine. Cook, of . t Dolisos, said homeopathy has no

better answer for cancer, heart disease, herpes and AIDS than conventional medicine. : He said surgery and conven-

. tional · medicine are necessary in some cases. : "At the same time, when con• ventional drugs are used that are not all that beneficial because of side effects or their addictive na­ture, there are homeopathic reme­dies that could be used without all the attendant problems," he said. ': On the other hand, Cook said,

.. '.'People· who make unjust claims. for homeopathy are dangerous ·and should be curbed." .' - TOMORROW: The future of homeopathy In Nevada.

,_ -

Sunday, March 8, 1987/Laa Vegas R~vlew.J~urna ~

E(ectronic de~_ices imP(M'.tcwL to many Nevada homeopaths

Cen/ral to most Nevada homeopaths' practice are elictronic devices to diagnose ailments ~nd prescrjbe treatments.

El~iagnosis is based on the theory that elec­trical P.athwaya connect each organ or system in the body tn acupuncture points on the fingers and toes. I

Homeopath F. Fuller Royal and promoter Floyd E. Weston upgraded a German version of a ma­chine' called the Dermatron with a computerized version they named Accupath 1000. Some Nevada homeopaths are using an updated version of the

. Accupath called the lnterro. . While these devices are not approved by the U.S. . Food and Drug Administration, they may be used . with patients' consent.

Physicians use these devices by pressing probes to ihe acupuncture points of a person who holds a

brass cylinder wired to the machine. The Dermatroil has only a meter with an indica­

tor needle while the Accupath and lnterro register readings on a video display screen. The readings p~umably tell the physician if an organ is healthy, inflamed or degenerating.

The machine also is programmed with prescribed remedies.

Con\·entional physicians often debunk the de­vices as nothing more than boxes with a few wires and lightbulbs. Salt Lake City internist Norman J..ee Smith says a group of Utah physicians who tested electrodiagnostic devices found them to be no more than "galvanometers" that just measure electrical current .

Smith says the readings would vary, depending on the amount of pressure the machine operator

applied with the probes. But Weston, who promoted the iustrument and

was president of a company that de\·eloped it, said in a 1981 magazine article that he knew of no exceptions to the machine's ability to accurately

who practiced at The Nevada Clinic in the early l!ISOs and helped develop the Accupath, takes a more moderate view. .

diagnose a disorder. . "I know that (the Accupath) verifies the exact

condition of individual organs throughout the body," Weston said in ihe article. "It differentiates between acute, chronic or degenerative stages and discovers these pathological processes when regular clinical diagnoses cannot detect them."

Weston said 90 percent of the 400 people he had taken to Nevada homeopathic clinics were either cured, "or have had their lives so improved that they are totally grateful for having been subjected to this new system."

However, Leonard Haimes, a Florida internist

"I think it can be a definite aid," he says. "l think it will answer certain questions, especially in the area of allergies."

But he adds, it is no panacea for all illnesses and . is being touted prematurely. "If you're going to

stand up on a soapbox, you should have scientific documentation, and they don't."

Electrodiagnosia, like X-ray and laboratory tests, would properly be categorized as one weapon in medicine's armament of diagnostic tools, Haimes

says. \~f,\ HAR 8 . 1997 Yet, he iyl, lsck of supporting scientific dat.a

should not be gruunds for tossing it out. - Jerrianne Hayslett

·t1Qmao.patt\)! treatments :controversial ~ By Jerrlanne Hayslett ~~ • Review-Journal '" ; ·,Homeopathic remedies are not 'the only therapies many homeo­:paths licensed in Nevada advocate :or use. '. .That is what bothers some of :their critics, ~ Conventional physicians say ·some methods h'11ve no homeopath­:ic basis and can be harmful. Some · are so controversial, they are re• stricted or barred in other states.

Chelation, for instance, is often used'by homeopaths .to treat vascu• h1r diseases,

Chelation involves flushing the veins and arteries with a solution containing the chemical disodium edetate, or EDTA, to scrape out deposits .

. Joun Brookhyser, a Las Vegas kidney specialist and medical di­·~ec\or of Nevada Donor Orl(an Ser­vice, said EDTA can cause irre­versible kidney damage.

·"Chelation is USl'd as a chl'.'mical Roto Roul~r for blood vessi,ls and can be wry toxic tu the kidneys," she said. "We ha\'e seen people who have had chelation whose kid­neys have completely shut down and they have to go on dialysis."

