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Contents this page were published in the July/August, 1998 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1998 WFP Collective, Inc.
In October, 1998, one of the leading holistic medical doctors in the Pacific Northwest is supposed to give up his medical license. Seventy-seven year old Leo Bolles, MD has been under the close scrutiny of the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission, formerly the Medical Disciplinary Board, for over a decade because of his use of alternative therapies.
He began using non-toxic substances such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, homeopathic remedies and herbs thirty-five years ago in order to help people with illnesses ranging from depression to multiple sclerosis.
Bolles is a true medical pioneer, having founded numerous organizations to promote natural medicines, including the Northwest Academy of Preventive Medicine. He must be given credit for making the climate suitable for the opening and thriving of Bastyr University, our local naturopathic medical school. He is not as well-known as would be expected, as he has been forced to keep a low profile. This is because the disciplinary board pursues doctors who use natural treatments rather than the very lucrative triad of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and surgery.
It is a tremendous validation of the success of his treatments that the disciplinary board has taken this long to find someone to testify against him. This is especially so considering that his patients are mainly seriously ill people who have been treated by numerous medical doctors without results and often told they need heroic methods such as bypass surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation.
In the short time I spent at his office, several people told me their doctors had given them only a short time to live, and with Dr. Bolles' therapies they had improved. I was fortunate to meet someone who claimed to have been Dr. Bolles' first chelation patient, having had chelation therapy for cardiovascular disease over 25 years ago. This long-term patient appeared quite fit and healthy.
The person the disciplinary board found to testify against Dr. Bolles never confronted him personally with her grievances before complaining to the health bureaucracy. In the time just before she came to him, several of her close relatives had died of cancer. Dr. Bolles suggested she have the AMAS test, which is an early detection test for cancer, developed over ten years ago by a Harvard University researcher. This test has been given favorable write-ups in various journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association. The test is also covered by Medicare. Nevertheless, the disciplinary board does not accept it as standard of care.
Dr. Bolles chose to recommend this test to patients to prevent people from needlessly developing advanced cancers. In this case, he hoped his patient's test would be negative and allay her fears. To his surprise, it came back positive, which means that there was a chance that she might have a pre-malignant conditon or early cancer. On further testing, the lesion could not be found, suggesting it was too early to show up on the fairly crude tests we have to detect cancer, such as x-ray. The patient's response was to discontinue seeing Dr. Bolles and to complain that he caused her needless emotional trauma. Dr. Bolles noted he hoped that she would not go on to develop advanced cancer, but felt that there is a higher risk based on the result of the AMAS test, especially if a second test is also positive.
One purpose of the Medical Disciplinary Board is to suppress alternative therapies, by forcing physicians to practice only the "standard of care." The standard of care is determined primarily by the FDA, the disciplinary boards, and the drug companies, who meet annually for this purpose. It is difficult to imagine a more egregious form of conflict of interest than for a drug company to determine what the medical treatment should be for any condition.
Dr. Bolles has been constantly oppressed, restricted in his practice, threatened and humiliated by the disciplinary board. Years ago he was made to appear before them to face numerous demeaning charges, including giving a lecture on hypoglycemia, which the board did not accept as an illness, for using herbs in his practice, and for associating with nonprofessionals because he had conferred with chiropractors and herbalists.
Dr. Bolles feels great sorrow for medical victims and their survivors, people needlessly killed prematurely due to the triad of orthodox medicine: surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. He is one of a growing number of physicians who feel that companies promoting these therapies for profit should be held accountable for their negligence, and hopes to see the day when class-action lawsuits are successfully argued in courts to compensate survivors.
If you are interested in helping Dr. Bolles retain his license, write or call the governor and your state legislators.
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