fraud
Motor aphasia is common among patients with stroke. Acupuncture is recommended by TCM enthusiasts as a so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) for poststroke aphasia, but its efficacy remains uncertain.
JAMA just published a study that investigated the effects of acupuncture on language function, neurological function, and quality of life in patients with poststroke motor aphasia.
The study was designed as a multicenter, sham-controlled, randomized clinical trial. It was conducted in 3 tertiary hospitals in China from October 21, 2019, to November 13, 2021. Adult patients with poststroke motor aphasia were enrolled. Data analysis was performed from February to April 2023.
Eligible participants were randomly allocated (1:1) to manual acupuncture (MA) or sham acupuncture (SA) groups. Both groups underwent language training and conventional treatments.
The primary outcomes were the aphasia quotient (AQ) of the Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and scores on the Chinese Functional Communication Profile (CFCP) at 6 weeks. Secondary outcomes included WAB subitems, Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, Stroke-Specific Quality of Life Scale, Stroke and Aphasia Quality of Life Scale–39, and Health Scale of Traditional Chinese Medicine scores at 6 weeks and 6 months after onset. All statistical analyses were performed according to the intention-to-treat principle.
Among 252 randomized patients (198 men [78.6%]; mean [SD] age, 60.7 [7.5] years), 231 were included in the modified intention-to-treat analysis (115 in the MA group and 116 in the SA group). Compared with the SA group, the MA group had significant increases in AQ (difference, 7.99 points; 95% CI, 3.42-12.55 points; P = .001) and CFCP (difference, 23.51 points; 95% CI, 11.10-35.93 points; P < .001) scores at week 6 and showed significant improvements in AQ (difference, 10.34; 95% CI, 5.75-14.93; P < .001) and CFCP (difference, 27.43; 95% CI, 14.75-40.10; P < .001) scores at the end of follow-up.
The authors concluded that in this randomized clinical trial, patients with poststroke motor
aphasia who received 6 weeks of MA compared with those who received SA demonstrated
statistically significant improvements in language function, quality of life, and neurological
impairment from week 6 of treatment to the end of follow-up at 6 months after onset.
I was asked by the SCIENCE MEDIC CENTRE to provide a short comment. This is what I stated:
Superficially, this looks like a rigorous trial. We should remember, however, that several groups, including mine, have shown that very nearly all Chinese acupuncture studies report positive results. This suggests that the reliability of these trials is less than encouraging. Moreover, the authors state that real acupuncture induced ‘de chi’, while sham acupuncture did not. This shows that the patients were not blinded and the outcomes might easily be due to a placebo response.
Here, I’d like to add two further points:
- We have learnt that the vast majority of research coming out of China is fabricated.
- I think it is lamentable that a journal of high standing is not more critical and repeatedly falls for such suspect acupuncture studies.
Dragons’ Den is a British reality television business programme, presented by Evan Davis and based upon the original Japanese series. The show allows several entrepreneurs an opportunity to present their varying business ideas to a panel of five wealthy investors, the “Dragons” of the show’s title, and pitch for financial investment while offering a stake of the company in return.
It has been reported that Giselle Boxer began selling needle-free acupuncture kits for ears after being diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME). She said the technique had helped improve her own health. Ms Boxer worked for advertising agency before starting her business. A researcher on the show had contacted her to ask if she would like to take part.
Entrepreneur and former footballer Gary Neville was so impressed with her pitch he made her an offer in full before the Dragons had a chance to begin asking questions. She said the impact on the business since the show aired had been “bonkers”. “It’s just been a complete whirlwind,” she said.
The tiny beads are a needle-free form of auriculotherapy, designed to stimulate specific points of the ear to address physical and emotional health concerns. “It completely transformed my life alongside lots and lots of other things like diet, lifestyle changes, meditation, breathwork and movement,” said Ms Boxer. She has since had a child and claimed she was fully healed within a year. “It was like a full overhaul of my life,” Ms Boxer said. Her business, Acu Seeds, sells kits for people to use at home and made a £64,000 profit in its first year, she added.
