The American Medical Association’s latest attempt to shore up their medical monopoly could have stiff consequences for practitioners who don’t toe the line. Action Alert!
Angered by what they call “quack MDs,” the AMA recently decided to “actively defend the profession.” In particular, it plans to
create ethical guidelines for physicians in the media, write a report on how doctors may be disciplined for violating medical ethics through their press involvement, and release a public statement denouncing the dissemination of dubious medical information through the radio, TV, newspapers, or websites.
Dr. Mehmet Oz of The Dr. Oz Show was specifically mentioned as being responsible for the type of behavior and “pseudoscience” that the AMA would like to curtail.
One of the people who helped craft the AMA resolution to tighten control of doctors in the media is not, in fact, a physician himself, but only a medical student. He told Vox in an interview that “Dr. Oz has something like 4 million viewers a day. The average physician doesn’t see a million patients in their [sic] lifetime. That’s why organized medicine should be taking action.” In point of fact, Dr. Oz reaches only half that number—but let’s not let a little thing like accuracy stand in the way of an agenda.
Keep in mind that the AMA is not the voice of the medical profession. Its membership has slipped to the point where it represents only 17% of MDs, and many of those are free memberships given to medical students, yet it remains the fifth most powerful special interest on Capitol Hill, spending $19.7 million on lobbying in 2014. This gives it the clout to influence Medicare prices, make recommendations that shape national policy, and rake in about $218.8 million a year from its government-granted CPT medical code monopoly.
Dr. Oz is a high-profile example, but countless integrative doctors in states across the country routinely face harassment and the threat of having their licenses revoked by state medical boards for the most specious reasons—you may recall our past coverage of the Washington state board’s appalling crusade against Dr. Jonathan Wright as only one example among many. But when conventional doctors engage in behavior that is similar to that of integrative physicians—or when conventional docs flout the laws in the most egregious ways—state boards are far more lenient, if any action is taken at all.
The bias, then, is already overwhelmingly against integrative practitioners, and now the AMA is looking to take further steps to silence them. What will happen to doctors who don’t unflinchingly support the CDC vaccine regime, or who inform their patients of any alternative treatment that clashes with conventional orthodoxy? In Europe, it is already illegal for doctors to use the terms “probiotic,” “superfood,” and “antioxidant” when used in relation to commercial food products or supplements—and European doctors who even mention the benefits or health claims of any food, supplement, or non-drug product to patients face jail time. Will we allow free professional speech to be similarly suppressed here? Has the US come to this?
The only way that medical care advances and gradually becomes more scientific is by challenging orthodoxy. Doctors killed George Washington by repeatedly bleeding him. The doctor who first told physicians to wash their hands was scorned and harassed. The doctor who first found bacterial involvement in stomach ulcers was vilified until he was eventually exonerated and given prizes. As Gary Null showed so effectively in his book Death by Medicine, medical error is today the largest single cause of death in the US. How can there be advances or improvements if critics, researchers, and innovators are all gagged?
At ANH-USA, we believe in a free and open market when it comes to healthcare choices. By doing what it can to gag doctors’ free speech in the media, the AMA is indeed attempting to “defend the profession”—albeit from competition and change, not from those it dismisses as “quacks.”
Action Alert! Write to the American Medical Association and urge them not to go forward with these speech-suppressing ethical guidelines, which will unduly restrict our access to health information. We need to let them know that the American public will not stand for it. Please send your message immediately.
This is not right. We need strong folks in the medical community to stand up for what is right and to help people. They see some things that no one else sees. Free speech is an amendment to the Constitutional Bill of Rights. We need a lot of change. We need drug companies to STOP barging into doctor’s offices to give them samples and maybe into patient’s rooms like one did to me.
We need them to stand up for medical mistakes. My mother was injured in RWJ N.B. and no one will admit to tearing her ACL and Lateral Meniscus in their ER because they have no idea how to handle dementia patients. I was also almost killed due to anesthesia and then the anesthesiologist harassed me, my parents, my workplace and my medical carrier demanding her money NOW. She got it in 60 days and then I demanded repayment of my money to her…
Go Dr. Oz Go Go get them. I’m a huge fan of yours.
Somehow, malpractice isn’t considered a violation of medical ethics (not unnecessary surgeries, not medical mistakes, not misdiagnosis), but trying to tell people to eat organic foods is. How is this possible?
Industrial Monopoly and Corruption.
