Utahn says he can cure diabetes
Pitchman facing charges brings seminars to Ariz.
Brandon Babcock says he can help cure diabetes. Utah authorities say he is a criminal who bilked the elderly through questionable diabetic therapy.
Free on $200,000 bail, Babcock brought his diabetes seminars to the Valley in May, offering free dinners and pitching nutritional supplements.
Babcock gave advice and held consulting sessions at hotels in Surprise, Goodyear and Chandler two weeks ago, in which he billed himself as a functional endocrinologist and a performing endocrinologist, according to attendees.
Babcock advertised semi-
nars in and other media under the headline “Reverse Type 2 Diabetes.” The advertisements offered “free gourmet meals” and promised attendees they would “discover the hidden secrets about how to potentially reverse your Type 2 diabetes.”
Records show Babcock is not a doctor of medicine, and his chiropractor’s license was suspended last year by Utah regulators, who reported he posed an “immediate and significant danger to the public health, safety and welfare” through promotion of his diabetes-treatment program.
The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office also has filed criminal charges against Babcock, accusing him of applying for credit in the names of patients without their knowledge.
Attendees at Babcock’s Valley seminars said they believed he was a medical doctor specializing in diabetes treatment.
Some attendees arranged one-on-one consultations with Babcock after the seminars. Among those was substitute teacher Jim Hetman, who has type 2 diabetes and has undergone a kidney transplant.
“He used words to imply (a medical degree), but he didn’t actually say it,” said Hetman, 58, of Goodyear. “He is a snakeoil salesman. But what he is selling ... his handbook, his diet plan ... it’s almost verbatim the South Beach Diet, with supplements.”
Babcock could not reached for comment.
But according to a Chandler police report, he said, “I totally get it. ... I’ve had this happen a few times” when officers confronted him a day after his May
be
‘‘ He used words to imply (a medical degree), but he didn’t actually say it.”
A Goodyear diabetes patient who attended one of Brandon Babcock’s seminars 17 seminar.
According to the police report, Babcock said he comes to the Valley about once a month to conduct seminars. He said he also conducts similar events in Idaho and Florida.
Babcock told officers that his Utah legal problems revolved around his former clinic but have nothing to do with his current seminars.
He said he now works for a company called Diabetes Solutions and markets a supplement called ClearVite. Babcock told officers he doesn’t own Diabetes Solutions and is employed as a “presenter.”
Utah corporation records, however, tell a different story. They show Babcock’s wife, Tavah Babcock, helped set up the company in July 2012 and now serves as the registered agent. Attempts to contact Tavah Babcock at the couple’s home in Pleasant Grove, Utah, were unsuccessful.
Police were notified of the seminars by a Chandler nurse who said she became suspicious of Babcock’s claims after some of her diabetic patients asked her if they should attend the seminar.
Marsha Budgett told police she attended the May 17 seminar and then arranged a private consultation with Babcock on May 18, where he said he would discuss the costs and specifics of the Diabetes Solutions program.
She said about 150 people attended the conference and many arranged consultations during a six-hour follow-up block. Budgett told police that Babcock had a firm grasp of diabetic issues and was using his knowledge to scare people.
Budgett said Babcock identified himself at the seminar as a chiropractor. She told police that she did not believe she had been the victim of a crime but wanted to make them aware that he was soliciting people in a fashion similar to what led to charges in Utah.
Officials with the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing of the Department of Commerce suspended Babcock’s chiropractor’s license during an emergency hearing in April 2012.
In their ruling, regulators found Babcock “has repeatedly taken advantage of elderly patients by promising to reverse their diabetes and scaring them into accepting diabetes treatment by telling them they could die, they could have their legs cut off and they could go blind.”
In a 13-page ruling, regulators said that Babcock persuaded elderly patients on fixed incomes to pay $6,000 for his treatment plan and then told them to cut back or go off their existing medications without consulting their physicians.
The division said Babcock did little or no medical testing.
“Making the matter even worse is the fact that (Babcock) does not have any contact with physicians and/or healthcare providers for these elderly patients,” the report said, concluding, “This conduct endangers and exploits these elderly patients both physically and financially.”
The division’s ruling came after the Salt Lake County dis- trict attorney accused Babcock of financially exploiting 11 people, ages73 to 83.
In Utah, Babcock called his clinic the Functional Endocrinology Institute, a name that nearly mirrors another controversial practice by a Colorado chiropractor.
Brandon Credeur of the Functional Endocrinology Center of Colorado also markets alternative treatments for type 2 diabetes by looking at nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances and organ dysfunction.
The Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies has filed multiple complaints against Credeur, who has also been the subject of several media reports and consumer investigations.
On his website, Credeur defines functional endocrinology as “something totally different and mutually exclusive to what we have now come to know as conventional medical endocrinology.”
He says the term applies to doctors who look at the root causes involved in any loss of function, “which ultimately reveals why a set of symptoms is there in the first place, or why the patient has a particular disease label.”
Attendees at the Valley seminars said Babcock described himself as a functional endocrinologist.
“He was implying he was a doctor,” said Hetman, who takes about 250 units of insulin daily.
Hetman said he went to the seminar out of curiosity and in hopes of finding an alternative treatment. He described Babcock’s manner as cool, knowledgeable and compelling.
But he said when Babcock started talking about dietary supplements, red flags started going up.
Hetman said he is not a good diabetes patient. He acknowledged that he doesn’t eat right, doesn’t exercise and is overweight. He said anyone can claim to treat diabetes based on a diet and exercise plan.
At his wife’s urging, Hetman said he agreed to go for a consultation with Babcock.
He said Babcock provided a diet plan and a business card with no name or title on it. He also asked for $3,500 for 90 days’ worth of supplements.
“This person is preying on the elderly,” Hetman said. “A lot of people would like to change their eating habits ... but you don’t have to spend $7,000-$8,000 a year.”
In Chandler, police cited Babcock on a misdemeanor charge of operating without a license. City codes require anyone selling items in the city to obtain a permit.
Babcock is scheduled to appear in municipal court June 19.