Chelation is used by traditional physicians in extreme circum­s\ances such as heavy metal poi­siming, Brookhyser said. "but it is peripheral medicine at best." ·· U.S. Food and Drug Administra­

. tibn and medical association offi­

. dais support those wurnings and aµd that no controlled studies have shown the therupy to be safe or effective.

Sam Schnitzer, however, is a be­li'ever. With diabetes closing down his circulatory system, Schnitzer lost his right leg above the knee in 1981 and the tip of a toe on his left fbot more recently. The 67-year­old Las Vegas man noticed a sig­nificant improvement after Leing treated last year.

"I love this chelation. I wouldn't have lost this if I had gotten chela­tion before," Schnit1.er said, rub-· bing the stump of his right leg.

Barbara J. Taylor, former chela-, tion supervising nurse at The Ne­

vada Clinic in Las Vegas, said she has seen some patients with vascu­lar disease who appeared to be near ,death improve dramatically after being chelated.

Tht! use of such medical tech­niques by homeopaths, however, is contrary to testimony of a witness at the 1983 legislative hearings on the bill that created the Nevada Board of Homeopathic Medical Examiners,

Arizona homeopath Stanley R. Olsztyn told the state Assembly Commerce Committee that home­opathy does not use intravenous E01'A therapy,

Oral Chelation, a spinoff of in­travenous chelation, is under con­~deration for approval by the state ltomeopathic board.

Oral chelation products are non-

lprescription pills or capsules sold by multi-level marketing compa­lnies and health food stores.

VASCULAR SCOURING Joanne Clinger re­ceives chelation treatment, which Nevada ho-

Wayne Koday/Revlaw-Journal

meopaths say clears the .veins of plaque buildup that can cause vascular disorders.

FDA press officer Brad Stone disputes that claim. Stone said the agency knows of no studies or tests proving th1: r,roduct to be safe or effective for any type of cardiovas• cular diseuse.

Stone said that since the FDA· has not approved the product, it should nut be shipped across state boundaries.

Officials with the National Cen­ter for Homeopathy in Washing­ton, D.C., do not endorse Consum­er Express products or Weston's involvement in homeopathy.

"Consumer Express has devel­oped n combination of drugs or remedies they claim are homeo­pathic, hut people who are legiti­mately practicing homeopathy deny any connection with that company and its products," said avlaw•Journal center executive director Suzanne NEEDLING THE KNEE - A Las Vegas homeopath uses acupllnc-Roethel. ture to treat an arthritic knee. 1'1AR 8 . \987

Weston now 11romotes the same , I · · I h d, Ca ifornm patumts w 10 a_ ,,reast can be absorbed through the skin, product with a different name and cancer and died of cyanide poison- yet even though dentists handle 2 distributed by a rliffcri,nt company, ing lifter taking Laetrile. to 3 pounds of mercury a year, . Acupuncture is another non-ho- Replacing metal dental fllllngs laboratory tests indicate that mer­

meopathic practice used by many with nnn-mctullic m1tl.crial is ud- cury levels in dental workers are N1w11da-Jicensed homeopaths, vice s11111e homeopaths give their well within accept.able limits. While acupunture is not as ccmtru- h h pal.icnl.s on t. e premise t ul mer- Gerovltal is another remedy \'P.rsial as chelation, its use contra• c1..ry in thl' fillings is toxic. found on homeopaths' shelves. The diets homeopathy supporters' · However, California attorney elixer is touted as a rejuvenator claims thut. homeopathy is non- Edwin J. Zinman calls such proce• that improves such disorders as ar­invasive. dures useless. "A lot of dentists are tlu·itis, diabetes, hypertension and

Homeopaths who use acupunc• getting into homeopathy," says heart disease, · · ture argue that it legitimately be- Zinman, who also is a dentist. Mainstream medicine dismisses longs in their collection of treat• · "They use Dermatrons and tell Gerovital as nothing more than a men ts because both practices people they need to have teeth ex- variation of Novocain that may involve the body's "field of encr• tracted and their fillings replaced have an antidepressant effect. gy." and they prescribe a lot of useless In defense of their non•homeo-.

