I know this to be true because I've been portrayed a so-called victim of their schemes. My story comes up periodically as the "haters" of natural medicine or the hired quackbusters try to discredit anyone involved with natural medicine. I don't consider myself a victim but simply a knowledgeable participant in the age-old struggle of power versus authority.

Back in 1979 when I set up my practice as a dedicated natural medicine doctor with a medical license and naturopathic degree, my mere existence threatened allopathic medicine. I further drove a nail in my own coffin by going on the media and talking about alternatives to drug-based medicine. I was a thorn in the side of the medical establishment.

In 1989, when I was writing a book on sugar, I was asked to appear as a guest on The Dini Petty Show on CTV, a Canadian television nework. It was a Christmas show airing on December 11 and the topic was sugar overindulgence during the holidays and how to counter it.

Dini specifically wanted me to talk about sugar and its effects. I came prepared with my research and my props. In front of a gaping audience, I spooned out the ten teaspoons of sugar in a can of soda and the twenty-seven teaspoons in a milkshake. A scientist in Montreal on friendly terms with a sugar lobby group in Ottawa apparently was not impressed. He and the lobby group enlisted a Toronto doctor who had never seen the show and who didn't know me. Together they sent a letter of complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO).

The CPSO is a licensing body for Ontario physicians and has a mandate to "protect the public and guide the profession." They really had no authority to accept a complaint from the sugar industry. However, at that time the CPSO was staging an all-out war against natural medicine. A brilliant environmental medicine doctor, Josef Krop MD, was under attack along with many Ontario doctors practicing any form of alternative medicine. Dr. Krop's battle is documented by Helke Ferrie in her book Malice in Medicine: The 14-Year Trial of Environmental Physician, Dr. Jozef Krop.

Medical doctors are licensed and regulated by their own medical boards. Increasingly, these boards are populated with representatives of the drug industry, health insurance industry, and doctors who are paid "advisors" for pharmaceutical companies. Drug and insurance affiliations represent a conflict of interest or, at the very least, a vested interest in promoting allopathic medicine.

The CPSO was not concerned about the dangers of sugar or the need to help alert the unsuspecting public. They only seemed to care about keeping the status quo, supporting industry, and admonishing doctors who were not conforming to the "standard practice of medicine." That standard for a general practitioner allowed them to only prescribe drugs and recommend surgery.

The CPSO reprimanded me, almost four years later, on May 25, 1993. Here are the words they used that actually indict them, not me. "Dr. Dean is hereby admonished regarding sensational and scientifically unsubstantiated comments and misleading statements about sugar and sugar substitutes and their relationship to diabetes, infection, osteoporosis, hyperactivity, and addiction." The CPSO was given copies of my still-unpublished book on sugar but chose to ignore its hundreds of supporting references.

The sugar complaint alerted the CPSO to my style of medicine and I believe they sent a "provocateur" to my office in July, 1990. This intruder wrote to the CPSO and said I was "incompetent" because in his one visit I refused to give him a homeopathic remedy for his allergies. If I had given him a homeopathic remedy on his first visit, he would have complained about that since his only purpose was to attack me.

Based on that incredible fabrication, the CPSO leapt at the chance to enter my offices without warning and take thirty-six patient charts so they could go on a "hunting expedition" to find something wrong with my practice and remove my license.

With unbelievable timing, the CPSO took the files from my office in December 1991, four days before I was due to close my practice for a one-year sabbatical, which I had been planning for three years. After several months my charts were returned, with no charges being laid. A year passed, and there was still no word from the CPSO about my case. At this point I spoke with my lawyer who corresponded with the CPSO about my case and was told that they were not proceeding. I was fairly confident this was true because my lawyer returned the retainer I had given him!

My year-long sabbatical to study a new medical modality turned into a permanent position for me in New York City when the doctor I was working with suddenly died and left me to complete his work. The CPSO, however, had apparently not forgotten about me. Somewhere in mid-July, 2005, almost five years after the frivolous complaint was lodged, without my knowledge and without me being in attendance, the CPSO stole my license. I did not lose my license, I did not misplace it, my license was stolen by short-sighted, angry people, who wanted to control medicine and were terrified of anyone who didn't think like they did.

Ironically, I no longer had an Ontario license at the time it was "taken." I had stopped paying the exorbitant Ontario license renewal fee when I realized I would remain in New York and did hold a California medical license. The CPSO essentially revoked a non-existent license. I was not a threat to Ontario patients since I no longer had a practice. Their intent was to send a warning to other doctors to stay within the boundaries of allopathic medicine. Notice of my license revocation was prominently displayed in the quarterly report sent out by the CPSO to all doctors in Ontario. That is how I found out about my case when a friend called to express her shock.