On the Acu Seed website, we learn the following:
Ear seeds are a form of auriculotherapy, which is the stimulation of specific points of the ear to support physical and emotional health concerns. They are a needle-free form of acupuncture that have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years. TCM teaches that the ear is a microsystem of the whole body, where certain points on the ear correspond to different organs or body parts. Energy pathways (or ‘qi’ or vital life energy) pass through the ear and ear seeds stimulate specific points which send an abundant flow of energy to the related organ or area that needs attention. Think of it like reflexology, but for the ears instead of feet.
Ear seeds also create continual, gentle pressure on nerve impulses in the ear which send messages to the brain that certain organs or systems need support. The brain will then send signals and chemicals to the rest of the body to support whatever ailments you’re experiencing, releasing endorphins into the bloodstream, relaxing the nervous system, and naturally soothing pain and discomfort. Some people use ear seeds alongside acupuncture treatments as they may help the effects of acupuncture last longer between sessions.
I am impressed by the lingo used here:
- support physical and emotional health concerns – the seeds support the concerns but not the health?
- a needle-free form of acupuncture – sorry, the seeds don’t puncture anything; they exert pressure; therefore it’s called acuPRESSURE.
- have been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for thousands of years – no, it was invented just a few decades ago by Paul Nogier.
- TCM teaches that the ear is a microsystem of the whole body – TCM teaches plenty of nonsense but not this one.
- Energy pathways (or ‘qi’ or vital life energy) pass through the ear –Qi is nothing more than a figment of the imagination of TCM advocates.
- send an abundant flow of energy to the related organ or area – only if you believe in your own fictional form of physiology.
- Think of it like reflexology – which btw is also nonsense.
- nerve impulses in the ear send messages to the brain that certain organs or systems need support – only if you believe in your own fictional form of physiology.
- The brain will then send signals and chemicals to the rest of the body – only if you believe in your own fictional form of physiology.
- help the effects of acupuncture last longer – help the non-existing effects of acupuncture last longer?
One the website, we also learn what for which conditions the treatment is effective:
Ear seeds may support a broad spectrum of health concerns including anxiety, stress, headaches, digestion, immunity, focus, sleep and fatigue. Our ear seed kits include the protocol ear maps for these eight health concerns and each protocol uses between 3 to 5 ear seeds. Ear seeds have also been found to support with women’s health issues like menstrual issues, libido, fertility, postpartum issues, inflammation, menopause and weight loss. The ear maps for these issues are given in our women’s health ear seed kit bundles. The specific combination of seed placements will support your chosen health concern. Further issues that they may support with are addiction, pain, tinnitus, vertigo, thyroid health and more.
Here, I am afraid, we might have a major problem:
THERE IS NO GOOD EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT ANY OF THESE CLAIMS!
I thus do wonder whether the venture of Giselle Boxer might be a case for the Advertising Standards Authority.
I had the rare pleasure to give an interview for the ‘Frankfurter Allgemeine’. As it was, of course, in German, I took the liberty to translate it for my non-German speaking readers:
You have researched so-called alternative medicine over several decades, including homeopathy. What is your conclusion?
We are talking about far more than 400 methods – to draw one conclusion about all of them
is completely impossible. Except perhaps for this one: if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Does this apply to homeopathy?
Highly diluted homeopathic remedies are popular because they have no side-effects. But there is also no effect. They are touted as a panacea. This is certainly not the case, on the contrary, they are
ineffective. And any therapy that is ineffective and promoted as a panacea is also dangerous.
How do you explain the fact that so many people swear by homeopathy?
There are several reasons for this. In Germany, homeopathy has an unbroken tradition, it was, for instance, promoted by the Nazis and later in the Federal Republic of Germany. It has a reputation for being gentle and effective. It might be gentle, but it is certainly not effective. It is also supported by lobby groups such as the manufacturers. And most people who use it don’t even understand what it actually is.
