Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

"PCRM" redirects here. For the political party, see Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova.

Founder(s)	Neal D. Barnard
Founded	1985
Location	Washington, D.C.
Focus	to promote non-animal methods in research and education (opposition to animal testing) and a plant-based diet (veganism) for disease prevention and survival.
Employees	35
Members	120,000+
Website	pcrm.org

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) is a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., which promotes a vegan diet, preventive medicine, alternatives to animal research, and encourages what it describes as "higher standards of ethics and effectiveness in research."^[1] Its primary activities include outreach and education about nutrition and compassionate choices to healthcare professionals and the public; ending the use of animals in medical school curricula; and advocating for legislative changes on the local and national levels.

PCRM was founded in 1985 by Neal D. Barnard of the George Washington University Medical School.^[1]

Governance

PCRM has a paid staff of 35, with a membership of approximately 9,000 physicians and 120,000 supporting members, including dietitians, psychologists, nurses, other science and health professionals, and laypeople.^[2] Its board of directors consists of Neal Barnard, a psychiatrist; Russell Bunai, a pediatrician; Mindy Kursban, its chief legal counsel; Mark Sklar, an endocrinologist; and Barbara Wassermann, an internist.^[3] Its director of research is Chad B. Sandusky, formerly with the Environmental Protection Agency.^[4] Elizabeth Kucinich is the group's director of public affairs.^[5]

As of January 2011, its advisory board consists of:^[3]

• T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D., Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell University
• Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D., The Cleveland Clinic
• Suzanne Havala Hobbs, Dr.PH., M.S., R.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Henry J. Heimlich, M.D., Sc.D., The Heimlich Institute
• Lawrence Kushi, Sc.D. Division of Research, Kaiser Permanente
• John A. McDougall, M.D., St Helena Hospital
• Virginia Messina, M.P.H., R.D., Nutrition Matters, Inc.
• Milton Mills, M.D., Gilead Medical Group
• Myriam Parham, R.D., L.D., C.D.E., East Pasco Medical Center
• William Roberts, M.D., Baylor Cardiovascular Institute
• Andrew Weil, M.D., University of Arizona

Positions

Nutrition and exercise

PCRM promotes a vegetarian or vegan diet, together with aerobic and weight-bearing exercises and exposure to sufficient sunlight for vitamin D production. It writes that vegetarian diets are low in saturated fat, high in dietary fiber, contain phytochemicals that PCRM argues help prevent cancer, and contain no cholesterol. Its website cites several studies that it says show that vegetarians are less likely than meat eaters to develop cancer. It argues that a vegetarian diet can help prevent heart disease, lower blood pressure, can prevent and may reverse diabetes, and that it may improve the symptoms of a number of other conditions.^[6] PCRM runs the Cancer Project, which suggests a vegan diet will help with cancer prevention, and that offers nutritional assistance to cancer patients.^[7]

PCRM argues for the health benefits of avoiding dairy products—Barnard has called cheese "dairy crack"^[8]—and campaigns for vegetarian meals in schools.^[9] It also runs a website that collects reports of adverse health effects experienced by people on the Atkins diet. The New York Times writes that it was PCRM who in 2004 passed Dr Robert Atkins's medical report to the Wall Street Journal. The report, obtained by Dr. Richard Fleming of the Fleming Heart and Health Institute, showed that Atkins himself had experienced heart attack, congestive heart failure, and weight problems. Atkins supporters countered that there was no reason to think that his heart problem (cardiomyopathy) was diet related, and that his weight at death was higher due to fluids pumped into him in the hospital.^[10]

The organization's founder, Neal Barnard, M.D., has published dozens of peer-reviewed papers on nutrition in journals such as The American Journal of Cardiology, The Lancet Oncology, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.^[11] Nature wrote in 2006 that PCRM had become "an endless source of vexation for federal nutrition-policymakers," but that Barnard's position had some support within the medical community. William Roberts, a PCRM adviser, executive director of the Baylor Cardiovascular Institute, and editor of the American Journal of Cardiology said of Barnard. "He's a superb man. Anybody who devotes their life like he has done to getting us all on the right dietary track, I admire."^[8]

