Dr. Stephen Barrett Being Sued

Dr. Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch is being sued by the Doctors Data a lab that caters to chelation therapists. It has to do with Dr. Barretts article called "How the urine toxic metal test is used to defraud patients". The gist of the test has to do with something called provoked testing by the practitioner to artificially raise the level of heavy metals in the urine. This is done by giving a chelation agent before the test and collecting urine samples after the agent is given. Because we all have heavy metals in our system and if you test before the chelation no heavy metals will be found in the urine sample, the chelation agent will bind to any heavy metal, plus also calcium and other ions, causing the testing to be positive. If you test for the heavy metals in the serum, they will be there but in extremely small and non toxic amounts. The result is then to tell the patient that they have too high a levels of, take your pick of heavy metal, and that is causing what ever disease the patient has or thinks he or she has. This sells the therapy. If you would like to help Dr. Barrett you can donate by contacting him at http://www.quackwatch.org/00AboutQuackwatch/donations.html.

Peace Skeptical DoDo