I was reminded recently by a veteran that freedom isn’t free, and neither is it just the duty of the active soldier to fight for freedom. When either a governmental organization or lobby group tells us to “trust them” that they are experts, when they disparage anyone who opposes their company line in effect intimidating others from speaking up for fear of being subject to a similar character assassination, I’m dismayed. When people tell me they are opposed to fluoridation or find Dr. Oz’s information helpful, but won’t say anything publicly because they’re afraid their doctor or dentist will refuse to treat them, I’m chilled to the bone. Do folks not realize that the definition of TYRANNY is the oppressive and arbitrary use of power or control to support dogma, and that is EXACTLY what our is happening when the CDC, ADA, AMA, Boards of Health, and local “experts” disparage opponents and dismiss or deny science that isn’t supportive of their position?
my pediatrician just dropped us for not vaccinating. It’s getting crazy.
Good for you. You’re better off without that doctor. Find one who’s willing to work with you or do without. If you feed your children right and watch who they come in contact with they’ll be much healthier. I’m of the belief that doctors are only good for extreme emergency situations.
finding one might not be easy.
You are very right. The latest is that they will be issuing gag orders to doctors and other health “professionals” who don’t go along with what the AMA, FDA, CDC and big pharma or want to advise patients about healthy foods, herbs, vitamins or any form of alternative treatments.
All these corporate goon agencies are doing is creating a Black Market for doctors. Kind of like the back-street alley doctors in fourth world countries, a good example is on Kill La Kill! Haha.
If naturopathy is licensed in your state I would find a local ND and ask if they have a recommendation for the nearest integrative MD, if any.
Why not just go to a naturopath? The only reason an MD may be needed for is for trauma.
Think of that as a good thing.
Vaccines are necessary.
He’s a quack. Tell him about that fact.
Why would any self respecting doctor waste their time treating someone who considers Dr. Oz a legitimate source of independent science based medicine? Not that I trust the AMA to have anything but profit at heart either.
Seriously, the doctor Oz crowd is so looney some of them also believe we never landed on the moon, and half of them are snake handling religious whackos.
There’s a lot of evidence for folk healing that has been time proven over centuries, and then there’s the latest fad with Dr. Oz cashing checks everyday.
By the way, I always wonder, if he’s so motivated by such high ideals, why is he always demanding to make more and more money everyday for his “advice” and uses every scam marketing technique known?
It’s like that Ron Paul scam, he claims the world will burn, knows how to save you from the burning world, but the answer is to buy a book from a convicted securities scammer….
Can you provide more information about the Ron Paul scam? A link or two?
Go to his website where his “answer” is a book by a convicted securities fraudster.
People have the right to all options and kinds of information regarding their health, including about nutrition, herbs, exercise, surgeries, etc., because there are already ways to refute or challenge all the medical information, which is the great thing about the internet.
The saddest thing is that doctors already hide information from their patients. Have you ever been to a doctor and felt informed? Nope, they always do the basic tests and never say anything more; None of them mention that conventional food is toxic and destroys your health and none of them will treat you for it. If you get lucky you might get them to say “eat better, no junk food” which is a really rough nutshell of (the food is poisoned, only eat organic).
Industry doctors are nothing but for-profit pill pushers, they do not help anyone.
often they don’t know themselves. i bet they don’t read vaccine inserts.
If these guidelines were created by a medical student, clearly they cannot be enforced and will not be adopted; Even if the AMA decides to, these rules will NOT be followed by anyone working for the Truth. Why criminalize the doctors doing their jobs properly? We will criminalize the toxic monopoly instead. Whatever new rules this fake “government” or these pathetic corporate run agencies make up, ignore them. They are not legitimate institutions, they have no authority and thus their rules are hollow (just like their conscience). Anyone who supports the toxic industrial monopoly will be destroyed.
If the TPP supports it WE will be destroyed!
If the TPP is supported, everything will be destroyed.
Pretty sure I posted this already, but it seemingly “vanished”.
wanted to participate, but cannot due to cookie req’t…
Go Away.
“European doctors who even mention the benefits or health claims of any
food, supplement, or non-drug product to patients face jail time.”
This is a generalisation, as e.g. in Germany many medical doctors also become homeopaths to retain customers, because many Germans like to consult a “real” doctor, but prefer to be prescribed a homeopathic remedy rather than a medical drug for their ailment.