Action against fast food

The organization's nutrition director, Amy Lanou, Ph.D., has criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture for promoting high-fat, high-calorie products, such as certain brands of cookies and fast-food products.^[12] Susan Levin, PCRM's staff dietitian, sent a letter in March 2009 to the minor league baseball team the West Michigan Whitecaps to complain about a 4-pound, 4,800-calorie hamburger on the team's concession stand menu, and to ask that the team put a label on the burger indicating that it was a "dietary disaster".^[13]

A PCRM advertising campaign launched in the Washington, D.C. area in September 2010 under the slogan "I'm not lovin' it" shows a grieving woman in a morgue as the camera circles around a middle-aged man draped in a white sheet clutching a partially eaten hamburger in his right hand. As the camera reaches the man's feet protruding from underneath the sheet, the familiar Golden Arches logo is displayed and the screen fades to a red background with the catchphrase "I'm not lovin' it" as a narrator intones: "High cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart attacks. Tonight, make it vegetarian."^[14]

Position regarding research

PCRM sees the prescription of unnecessary drugs—drugs that may have toxic side effects—to adults and children as unethical, seeing it as human experimentation; it cites its opposition, for example, to giving children growth hormones to make them taller.^[15]

It also opposes animal testing. The group has helped to oppose research by the U.S. military that involved shooting cats, narcotics experiments conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, and experiments that involved monkeys mutilating themselves. Its research department promotes alternatives to the use of animals, including their use in experiments in medical schools.^[15] PCRM argues that animal experiments are ineffective because inter alia the pain and stress animals experience in laboratories—isolation, confinement, noise, and lack of exercise—contaminate the results of the experiments. They argue that research into "immune function, endocrine and cardiovascular disorders, neoplasms, developmental defects, and psychological phenomena are particularly vulnerable to stress effects."^[16]

Criticism and relationship with PETA

The National Council Against Health Fraud, a nonprofit, health agency focused upon health fraud, misinformation, and quackery views the PCRM as a propaganda machine whose press conferences are charades for disguising its animal rights ideology as news events.^[17][18]

The American Council on Science and Health, a non-profit, consumer health education and advocacy organization states that the PCRM is unscientific and that it publishes unreliable nutrition information to consumers by emphasizing only data that supports their animal rights agenda. They go on to state that PCRM exaggerate the reliability and importance of data, and that they obfuscate rather than clarify what can be a confusing body of information. The American Council on Science believe that those who purport to represent consumer interests, such as the PCRM should be responsible enough to present accurate and balanced information to the public.^[19][17]

The American Medical Association have accused PCRM practices as irresponsible and potentially dangerous to the health and welfare of Americans and that they are blatantly misleading Americans on a health matter and concealing its true purpose as an animal 'rights' organization. They have also accused the PCRM of making misleading, false claims and misrepresenting the critical role animals play in research and teaching. Although the PCRM states that as of 2004 there is no longer acrimony between them and the AMA, disagreements have been recorded as recently as 2007.^{[19][20][21][17]}

PCRM has responded to such criticism from groups it says are funded by the meat, dairy, or chemical industries.^[22]

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and the foundation that manages it—the Foundation to Support Animal Protection, also known as the PETA Foundation—donated over $850,000 to PCRM between 1988 and 2000, and Barnard sat on the Foundation's board until 2005. Barnard also writes a medical column for Animal Times, PETA's magazine.^[8] PCRM has responded that PETA's contribution to PCRM was small.^[22]

PCRM—along with PETA and groups such as the Centers for Disease Control, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving—has been the subject of public criticism for several years by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF), a non-profit lobby group representing the food and beverage industry.^[23] The New York Times reported CCF's and PCRM's criticism of each other in 2004. CCF called PCRM a front for PETA, arguing that when PCRM offers health advice, they "do a very slick job of obscuring their real intentions," which is simply to oppose the use of meat, dairy products and alcohol. PCRM responded that, "If you are in the business of putting veal or beef on the tables of America, and slaughtering more than a million animals per hour, and making an awful lot of money at it, you are going to try to neutralize PETA or other animal-rights groups."^[24]

