Letter from the Publisher

Dr. Robert Bradford Passes

Dr. Robert Bradford, a larger-than-life figure in the alternative medical community, died this summer. Bradford was a fixture at ACAM meetings from the 1970s to the present. Perhaps more than any other physician, Dr. Bradford demonstrated with his patented darkfield microscope that the blood carries parasitic forms often undetected with any other diagnostic technique. Bob loved to demonstrate live blood cell microscopy at medical meetings, offering to diagnose for attendees the state of their blood.

Bradford’s diagnosis included blood cell rouleaux, when red blood cells chain together – indicating faulty oxygenation and excess tendency to clotting. The microscope also offered an opportunity to examine for yeast bodies, providing the basis for the diagnosis of candidiasis. Bradford theorized that a microscopic exam demonstrating blood cell rouleaux, parasitic forms, yeast bodies, and other constituents suggests that the immune system is impaired. If the patient was suffering from cancer, inflammatory disease, or infection and had such a microscopic diagnosis, the treatment was deemed to be suboptimal and the prognosis was worrisome.

While Bradford was successful in teaching many physicians darkfield microscopy here and abroad, the conventional medical community has not embraced this diagnostic. Those doctors using live blood cell microscopy laud the technique as a means to quickly evaluate the physical state of their patients. Unlike routine blood cultures, chemistries, and blood counts, darkfield microscopy not only offers a method to diagnose within minutes but also a means to quickly determine whether a treatment will be helpful. When the patient is offered an effective treatment, there is frequently a prompt change in the darkfield microscopy, demonstrating a decrease in rouleaux and microscopic forms.

Dr. Bradford devoted much of his career to developing treatment protocols for cancer and chronic disease. Like other physicians who promulgated alternative cancer theories and treatments, Bradford’s work was not accepted in conventional medical settings. Consequently, Dr. Bradford opted to work with physicians in Tijuana, Mexico, establishing cancer treatment centers where his treatment strategies could be implemented. I recall making a field trip to Tijuana in the early 1990s to visit Dr. Bradford and seeing firsthand the hospital setting and treatments available. One of the wonderful aspects of medical care in Tijuana was that there was no administrative red tape typical of an American hospital. Patients could be freely diagnosed and treated with conventional and alternative therapies. Nutritional IV treatment included the use of special therapies, such as the proprietary formula Dioxychlor, to bolster the immune system and treat parasitic and yeast forms. Bradford’s theorized that cancer and chronic disease were the result of abnormal oxygen metabolism, which he examined in his work on oxidology. His reference text titled The Study of Reactive Oxygen Species and Their Metabolism in Health and Disease discusses his theory in depth. Patients received intensive treatment in Tijuana generally over a period of several weeks, then returned home with treatment protocols and dietary programs to follow. Bob liked to work with the Tijuana physicians, revising treatment approaches in patients who were not responding well. He had a very “hands-on” approach that was greatly appreciated by patients.

Dr. Bradford cofounded with his wife, Carole, American Biologics, a nutritional supplement company in 1978. He was the founder of the Bradford Research Institute, the foundation devoted to developing new biologic treatments and diagnostics. In the late 1990s, American Biologics began to sponsor an international medical meeting examining alternative medical diagnostics and therapies. Because the meetings were generally held in Europe, many of the lecturers offered a European perspective to alternative medicine. Still, with the meetings scheduled for June or July in a lovely Continental setting, many American alternative physicians joined the Bradfords for lecture and pleasure. (Brigitte Byrd, an American Biologics executive, organized the meetings and her hotel choices and postconference trips were delightful.)

I fondly remember taking my family to a meeting that American Biologics organized in Rhodes in the early 2000s. Dr. Bradford liked to emcee these meetings, and participants would have ample opportunity to interact with the speakers, sharing differing opinions. Many members of the alternative community developed great friendships on these trips because the postmeeting side trips offered such fine comradeship.

In the 1970s and 1980s, unconventional cancer treatment was under great attack. Many physicians offering alternative therapies in the US were investigated and sanctioned by medical boards. Dr. Bradford founded the Committee for Freedom of Choice in Medicine in 1972, an organization advocating and supporting alternative therapies. As noted in the obituary of Dr. Bradford appearing in this issue, the CFCM was a vital educational group for 50,000 members, publishing The Choice magazine from 1975 to 2001. Bradford’s group succeeded in decriminalizing laetrile and legally supported alternative cancer treatments.

Dr. Bradford and I only saw one another at medical meetings. When he was a professor at the Capital University in Integrative Medicine in Washington, D.C., in the 1990s, I enjoyed hearing him speak during one weekend lecture. But my best memory of Bob (and perhaps the best memory of many doctors) was when he would sit at the microscope and examine someone’s blood. You would see the gleam in his eyes as he would report your blood’s condition.

We will greatly miss Dr. Bradford!

Jonathan Collin, MD