I agree. Not
quite sure where the author gets the info about Europe. When I lived
over there, alternative therapies were very accepted and even covered by
insurance, so I double checked and found this about the Netherlands
(still pretty much how I remember it when I was back there for some time
15 years ago): “Homeopathy, acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy,
traditional Chinese medicine and other complementary therapies are
widely used. The different types of therapy are grouped together in
associations and you’ll find a list of regulated practitioners (in Dutch
only) at the Association of Alternative Medicine.
Health
insurers now cover many alternative therapies, so check what different
insurers offer if you require alternate therapies or treatments.”
Take a broader look at the U.S. Organizations; they intentionally support the bad practices and the unhealthy courses. They intentionally block the good alternative medicines to enforce their toxic monopolistic one for their profit gains and patents.
Just like the fossil fuel monopoly blocks advancing green technologies from replacing them, simply so they can make more value-less, meaningless human fabricated currency for themselves without any care to the cost of life on the planet.
The Dentistry version of this organization does the exact same thing, to this day saying that MERCURY FILLINGS are “completely safe” even though it is widely accepted around the world that they are not.
Everything the industry in the U.S. does is to the detriment of the taxpayer who bails them out, ironically enough. The fake government and the corporations care not for us, but for our fake, value-less currency (which is a joke in it that it of itself).
Let’s gag the AMA. Take Action
If only we had the same setup and control system they do, I’m sure they wouldn’t like us criminalizing them either! But because the corrupt criminal system has yet to be held truly accountable, they don’t fear such repercussions for their atrocious actions!
Not to mention they don’t have the conscience or capacity for empathy or compassion like we do, otherwise they wouldn’t be doing what they do.
I love that the AMA has decided to become a self-limiting cancer on society. Taking steps to cause docs to resign as members is phenomenal. There actually ARE medical associations that respect patient individuality and right to choose, informed consent and ethical practice! Consumers will do very well if they eschew the AMA membership in favor of the medical associations not on the Pharma dole.
AMA IS JUST AS BAD AS BIG PHARMA & FDA, CDC.
I have the intelligence to listen watch, read & research various
RX drugs, vitamins, various surgeries, any test ordered for me
that contains radiation or dyes in the vains. Also can research
and question my doctors on something they order for me as to why and what it will do. I like to listen to Dr.Oz now & then
& IF something sounds logical & applies to me, I will either
research it or just forget it. Does AMA BELIEVE that they are
smarter than any other single person?? Sorry, but I or many may have much more knowledge or education than you.
I listen to Sen.Durbin pushing for years to get ALl supplements
under control of BIG PHARMA, FDA. Why? Just all about more
money for pharma, fda, and campaign money to politician.
Sen. Durbin (criminalize supplements) and Sen. Pompeo (the DARK act on steroids) can go ahead and have a high-speed head-on collision. That would be tiny micro damage compared to the ramifications of their corrupt proposals.
Agree’d.
The easiest way to deal with these crooks is to simply make them vanish.
Wish I could do that to the whole corrupt system that has poisoned and destroyed the world. I would of done it already.
It kind of makes Al Capone and his cronies look like kindergartners at play in comparison to the current medical cartel.
I am so fortunate to have a good Internist that has prescribed
various vitamins, supps, due to Blood lab work show I am
deficient. If I get a RX my doctor immediately pays attention
to me if I get Bad side effects or allergic reaction as I seem to
be quite sensitive to bad side effects. If AMA spent more time
paying attention to bad drugs, bad vaccine reactions, medical mistakes, instead of only watching the money in their pockets,
they probably have much better business. I had a surgery that got Real Serious Results, that could have been prevented but
also was very Delicate surgery. MY SURGEON ACTUALLY
CRIED IN HIS APOLOGY TO ME SINCERELY. WHAT A REAL HUMAN, THUS I DID NOT SUE, WHICH I COULD HAVE. HE
allowed his humaness to shine! He even took a two month
vacation, gave me his cellphone number if I needed him.
Doctors need to stay informed much as possible, willing open
mind and even listen if a patient ask them about some treatment they dont know about. My doctor will tell me when they dont know about something, but will check it out or ask
the Pharmacist. I am so lucky to have great doctor apparently.
