Quack-a-Mack
Debunking the Deceptive Promotional Videos of Dr. Michael Mack
Dr. Michael Mack has appeared on the CBS Morning Show and also the Dallas CBS affiliate promoting ETS surgery. The video clips were downloaded from Dr. Mack's own site. Direct quotes from videos appear in the colored boxes, analysis and critique appear interspersed. We feel it is safe to assume (and important to remember) that the medical information recited by the reporters was supplied to them by Dr. Mack.
Dr. Mack: And this white vertical line [refers to endoscopic video monitor] right here is the sympathetic nerve that controls sweating to the hands.

First, the sympathetic nerve ganglia don't really control anything. As far as we know, sweating is controlled from a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. More importantly, cutting that "white vertical line" will permanently disable all sweating from the top 1/3 of the body. It will also disrupt many other body systems, including the heart and blood vessels, but one certainly wouldn't know any of that from Dr. Mack's comments.

In case you missed it, Dr. Mack rephrases the blatant deception:
Dr. Mack: Different areas of the [sympathetic] nerve control different areas of the body. It’s like a thermostat going to different rooms of the house, and if we divide it over the third level it selectively fixes sweating of the hands.
This is just a lie. Dividing the nerve over the third level can permanently destroy the ability to sweat from the nipple line up, about 1/3 of the total skin surface. How many of Dr. Mack's patients consented to surgery believing that only their hands would stop sweating?

News anchor Tracy Rowlett: It's an embarrassing problem that more than 2 million people endure.

News anchor Sarah Dodd: And most don't realize it's a medical condition. Excessive sweating. But doctors are now performing a surgery to correct it. And we followed one patient today as he underwent what he hopes will be a life altering operation.
Yes, most people don't realize that excessive sweating is a medical condition, and most people are right! It is a cosmetic problem. It has been reclassified as a disease for the express purpose of marketing the surgery. ETS certainly does not "correct" excessive sweating. The most you can say is that ETS moves hyperhidrosis to new areas of the body, usually intensifying it and causing a whole host of real medical problems in the process. The patient hopes that ETS will be "life altering". Don't worry guy, it will be.

Reporter: But the surgery doesn’t always eliminate the problem. In some cases, stopping the sweating in one part of the body [close-up of patient’s hand] causes an increased sweat level in the abdomen or lower back. But for [patient] Deramus, that’s a better alternative.
The reporter, and therefore presumably Dr. Mack, once again implies that the surgery will only stop sweating from the hands.
Here on the set of CBS The Early Show, L-R we see ETS patient "Stephanie", Dr. Mack, and host Anne Curry.

Curry: OK Stephanie, you are right now for the first time on national television, it's a stressful moment . . .

Stephanie: Yes.

Curry: I'm going to shake your hand. And you know what? You're not sweaty palmed at all!

Stephanie: No, Ma'am.

Reporter: Dr. Michael Mack of Medical City, Dallas Hospital, performs minimally invasive surgery in order to snip the sympathetic nerve connected to the hands.
Dr. Mack, through the reporter, is repeating this bald-faced lie yet again. Do we need to repeat the TruthAboutETS? The sympathetic nervous system is involved in all autonomic function. Severing it causes a long list of side-effects, which are documented in the medical literature.

Dr. Mack: Sweating is the body’s way of getting rid of heat. It’s like the body’s radiator. And for some reason, people with this condition have their thermostat on high all the time. So the body has to get rid of a lot of heat, and it does this by excessive sweating.
Here he tries to pretend that he knows the cause of hyperhidrosis by rolling out the popular 'thermostat' analogy. In reality doctors don't have any idea what causes it.

So on and on it goes, where it stops, nobody knows . . .
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