>Dubious 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. Edison State, a "nontraditional" school with
>neither campus nor courses, awards accredited bachelor's degrees
>based on career experience, equivalency exams, and courses taken at
>other schools.
>
>The Union Institute is also accredited, but its degree requirements
>and standards for health-related doctoral degrees differ greatly
>from those of 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 PhD committee was composed of a
>"core faculty member," three "adjunct professors," two "peers," and
>a "second core reader." The "core faculty member" is a
>well-credentialed academician whose expertise (in geologic sciences)
>is unrelated 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. When I
>asked a school official about the background or location of the
>other two "adjunct professors," he replied that information was in
>storage and was too difficult to obtain.
>
>Traditional universities require that research for a doctoral degree
>in a scientific discipline make a genuine contribution to the
>scientific literature. Null's thesis, entitled "A Study of
>Psychological and Physiological Effects of Caffeine on Human
>Health," contributes nothing. The stated purpose of his project was
>to evaluate (1) caffeine's effects on "adrenal function determined
>by a medical examination," (2) "its perceived psychological effects
>as recorded in a questionnaire and daily diary, and (3) "the
>anabolic effect of caffeine according to a theory proposed by Dr. E.
>Revici." (Emanuel Revici, MD, was a physician in New York City whose
>methods were disparaged by the American Cancer Society. State
>licensing authorities placed Revici on probation in 1988 and revoked
>his license in 1993 after concluding that he had violated the terms
>of his probation.)
>
>The data for Null's thesis were obtained by observing two groups of
>volunteers. One group contained eleven chronic caffeine users who
>stopped their caffeine intake for a week and then took caffeinated
>tea for a week. The other group contained six nonusers who drank
>caffeinated tea for one week and then drank decaffeinated tea. The
>total number of participants is unclear. Null's thesis states that
>six others who began in the first group and five others who began in
>the second group dropped out of the study because they were
>uncomfortable. It also states that "at least thirteen" other users
>were disqualified for noncompliance.
>
>The "medical evaluation" included two tests. One compared each
>volunteer's blood pressure when lying down and when standing up. The
>other was a chemical test for the amount of sodium and chloride in
>the urine. Null claims that these tests can detect "diminished
>adrenal function." Unfortunately for his thesis, they have no
>practical value for this purpose.
>
>The method Null used to determine "the anabolic effect of caffeine"
>involved measurement of the specific gravity, pH (acidity), and
>surface tension of single samples of the urine -- a test used by
>Emanuel Revici. Null notes that the theory behind the test "is still
>the subject of debate and has not yet gained wide scientific
>support" -- a rather strange way to describe a test that is utterly
>worthless for any medical purpose. The specific gravity of urine
>reflects the concentration of dissolved substances and depends
>largely on the amount of fluid a person consumes. The acidity
>depends mainly on diet, but varies considerably throughout the day.
>Thus, even when these values are useful for a metabolic
>determination, information from a single urine sample would be
>meaningless. The surface tension of urine has no medically
>recognized diagnostic value.
>
>Following 41 pages of findings, calculations, tables, and graphs,
>Null concludes that "chronic caffeine users tend to have diminished
>adrenal function, which he blames on "exhaustion" of the glands.
>"Fortunately," he adds, "there are non-drug nutritional programs
>which have the ability to repair or rebalance weakening adrenal
>glands toward normal." The program consists of "diminishing
>stressors," implementing strategies to diminish anxiety, and taking
>doses of five vitamins and three other products.