Wake up AMA, IF YOU ANY GOOD, YOU DONT NEED TO BE
ENVIOUS OF ANOTHER DOCTOR that may treat differently &
perhaps you could learn something. Wash Your Hands Please
There may be a free speech problem with this. Duh.
we face the SAME NONSENSE every day despite having sold out every copy of every issue
More medical tyranny from the ABA. What do you expect from an organization in which it’s largest contributors are Glaxo and Merck? They have a long history adopting policy from whomever they’re taking bribes from (like big tobacco). If I were a doctor today, I’d have nothing to do with them. My message to them.. “Seriously AMA? … STFU”
Unfortunately, for all the doctors who share your sentiment they have to be extorted and strong-armed into supporting this crooked “organization” otherwise they don’t even get to utilize their abilities/schooling that they paid for! Pretty despicable.
Forcing doctors, who are suppose to help people, to push addictive, toxic pills on them is …heresy against life. The toxic US monopoly will end one way or the other, it is just a matter of if we can talk some sense into these crooks first or if we must/nature must destroy them all.
Which of course, I am kind of leaning towards the latter. Can’t talk sense into something that never had it in the first place.
Remember, the AMA was formed in response to the AHPA, which was taking all the allopaths’ patients.
I was shocked at the harsh treatment meted out to Dr. Andrew Wakefield.
I think the established professionals are afraid of losing more ground. This even includes non medical and non traditional medicine groups. The RD’s are always trying to pass regulations and laws which would prevent all other nutrition professionals, including far better educated ones, from practicing nutrition. The naturopathic medical board in California even had me investigated for supposedly calling myself a doctor (which I never ever do), and. using ND after my name which I also never ever do. They dug up some web sites with whom I am not related to in any way and who VERY INCORRECLTY either referred to me as a doctor or put those incorrect initials after my name. Thankfully, the department of consumer affairs chief investigator was very professional and honest. After he was satisfied that I had no association with these companies or web sites, that I have always had a waiver form which VERY CLEARLY states that I AM NOT a doctor, and that I always (ON TAPE) immediately correct anyone who ever makes the mistake of introducing me as a doctor, he dropped all charges, closed the investigation and told me that unlike some others he has investigated, I was in complete compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. So it is not only the better MD’s who wish to be more holistic that are getting investigate. Many professional groups are apparently trying to put their competition out of business or get them fined. This is very sad, as I feel we have room for everyone and it is the consumer’s job to find the professionals they wish to believe, follow, or go to for their health.
Yep, that is indeed the saddest thing of all.
A good example of how corrupt U.S. business is these days: A person created a Moving business as a start-up and wanted to make it larger, but the local politicians made it so that any business that wanted to start up in the same area as businesses already running had to get “approval” from the other businesses, essentially the competition, who will always say no.
The U.S. is being utilized by corporate crooks to preemptively sabotage any competition to their business simply so they can make more money for itself, the exact opposite of what the US claims it is about. Regulations are now just a means of crippling your competitor so that you can keep the monopoly going.
I personalized my action with this opening paragraph: I get it that the AMA was established to run off the strong movement toward the most effective forms of medicine that is homeopathy. And it is only quite obvious that money was a big player even back then. When I read about your organization’s plan to create ethical guidelines for physicians in the media, which would include a report on how doctors may be disciplined for violating medical ethics through their press involvement, and a public statement denouncing the dissemination of dubious medical information through the radio, TV, newspapers, or websites, I couldn’t help but think about how the AMA again is on a mission to make mass quantities of money with a past gag orders for MDs who want to report health issues caused by the fracking industry as reported in your own publication. http://www.amednews.com/article/20120827/government/308279957/1/
In the UK I came across the 1939 Cancer Law
Which restricts any practitioner from mentioning any therapy other than Surgery Radium and Chemotherapy for cancer,
Weeks after my 13 yr old daughter died, my son aged 6 started to become not himself, he had been treated in his school with Fluoride Varnish meant to help promote healthy teeth.
My son developed a curved spine, he became frustrated and developed tics in his arms and facial tics also
His walk developed poorly and unstable then finally now has a Gait walk, since being poisoned with that fluoride varnish . Now my son has been genetically modified with Freidericks Ataxia,
A muscle wasting disease , no treatment no cure .
I am fighting to protect my son as these barbaric Doctors want to take any chance of childhood my son has left, by saying Nathan your heart could stop tomorrow but before that happens your going to be completely paralyzed and unable to speak,
Four years later without my son knowing his future of illness HE STILL WALKS TALKS AND IS STILL A LITTLE BOY WITH HIS LIFE AHEAD OF HIM.
