Loretta Marron, Health Hero, On Australia’s A Current Affair

Submission for March Scientiae - ‘Who inspires you or motivates you? Who would you call your role models, at any stage of your career?’

“I wanted my cancer to mean something. When I heard about a clinical trial testing a new treatment for breast cancer that offered better chances of survival with less of the debilitating side effects of surgery, I knew I had to take part.” Loretta Marron, breast cancer survivor.

Right now I’m watching Australia’s ‘A Current Affair’ show, featuring Loretta Marron doing an undercover investigation of the ‘clinic’ of Queenslander Jill Newlands.

Newlands has a ‘treatment centre’ for cancer, run from what is practically a garage under her house – which appears to involve ‘a bit of bleach and a bit of lemon juice… intravenously’. Horrific stuff.

Citric acid, clorine, no autoclaving equipment, nothing sterilised. Loretta Marron bravely investigates and questions the proceedures used without running screaming from the house like I would have!

The story sums up the quackery that can plagued a susceptible woman, Maria Worth, who has been diagnosed as even more ill with life-threatening bloodclots – after already facing breast cancer. Thankfully the story concludes with the news that the police raided the ‘clinic’ for the ‘treatments’ that Newlands was providing.

Loretta Marron, a science graduate with a business background, was Australian Skeptic of the Year for 2007 and 2008. She was recognised for using her considerable communication skills to use the media to counter the claims made about dodgy health claims. I first met her in person in 2006, at the Melbourne Australian Skeptics conference and she has been a don’t-miss feature at every convention since. My interview with Loretta Marron also features on the podcast The Skeptic Zone.

Taking on the billion-dollar Therapeutic Goods Industry, the Government, supermarkets and pharmacies, Loretta frequently appears in newspapers, on television and radio and is a regular contributor to a variety of magazines and websites. A diagnosis of cancer in 2003 gave her first hand experience of the scope of misinformation that contributes to the exploitation of our most vulnerable Australians. She has since gone on to develop the health directory Health Information (www.healthinformation.com.au).

Her presentation for 2007 focused on ‘Pharmacies: Feasting on Fat’ – details of which you can also find in this article online – ‘Remedies That Carry No Weight’ from the Sydney Morning Herald)

There are more than 1000 slimming drinks, sprays, powders, pills, pads and patches listed with the administration, made from a seemingly infinite range of “natural” ingredients – from plants that gobble up “an incredible 57 per cent of the carbohydrate calories that we eat” to essences that “strengthen kidney organ meridian energy to supply healthy liver Qi”.

These weight-loss remedies alone earn the administration an estimated $775,000 each year. “And more are being added weekly,” Marron says. “The millions of dollars in revenue means there’s no motivation on the administration’s part to tighten the rules. Not a single weight-loss remedy has ever been delisted … there’s no way to stop the dumping of these useless products on the market.”…

“Overweight and obese Australians are being told that products sold in our pharmacies and supermarkets have TGA-approval and evidence to support the claims made on the packaging,” Marron says. “People don’t know that evidence is invariably ‘traditional’ and not scientific. Evidence must mean efficacy for weight loss products.”

In 2008, she was a co-author of an article in the Medical Journal of Australia: Commercialism, choice and consumer protection: regulation of complementary medicines in Australia – Ken J Harvey, Viola S Korczak, Loretta J Marron and David B Newgreen (Med J Aust 2008) – work that speaks out for regulation and reform of the ‘alternative medicine’ industry – which challenges rather than supports good health.

The next time we start thinking about the stereotype of consumer rights advocates and healthcare questioners just being ‘grumpy men’ who haven’t experienced first-hand what damage can be done – I hope people will check out the ongoing work of Australian Loretta Marron.

Tagged as: A Current Affair, alt med, Australia, frauds, health, health watch, investigation, Loretta Marron, medicine, Queensland, scams, Scientiae, Skepticism