Nationality American | Known for Human Detoxification | |
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Born March, 1936 Salt Lake City, Utah Website www.sacmedicalgroup.com Specialism Occupational and Environmental Medicine | ||
David Emerson Root (born March, 1936) is an American physician known for promoting L. Ron Hubbard's controversial Purification Rundown to treat chemical exposure.
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Professional Life
Root received his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Bowman Gray Campus, Winston-Salem, NC, in 1962. He served 20 years in the United States Air Force before retiring in 1980 with the rank of Colonel as Chief Flight Surgeon and Senior Pilot.
In 1982 Dr. Root began implementing the medically unorthodox sauna detoxification method, developed in 1978 by American author and Church of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, from his Sacramento, California, practice in a joint venture with the HealthMed Clinic, run by Scientologists and backed by the Los Angeles-based Scientology front organization named "The Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education", (FASE). Root is listed as the Medical Director of HealthMed and the Senior Medical Advisor of FASE.
He is the Senior Medical Advisor to the "International Academy of Detoxification Specialists", a subsidiary of Scientology front group New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.
Criticism
Scientists independent of Scientology describe the Hubbard Method as quackery, unproven and medically unsafe. The Scientology operated Narconon drug rehabilitation centers, for which Root is a member of the Science Advisory Board, has garnered considerable controversy as a result of its origins in Scientology and its methods. After reviewing materials published by Narconon, University of Oklahoma biochemistry professor Bruce Roe described the program as "a scam" based on "half-truths and pseudo-science."
According to an article in the International Business Times, Lydia Smith writes,
The detoxification process has repeatedly come under fire since Narconon was formed. But in response, the organisation has stated that mainstream medicine is biased against it. One of the most controversial areas of the purification is the use of niacin, an essential human nutrient, and one of the ingredients of the multivitamin cocktail given to Narconon members. Clear Body, Clear Mind, a canonical text of Scientology published by the Church in 1990, recommends initial doses of 100mg, which increase over the course of the programme. This is in stark contrast to the medically recommended level of around 15mg. Overdoses of Niacin include skin irritation, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, headaches and liver damage. The risk of taking high doses of niacin is one of the reasons medical experts have said the Narconon programme is unsafe and has since been banned in France and Quebec.Other activities
In a precedential 1987 California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board award, Root’s testimony helped annul a 1986 denial of insurance on a claimed injury to the petitioner's skin, gastrointestinal tract and other organs from cumulative exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) in the course of his employment. The petitioner recovered his detoxification costs, and this ruling paved the way for other workers’ compensation cases involving Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a controversial diagnosis which is not generally accepted by medical science.
With key members of FASE, Root has lectured and consulted with physicians and government officials from Russia, Slovenia, England, Sweden, Israel, and France to facilitate the detoxification of victims of the Chernobyl disaster and other toxic chemical exposure accidents. In the United States, Root assisted FASE and the Heroes Health Fund with the startup in 2003 of two New York clinics which provided free detoxification services to 9/11 First Responders and volunteers at Ground Zero who were exposed to "…toxic dust, fume and vapor that arose from the collapsing WTC and subsequent fire [which] contained hundreds of different toxic chemicals, including dioxins, PCBs, asbestos, silica, benzene, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, manganese, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur," according to Dr. James G. Dahlgren, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Claimed positive subjective results from the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project convinced Utah State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to fund the Utah Meth Cops Project with over $440,000 in taxpayer dollars to treat police who complain of health effects from exposure to meth lab toxins.
Published Works and Presentations Cited In Books
Gulf War syndrome
In an effort to validate their subjective detoxification results while providing relief to the American vets suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, FASE set out to secure funding for a comprehensive research study through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). Root’s testimony in 1998 to the Presidential Special Oversight Board For Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical & Biological Incidents, and to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), led to an official recommendation by CDC that detoxification be studied as a treatment option for Gulf War veterans. The $633,677.00 grant, titled "Gulf War Illness: Evaluation of an Innovative Detoxification Program" was awarded in September, 2010.
Utah Meth Cops project
In 2012, a peer-reviewed report of the findings from the Utah Meth Cops Project study was published on PubMed.Gov of the US National Library of Medicine for the National Institute of Health (NIH).
The report concludes, "This investigation strongly suggests that utilizing sauna and nutritional therapy may alleviate chronic symptoms appearing after chemical exposures associated with methamphetamine-related law enforcement activities. This report also has relevance to addressing the apparent ill effects of other complex chemical exposures. In view of the positive clinical outcomes in this group, broader investigation of this sauna-based treatment regimen appears warranted."