Dr. Hulda Clark promoted prevention over cure

It was a noble ambition: “Prevention of diseases, not cure, or treatment, should be society’s foremost goal” — one that Dr. Hulda Clark relentlessly pursued within the naturopathic medicine field.

Hulda Clark earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in biology at the University of Saskatchewan. Clark continued her studies at McGill University before she attended the University of Minnesota, studying biophysics and cell physiology.

She received her doctorate degree in 1958 from Minnesota, a Ph.D. in zoology, according to school records. (Dr. Clark said her degree was in physiology.) She also had a naturopathy degree from the Clayton College of Natural Health.

Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care profession, emphasizing prevention, treatment, and optimal health through therapeutic methods and substances that encourage individuals’ inherent self-healing process. The practice of naturopathic medicine includes modern and traditional, scientific, and empirical methods.

In the late 1960s, Dr. Clark launched a nutritional consulting practice focused on naturopathy. She also worked as a researcher for the University of Indiana in Bloomington.

Dr. Clark developed a device, the Syncrometer, which she claimed to use for detection of various substances in the human body. Based on her research, Dr. Clark suggested that all diseases are caused by only two things: parasites or toxinsA poison made by certain bacteria, plants, or animals, including insects.. She further believed that elimination of either or both in the body then disease could be eliminated. She advocated treatments that included herbalA product made from a plant that is thought to be useful in treating a disease or staying healthy. Herbal supplements are taken by mouth. cleansing and administering electromagnetic waves to the affected organs.

Working under the premise that prevention is greater than cure, Dr. Clark focused on a healthy body. She believed that cleansing the liver is the best way to improve health. In her book The Prevention of All Cancers, Dr. Clark promoted “cancer has many contributors but the main actors form a single chain of events. Pull out one link and the whole cancer process is blocked. This kind of prevention is more powerful than a cure.”

Dr. Clark promoted self-health — keeping yourself healthy — and her naturopathy protocols worked to eliminate parasites. To help facilitate cleansing the liver and to eliminate parasites within the organ, Dr. Clark developed the Zapper, a digital frequency generator. The pulsing action of the positive terminal sends an electronic “wave” through the body, which claims to eliminate all parasites, bacteria, amoeba, and viruses that live within this 1,000,000hz band.

In Tijuana, Mexico, Clark led Century Nutrition, an alternative clinic that promotes her unique theories about treating cancer, AIDS, and other serious diseases.

Arrest and dismissal of charge

On Sept. 20, 1999, Dr. Clark was arrested in San Diego and extradited in early October to Indiana, where she was charged with practicing medicine without a license, a Class C felony. Brown County, Indiana, authorities claimed she was doing the same thing in Nashville, Indiana, in the early 1990s, which amounted to practicing medicine without a license. A warrant for her arrest was issued in 1993. According to the Indiana legal code, Dr. Clark was holding herself out to the public as being engaged in:

• The diagnosis, treatment, correction, or prevention of disease and ailments of human beings;
• The suggestion, recommendation or prescription or administration of a form of treatment;
• The prevention of any physical, mental, or functional ailment or defect of any person.

After being arrested and sent to Indiana, Dr. Clark appeared in court, pleaded not guilty, and was released on a $10,000 bond. Interestingly, one of the original investigators in the case was Amy Hoffman Oliver, the wife of current then-Brown County prosecutor Jim Oliver. Dr. Clark faced two to eight years in jail if convicted of the charges.

“We can’t lead everybody by the hand into the right therapy. Nothing is going to work all the time for everybody.”

Dr. Hulda Clark

“Our first plan is to bail her out of jail, so she can work on her defense with [attorney Steve] Dillon and prove her innocence,” Dr. Clark's son, Geoff Clark, told the Herald-Times. “I think this case really tests where we draw the line between a medical practice and a noninvasive, nonprescription approach.”

“This is not about alternative medicine,” prosecutor Oliver said. “It is not about whether her treatments are effective. It’s about an individual doing things that only a licensed physician can do.”

For her part, Dr. Clark maintained she is obligated to make public ideas that she believes can relieve suffering. She said she trusts people to make informed decisions about their health. “They have, at least, the advantage of going to the Internet right now and finding opinions that are critical,” she said. “That’s the way it should be.

“We can’t lead everybody by the hand into the right therapy. Nothing is going to work all the time for everybody.”

Attorney Dillon noted, “What I’m afraid is really behind this is the AMA [American Medical Association] wants to protect its right to the exclusive practice of any kind of medicine, and anybody who doesn’t have an M.D. degree gets in trouble in Indiana.” [3]

In April 2000, Brown Circuit Judge Judith Stewart ruled the delay in arresting and prosecuting Dr. Clark violated her right to a speedy trial. “This is not a case of bad faith on the part of the state,” Stewart wrote in the decision. “However, the bottom line remains that the government bears the burden of bringing a defendant to trial within the speedy trial provisions of our constitution and our laws. That burden was not met in this case.”

‘Alternative therapies … here to stay and grow'

After the case was dismissed in Indiana, Dr. Clark returned to California and her clinic in Mexico. “I think it does suggest that there's a fairly progressive mindset,” Dr. Clark said after the decision, “that alternative therapies are a good thing for society, and they're here to stay and grow.

“It served the purpose of focusing the public's eyes and ears on what is happening in the United States,” she said, “that there is a confrontation of the new therapies by the old therapies — and that the public is very interested in it.”

Dr. Clark continued to promote disease prevention, the Syncrometer, and the Zapper until her death on Sept. 3, 2009. She was memorialized thusly:

She was a pioneer, and she was mistaken on many points, as do all pioneers, in every field of life. She was not an evil doer, nor was she a saint. She was not the most successful healer, at least in my opinion, but no one today is. In this day and age, to heal is almost impossible, since the obstacles to cure are overwhelming.

But what is wrong with us? All the critics and experts? We know what is wrong. We are hysterical. A chronic mysterious illness is taking over all of us, and we have no idea how to stop it. We call it many names, cancer for example, but in the end, is it medical ignorance that lies in the core of it all.

None of us: patients, advocates, mainstream doctors or alternative healers, have any idea anymore what to do. And I include myself. Although I have many insights to share, I am the first to say that todays' medical situation is overwhelming and I cannot fully solve it; certainly not on my own. [4]