Dr. Asa Andrew, a local TV and radio personality and subject of this week's cover story (
"Medicine Show," Sept. 23, 2010) has received notice of charges and a memorandum of assessment of civil penalties from the Board of Chiropractic Examiners through the Tennessee Department of Health. (See a PDF of the notice of charges at the end of this post.)
The complaint alleges Andrew, a licensed chiropractor, "advertised and provided services outside the scope of practice for a chiropractic physician." It goes on to say that since 2007, he has also published a book and appeared on a regular radio show "without disclosing the fact that he was a chiropractic physician and purported to provide medical advice, misleading the public about his true qualifications or lack thereof."
Pending a Nov. 4 public hearing before the board, Andrew could be penalized $21,000, the complaint says. The board will also discuss whether it should suspend or revoke his license.
If you've read the cover story, none of this is surprising. In fact, to find evidence of this, just tune into his radio show, Dr. Asa On Call, weeknights on WLAC-AM, or read his book, Empowering Your Health. He dishes medical advice as a matter of course, but you'll never hear that he isn't, in fact, a medical doctor. But former employees interviewed by the Scene for the story also allege he runs his clinic, The Center for Natural Medicine, like any other medical clinic, and that employees are actively discouraged from discussing his credentials with inquisitive patients.
Update: As of 7:28 p.m., Sept. 24, Andrew's website, www.drasa.com is offline.
Update: The site is back online, though it appears as if some of the supplements have been removed, along with some of the product descriptions discussed in the story that claim the supplements help with the symptoms of Parkinson's and other incurable diseases.