In any case, the placebo effect helps. What’s so bad about that??
Nothing at all, on the contrary: it is to be advocated. When we talk about placebo effects, we subsume many things under this umbrella that do not actually belong to it, such as the extensive, empathetic conversation that homeopaths often have with their patients. Besides, a common cold goes away whether you treat it or not. If you then use homeopathy, you can easily get the impression that it worked. Every good, empathetic doctor tries to maximize the placebo effect. To put it bluntly: you don’t need a placebo to generate a placebo effect. Patients also benefit from it when I give an effective remedy with empathy. In addition they benefit from the specific effect of my therapy, which should make up the lion’s share of the therapeutic response. If I withhold the most important thing I mistreat my patient.
But there are diseases for which there are no good remedies.
I often hear that argument. But there is practically always something we can do that at least
improves symptoms. Otherwise you should also say that instead of lying and recommending homeopathy – and thinking that, although there is nothing in it and it doesn’t work, but the patient, being an idiot, should take it nevertheless. It is unethical to use placebos as much as it is to use homeopathy.
Neurophysiologically, the placebo effect is becoming better and better understood.
The Italian neuroscientist Fabrizio Benedetti in particular has done very good work. But he also warns that this does not justify the use of homeopathy, for example.
Are there any studies on whether the placebo effect of homeopathy with its esoteric superstructure is greater than that giving just a piece of sugar?
There are analyses of what makes a particularly effective placebo. From this, we can learn that effective therapies in evidence-based medicine must be applied with empathy and sufficient time in order to maximize the ever-present placebo effect. So-called alternative medicine often does this quite well, and we can learn something from it. But the reason is that it often has nothing else. Homeopaths are a serious danger because they see homeopathy as a panacea. If someone has homeopathically treated their cold “successfully” for years and then gets cancer, they might think of turning to homeopathy for their cancer. It sounds crazy, but many homeopaths do offer cancer treatments on the internet, for instance. That sends shivers down my spine.
How should doctors and pharmacists react to the demand for homeopathic remedies?
Pharmacists are not primarily salespeople, they are a medical profession – they have to adhere to ethical guidelines. In this respect, evidence-based information of their clients/patients is very important.
Thomas Benkert, President of the German Federal Chamber of Pharmacists, has stated that he would not be able to stop giving advice if he always had to explain the lack of proof of efficacy.
He should perhaps read up on what his ethical duty to patients is.
What if doctors or pharmacists themselves believe in the effect?
Belief should not play a role, but evidence should.
Are you pleased with Lauterbach’s plan to no longer reimburse homeopathy?
I think it’s a shame that he justifies it by saying it’s ineffective. That is true. But the justification should be that it’s esoteric nonsense and therefore ineffective – and dangerous.
In the end, the Bundestag will decide.
I think Lauterbach has a good chance because things have started to move. Medical associations in Germany have spoken out against the additional designation of homeopathy, for example, and overall the wind has changed considerably.
What is it like in the UK, where you live?
The UK healthcare system, NHS, said goodbye to reimbursement of homeopathy about five years ago, even before France. The pharmacists’ association has distanced itself very clearly from homeopathy. However, most pharmacists still sell the remedies and many continue to support them.
You have also had disputes with the current head of state, King Charles. How did that come about?
A few years ago, he commissioned a paper claiming that so-called alternative medicine could save the British health service a lot of money. I protested against this – Charles accused me of leaking it to The Times before it was published. My university launched an investigation, which eventually found me innocent, but it led to the demise of my department. That caused me to retire two years early.
So Charles managed to close down the only research unit in the world that conducted critical and systematic research into so-called alternative medicine. Most researchers in this field only want to confirm their own prejudices and not disprove hypotheses. This is a serious misunderstanding of how science works. If someone reports only positive results for their favorite therapy in all conditions, something is wrong.
Some people say that homeopathy should not be researched because nothing positive can come out of it anyway.
