An enlightening article entitled The Tomato Effect-Rejection of Highly Efficacious Therapies was published by the American Medical Association in JAMA, 1984; 251:2387-2390. In this article, Drs. James S. Goodwin and Jean M. Goodwin describe the tomato effect in medicine:

The tomato effect in medicine occurs when an efficacious treatment for a certain disease is ignored or rejected because it does not "make sense" in the light of accepted theories of disease mechanism and drug action. The tomato was largely ignored because it was clearly poisonous; it would have been foolish to eat one. In analogous fashion, there have been many therapies in the history of medicine that, while later proved highly efficacious, were at one time rejected because they did not make sense. ...We contend that the tomato effect is in its own way every bit as influential in shaping modern therapeutics as the placebo effect... Recognition of the reality of the tomato effect, while not preventing future errors, may at least help us better understand our mistakes.

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It would seem, ...that modern medicine is particularly vulnerable to the tomato effect. Pharmaceutical companies have increasingly turned to theoretical over practical arguments for using their drugs... What is lost in such discussions are the only three issues that matter in picking a therapy: Does it help? How toxic is it? How much does it cost? In this atmosphere we are at risk for rejecting a safe, inexpensive, effective therapy in favor of an alternative treatment perhaps less efficacious and more toxic, which is more interesting in terms of our latest views of disease pathogenesis. (Emphasis added)

In an age when nearly half of the coronary artery bypass surgeries conducted in the United States are recognized as being conducted for inappropriate reasons and the efficacy of such surgery has been frequently called into question, in contrast to the successful experience physicians have had with chelation, it appears that the "tomato effect" has indeed taken place with chelation therapy. The efficacious use of this therapy in treating arteriosclerosis has been demonstrated in patients world-wide. It is only in recent years that the scientific rationale to explain the benefits of chelation therapy has been elucidated in published research on free radical pathology.

In Rogers v. State Board of Medical Examiners, 371 So. 2d 1037 (Fla. App. 1979) aff'd, 387 So. 2d 937 (Fla. 1980), the court discussed the right of the State Board of Medical Examiners to prohibit a physician from administering chelation therapy. Acting Chief Judge Boyer noted that provisions of the Constitution grant a person certain inalienable rights, from which derive the right of a patient to receive, pursuant to a voluntary election, chelation therapy, and in the absence of unlawfulness, harm, fraud, coercion of misrepresentation, the Board was without authority to prohibit the physician from administering such therapy. Id, at 1041.

Utilization of a therapy which is different is not unprofessional or unethical conduct. The converse would also hold true. General acceptance of a therapy does not mean that utilization of that therapy is necessarily professional or competent. Many therapies and treatments thought to be "proper" have now been abandoned as barbaric. The use of alternative means of treatment should not arbitrarily be deemed incompetent care.