Laetrile, a purported cancer nostroms." pathic techniques and. remedies, cure, is another treatment used by Zinman cited a recent lawsuit in homeopaths argue. that many some homeopaths that is not which a California woman won treatments, not just homeopathic founded in homeopathic philoso- $100,000 from a dentist who need- methods, are valid medical prac• phy. lessly replaced five fillings th11l he ti1:es. l.:mbracing a variety of ap•

Nevada was among the first said would cause her iritesl-inal vroacl,es, they say, is eviden<:e they states Lo legalize use of the sub- pmhltms. r:are for the whole person, not just stance, whil:h is mnde from npricnt And a Consumer Hepm'l.s maga.. h1.1dy ports, which is how they sey pits and contains cyanide. zint slory on the m~rcury-dentul ·conve11tio11al physicians pmctice

Of the 36 people licensed lo cnntrovt1·s\' concl11clt,d that the their prof'fssion. practice homeopathy in Nevadn, nt greatest do011ger is to the patient's Homeopath f'. Fuller Royal says . least six ran afoul of mt'dical wullet. convc11tio11al doctors approach pa• boards in other states for using The article saicl dentists and tients and disrmlers like a mechan-Laetrile. their assis1.a11ts are more vulneru- ic would an automobile with a

One, John A. Richardson, was ble lo poisoning from mercury fill- problem. "Let.'s start treating peo• sued by the family of one of his ings tho11 their patie11ts. Mercury pit, for goodness sakes."

I Questions re_main on homeopathy

legislation in Nevada Editor's note: In the final part of

an eight-part series on homeopa­thy, the Review-Journal looks at the future of this alternate form of medicine in Nevada.

By Jerrianne Hayslett Review-Journal

In trying to persuade the 1987 Legislature to broaden its au­thority, the Nevada Board of Ho­meopathic Medical Examiners may end up with diluted power.

Legislation requested by the board proposes to greatly expand practices homeopaths licensed by the state can perform. ·

The bill, introduced last . month by the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee, also would make the bulk of the ho­meopathic board's records on li­cense applicants confidential and would eliminate a section defin-· . . .

Rx for Nevada TRICK OR TREATM.ENT

suffering. However, Nevada's law, en­

acted in 1983, includes the prac­tice of diagnosing disorders and prescribing treatment with elec-

ing professional incompetence. tronic devices not known in clas-By the time a Commerce Com- · sical homeopathy.

mittee hearing on the bill opened· F. Fuller Royal, the first presi­last week, however, the board dent and a current member of had backed down from most of Nevada's homeop~thy board, ac­the additional practices, such as · knowledges that the 1983 Legis­acupuncture and intravenous lature actually established a therapies, partly because they are board for a whole new form oC regulated by other state licensing medicine he calls bioenergetics, boards. not a board to regulate just clas-

Homeopathy, in medically ac- sical homeopathy. cepted terms, is a 190-year-old Homeopathic board secretary­practice based on the idea that a treasurer Louis Test said rather sick person can be cured with than expanding the scope of ho­minute doses of orally adminis- meopathic P.r&ctices in the state, tered substances that, when tak- the intent ot the bill was ·simply en in large doses, produce the to define what homeopaths al­same symptoms the person is · Please see FUTURE/3A

Ed Vogel/Review-Journal

WH~ T SHAL~ WE ASK FOR? - State Board of Homeopathic Me~1cal Examiners ~e~bers Frank Guisti Jr., Yiwen Y. Tang and LOUIS Test study defm1t1ons of practices they want to include in legislation being submitted to the 1987 Legislature.

b Monday,

Future---:-~--~------------____,. From 1A ready do.

"If you aay homeopathy cannot ·be invasive, that would mean they can't even give an injection and everyone I know who practices ho• meopathy doea that," Test said.

Test, a Reno attorney, also said many homeopaths use chelation, a controversial intravenous therapy that can cause kidney damage, for vascular disease.

"Chelation doesn't Call within the purview of medical boards," Teet said. .

Since the technique is used, Test said, ''There should be some con• trol on It. Therefore it should Call under the purview ·or the boa:d that regulate, the people who use it.,.

But rather than give the homeo• pathlc board broader regulatory authority, aome legisla•-,rs would like to tighten control of the licens• ing body and require closer scrutl• ny of those it licenses.

"I'm really concerned about that," said. stale Sen. William R. O'Donnell, R-Laa Vegas. ''These people practice on the fringe of normal medicine.• · ·

O'Donnell thlnka homeopaths should see only patients sent to them by other phyalciana. . "I think the atate hu an obliga•

tlon to aupport the boa:d since we've eatabllahed It,• O'Donnell said. "But I don't 'think they should be able to III out and do anythlnc they want without any• one watchlnc what they are doing.•

Assemblyman Marvin Sedway, D-Lu Vepa, hu a different Idea. "I'm 10lng '" to Introduce a bill that would live Nevada a stale ver• alon or the FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Admlnlatration). •

Although Sedway voted In 1983 tor a aeparale homeopathic board, he aald ha worried that those granted license• would not stay within the conllnea of pure home• apathy •.

None or the practices the ho• meopathlc board wanted to add to 11e· atatute are homeopathic and aome Involve lnjectlona, ·osteopath• le manlpulatlona and use of lode drup.

Repreaentatlvea or other licena• Ing bolll!la were prepared to protest the homeopatha' original proposal.

Lu Vegu acupuncturlat Peter Lok aeld that IC homeopatha are allowed to practice acupuncture without being licensed by the state Board oC Oriental Medicine, "You would have two dlCCerent boards governing a ,Ingle practice with two different standarda." ·

Lok, secretary of the Nevada Oriental Medicine Asaociatlon, said the Oriental medical board re• quirel a licensed acupuncturlat to have at l1ut three yean of medical training In acupuncture and aht years of practice under tho suporvl• slon of a llcenaod acupuncturlaL Tho homeopathic board requires aht montha ot poat-sraduate train· Ing In homeopathy and DODI In acupuncture.

Thomu McCleary, e:1ocutlve di·

SEN. JAMES GIBSN ... sponsored '83 lelslatlon

years oC training beCce they can prescribe drugs. i

"My feeling is theras a definite distinction betweenaliopathic (conventional) and bmeopathic medicine." Clift aaic "Invasive practices, prescribing )harmaceu• tical drugs and uslngintravenous medications are all dopathic. IC they wish to practic1 within the scope oC allopatliic mdicine, they ahould be licensed I allopathic physicians." ·

The state attorney ;eneral's oC• fice has said that to ise Invasive practices, which invcve punctur• Inc the akin, homeopall must alao be licensed in the stal as medical doctors. Only 10 or levada'a 32 homeopaths also holditate medl• cal licenses. . ' ·

The Senato Comme:o Commit• tee, rather than taklr, testimony and voting on the bi Thursday, asked that an amadment be drawn up to delete th additional practices.

Before hearings r&1me, com• mittee chairman Sen. !andolph J, Townsend, R-Reno, 111d he would achedulo a workshop >n the bill and amendment.

"I think they (the bmeopathic board members) are aing to end up with an even tough, law before this Is all over," comrittee mem• ber Se, •. Bob Coffin, [Las Vegas, said after the hearing.'

The Nevada board aa licensed 36 practitioners. Four absequently lost th~lr licenses Conubmitting false Information on thir applica• tiona. One of the four i serving an 18-year prison term fr the drug•· overdose death of a woman on whom he perCorme, cosmetic breast surgery.

Ten others have ncountered problems with medic1 boards In other states.

Those problems, hwever, did not doom the homeop1hlc board.

"We don't do awa with the medical board when tilir doctors have problems," said atata Sen. Jamee I. Gibson, D-Hnderson, a atrong homeopathy aciocate who sponaored the 1983 lejalation ea• tabllahlng Nevada's bard.

'rownsend said he wuld vote to keep the board, "IC I iee no evl• denc•lo prove that dmage is be­ing done and I haven'been. any.•

rector or the state Board oC Osle• But, he added, ''Th1jury is still opatby aald homeopatha ar~ not out" on whether the bard is doing tr~ In pian_ip~tlon. · ·. an adequate Job oC prtecting the · · · · . public'• interest. ·

· · Robert C. Ciut,. aecretar:v•trea• 1urer o!the atate Board oC Medical Even though atatc legialatora Ezamlnera, aald homeopatha also have voiced no strong esire to dia• have lower requlrementa than con• band the board, two bmeopathic ventlnnal phyalclana licenaed In board members, in a aurpriae Nevada, who muat have three · move, recently asked it.ate Board

SEN. WILLIAM O'DONNELL ... would tighten controls

of Medical Examiner• members what they thought about merging the two boards.

The idoa did not receive a warm reception.

"I think it was the general con• senaus of the medical examiners that that probably was not a viable

: poasibility at this time," said medi­cal board secretary-treasurer Clift.

