Frank Shallenberger:
Medical Hero or Public Menace?
If you’re reading this, it probably means you did a search for Dr. Frank Shallenberger and came across some accusations of misconduct.
This website will answer your questions and give you the fully documented facts. You will be able to click on links regarding all the issues.
But first, here’s what other doctors have to say about Frank Shallenberger …
"Frank Shallenberger is one of the most skilled and caring physicians currently practicing in these United States. Someone has been trying to defame him. Unfortunately, this is not unusual for natural medicine doctors.”
Jonathan Wright, MD
Author of many medical books, articles, and publications
“Dr. Frank Shallenberger is a brilliant leader in the field of integrative medicine. He has a huge breakthrough in pain management with Prolozone therapy. His command of integrative medicine is respected widely in the integrative medicine community. Were he to be offering his services in our area, he would be the first physician we would visit for evaluation and treatment.
Robert Jay Rowen, M.D
Editor Second Opinion Medical Newsletter
Terry Su, MD
“I first met Dr. Frank Shallenberger while serving as an advisor to the board of an Asian group interested in Frank's work. I then visited Carson City and had the privilege of learning about his work and seeing his practice first-hand. I was deeply impressed by his professionalism, his medical and scientific capabilities, and his compassionate capacity to care for his patients.”
Judy Lim, MD
North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
“I have been privileged to know and train under Dr. Shallenberger for the past eight years. He has pioneered and paved the way for the development of therapies that will set new standards for the practice of Medicine for generations to come.”
Steve Kuplesky, MD
Board Certified Emergency Medicine
“Frank Shallenberger is a true pioneer in healthcare. I would be very comfortable sending my family and friends to Dr. Shallenberger should the need arise.”
Len Saputo, MD
Founder of the Health Medicine Forum
“No one is respected more or has contributed more to alternative medicine and anti-aging than Dr. Shallenberger. He has brought the science of medicine to new heights with his pioneering work. I am honored to have him as a colleague and friend. ”
Philip Mollica MS, DMD, NMD
Doctor of Integrative Medicine
“The courses I have taken from you have probably been the most influential in helping my patients attain improved health. I consider you one of the top physicians in the U.S.A.”
Robert Barnes DO
“Dr. Shallenberger is a leader in the medical field who is advancing the cause of safe medical alternatives for the benefit of all mankind.”
Daniel F. Royal, DO, HMD, JD
Medical Director, New Hope Medical Center
“One of the most critical traits of a champion is that he must be willing to go through bad, being criticized by the establishment, falling many times and getting up, to get to the good. All this takes a significant supply of two other character traits that I so admire in Dr. Shallenberger. Those traits are an enduring focus and courage.”
David J. Krizman, M.D.
How I Evolved from Drugs and Surgery to a More Complete Healing Method … and How Doing So Landed Me in Trouble with the Medical Bureaucracy
by Frank Shallenberger, MD
I’ve been practicing medicine for 36 years. I started in emergency medicine, working at the first shock trauma clinic in the country. I then moved to a large urban hospital in San Francisco.
Working in trauma care at the hospital was gratifying and fulfilling, because every day we saved lives.
It was also very exciting. We’d get into a helicopter, land on a building, and then run down the stairs to the patient, where we’d stick tubes in him and save his life.
I worked in emergency medicine for seven years and loved it. But then the laws in California changed, and pretty soon I wasn’t seeing many people with emergencies any more. I was seeing people who were using the ER to have their sore throats looked at.
I figured if I’m going to treat sore throats, I may as well go into practice for myself. So I hung out my shingle and went into practice as a general practitioner.
I started seeing patients with all kinds of chronic conditions … like arthritis, diabetes … hypertension … and fatigue.
And that’s when I started becoming disillusioned with conventional medicine.
You see, despite receiving the best care modern medicine had to offer, my patients weren't getting well. Sometimes, they’d even get sick from the drugs I gave them!
So I started talking to some of my colleagues at the hospital. I’d say “Hey, I’ve got this patient with arthritis and this patient with high blood pressure and I’m giving them the meds but they’re not getting better.” My colleagues would say “You’re doing a good job. You’re doing the right things.” And I’d think, “How can I be doing the right things if nobody’s getting well?”
It was then that I started learning about so-called alternative therapies.
I started reading about vitamins and nutrition (something we learned almost nothing about in medical school). And I started digging through arcane articles in obscure scientific journals.
When I started putting this new knowledge into practice, many of my patients got better. Not just temporarily, but for good!
So I dug deeper, looking for even more healing methods. I looked into acupuncture … chelation … oxidative therapies. I even looked at “far-out” therapies like magnets and homeopathy.