Bibliography

• Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Cancer (2002)
• Healthy Eating for Life to Prevent and Treat Diabetes (2002)
• Healthy Eating for Life for Children (2002)
• Healthy Eating for Life for Women (2002)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "About PCRM", accessed January 11, 2011.
2. ^ For number of staff, see "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine", Better Business Bureau, accessed January 11, 2011.
   • For membership, see McVey, Jeanne McVey. "A Response to Food/Tobacco Industry Attacks", PCRM, November 6, 2009.
   • For membership, also see "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine", GuideStar, accessed January 11, 2011, which gives 8,500 as the figure for physicians.
3. ^ ^{a b} For the list, see "About PCRM", accessed January 11, 2011.
   • For Russell Bunai's background: Francis, Raymond. Never Be Sick Again. Health Communications, Inc, 2002, p. 99.
   • For Mindy Kursban: "Staff profile Mindy Kursban: PCRM’s First Executive Director", Good Medicine, PCRM, Spring 2005.
   • For Mark Sklar: Sklar, Mark. "A Doctor's Reflections on Health-Care Reform", The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2009.
   • For Barbara Wassermann: "Drs. Barbara and Marty Wasserman: Helping the Community Get Healthy and Humane", Good Medicine, PCRM, Summer 2008.
4. ^ "Extreme Makeover: One Scientist’s Story", Good Medicine, PCRM, Winter 2005.
   • Also see "Research Issues Experts", PCRM, accessed January 12, 2010.
5. ^ Roberts, Roxanne and Argetsinger, Amy. "Mrs. K wants to give the big apes a break", The Washington Post, October 29, 2009.
6. ^ "Vegetarian Foods: Powerful for Health", PCRM, accessed January 16, 2011.
   • Also see "Permanent Weight Control", and "Calcium in Plant-Based Diets", PCRM, accessed January 16, 2011.
7. ^ "About us", the Cancer Project, PCRM, accessed January 16, 2011.
8. ^ ^{a b c} Wadman, Meredith. "Profile: Neal Barnard", Nature, 12, 602 (2006): "The foundation gave Barnard's group $592,000 in 1999 and 2000. PETA also directly donated another $265,000 between 1988 and 1999."
9. ^ "Healthy School Lunches / a Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) site". Healthyschoollunches.org. http://www.healthyschoollunches.org/. Retrieved 2009-09-16. 
10. ^ Kleinfield, N.R. "Just What Killed the Diet Doctor, And What Keeps the Issue Alive?", The New York Times, February 11, 2004.
    • Also see "A resource for physicians and laypeople with questions and concerns about high-protein diets", PCRM, accessed January 16, 2011.
11. ^ Neal D. Barnard, M.D., nealbarnard.org, accessed January 16, 2011.
    • Also see Wadman, Meredith. "Profile: Neal Barnard", Nature, 12, 602 (2006).
12. ^ "Cookie Monsters Oreo promotion puts USDA on wrong side of obesity fight", Tallahassee Democrat, July 11, 2004, accessed January 16, 2011.
13. ^ "Warning sought for monster burger", Associated Press, March 31, 2009.
14. ^ Wilson, Duff. "Doctors’ Group Attacks McDonald’s in TV Ad", The New York Times, September 16, 2010.
15. ^ ^{a b} "Research Advocacy", PCRM, accessed January 16, 2011.
16. ^ "PCRM Position Paper on Animal Research", PCRM, approved July 21, 2010, accessed January 16, 2011.
17. ^ ^{a b c} William, Jarvis. "Physician's Committee For Responsible Medicine". The National Council Against Health Fraud. http://www.ncahf.org/articles/o-r/pcrm.html. Retrieved 6 June 2011. 
18. ^ "Why I am Not a Vegetarian", accessed June 6, 2011.
19. ^ ^{a b} Ruth, Kava. "Physicians' Committee for Responsible Medicine: Not So Responsible Periodicals". The American Council on Science and health. http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsID.227/news_detail.asp. Retrieved 7 March 2011. 
20. ^ http://www.ama-assn.org/ama1/pub/upload/mm/467/526.doc
21. ^ "Questionable Organizations", accessed June 6, 2011.
22. ^ ^{a b} McVey, Jeanne McVey. "A Response to Food/Tobacco Industry Attacks", PCRM, November 6, 2009.
23. ^ Mayer, Caroline E. and Joyce, Amy. "The Escalating Obesity Wars Nonprofit's Tactics, Funding Sources Spark Controversy", The Washington Post, April 27, 2005.
24. ^ Sharkey, Joe. "Perennial Foes Meet Again in a Battle of the Snack Bar", The New York Times, November 23, 2004.

External links

• Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine