ACAM

 

Wiley Protocol 

A Disaster at Medical Conference

by A.B. Hoffman (c) Health and Medicine News (reprinted by permission)

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The American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) is a not-for-profit medical society dedicated to educating physicians and other health care professionals on the latest findings and emerging procedures in preventive/nutritional medicine. ACAM’s goals are to improve skills, knowledge and diagnostic procedures as they relate to complementary and alternative medicine; to support research; and to develop awareness of alternative methods of medical treatment.

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When the progressive doctors at ACAM met for their spring 2005 conference, they expected a`credentialed speaker to make a presentation on rhythmic bioidentical hormones. When housewife-turned-author TS Wiley made a presentation suggesting a super high dose regimen that had only been tested on her “girlfriends,” the doctors got vocal. In the question period, the doctors questioned the safety of the regimen made it clear that the blood tests she relied on to gauge hormone levels were inaccurate for transdermal progesterone. Wiley Protocol progesterone calls for 350 mg transdermal progesterone. (The late John Lee, MD, called for approximately 25 mg)

 

Eugene Shippen, MD, respected author and hormone researcher stood up and said to Wiley, “You don’t know what you’re talking about.” He also pointed out the dangers of giving high doses of estrogen to women who have been in menopause for a time. Studies show that estrogen could work so powerfully that it could cause the accumulated plaque in the arteries to break off and cause a fatal event.

 

Wiley defended the high progesterone dose later by pointing out it had been used on cancer patients in Santa Barbara, CA. However Wiley’s co-author, Julie Taguchi, MD, acknowledged that every one of those patients died.

 

One speaker pointed out that approximately 80% of the Wiley Protocol users on an Internet group dropped the protocol within 3-6 months due to hair loss, depression, weight gain, kidney problems and facial hair. Wiley responded by denying any problems. When it was pointed out that her former co-author, the respected molecular biologist, Bent Formby, PhD, had completely renounced the high doses of her self-designed protocol as “extremely dangerous,” Wiley walked away from the microphone and the sound was cut off.

 

Later as the ACAM doctors walked around the conference rooms, the same question repeatedly came up. Why did they invite an uncredentialed author when experienced hormone physicians such as  Drs. Elizabeth Vliet, Diana Schwarzbein or Erika Schwartz could have been asked? 

 

In 2005, the ACAM leadership may have been unaware of Wiley’s financial interests in trademarking her regimen, “registering” pharmacists and “certifying doctors” to use her name. 

 

Wiley’s speech was the only conference presentation to raise the “concerns” of the ACAM leadership in the published post-conference report (see Summary of the American College for Advancement in Medicine May 2005 Conference) They placed their reservations in the public record.

 

Except from PubMed

Summary of the American College for Advancement in Medicine May 2005 Conference
Menopause, Andropause: Power in Transition
Stephen A. Feig,1* Eleanor Hynote,2 Neal Speight,3 Allan Magaziner,4 Ralph A. Miranda,5 and Michael B Schachter6
T.S. Wiley
T.S. Wiley is an anthropologist and the author of ‘Sex, Lies, and Menopause’. She is a member of the New York Academy of Sciences and has been a guest investigator at Sansum Medical Research Institute.
MultiPhasic, Cyclical Hormone Therapy with Bioidentical E2/P4

Postulating that the cyclic hormone pattern and serum levels of perimenopausal and post-menopausal women should mimic that of women in their 20s, T.S. Wiley has generated a protocol with the use of transdermal bioidentical estradiol (E2) and P4 that is multiphasic and cyclic. Ms Wiley’s presentation described the rational and early clinical experiences in using high-dose bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. The initial results of this therapy protocol have been positive and plans are underway to expand her clinical trial for statistical validation.During the question and answer period, some concerns were raised about the protocol. These includes (i) whether or not serum levels were an acceptable marker for hormones that were administered transdermally; (ii) that some women had experienced significant side effects while following the protocol and had stopped using it; and (iii) the dosage of hormones used was too high and not physiologic.  [emphasis added]