David Emerson Root

David E. Root, M.D., M.P.H.
Born	March, 1936 Salt Lake City, Utah
Nationality	American
Known for	Human Detoxification
Website	www.sacmedicalgroup.com
Medical career
Specialism	Occupational and Environmental Medicine

David Emerson Root (born March, 1936) is a retired American USAF Pilot-Physician honored by Queen Elizabeth II for air combat life support research and known for promoting L. Ron Hubbard's controversial Purification Rundown to treat occupational toxic injury.

Professional Life

Root received his medical degree from Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Bowman Gray Campus, Winston-Salem, NC, in 1962. He served 20 years in the United States Air Force before retiring in 1980 with the rank of Colonel^[1] as Chief Flight Surgeon and Senior Pilot.

He was one of 16^[2] physicians selected for pilot training in the Pilot-Physician^[3] astronaut candidate selection process for the top secret, parallel space program^[4] called the Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL).^[5]

Dr. Root was the Chief of Occupational Medicine and Flight Surgeon at Beale AFB where he was attached to the SR-71 Blackbird and U-2 squadrons^[6]

In 1975, Root was the first^[7] American assigned to the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine at RAF Farnborough, Hants, England under a new Exchange Officer program testing nuclear, biological, and chemical defense systems^[8][9][10] and oxygen requirements during high-G air combat maneuvers^[9][10] in a modified Hawker Hunter.^[6]

Dr. Root was awarded the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service In The Air from Air Marshall Sir Roy Austen-Smith at the British Embassy, Washington, in 1979.^[9][8][10]

He is the only American Doctor elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society while stationed in the United Kingdom^[11][10]

Before retiring from active duty in 1980, Root was the Chief Advisor to the Life Support Systems Program Office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.^[9][8][10]

In 1982 Dr. Root began implementing the medically unorthodox sauna detoxification method, developed in 1978 by American author and Church of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, from his Sacramento, California, practice in a joint venture with the HealthMed Clinic, run by Scientologists and backed by the Los Angeles-based Scientology front organization named "The Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Education",^[12] (FASE). Root is listed as the Medical Director of HealthMed and the Senior Medical Advisor of FASE.^[13]

He is the Senior Medical Advisor to the "International Academy of Detoxification Specialists",^[14] a subsidiary of Scientology front group New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project.^[15]

In a 2014 article by Dr. Joseph Mercola titled "Niacin, Exercise, and Sauna—A Simple and Effective Detox Program That Can Significantly Improve Your Health" Mercola states, "Dr. David Root has the most experience detoxifying the veterans with Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. He used niacin (vitamin B3) as a way to mobilize fat and free up toxic chemicals locked in all lipophilic fatty tissues, i.e. the fat and in your brain."^[16]

Referencing a research paper co-authored by Dr. Root titled "Xenobiotic Reduction And Clinical Improvements In Capacitor Workers: A Feasible Method"^[17] Mercola writes in that same article, "In 1990...he collected fat samples from Yugoslavian capacitor workers exposed to toxic chemicals. Their fat contained 140 to 150 times higher levels of toxins than their blood. After the use of the detoxification program, the toxic chemicals decreased by 30 percent from the fat so there was residual toxic chemicals still in fat even though these workers felt better."^[16]

In her book, The Holistic Handbook of Sauna Therapy, Nenah Sylver, PhD, quotes Dr. Root from his statement before The Presidential Special Oversight Board For Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical & Biological Incidents, "Since 1982, I have been using a detoxification program to treat patients who have been exposed to fat-soluble chemicals, either at work or from environmental sources. This program, developed by L. Ron Hubbard in 1978, has over the last 15 years been evaluated and used by a growing number of professionals throughout the world who have examined its use in relieving the after effects of chemical exposure and found it to be very effective. To my knowledge, there is no other peer-reviewed method for reducing the body burden of fat-soluble toxic chemicals. Papers documenting the efficacy of the Hubbard program have been published by such organizations as the World Health Organization, the Royal Swedish Academy of Science, the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health and others....The Hubbard detoxification program has long been upheld as compensable under state and national workman’s compensation laws."^[18]

Criticism

Scientists independent of Scientology describe the Hubbard Method as quackery,^[12][19] unproven^[20] and medically unsafe.^[21] The Scientology operated Narconon drug rehabilitation centers, for which Root is a member of the Science Advisory Board,^[22] has garnered considerable controversy as a result of its origins in Scientology and its methods. After reviewing materials published by Narconon, University of Oklahoma biochemistry professor Bruce Roe described the program as "a scam" based on "half-truths and pseudo-science."^[23]

According to an article in the International Business Times, Lydia Smith writes,

The detoxification process has repeatedly come under fire since Narconon was formed. But in response, the organisation has stated that mainstream medicine is biased against it.