I give my son vitamins and pray for help with treatment of stem cells or the right amount neutrons powering his body and blood,
I was told that my son can’t get that kind of treatment as I can’t afford it,
I have a big family whom will do anything to see my son have his ability to thrive, I can get costs if I knew who to get help from.
Hi Donna,
Have you taken your son to a caring grief counselor to help him process the death of his big sister? That huge emotional event may have been an underlying trigger for his health issues, and clearing that may help him find the strength within to help his body heal on its own. If stress can cause a migraine headache in an adult, then imagine what the death of a family member can have on a little child’s health.
THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE!!~! The AMA has absolutely no right to stop doctors from practicing whichever field of medicine they are licensed to practice, and that includes holistic medicine.
Tell ya what, let everyone decide for themselves what doctor to listen to and how to heal themselves unless it can be shown there could be harm to others in doing so.
By the way, has the AMA ever called for the prosecution of big pharma execs who are responsible for countless deaths?
th50501: Why would they? They are two tentacles of the same beast. You have supposedly learned that the AMA is primarily a LOBBYING BODY to destroy anything that threatens their revenue stream. If you had though, you would not make that statement.
Both my son and daughter have an ion channel disorder (SCN1A mutation — sodium ion regulation disfunction). Can you give me a bit of information about the diet, supplementation and mitochondrial support that has helped you? Thanks so much for anything you can offer.
I am so sorry It has taken me so long to get back to you. New to disqus and how this works.. my particular disorder is Andersen Tawil syndrome. My diet is primarily low carb high fat high protein low sodium and high potassium foods. I also must take mass quantities of potassium as well as magnesium vitamin b12 vitamin d etc. I also have many symptoms of sodium channel involvement. I must keep sodium low in balance with potassium. My particular mutation is unknown..
Thank you Karen! I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I had both my son and daughter on a modified ketogenic diet for years, sounds similar to what you have described here, minus the emphasis on potassium. Good to know.
Good ! After the issues with vaccines WHICH HAVE BEEN SCIENTIFICALLY
PROVEN TO NOT CAUSE AUTISM !!! these people need to be banned.
Also,
If water has memory, like so many claim, wouldn’t that mean that
everything that has ever been put into said water is still there. So you
are then quite literally drinking feces, and urine.
No one, anywhere, at any time has shown that vaccines have been “SCIENTIFICALLY PROVEN TO NOT CAUSE AUTISM”. Most real evidence is confirmatory, i.e., there is a positive irrefutable link.
Where to find? Links just go to statement regarding facebook censorship. Sympathetic and interested but cannot support if can’t find it!
The great mass of doctors and physicians, like their greater mass of patients in post modern society, seem to be like willing sheep led to the slaughter. In the future, there will be more misdiagnoses as there will be less and less focus on the patient and more on the procedures and feeding the hospital-industrial complex. The irony is that doctors have been forced to join these “hospital industrial complexes” as employees and not as responsible doctors. What is now in the offing in the minds of these “hospital industrial complexes” managers are the effective ban on physician-owned hospitals and regulatory overload on private practices, which provide superior health care services at significantly less cost.
Doctor organizations were inept against this onslaught as their lack of business understanding, leadership, and sometimes inflated egos and arrogance only contributed to this disservice. Self-governance and independence of decision-making by doctors are infringed upon by hospital and insurance companies. As well, an all out effort is being made to silence the voice of any physician whistleblower.
I wonder if the AMA consults with the Mexican Drug Lords
As the article points out the AMA is a lobbying organization not a regulatory body. It needs to stay that way. I choose not to be a member of the AMA because it doesn’t advocate for the patients best interest only for the physicians and the bottom line.
It’s on this wise:
Them: “Stop complaining to me about the gun I have pointed at you.”
Us: “I have right to complain. Why shouldn’t I complain?”
Them: “Why? Because actually, you do not have a right to complain as I haven’t pulled the trigger yet.”
I am a health professional and have had a 37 year long career and am sickened by what I am reading about the AMA. I am a nurse practitioner with a doctorate and can assure you that many of us are not trying to squelch the truth about anything. I agree with seabreezes1 this smacks of tyranny but I also know there are probably more fine MDs out there who disagree with this approach than agree. Many are probably embarrassed by such dominating behavior. Our patients are always our priority and we are not concerned with political correctness or unreasonable rules.
No. 100% wrong.
Too easy … you should read Brownstein’s other blog posts on vaccinations. They are short and to-the-point. He is in the know, we are not.
Any update for this? The action alert link is broken.