What about Arthritis Trust Of America?

Question:
Anyone check out this page? http://www.telalink.net/~taf The Arthritis Trust Of America. There’s some interesting reading there. I went to one of the doctors on their list and was impressed. Dr Paul A Goldberg is his name. He had RA and he cured himself. He uses no drugs in his treatment but instead finds out what you need to do to allow you to heal yourself. I know there are skeptics, but from what I have been reading, most of you have nothing to lose. This has been some of the most depressing reading I have ever done. I believe if you follow the wisdom of conventional medicine you will only end up worse off and this list proves it. I suggest people who haven’t done so check out the Arthritis Trust of America.

Answer:
Hopefully the address you provide will give them hope of getting stoned on a new drug, otherwise you will receive hostilities for your efforts. interesting, indeed. My mom sent me this article from the Milwaukee Journal/Sentinel just a couple days ago.... ****** Old-line group draws distinctions Upstart arthritis charity is under fire Nearly all of money raised went to fund raising; group here cuts off support A once-obscure arthritis organization supported by a Milwaukee industrialist's philanthropy is under fire for a costly campaign that has raised millions nationally by promoting controversial alternative treatments -- and even a cure for the disease. In just the last two years, the Tennessee-based Arthritis Trust of America's direct-mail blitz has coaxed $4.3 million from consumer's pockets in Wisconsin and 44 other states. But 96% of the cash went for the fund-raising campaigns and overhead. Widely used charity standards call for fund-raising and overhead costs to make up no more than 40% of spending. The non-profit group's most fantastic claim -- an 80% cure/remission rate or better through its 200 affiliated physicians -- is in error, Arthritis Trust Executive Director Perry Chapdelaine Sr. acknowledged last week. We should change that, Chapdelaine said of the claim on the group's Internet page. There is (just) one doctor who's had that. The Arthritis Trust, formed in 1982, uses several names under the umbrella of the Roger Wyburn-Mason and Jack M. Blount Foundation for the Eradication of Rheumatoid Disease. Among them: Arthritis Society of America, The Rheumatoid Disease Foundation and The Arthritis Fund. The group is unrelated to the respected Arthritis Foundation, a national organization based in Atlanta. The only Wisconsin physician on the Arthritis Trust's recommended list is William Faber, a Milwaukee osteopath whose pain treatments have stirred controversy and lawsuits. Faber was suspended from Northwest General Hospital in 1992 after complaints of unnecessary treatment. This month, the Milwaukee Foundation, disturbed by the Arthritis Trust's excessive fund-raising expenses, took the rare step of cutting off annual grants to the organization. Its investigation was prompted by the Journal Sentinel's Charity Checkup series last year. I think anybody would be offended when they look at the numbers in this case, said Milwaukee Foundation President Douglas M. Jansson, in referring to the amount spent on fund-raising and overhead. The foundation's board unanimously redirected future arthritis grants to the Medical College of Wisconsin. The arthritis donations from Milwaukee began 13 years ago at the request of David C. Scott, a prominent Milwaukeean who was CEO of Allis-Chalmers Corp., the West Allis-based company that once made industrial and agricultural equipment. The Milwaukee Foundation manages Scott's respected foundation fund, which mainly benefits established Milwaukee service and arts causes. Scott, who died in 1990, heard of the Tennessee group through a solicitation, Chapdelaine said. Scott intended his donations for arthritis research funding. Though totaling only about $8,000, the Scott donations gave the Arthritis Trust early credibility. On its Web site, the group honors the Scott gifts as among its largest individual donations. Until last year, the Fairview, Tenn.-based group was off the radar screen of charity watchdogs. That's unsurprising, considering it was headquartered for years in a converted tractor barn in rural Tennessee with a budget barely topping $20,000 as late as 1992. That changed because of a decision by Chapdelaine, a 70-year-old retired math teacher who describes himself as crusading for greater attention to alternative arthritis treatments. Trying to right the organization's fiscal ship in 1992, Chapdelaine hired Direct Response Consulting Services, a controversial Virginia direct mailing firm dogged by lawsuits stemming from allegedly misleading charity fund appeals. This spring, a Virginia arbitrator ordered a $1.5 million judgment for Direct Response client, a heart charity that claimed Direct Response's mailings hurt the charity's reputation. Direct Response is known for working with struggling small charities that are satisfied with getting only a tiny fraction of proceeds from massive mail campaigns. For example, a 1996 Arthritis Trust fund-raising letter disclosed that the group had recently spent only one-tenth of a cent of every dollar collected on program services unrelated to fund-raising campaigns. The costs of mail solicitation and fees accounted for the lion's share of expenses, the group's tax returns show. Management costs were modest; Chapdelaine works full time but is unpaid, according to records. The charity's record recently drew a rebuke from the National Charities Information Bureau, an independent watchdog group, which said such spending habits made donors feel ripped off. To such critics, Chapdelaine says, So what? Direct mail is a horribly costly way to go, he acknowledged, but he defends it as his only option because he gets no government or drug company grants. This is pure, unadulterated crap, if I could use the vernacular, Chapdelaine said of the Milwaukee Foundation action. Chapdelaine says education is his group's main program, and the message is right there in its fund-raising letters. In them, he recounts how one such treatment rid him of crippling arthritis. Most traditional arthritis research, he said in an interview, is a con perpetrated by large charities and drug companies who don't want to admit that cures exist. The letters offer to provide donors with a list of physicians and resources on such non-traditional arthritis treatments as intraneural injections, chelation therapy and bio-detoxification, as well as uncontroversial wellness steps. The doctors on the list undergo no certification, and his group has not undertaken studies to document results, Chapdelaine said. People are advised of ways to get well, he said. The group's literature warns people that their symptoms will get worse before getting better under these treatments -- a phenomenon it dubbed a Herxheimer reaction. The controversial treatments have attracted patients looking for options but also have drawn complaints and warnings about their dangers. Among the critics of chelation therapy, for example, is Daniel McCarty, former director of the Medical College's Arthritis Institute and a nationally known expert on the disease. The therapy involves injecting amino acids and nutrients into a patient to improve blood flow. The quackery out there is massive, McCarty said. No (researchers) are claiming cures. The Wyburn-Mason group has never published any data that could be scrutinized, plus they're making money off this, so people should be suspicious. He said traditional medicine and aggressive drug therapy had made remission common among arthritis patients now compared with 30 years ago, but no cure exists. Wyburn-Mason, the English physician who pioneered alternative arthritis treatments, was a notorious quack, McCarty said. Faber, the Milwaukee physician who treats osteoarthritis and other ailments, agreed to let Chapdelaine publicize his services starting in 1987, Arthritis Trust records show. Chapdelaine said he also promotes books Faber has written on treating chronic pain. Faber, state officials say, is still under license investigation by the Wisconsin Medical Examining Board on complaints of quality of care and unnecessary services. The allegations came from arthritics and other patients diagnosed with hidden oral infections they were told caused chronic pain. Some of the patients had teeth removed. Lawsuits against Faber, another local physician and a local dentist were settled last year for a substantial sum, plaintiffs attorney Victor Harding said. The doctors admitted no liability. Asked about his affiliation with Chapdelaine, Faber said through a spokesman that he would seek to have his name removed from the Arthritis Trust referral system. It took some work and clearheaded thinking to do and share this with us. We have two organizations in Houston that help support our Police. One it costs 85% to do the fund raising and the other about 20%. That’s the world we live in. The beauty of this news group is the way informed people like yourself share with others. This is one sand box I'm staying in.