News, Policy & Economics

A Clinic on the Edge of Hell: Naturopathic Care at the Ukrainian Border

By Janet Gulland, Contributing Writer

For the past decade, Dr. Decker Weiss has been splitting his time between his home base in Carefree, AZ, and makeshift emergency clinics on the borders of Hell. Weiss, a naturopathic physician (Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine ’97) with advanced training in cardiology, has undertaken multiple medical missions to refugee camps, disaster sites, and regions […]

New Surveys Show Impact of Politics on Public Health

By Kristen Schepker

A massive online survey of more than 5 million Americans shows that political affiliation is a major factor influencing peoples’ decisions about the Covid-19 vaccines. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh, in partnership with CMU’s Delphi Group, culled and analyzed data on vaccine attitudes from a larger national Covid survey […]

FDA Leaves NAC In Regulatory Limbo

By Erik Goldman

After nearly two years of contention, the Food and Drug Administration has signaled that it will not ban the use of N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) in dietary supplements. At the same time the agency refuses to reverse its steadfast position that NAC is a pharmaceutical ingredient which, by definition, excludes it from the supplement category. This leaves […]

Eyeing Practice Evolution, Fullscript Acquires Emerson

By Erik Goldman

Fullscript CEO Kyle Braatz is on what he calls a “forever” mission: to establish a comprehensive technological infrastructure for the transformation of integrative and functional medicine into simply “medicine.” With the acquisition of its main competitor, Emerson Ecologics, Fullscript has taken a major step toward fulfillment of that mission. The deal, announced in mid-March, will […]

UNPA Honors Holistic Primary Care’s Integrity in Journalism

By Erik Goldman

The United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA), one of the supplement industry’s most influential trade associations, recently honored Holistic Primary Care with the Integrity in Journalism award. UNPA founder and president Loren Israelsen surprised HPC’s editor/co-founder Erik Goldman with the award during the organization’s annual members meeting at the 2022 Natural Products ExpoWest in Anaheim, CA. […]

As Vax Rules Clash, Montana Clinics Caught in Crossfire

By Kristen Schepker, Contributing Writer

Clashes over vaccine mandates are the latest rifts defining a deeply politicized pandemic culture. In some states, local vaccination rules directly contradict national public health directives, putting hospitals and clinics in the difficult position of determining how to best safeguard patients and staff, amid a shifting landscape of conflicting directives. I am watching one such […]

NAC Supplements Face Ban Unless FDA Reverses Course

By Erik Goldman

Americans could lose access to N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) supplements in 2022, unless the nutrition and dietary supplements industries can prove to the Food and Drug Administration that this glutathione precursor was in widespread use as a supplement or food ingredient prior to the mid-1990s. Last year, the FDA made clear that it views NAC as […]

Single-Payer Healthcare, Just Not THAT Single-Payer

By Grant Jackson, MD, Contributing Writer

Among his many celebrated lines, Scottish economist Adam Smith–the original spokesman for capitalism—wrote in 1776: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.”  Ahhh, the free market, in which our rational self-interests will keep all of […]

The Phytochemical Equivalency Controversy

By Elan Sudberg, Contributing Writer

Is it truly equivalent? It’s a question currently being applied to chemical compounds, formally known as phytochemicals, that have historically been made exclusively by plants, but are now–through recent advancements in genetic engineering—being manufactured by genetically modified yeasts, or protozoans like euglena. A host of widely used vitamins, amino acids, sweeteners, essential oils, and bioactive […]

Naturopathic Medicine Moves Toward Healthcare’s Center Stage

By Erik Goldman

The healthcare systems in the United States are in dire need of what naturopathic medicine has to offer, and the profession is ready to move from the margins onto center stage. That’s the message of a new mission statement issued jointly by the Institute for Natural Medicince (INM), the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), […]