Hulda Regehr Clark

Hulda Regehr Clark (18 October 1928 – 3 September 2009) was a Canadian naturopath, author, and practitioner of alternative medicine. Clark was notorious for quackery, claiming all human disease was related to parasitic infection, and also claimed to be able to cure all diseases, including cancer and HIV/AIDS, by "zapping" them with electrical devices which she marketed. Clark wrote several books describing her methods and operated clinics in the United States. Following a string of lawsuits and eventual action by the Federal Trade Commission, she relocated to Tijuana, Mexico, where she ran the Century Nutrition clinic.

Clark's claims and devices have been dismissed by authorities, ranging from the United States Federal Trade Commission and Food and Drug Administration to CAM figures such as Andrew Weil, as scientifically unfounded, "bizarre", but the Graduate School's Register of Ph.D. Degrees conferred by the University of Minnesota, July 1956 – June 1966, states she received a Ph.D. in Zoology in 1958. Her thesis was entitled A Study of the Ion Balance of Crayfish Muscle: evidence for two compartments of cellular potassium.

In 1979, Clark left government-funded research and began private consulting and her own research. From 2002 until her death she operated the Century Nutrition health clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, where her focus was primarily on late-stage cancer patients. Clark and her son Geoff separately owned businesses her patients and others used, including a restaurant, her self-publishing company, and a "self-health" store that sold her inventions. She published several books, including The Cure of All Cancers, The Cure for HIV/AIDS and The Cure For All Diseases. According to civil court records, her books generated over $7 million in sales by 2002, although Clark disputed this figure.

Treatment claims According to Clark, all disease is caused by foreign organisms and pollutants that damage the immune system. She asserted that eliminating these organisms from the body using herbal or electrical means while removing pollutants from the diet would cure all diseases.

In her book The Cure For All Cancers, Clark postulated all cancers and many other diseases are caused by the flatworm Fasciolopsis buski. "The adult [fluke], though, stays tightly stuck to our intestine or liver, causing cancer, or uterus, causing endometriosis, or thymus, causing AIDS, or kidney, causing Hodgkin's disease)." According to Clark, depression is caused by hookworms. Epilepsy and seizures are caused by swelling in the brain, attracting calcium and heavy metals, the swelling being caused by parasites of the genus Ascaris as well as by malvin, a natural dye found in strawberries, chicken, and eggs.

Clark claimed she could cure all diseases, whereas, she asserted, conventional treatments for diseases, such as cancer and HIV/AIDS, often only aim to relieve symptoms. She was described in the book Denying AIDS as "perhaps the first quack AIDS curer". David Amrein's website contains a disclaimer stating that her treatments are "not prescribed as treatment for medical or psychological conditions" and "...the treatments outlined herein are not intended to be a replacement or substitute for other forms of conventional medical treatment." Nonetheless, Clark advocated for the use of her methods as a substitute for standard medical care:

Regarding the effectiveness of her treatment, Clark wrote, "The method is 100% effective in stopping cancer regardless of the type of cancer or how terminal it may be. It follows that this method must work for you, too, if you are able to carry out the instructions."

Major themes in her books Diet Cleanup: Clark said that most foods and supplements were sullied by contaminants such as heavy metals and mycotoxins. Homeography: According to Clark, a "new science ... which is the electronic analog of homeopathy." She said an electronic signature of a substance can be transferred into bottles making a "bottle copy" of the original substance and that it can be done indefinitely. Liver flush: She advocated detoxification through a "liver flush". She said it removes gallstones and parasites from the liver and bile ducts. This involves fasting, epsom salt laxatives and a mixture of olive oil and grapefruit juice (the latter being known to interact with many prescription drugs). Parasites: Clark said people have parasites that cause numerous problems. She described herbal and electronic methods to remove them, such as her Zapper device (see below). Syncrometer: A "bioresonance" device developed by Clark and claimed to detect contaminants in substances at an accuracy of one part per quadrillion (ppq). Zapper: A device to pulse low voltage direct current (DC) through the body at specific frequencies. Clark said this device kills viruses, bacteria and parasites. In one case, a patient with a cardiac pacemaker suffered arrhythmias as a side effect of her "Zapper".

Sting operation, flight, arrest, and legal issues Indiana

In 1993, while Clark lived and practiced in Indiana, a former patient complained to the Indiana attorney general. An investigator for the Indiana Department of Health and a deputy attorney general visited her office incognito as part of a sting operation. Clark proceeded to test the investigator and "told him he had the HIV virus , but said that he did not have cancer." She told the investigator that she could cure his HIV in three minutes, but that he would "get it back" unless he committed to returning for six more appointments. She then ordered blood tests from a laboratory.

Unknown to the investigators, Clark learned of the undercover investigators' status. She then stated everything she had told them had been a "mistake". Two days later, before an arrest warrant could be served, she had vacated the premises and disappeared.

Six years later, in September 1999, Clark was located and arrested in San Diego, California, based on a fugitive warrant from Indiana. According to Clark, this was the first time she learned about the charge. Her lawyer protested the long delay before her arrest, but a prosecutor implied that she fled Indiana "when she learned that she was being investigated by the state," and the local police department had limited resources to devote to finding her. In November 2004, the case reached stipulated judgment, wherein the case's judge ordered the foundation's operators to offer refunds to the purchasers of these devices and to refrain from making a number of claims about those devices. The Director of Enforcement at the Food and Drug Administration has stated Clark's devices seem to be "fraudulent".

The Swiss Study Group for Complementary and Alternative Methods in Cancer (SCAC) issued a strong warning to cancer patients considering Clark's methods:

Prominent alternative medicine proponent Andrew Weil has written, "No studies have backed up [Clark's] bizarre claims, and it's unclear whether the cancer patients she's supposedly cured ever had cancer to begin with."

In 2002, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported Clark and her son Geoff operated a restaurant and leased housing for patients at Clark's Tijuana clinic. The article described a couple whose daughter with spinal muscular atrophy was treated for 10 months by Clark at a cost of approximately $30,000 without improvement. Despite the cost and lack of improvement, the couple stated Clark insisted she was close to curing the child, and stopping treatment might endanger her. In memoriam, Oskar Thorvaldsson of the Self Health Resource Center, recalled that he first learned that she had been diagnosed by a doctor to have died from arthritis and spinal cord injury. A month later, on 6 October, her family published a summary of her death, mentioning that her doctors had diagnosed her with multiple myeloma, a blood and bone cancer, as "the most likely cause".

Works The Three Owls Reading Method (1965–67) The Cure for All Cancers (1993) The Cure For HIV / AIDS (1993) The Cure for All Diseases (1995) The Cure For All Advanced Cancers (1999) Syncrometer Science Laboratory Manual (2000) The Prevention of all Cancers (2004) The Cure and Prevention of All Cancers (2007)