Clift said the majority oC the members believe homeopaths should be licensed as medical doc• tors In the state, which la not now required.

Meanwhile Floyd E, Weston, chieC architect of homeopathy In Nevada, has been seeking support Crom state officials for practices that are even Curther afield Crom homeopathy.

Weston, a promoter oC homco• pathlc products, talks about. Euro• pean scientists and businessmen Investing $100 million to promote homeopathy in the Unit,<! States,

He envisions as many as 100 clinics specializing in alternative medical practices springing up around the state in the next five years and freeing Nevada from its economic dependence on gaming.

Weston met with Gov. Richard Bryan in December to discuss the

. benefits of alternative medicine. Bryan said that although Wes­

ton touted the merits oC alternative practices, he neither aollcited an endorsement for specific legisla• lion, nor explained why he wanted to meet with the governor.

Bryan said the ·meeting, attend­ed b:,, homeopathy legislation au• thor Gibson, was arranged by Wes• ton's attorney, Kenneth Cory, whom Bryan described as a family friend.

"I think he (Weston) was trying to energize me to become an advo• cate of homeopathic medicine," Bryan said.

Bryan said Weston touched on several aspects of alternative medi• cal practices including possible benefits to Nevada's economy,

"Ho made constant reference to me about what is going on in Ger• many - particularly Baden-Ba• den. He says thousands oC people go there every year for medical purposes and how we could be do• Ing the same thing here, although there are no legal obataclea to that now." Bryan said. "He character• !zed homeopathy as being on the cutting edge (of medicine) In terms of medical advances,"

Bryan expressed skepticism about sume of Weston's broad• brush statements, such as how hos• pitala in the at.ate would be emp• tied if everyone aought

SEN. RANDOLPH TOWNSEND ... "The Jury Is still out,"

homeopathic treatment. "Some of his statements were

quit.a sweeping," Bryan said. "Aa one who ia trained as a lawyer, the more sweaping tho statement, the more conservative I become In my' thinking." · ·

Although Bryan said he did not accept all oC Weston's aasertion1, "clearly this is not just a group oC people out to promote a huckster• typo of medicine."

Bryan reserved Judgment on whether Nevada should embrace some therapies that lack FDA ap• proval, sur.h as a cancer cure Wea• ton says he has found available only In Belgium that hu an "88 percent reversal rate."

Royal, whoaa long-standing per• sonal and buslnesa relationship with Weston goes back a number of years, said he hu heard auch stories before.

"I have traveled with that man all over the world with the promise that there is a cancer cure at the end oC the rainbow," Royal said. "He is a very convincing man. He can convince you that somethlne la real that isn't there,"

Bryan said Weston did not talk about his Interest in homeopathy "other than the fact that ha la a great advocate of the practice, but I have the feeling that he hu a fi. nanclal Interest in it,"

Weston doea have buslneas deal• lngs in homeopathy. After moving to Nevada In 1979 he Conned com• panies that managed a cllnlc In Lu Vegas and marketed homeopathic remedies and diagnostic devices.

Divesting himseiC oC most of those businesses in 1983, he set up offices in Reno Cor a new homeo• pathic remedy distributing comps• ny and for the U.S. Homeopathic Association after buying the righta to the name in 1984 Crom a Chica• go businesswoman. He also pro• moted multi-vitamin products pur• ported to cure vascular disorders and other ailments.

Orthodox doctors, who argue that homeopathy treatmenta are not founded In scientific proof, say such therapies can be dangerous because they impart a false sense or hope to people with Cata! or paten• tially fatal diaeases.

Sen. Townsend, however, said he believes people with terminal dis• eases can benefit from having a sense of hope, even when there la none. Recounting his mother's bout with cancer, the senator said that when conventional doctors told her she was going to die, ahe turned to Laetrile and herbal leaa,

Those substances didn't save her life, he· said, and may not have prolonged it. "But did .■he Ceel bet· ter7 You bet she did because they

Supporters of homeopathy s:,j i an enllghtensd public and troinin1c ' program■ tor practiLioners wc,uld help ths practice in Nevado.

Weston claimed late last your that a college called American U11i­versity with headquarters i11 Son Diego would soon start an academ• le program In Reno.