Back then, alternative medicine was in its infancy. There weren’t a lot of studies done on alternative cures, the way there are today.
This lack of studies created a dilemma. On one hand, I wanted my patients to have access to all the latest cutting-edge cures. On the other hand, I didn’t want to try untested treatments on my patients, using the patients as guinea pigs.
What to do? I decided that it would be OK to try a new treatment on a patient … if the treatment passed the following three tests:
1. The treatment had to be totally safe
2. The treatment had to be inexpensive
3. There had to be some evidence that the treatment worked (even if it was only anecdotal evidence)
If a treatment met those 3 requirements, I had no problem trying it out on patients. And my patients were happy to try it, too.
So I started experimenting, and the results exceeded my wildest dreams. My patients got better in droves! I started getting a reputation for curing people who weren’t being cured elsewhere. Patients started referring their friends to me. And open-minded doctors started sending their most “hopeless” cases to me. You’ve already seen what my colleagues have to say about me. Click here to read what my patients think.
Trouble Brews
Unfortunately, the State of California didn’t look too kindly on the types of remedies I was using. In fact, section 4211 of the “California Business and Professions Code” went so far as to define B vitamins and magnesium as “dangerous drugs!”
Some of my colleagues started getting persecuted by the bureaucrats. One doctor had her license revoked. Another had to spend over $250,000 in legal fees to keep his license.
My best friend spent more than that to defend himself against the medical board for using vitamin A to treat an ear infection. Neither he nor I could believe that he could be found incompetent for this “crime.” I gave him $1000 to help with expenses, but he lost his money as well as his medical license. Oh, by the way, the patient who received the vitamin A had nothing but good things to say about my friend. I knew it was only a matter of time before they would come after me, too.
I faced several choices. Choice #1 was to keep doing what I was doing and hope the bureaucrats left me alone.
Choice #2 was to tow the line and stop using alternative treatments, even though I knew they worked. Of course, this option was totally out of the question. The day that covering my butt becomes more important than doing what’s right is the day I quit being a doctor.
Choice #3 was to move to a different state, where alternative doctors weren’t being hassled. I wasn’t crazy about this choice either, because I didn’t want to leave my patients. But in the end, I met and married a wonderful woman from neighboring Nevada, and we moved there.
The Nevada move had a lot of pluses. First off, the state was less hostile toward alternative medicine, and even had a separate medical board for homeopathic doctors. Second, we would still be close enough so that patients who wanted to continue to see me could do so by driving a few hours. Third, I sold my California practice to an alternative MD with a good reputation, so I figured my patients would be in good hands.
Little did I know that the sale of my practice would come back to haunt me … and that the California bureaucrats would come after me even after I’d left the state!
Here’s what happened:
First, one of my former patients ended up in the hospital after being treated by the doctor I sold my practice to. (Thank God it wasn’t serious.) Then, another patient submitted a claim to her insurance company for the alternative treatments I had given her. The insurance adjuster must have blown a gasket when he saw what I was doing, because he reported me to the California Medical Board and used some pretty strong language.
The board started digging through my records and found countless instances where I used “unacceptable” treatments. None of these instances involved any harm to my patients. But that didn’t matter; I had broken their rules. So they moved to strip me of my license.
Once again, I found myself facing choices. I could fight the charges, which would mean over $200,000 in legal fees and constant travel to Sacramento, where the trial would be held. Or, I could pay a small fine and voluntarily surrender my license.
Since I was already practicing in Nevada and no longer needed a California license, I chose to surrender my license and pay the fine. I moved on, and never looked back.
Until now.
Recently, a political science professor at the University of Massachusetts has put up a website attacking doctors who practice alternative medicine. As part of her attack, she unearthed the old California complaints against me and put them on her website. She also re-printed a negative newspaper article about me, even though that article was false, and the paper printed my statement clearing up the facts. Both these negative documents appear on her website, but not the positive one.
I say “her website,” but the website doesn’t really belong to her. It belongs to the University of Massachusetts. And since it’s a university website, it gets high rankings from Google and the other search engines. Which means that when you do a search for “Frank Shallenberger,” her page comes up at the top of the search results.
There are a couple of things wrong with this. One is that since UMass is a public university, this woman is essentially using taxpayer money to advance her own personal agenda. The other thing that’s wrong is that the website is full of distortions, half-truths, and outright lies.
To counter those lies and set the record straight, I have created this website. The links below provide the fully documented facts … verifiable by anyone who wants to look.
I invite you to click on the links and see for yourself.
Frank A. Shallenberger, MD
Links:
