by Jule Klotter
“There is nothing permanent except change,” said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus; and Townsend Letter has dealt with multiple changes over the past 40 years, including its name! It began as Townsend Letter for Doctors (TLfD), in 1983, expanded to Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients (reflecting the number of educated laypeople who subscribed) in 2004, and then settled on its current name Townsend Letter – The Examiner of Alternative Medicine. As Jonathan Collin mentioned in “Letter from the Publisher” (page 6), this issue is the last edition of Townsend Letter.
What began as an “informal newsletter for doctors communicating to doctors,” early in 1983, matured into a magazine with an international reputation for presenting the clinical experiences of alternative/integrative doctors and practitioners. Unlike professional journals that specialize in one branch of medicine, Townsend Letter has always embraced multiple schools of medical practice, including nutritional, orthomolecular, functional, homeopathic, naturopathic, chiropractic, botanical, anti-aging, energy modalities, acupuncture, massage therapy, and applied kinesiology. And the magazine has always welcomed real-world clinical observations and viewed such empirical evidence as being the first step in medical research. As Jonathan Collin wrote in the January 1994 issue, “…providing to professionals and public the thoughts and practices of an alternative practitioner is invaluable. It is only when such thoughts have public expression that peer review begins to take place.”
Collin, who has had a lifelong interest in publishing, wanted to provide an outlet for doctors who thought and worked outside the medical status quo. He envisioned the publication as “a bulletin board for doctors to share their pet therapies and mad-scientist ideas.” And in the first decade or so—before the widespread use of blogs and social media—the magazine was filled with letters-to-the-editor, sharing clinical observations, debating the pros and cons of diverse alternative practices, and more.
Inside the August/September 1988 issue (#61/62), for example, a robust “Letters to the Editor” section debated the possible toxicity of Streptococcus faecium used in some probiotic products. In other letters, Warren M. Levin, MD, suggested applying a nitroglycerine patch to acupuncture point Pericardium 6. Bernard Rimland, PhD, asked for scientific references that support kinesiology. Serafina Corsello, MD, responded to an earlier writer’s criticism of the ‘interventive naturopathic approach.’ Sherry A. Rogers, MD, notified doctors of a recent paper that explained how to test for environmental chemical reactions, at a time when sick building syndrome and multiple chemical sensitivities were just beginning to be acknowledged. TLfD had become the ‘bulletin board,’ the forum for questioning and discussion as physicians and patients sought answers to recognized illnesses and to new syndromes that failed to respond to conventional therapies.
While mainstream press assured readers that the new disease AIDS was “incurable and almost always fatal,” TLfD reprinted an article by Robert F. Cathcart III, MD, describing his clinical use of large doses of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and other nutrients along with a clean diet to lessen symptoms. While conventional medicine and the chemical lobby maintained that people with a bewildering array of symptoms were delusional, TLfD gave people with chemical sensitivity and environmental illness a place to voice their experiences and gave practitioners a venue for sharing their clinical insights. AIDS, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, multiple chemical sensitivities, chronic Lyme, Gulf War syndrome, autism—a profusion of new diseases and syndromes erupted in the 1980s and 1990s, conditions that affected mind and body and could not be cured with a simple procedure or magic pill. Interest in complementary and alternative medicine surged. By 2003, the Townsend Letter, which started as an eight-page newsletter, was publishing a magazine with over 160 pages, 10 times a year.
As the magazine grew, Collin recruited doctors, practitioners, and healthcare journalists to write columns related to their field. Alan R. Gaby, MD, an expert in nutritional medicine and author of the “Literature Review and Commentary” column, began writing for TL in late 1985. He had written for the Northwest Academy of Preventive Medicine newsletter when Collin was editor. “I was impressed with his open-mindedness and his interest in nutritional medicine,” Dr. Gaby told me by e-mail when I wrote about Townsend’s 30th “birthday” for the February/March 2013 issue. “When he founded the Townsend Letter and asked me to be a writer, I was happy to be a part of his new endeavor.”
Naturopathic physicians Judyth Reichenberg-Ullman and Robert Ullman began their “Healing with Homeopathy” column in 1990, a column that Dr. Judyth has continued to write on her own after her husband retired. After they read TL for the first time, Dr. Judyth remembers thinking, “Holistic medicine is well represented, but why isn’t anyone writing about homeopathy in the Townsend Letter? All it took was a call to Jonathan….”
Tori Hudson, ND, a recognized expert in women’s health, began “Women’s Health Update” in 1992. She told me, “TLfD was one of the very few publications at the time that I started, that offered a resource for clinicians in a wide range of topics. The articles were topical, controversial, informative and, yes, even the ‘out there’ articles were important to me. I always liked that the TLfD editor and staff include columns and articles that were left brain and right brain, mainstream evidence-based natural medicine as well as the progressive, theoretical, unproven, and even edgy.”
Many other columns have appeared in this magazine over the years. Dr. Melvyn R. Werbach’s “Nutritional Influences on Illness,” which became a mainstay for almost two decades. Sherry A. Rogers, MD, wrote a column on environmental medicine, a topic now covered by Marianne Marchese, ND. Anna MacIntosh, PhD, ND, reviewed research studies related to exercise and physical activity. Robert A. Anderson, MD, presented research on the connection between mind, emotions, and physiology in “Psychoneuroimmunoendocrinology Review and Commentary.” Tim Batchelder took on medical issues from an anthropological view. John Weeks discussed the business side of alternative medicine. Paul Yanick wrote about quantum healing and functional medicine. Bob Flaws covered Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture. Kerry Bone, Donald Brown, and Andrew Gaeddert shared research about botanicals and phytotherapy.
Collin began testing the idea of having a theme for each issue in August/September 1999; the first topic was lupus and autoimmune disease. That issue contained lupus patient Henrietta Aladjem’s perspective and a review of her book. Practitioners such as the late Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD, provided their perspectives as well. He and Melvyn Werback, MD, reported that food sensitivities contributed to autoimmune disease. Environmental risk factors linked to lupus were discussed by Rose Marie Williams in her “Health Risks & Environmental Issues” column. A few months later, Townsend Letter looked at the “Best & Worst of Alternative Medicine” (February/March 2000). Contributors included many notable names in the world of complementary and alternative medicine: Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD; Joseph E. Pizzorno Jr., ND; Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD; Richard Kunin, MD; Joseph M. Mercola, DO; and more.
Since those first theme issues, Townsend Letter has sought to focus the diverse views of its contributing writers on topics such as Lyme disease, chronic fatigue, chemical sensitivity, cardiovascular health, allergies, respiratory health, cancer, women’s health, men’s health, the brain and mental health, inflammation, and alternative laboratory tests. Some of the “Best Reads” that have appeared in TL’s pages are available on our website: www.townsendletter.com.
In addition to complementary and alternative healthcare practices, health freedom and informed choice have been major topics of interest. In headline articles on the front of the 36-page June 1986 issue, Bruce Halstead related his dealings with the California State Board of Medical Quality that resulted in a truly “draconian sentence” of four years in state prison, $10,000 fine, delicensure, and court orders to “desist from all professional activity in the health care field.” What terrible actions had led to this sentence? Halstead had recommended a homeopathic herbal preparation to patients in the hope of enhancing their immune function. He neither manufactured the product nor profited from its sale.
Dr. Halstead was just one of numerous physicians being prosecuted in the US for advocating alternative therapies at that time. More recently, Townsend Letter has been covering doctors who are facing the threat of delicensure because they have not succumbed to the official narratives around covid or vaccines. Medical freedom, as well as improvements in medical care, needs practitioners who can think outside the one-size-fits-all box and communicate their views. Without doctors free of coercion and threat, patients lack information to make an informed choice.
Punitive medical boards have not been the only threats to medical freedom. The November 1991 issue reflected the turmoil surrounding the FDA’s attempts to regulate dietary supplements as if they were drugs. TLfD contained testimonies, written by Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD, and Kirkpatrick W. Dilling, that were submitted to the FDA Dietary Supplement Task Force. FDA agents had shut down several clinics and supplement manufacturers and suppliers over the years, restricting access and consumer choice.
The FDA’s actions gained widespread notoriety in May 1992, when armed police and FDA agents raided Dr. Jonathan V. Wight’s Tahoma Clinic in Kent, Washington. What “illegal” substance instigated the raid? B vitamins. The police thought that they would find narcotics. Dr. Wright fought a hard legal battle for almost four years until the FDA finally dropped the charges in 1995. The highly publicized raid generated more urgency to pass the federal Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). The legislation, which was an ongoing topic in TLfD for several years, asserted consumers’ right to have access to safe dietary supplements. It was finally signed into law in 1994. DSHEA grandfathered in any supplement that was on the market before 1995.
