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Nulls "credentials":
". . . Null says he holds an associate degree in business administration from Mountain State College in West Virginia, a bachelor's degree from Thomas A. Edison State College in New Jersey, and a PhD in human nutrition and public health sciences from The Union Institute in Cincinnati, Ohio. Two papers he co-authored during the early 1980s identified him as Gary Null, M.S," but I have seen no information about the source of that credential.
Edison State is a "nontraditional" school with neither campus nor courses. It is accredited but awards accredited bachelor's degrees based on career experience, equivalency exams, and courses taken at other schools. In the late 1980s, a prominent college guidebook described it this way:
Thomas A. Edison State College, established in 1972, administers an external degree program that enables qualified students to earn or work toward a college degree without attending college in the usual way. There is no resident faculty, no campus, no classrooms, and no library. Administrative officers in Trenton evaluate college-level learning achieved through work or life experiences, self-study, college courses taken previously, industry-sponsored education programs, military instruction, etc. The college administers its own examinations in the liberal arts and sciences, business, and radiologic technology under the Thomas Edison College Examination Program <6>.
The Union Institute is also accredited, but its degree requirements and standards for health-related doctoral degrees differ greatly from those of most traditional universities. Students design their own program, form and chair their own doctoral committee, and are required to attend only an introductory colloquium and a few interdisciplinary seminars. Null's thesis, entitled "A Study of Psychological and Physiological Effects of Caffeine on Human Health," was approved in in August 1989. The approval document states that his PhD committee was composed of a "core faculty member," three "adjunct professors," two "peers," and a "second core reader." The "core faculty member," Peter Fenner, was a well-credentialed academician whose expertise (in geologic sciences) was not related to Null's topic. One of the three "adjunct professors" was Martin Feldman, MD, a "complementary" physician (and "clinical ecologist") who has pinch-hit for Null as a radio host, and helped develop some of Null's books and supplement formulations. The other two were Philip J. Hodes and Elayne Kahn. When I asked a school official about their background or location, he replied that information was in storage and was too difficult to obtain. In 2005, I located mention of "Dr. Philip Jay Hodes, Ph.D, Ed.D., Practitioner Holistic, Health Detoxification & Orthomolecular Nutritionist, Consultant" on a Web site that sells "natural tropical herbal medicines." <7> I also discovered that Elayne Kahn is a psychologist in New York City who coauthored a book with Null that was published in 1976 <8>. " Quackwatch
More on Union Institute:
Union Institute is in Ohio and its accreditation is handled by the Higher Learning Commission, an arm of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, which is the body that accredits all schools in the region. You can go to the web site of the Higher Learning Commission and look up the page that describes the accreditation of Union Institute, where you will find that3
The Institute may add no new centers or degree programs beyond the Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, the Psy.D. (Doctor of Psychology), and the Ed.D. (Doctor of Education) without the Commission’s approval. The Ph.D. program in Interdisciplinary Studies is limited to the social sciences and humanities research areas.
So it would seem that their granting of a Ph.D. in the health sciences, or any kind of science other than social science, is outside the realm of their accreditation, and was in 1989, when Null got his degree. This is as if a high school in Ohio, which is accredited by the same umbrella organization, decided to give someone a Ph.D. in physics in return for a fee. Yes, they are an accredited school, but their accreditation does not include the granting of Ph.D.s in physics, so the degree is bogus.
"board certified" : Board certification is a credential earned by doctors that means they are qualified in a particular medical specialty. Gary Null is not a doctor and, needless to say, is not “board certified” in anything. I don't know whether he’s confused or is trying to create the impression, in his listeners’ minds, that he is a medical doctor, but either way, it should stop, especially since he shows no restraint in offering medical and even veterinary advice over the air for the treatment of specific diseases and conditions.
Licensed nutritionists are permitted to do things such as interview an overweight person about his diet and recommend changes in his eating habits. They need not have any formal education beyond a two-year degree. This is a low-level vocational license granted by the Department of Education; dieticians are not health professionals in the sense that doctors, RNs, or physician assistants are. Having a dietician’s license does not confer any special credibility in discussions of current biomedical research. If a dietician tried to treat a cancer patient with a coffee enema, as Gary Null recommends,10 he would likely be prosecuted for, at the least, practicing medicine without a license.
More info on Mr. Null:
"Null -- a nutritionist, lecturer, broadcaster, "educator" and "one of America's leading health and fitness writers and alternative practitioners," according to his publicity -- is the author of more than 100 books, treatises and tracts on stress-free living, anti-aging, proper eating, "springtime cleansing," "lifetime dieting," "healing with magnets," "juicing," weight management and "life changes." . . . In addition to his role as a fitness guru, Null is the kind of pop-psych P.T. Barnum, never absent in a crisis, who will "help you find answers" to those really tough questions . . .
. . . He's also a longtime AIDS denialist, or "dissident," as they're called, part of a loose fraternity of scientists, patients and (mainly) quacks who insist that AIDS is a false epidemic; that HIV either doesn't cause it or doesn't really exist; that the medications normally taken to fight the virus are pure poison, foisted on a frightened population by the pharmaceutical industry - . . . In last year's primer, "Seven Steps to Perfect Health," Null recommended what he does to everyone, all the time, whether or not they're infected with a killer virus: a strict vegetarian diet; no processed foods; no dairy products, sugar, preservatives, coffee, tea or cola, etc.; multiple glasses every day of fresh fruit or vegetable juice -- preferably squeezed from a $249.95 "Gary Null Juicer";. . ."
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