One of the most controversial areas of the purification is the use of niacin, an essential human nutrient, and one of the ingredients of the multivitamin cocktail given to Narconon members.

Clear Body, Clear Mind, a canonical text of Scientology published by the Church in 1990, recommends initial doses of 100mg, which increase over the course of the programme. This is in stark contrast to the medically recommended level of around 15mg. Overdoses of Niacin include skin irritation, dizziness, rapid heartbeat, headaches and liver damage.

The risk of taking high doses of niacin is one of the reasons medical experts have said the Narconon programme is unsafe and has since been banned in France and Quebec.^[24]

Other activities

In a precedential 1987 California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board award, Root’s testimony helped annul a 1986 denial of insurance on a claimed injury to the petitioner's skin, gastrointestinal tract and other organs from cumulative exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) in the course of his employment. The petitioner recovered his detoxification costs,^[25] and this ruling paved the way for other workers’ compensation cases involving Multiple Chemical Sensitivity, a controversial diagnosis which is not generally accepted by medical science.^[26]

With key members of FASE, Root has lectured and consulted with physicians and government officials from Russia, Slovenia, England, Sweden, Israel, and France to facilitate the detoxification of victims of the Chernobyl disaster and other toxic chemical exposure accidents.^[27][28] In the United States, Root assisted FASE and the Heroes Health Fund with the startup in 2003 of two New York clinics which provided free detoxification services to 9/11 First Responders and volunteers at Ground Zero who were exposed to "…toxic dust, fume and vapor that arose from the collapsing WTC and subsequent fire [which] contained hundreds of different toxic chemicals, including dioxins, PCBs, asbestos, silica, benzene, polybrominated diphenyl ethers, manganese, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel, oxides of nitrogen and sulfur," according to Dr. James G. Dahlgren, M.D., assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).^[29]

Claimed positive subjective results from the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project convinced Utah State Attorney General Mark Shurtleff to fund the Utah Meth Cops Project with over $440,000 in taxpayer dollars to treat police who complain of health effects from exposure to meth lab toxins.^[30]

Published Works Cited

David Root published 14 papers on various aeromedical topics including chemical defense and life support topics.^[5] Three have been cited in multiple works:

• "Excretion of a Lipophilic Toxicant Through the Sebaceous Glands: A Case Report", Root, D., Lionelli, G., Journal of Toxicology: Cutaneous and Ocular Toxicology, 6(1), 13-17, 1987.^{[31][32][33][34][35]}

• "Reducing Toxic Body Burdens Advancing an Innovative Technique", Root, D., Anderson, J., Occupational Health and Safety, Vol. 11, No. 4, 1986.^{[36][37][38][39][40]}

• "Xenobiotic Reduction And Clinical Improvements In Capacitor Workers: A Feasible Method", Z. Tretjak, D.E. Root, A. Tretjak, R. Slivnik, E. Edmondson, R. Graves, and S.L. Beckmann, International Association of Detoxification Specialists, 2001.^[16]

Research Studies Funded

Gulf War syndrome

In an effort to validate their subjective detoxification results while providing relief to the American vets suffering from Gulf War Syndrome, FASE set out to secure funding for a comprehensive research study through the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). Root’s testimony in 1998 to the Presidential Special Oversight Board For Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical & Biological Incidents,^[41] and to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), led to an official recommendation by CDC that detoxification be studied as a treatment option for Gulf War veterans. The $633,677.00 grant, titled "Gulf War Illness: Evaluation of an Innovative Detoxification Program" was awarded in September, 2010.^[42]

Utah Meth Cops project

In 2012, a peer-reviewed report of the findings from the Utah Meth Cops Project study was published on PubMed.Gov of the US National Library of Medicine for the National Institute of Health (NIH).^[43]

The report concludes, "This investigation strongly suggests that utilizing sauna and nutritional therapy may alleviate chronic symptoms appearing after chemical exposures associated with methamphetamine-related law enforcement activities. This report also has relevance to addressing the apparent ill effects of other complex chemical exposures. In view of the positive clinical outcomes in this group, broader investigation of this sauna-based treatment regimen appears warranted."

References