When FDA tried to restrict access to N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) in 2021, Townsend staff was able to find 13 advertisements in pre-1994 issues showing NAC had been sold in supplements before DSHEA went into effect. On April 20, 2022, FDA announced an unpublished (not finalized) decision that the supplement NAC, which was to be restricted to drug use only, was restored to food supplement use. The FDA did note in its memorandum that NAC has been used as a supplement for more than 30 years.
NAC is by no means the only product used by integrative practitioners to attract FDA’s heavy hand. Bioidentical hormones (see www.townsendletter.com), homeopathy, and compounding pharmacies have all been threatened. Townsend Letter continues to follow these issues and others that threaten access to non-pharmaceutical treatments/products.
In October 2008, the American College for the Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) presented Jonathan Collin with its Legacy Media Award. The award honored Townsend Letter, then in its 25th year of publication, for its contribution to the field of alternative and integrative medicine. The award is well deserved. With an extraordinary open-mindedness, Jonathan Collin has created a unique forum for the sharing and discussion of nonconventional viewpoints. Over the years, Townsend Letter has published information that has later (often years later) been verified by mainstream researchers. Suicide ideation caused by SSRIs, dangers of Vioxx, the benefits of IV vitamin C in cancer, and the importance of beneficial bacteria and probiotics are just a few of the topics that appeared in TL’s pages long before scientific verification and mainstream coverage. I cannot help but wonder what other topics will eventually be accepted by the wider medical community. Will it be Dr. Alan McDaniel’s view on hypothyroidism (See May-June 2021 issues or www.townsendletter.com)? Will doctors use functional medicine to reverse ailing kidneys, like Dr. Devaki Lindsey Berkson hopes (June 2021)? Will Dr. Garth L. Nicolson’s research into restoring cellular membrane function become standard for people with chronic illnesses, like Gulf War syndrome (November 2022)? Who knows what seeds are being planted by these Townsend articles?
Like other publications, Townsend Letter has been affected by the economic decline that began with the dot.com/technology bubble bust in 2000, and major changes in the publishing and advertising industries. Although Collin moved to a new printer, Dartmouth Printing Company (Hanover, New Hampshire) in the summer of 2011 issue to ease financial stress, current economics have forced another change. Instead of producing a magazine, Townsend Letter will continue to publish articles of interest on its website and in the Townsend e-Newsletter.
Along with its many informative contributors, Townsend Letter has been blessed with a committed and creative staff. Barbara Smith has been the magazine’s managing editor since 1995. She has been responsible for the magazine’s layout and design since the mid-1980s. From 1995-2010, she worked in the office. Now, more times than not, she performs layout on the road as she and her husband, Larry, travel in their RV to visit friends and family, harvest beets in the Fall, and sell Christmas trees in Texas in December.
Sisters Joy Reuther-Costa and Julie Reuther maintain the office these days. The Townsend Letter office consists of the dining and a small bedroom in a small, two-story house, which also holds Dr. Collin’s Olympic Peninsula medical practice, in uptown Port Townsend, Washington. Joy started as circulation assistant in the 1980s, under her mother JoAnn, who was Townsend’s circulation manager until her death in 1994. Today, Joy is circulation manager and webmaster for the magazine. Julie started working as a teen on Townsend’s mail crew in its early years. Ten times each year, the mail crew—a group of adults and teens—took over the living-dining room of Dr. Collin’s clinic to address, add inserts, and organize according to zipcode and post office regulations the boxes of finished issues, trucked from Printery Communications down the street. Today, Julie is managing assistant; she takes care of day-to-day office activities and helps Dr. Collin keep track of manuscripts and advertisers.
Compared to the other three, I (Jule Klotter) was a latecomer. I was initially hired as a temporary editor in 1990. But when Townsend’s editor, Irene Alleger returned from her sabbatical, Dr. Collin hired me to develop an index of the magazine’s authors and article keywords. Later, he asked me to compile events for the calendar, write book reviews that provided information for busy doctors, and abstract articles for “Shorts.” I became Townsend Letter’s editor near the end of 2016.
Townsend Letter has been at the forefront of innovative, holistic healthcare for 40 years, and its legacy as “the examiner of alternative medicine” will continue on the web. If you want to subscribe to the e-newsletter, go to the website www.townsendletter.com and submit your email address. You can also send a request—and a few kind words about your experience with the magazine—to info@townsendletter.com.
To quote our Editor-in-Chief, thank you, thank you, thank you.
