CONFLICTS OF INTEREST

According to former BMJ editor Richard Smith, research has shown, "far from conflict of interest being unimportant in the objective and pure world of science ... it is the main factor determining the result of studies." Smith claims "the best response to conflicts of interest seems to be disclosure rather than attempted eradication" and argues more studies are required to understand how to mitigate bias in research and patient care.

Terence Kealey, MD and Ph.D., dispels common myths about breakfast and explains how the confusion of association with causation — confusion perpetuated by researchers who are in league with the breakfast industry — may be exaggerating the benefits of our matutinal meal and negatively affecting our metabolic health. Kealey also shares his breakfast recommendations for the general population as well as Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.

A recent piece outlines the vitriolic and coordinated backlash from an influential nonprofit and members of the Harvard School of Public Health to the well-publicized 2019 review that argued insufficient evidence exists to support recommendations to reduce meat consumption.

Carey Gillam is an investigative journalist, the research director of U.S. Right to Know, and author of Whitewash: The Story of a Weed Killer, Cancer, and the Corruption of Science. In this presentation, delivered at a CrossFit Health event on Oct. 13, 2019, Gillam shares her story and some of her most provocative research on the covert tactics pesticide companies use to keep dangerous chemicals in circulation at the expense of public health.

Cristin Kearns was managing dental clinics for Kaiser and researching the link between gum disease and Type 2 diabetes when she came across a brochure with the CDC’s dietary recommendations for diabetics. The bad advice she found in the brochure forever altered the trajectory of her career and led to her development of a large digital archive — a record of instances in which the Sugar Association, a 501(c)6 formerly known as the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF), used public relations campaigns and industry funding to influence scientific research, education, and public policy in support of its mission to promote sugar consumption.

In October 2013, cardiologist and professor of evidence-based medicine Dr. Aseem Malhotra published an editorial in the BMJ entitled “Saturated Fat Is Not the Major Issue.” There, he contradicted popular wisdom about saturated fat consumption contributing to heart disease and claimed the medical establishment’s focus on lowering cholesterol to improve heart health had led to the overprescription of statin drugs with negative side effects. Though the scientific evidence was on his side, many in the scientific and medical communities were not. Here he describes the history and inner workings of the ongoing conflict and the lessons to be gleaned from it.

Dr. Jason Fung has grown wary of scientific research that purports to be “evidence based.” A well-known nephrologist and author, Fung often speaks about Type-2 diabetes reversal and the metabolic effects of intermittent fasting, but in this presentation from Dec. 15, 2018, he turns his focus toward the many ways the foundations of evidence-based medicine have become corrupted by financial conflicts of interest. Those corruptions include Big Pharma's habit of buying practicing physicians with gifts, influencing scientific publications by paying off their editors, and skewing the medical research through tactics such as selective publication and changing the trial endpoints — all of which may lead to the unnecessary or even dangerous overprescription of drugs.

Dr. Zoë Harcombe has become an expert in the corruption and error plaguing the health sciences — a dire situation that she, like CrossFit Founder Greg Glassman, refers to as “The Mess.” Harcombe defines “The Mess” as “the escalating disease (and) the escalating medical costs, which many people are profiting from but none are combatting effectively.” During a presentation delivered on July 31 at the 2019 CrossFit Health Conference, Harcombe outlined many factors that contribute to this growing problem — specifically, the role of dietitians and the food and beverage industry in influencing how and what we eat, accreditation that regulates who can offer dietary advice, and the disparity between what we are told to eat and what the evidence suggests we should eat.

Australia’s most iconic health charity, the National Heart Foundation (NHF), has partnered with cereal giant Sanitarium to promote the health benefits of Sanitarium’s cholesterol-lowering Weet-Bix. The NHF’s endorsement of the product and Sanitarium’s marketing campaign for the cereal both are based upon health benefits found in a single study — funded and performed by Sanitarium. Dr. Maryanne Demasi discusses this obvious conflict of interest and shares scholars’ responses. As Dr. Zoë Harcombe has observed, “People can't trust that which has been paid for.”

Commercial interests have discovered numerous ways to co-opt the loyalty of health professionals to promote company-sponsored studies and marketing messages. Here, Dr. Maryanne Demasi describes just a few of the indications that Australia’s National Heart Foundation (NHF) has sold its soul to industry. She focuses specifically on the NHF’s ties to junk food and pharmaceutical companies, citing responses from various scholars who have expressed deep concern over how the NHF’s receipt of industry funding might threaten public health.