• But the Callfomia commission on post-secondary educotion ha! no record of an American Univer­sity in San Diego or anywhere in the state. A commission official aald all Institutions of higher edu• cation or anyone offering post-high school academic courses without registering with tho r.ommiaeion are operating Illegally,

Also, John Griffin, executive d"1•

rector of the Nevada Commission on Poat-Secondary Education, snid he has received no application for any new programs in the state.

"For American Universily, ur any other school, to come in here and offer coursea without being Ii• censed by the commission is pa• tently lllegnl," Griffin saya.

Although Weston claims n groundawell of homeopathy ia un• dulatlng acrosa the United Stetea, little more than a ripple hns reached the three states with aepa• rate licensing boards Car homec• patha.

Nevada, with about 1,500 physi• clans, has licensed only 36 homeo• paths, Arizona haa Issued 27 ho• meopathic licenses since that state established a board in 1981.

Connecticut board president Willlam McCoy aays Connecticut has only 48 even though that state haa been llcensing homeopaths for 90 years, and only four of thoso practice homeopathy exclusively.

Deapile controversies, licensing problems and even legal glitches, Navad,. l board of homaopnthy is not li:.ely to dlaappear.

The atata haa a mechanism to review the need for state licensing boarda, which Is activated only by legislative order.

Also, the homeopathic board o:,­eratea under the protective eye of Influential people.

Two years ago, homeopathic leg• islation sponsor Gibson instructed Clift to get the homeopathic board's approval of changes tt.e medical board wanted to make in !ta statute because Gibson suspect• ed there was a move afoot to do away with tho homeopathic board. "I wanted to mnke sure that uicL1't happen."

CliCt agrees that homeopathy seems to be firmly fixed in the state. ''The people of Nevada hn,·e made It very clear that they want to have homeopathic . treatment available to them."

But will the state sanction ca ever wider array of untested ar.d unproven practices in the name of homeopathy that will be limited only by the imaginations of practi• tioners and entrepreneurs?

"I don't have any ill feeling about homeopaths, if they stick to what homeopaths are supposed to do," said Laa Vegas physician llur• chard E. Winne. "My problem with homeopathy In this state is theae people are going beyond the bounds of what homeopaths are supposed to do, then they try to get the law chan1ed to encompass what they want to do."

••• Vegas Revlew.Journal/?A

Picture of pomeopath}!, presented

'fhrough ill eight-part &tries on homeopathy, the lleview.Juurnal haa shown that: .

- The principle promoter of ho• meopathy in Nevada 11 former Cal­ifornia Insurance agent Floyd E. Weston, who had ambitious plana to develop a major marketing and distribution scheme tor diagnuatlc equipment and homeopathic reme• dies through a network or clinlcl.

- The Nevada Legislature may have been an unwitting tool In ere• atlng a market for electronic de• vices that were developed and dis• trlbuted by Weaton and homeopath F, Fuller Royal, and for a training coursa marketed by Roy• al. .

- Nevada is one of only three states with a separate board for licensing homeopaths. The others are·Connecticut and Arizona.

- A portion or an esaminetion . homeopathy applicanla must take · for licensing teals them on their

knowledge or electrodiagno1i1. Board member Royal and a partner market the only preparation course for the 8ll8lll that is accepted by the board. His partner, Brigham Young Universit.y lnatructor Craig Mayrielcl, wrote, administers and grades the exam, Royal also had an lnterut In one company that buUt and marketed an electrocllagnoala machine.

- Four people licensed by tha homeopathy board ·loat their II• censes for submitting false creden• tiala, One or them, Leo Maxwell, la

· aervlng an 18,year prlaon term for the death or one or his patients.

- At 1-t 10 or the nmainlng 32 people the board haa approved - including the current and past president or the board - have en• countered trouble with medical boards in other states for question­able and, In some cases, illapl practices, Homeopathy advocates napond that the practitioners have been victims or persecution by a Jealous conventional medical com• munity. . - To obtain a homeopathy II• cenae in Nevada, an applicant must have an active medical or osteopathic llcanae in some state or country, yst at least three were Ii• censed by the state without havin1 proof or those ,licenaei. They are Abram Ber, whoae Arizona medical license was cancelled; Michael Gerber, whoa, California medical license wss revoked; and Frank William Coutcher, whose Mexican medical license may not be active.

- Many or thoae · licensed by Nevada submitted credentials from achoola or licenain1 boanls that do not exlai:. Milli Q JGA'r

- Thousendi oF'pa'tien "Kalve been treated by · ijevada homeo­paths. Apparently, most or them ara certain they bave bee~~ Few hav, iny complaints. ,~.