When I learned about my license removal in Ontario, I hired a Toronto lawyer. She spoke with the CPSO lawyers and I was made the following offer. They would give me back my license if I agreed to sign a stipulation that I would no longer practice natural medicine. Essentially, if I committed to doling out prescriptions for drugs that I knew had side effects and refused to give my patients the safe options afforded by natural medicine, I would be "free" to practice.

In my mind that would be tantamount to tying my arms and legs together, gagging me, and ripping out my heart and soul. I refused. I suppose it would have been an easy solution since I wasn't planning to go back to Ontario and I wouldn't have to practice under their restrictions. However, ethically and morally it was never a viable option for me.

Knowing about the side effects of allopathic medicine and the safer options, it would be like a soldier killing innocent victims on the orders of an insane general. I could not use the Nuremberg Defense blaming my "superiors" to escape guilt and punishment. Somebody in the chain of command had to take a moral stand.

Shortly after I found out that my license had been stolen in Ontario, the California State Licensing Board sent me a letter saying that Ontario had notified them that I was unfit to practice medicine and advised them to revoke my California license. I immediately hired a lawyer in California and successfully saved my California license by providing the California authorities with the facts about my case in Ontario, which were riddled with inconsistencies and procedural errors. This was a novel move for the California State Licensing Board, which usually just follows the direction of another jurisdiction. It meant that I had a strong case against the Ontario CPSO.

My "sugar adventure" reiterates the lengths to which the sugar industry and allopathic medicine will go to retain their monopoly control over our health, taste buds, and purses. You would be correct to suspect that doctors live in fear of having a complaint lodged against them. Therefore, publicizing cases where a natural medicine practitioner loses her license will keep other doctors from stepping out of line.

Patients, on the other hand, assume that doctors would tell them if sugar, environmental pollution, prescription drugs, or any other substances were dangerous. However, since it can cost them their medical license, most doctors are unwilling to pay the price. This is especially true since most doctors are in deep financial debt when they finish medical school and can't afford to lose their livelihood. Accordingly, there are few health professionals who are willing to tell the truth.

During the purge of alternative medicine doctors in Ontario, there were at least two who committed suicide in the face of brutal attacks by the CPSO. In his ongoing struggle, Dr. Jozef Krop had to raise over a million dollars to pay for legal fees as he fought battle after battle. After fourteen years of this torture Dr. Krop finally voluntarily gave up his license.

When people ask me if I regret refusing the deal offered by the CPSO to give me back my license, I find myself in the position of many of my patients who overcome serious diseases. I wouldn't be where I am today if it weren't for that stressful experience. I firmly established myself in the natural medicine camp and proved that I would never compromise my principles.

If I had made that first compromise, the ordeal never would have ended. I probably would have become a TV doctor, constantly having to water down my opinions to please my sponsors. Instead of writing influential books like Death by Modern Medicine, I would have compromised my words and opinions for my publishers. Like many doctors I would try to rationalize that allopathic medicine is helping people, turning a blind eye to the millions suffering from lack of safer options. Or I would have ended up like a doctor friend of mine who recently wrote me these poignant words: "I have nothing to show for the work, the studying, the earnest desire to 'do right by my patients'. It is all corporate now. A hungry field, with doctors who are afraid others will notice that they, indeed, have no clothes."

By being blacklisted I achieved the silver lining of independence. I'm perfectly happy with who I am and where I am, living in a beautiful home on Maui, working on my twenty-third book, writing articles which are not censored, doing telephone consultations and promoting my lifestyle and wellness program, Future Health Now!

Reaction by the public against the attacks on my group of alternative medicine colleagues led to the passage of a law in Ontario in 2000 that allows doctors to practice alternative medicine and permits patients to receive alternative medical care. The official explanation of the Act is as follows: "The Bill ensures that physicians who provide non-traditional therapies or alternative forms of medicine are not found guilty of professional misconduct or incompetence unless there is evidence that proves that the therapy poses a greater risk to a patient's health than the traditional or prevailing practice." Winning!!

What's the message of my article? It's another wake-up call for you to take responsibility for your own health. Don't allow a medical monopoly in your world. Take charge of your own health before someone else does.

About the author:

Dr. Carolyn Dean is a medical doctor and naturopathic doctor. She has been in the forefront of the natural medicine revolution for over 30 years.

Dr. Dean is the author / coauthor of 22 health books (print and eBooks) including The Magnesium Miracle, IBS for Dummies, IBS Cookbook for Dummies, The Yeast Connection and Women's Health, Future Health Now Encyclopedia, Death by Modern Medicine, Everything Alzheimers, and Hormone Balance.

Dr. Dean is Medical Director of the Medical Anti-Aging Clinic and Pharmacy in Dubai Health Care City and Medical Director of the Nutritional Magnesium Association.