Kavin Senapathy at forbes.com on Naturopathy's change.org Petition Battle

here, more on 'the naturopathy petition battle' by way of science communicator Kavin Senapath and former-ND Hermes:

001. at forbes.com, Kavin Senapathy writes in "Why Is Big Naturopathy Afraid Of This Lone Whistleblower?" (2016-05-31):

"Britt Marie Hermes practiced as a naturopathic doctor (ND) for three years [...after getting] her doctorate in naturopathic medicine at Bastyr University [...] her world came crashing down when she realized she’d been duped, having spent thousands of hours 'speaking, learning, and practicing fake medicine' [...she's] a lone former naturopathic physician fed up with the legitimizing of naturopathic medicine [...] this is the failure of a system in which the National Institutes of Health recognize naturopathy for any more than what it is — dangerous quackery [...] legitimate medicine is based on evidence and science. There is no integration within a gold standard, no complementing it with anything more than wishful thinking [...] a future in which all 50 states allow licensure and expanded scope of practice for such a dangerous, ineffective profession runs contrary to what we should expect of our government’s scientific and medical authorities [...]";

ah, Bastyr.  Where basically anything is labeled "science". Truly, pseudo as fake, pseudoscience.  For me, I realized the falseness while in ND school and stopped before graduating.  And truly, nonsense is being dressed up in a tuxedo.

"[Hermes] is devoted to exposing and fighting against pseudoscience masquerading as real medicine [...she said] 'I want to aggregate a showing of support that naturopaths should not be recognized as ‘primary care physicians’ or doctors of anything that might be construed as medical physicians. They should not be able to use these titles: doctor or physician. The public deserves accurate terminology of medical practitioners. Naturopaths have warped the definitions of these terms in order to convince lawmakers they are highly-trained. Before I blew the whistle, so to speak, very little was known about how the education and training worked' [...] and her supporter base is growing [...] on May 21st [she] started a petition calling on U.S. policy makers and states to block naturopathic licensure, scope of practice expansion and inclusion in federal and state health care programs [...] the petition Hermes authored [...] has garnered nearly 4,000 signatures and counting [...]";

excellent.  I have signed it, I have Tweeted it. 

"I won’t go into details on the myriad follies of naturopathy and naturopathic medicine as they have been thoroughly documented by highly-respected experts and critics of alternative medicine like Dr. David Gorski and Dr. Steven Novella. Among the most damning is the requirement that all NDs be trained in the use of homeopathy, a pseudoscience based in magical thinking and concoctions with infinitesimal amounts of so-called active ingredient [...]";

ah yes, the litmus test of how nonexistent naturopathy's standards are. 

"on May 26th, five days after Hermes launched her petition, the AANP feebly retaliated [...] AANP’s counter-petition urges U.S. policy makers to 'Recognize Licensed Naturopathic Physicians for the Safe and Effective Care They Provide.'  Safe and effective? Therein lies the fatal flaw in federal and state governments recognizing naturopathic doctors. The naturopathic medicine standard of care is woefully inadequate. The standard is not safe. It’s not effective [...]"; 

hear, hear.