- Amons the queati able treatments used by Nevada homeo­paths that are not homeopathic are. chalatlon, which conventional doc• tors say can cause kidney damage; Laalrile. which la Ulegal In many stat..; replacement of matal dental ftllings, which aome dentists call a wsste or money; Gerovital, a pur­portad rejuvenat'lr that main• stream medicine dlsmiues ss a variation or Novocain.

. ,.

10B/Las Veg:Ja nal:hiw,J:,amal/:...ir.daJ, M;,rc;I, 6, i9C7

6Opinion - · · · ·· ·

.,Changes needed in .homeopathy rules The Review-Journal is in the process of winding up fts

detailid aeries on the phenomenon of homeopathic medi­cine in Nevada.

The sheer length and breadth of the aeries may have caused some readers to shy away. Admittedly, the aeries was not exactly light reading.

However, the subject matter is important. Reporter Jer• rianne Hayslett spent months researching and writing the ae• rles and faced substantial difficulties In gathering informs• · 'iion. Not the least of the roadblocks she faced was forceful resistance from both Nevada and national homeopathic or• ganizatlons that attempted to bar her access to information, even to the point of hiring a private detective to follow her around and check up on her.

In brief, what she uncovered was this: - In establishing a state homeopathy boartl, the Nevada

Legislature may have been used in a scheme to create a mar• ket for electronic devices that were developed and distribut­ed by the chief advocate Cor homeopathy in Nevada, a former California insurance agenL

- Nevada Is one of only three states with a separate ~ard for licensing homaoJ>aths. ·

- Four people licensed _by the homeopathy board were stripped of their licenses for submitting false credentials. One of them is aerving a long prison term for the death of one of his patients. ·

- At least 10 of the 32 people the board haa approved - including the current and past president of the board -have been in hot water with medical boards in other stataa for questionable and, in some instances, unlawful practices.

- To obtain a homeopathy license in Nevada, an appli• • cant must have an active medical or osteo1,111thic license in -some state or country, yet at leaat three were licensed by the state without having proof of those license■• ·

,...,, - Some Nevada homeopaths licensed by Nevada submit• , ted phony credentials from imaginary schools or licensing ~~ards. · .. ,:, - The homeopathy board wants to keep secret any . • background information on applicants for licenaea. ·

It is impoBBible to read of these things and not come away with the strong impression that Nevada need■ a better

· ayatem of licensing homeopaths. "-' One thing the Legislature should not do is broaden the •'icope of the practice of homeopathy, aa is contemplated in ; 'Senate Bill 134. It is currently under consideration • . , , Further, the Legislature should move to defme homeopa• ,thy aa a medical specialty - like the oncology or pulmonary <iipei;laltiea - and brmg it under the jurisdiction of the Ne• ivada Board of Medical Examiners. The homeopathy board \has not-demonstrated that it can adequately regulate the 1piactice or carry out adequate licensing background lnvestiga• · "'tlon■• Homeopaths should be licensed by the Board of

• ~Medical Examiners. · ·

t,,:' The Legislature should stand firm against the homeopathy 'l;>oard's push for a law making homeopaths' applications and j'aupportlng documentation confidential. They seek· restric• , \,Ions that would allow the public to know only an applicant's • name, business address, medical school record and date of · .graduation, and information about when a license waa gran~. •Or de!1ied. .

·11• IC anything, there is compelling evidence In support of ,more public scrutiny of the licensed practlcionera of this un• ·

.. usual form of medicine. ·

~•;. Homeopathy may indeed have a role In the liel~ of medi• · cal practice, even the relatively unorthodox Corm m which it la practiced in Nevada. Some freedom of choice la In order ,for patients, and, indeed, many of them appear satisfied that · ,their medical status baa been improved by homeopathic • ·v.e■ tment. · · · • . · ,.,(, A • Nonetheless, those patients are entitled to Cull protection, ,le, rational and legal screening that ensure they are being 'treated by practitioners who have the skills, education and 'backgrounds to administer medical procedures that Call within · Jhormal established professional limits. .0,. It la up to 1he Leglal~ture to supply this protection. 'n,!r

:;:.The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas. ,fl_evlew-Journal. All other opinions expressed on these pages are those ol the artist or author Indicated.