There are certainly some SCAMs that are so nonsensical that they should not be researched, as is currently the case with homeopathy. I put it this way because I have researched homeopathy myself and, from my point of view, the situation was not so crystal clear 30 years ago.
Would you say that you have approached the matter with a sufficiently open mind?
No one can be completely unbiased. That’s why it’s important to do science properly, then you minimize bias as much as possible. When I took up my position at Exeter in 1993, I was perhaps somewhat biased towards homeopathy in a positive sense, because I had learned and used it myself, as well as other alternative medicine methods. The fact that the results then turned out to be negative in the vast majority of cases initially depressed me. But I have to live with that.
Every researcher prefers positive results, also because they are easier to publish. It was clear to me that, if I had succeeded in proving homeopathy right, I wouldn’t get one Nobel Prize, but two. Who wouldn’t want that?
(The interview was conducted by Hinnerk Feldwisch-Drentrup.)
Craniosacral therapy (CST) is a widely taught component of osteopathic medical education. It is included in the standard curriculum of osteopathic medical schools, despite controversy surrounding its use. This paper seeks to systematically review randomized clinical trials (RCTs) assessing the clinical effectiveness of CST compared to standard care, sham treatment, or no treatment in adults and children.
A search of Embase, PubMed, and Scopus was conducted on 10/29/2023 with no restriction placed on the date of publication. Additionally, a Google Scholar search was conducted to capture grey literature. Backward citation searching was also implemented. All RCTs employing CST for any clinical outcome were included. Studies not available in English as well as any studies that did not report adequate data for inclusion in a meta-analysis were excluded. Multiple reviewers were used to assess for inclusions, disagreements were settled by consensus. PRISMA guidelines were followed in the reporting of this meta-analysis. Cochrane’s Risk of Bias 2 tool was used to assess for risk of bias. All data were extracted by multiple independent observers. Effect sizes were calculated using a Hedge’s G value (standardized mean difference) and aggregated using random effects models.
The primary study outcome was the effectiveness of CST for selected outcomes as applied to non-healthy adults or children and measured by standardized mean difference effect size. Twenty-four RCTs were included in the final meta-analysis with a total of 1,613 participants. When results were analyzed by primary outcome, no significant effects were found. When secondary outcomes were included, results showed that only Neonate health, structure (g = 0.66, 95% CI [0.30; 1.02], Prediction Interval [-0.73; 2.05]) and Pain, chronic somatic (g = 0.34, 95% CI [0.18; 0.50], Prediction Interval [-0.41; 1.09]) showed statistically significant effects. However, wide prediction intervals and high bias limit the real-world implications of this finding.
The authors concluded that CST did not demonstrate broad significance in this meta-analysis, suggesting limited usefulness in patient care for a wide range of indications.
To this, one should perhaps add that CST is one of those forms of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM) that is utterly implausible; there is not conceivable mechanism by which CST might work other than a placebo effects. Therefore, the finding that it is ineffective (positive effects on secondary outcomes are most likely due to residual bias and possibly fraud) is hardly surprising. The most sensible conclusion, in my view, is that CST too ridiculous to merit further research because that would, in effect, be an unethical waste of resources.
The risks of chiropractic spinal manipulations (CSMs) feature regularly on my blog, not least because most chiropractors are in denial of this important issue and insist that chiropractic spinal manipulations are safe!!!. I therefore thought it might be a good idea to try and summarize the arguments they often put forward in promoting their dangerously fallacious and quasi-religious belief that CSMs are safe:
- There is not evidence to suggest that CSMs do harm. Such a statement is based on wishful thinking and ignorance motivated by the need of making a living. The evidence shows a different picture.
- There are hundreds of clinical trials that demonstrate the safety of CSMs. This argument is utterly unconvincing for at least two reasons: firstly clinical trials are far too small for identifying rare (but serious) complications; secondly, we know that clinical trials of CSM very often fail to report adverse events.
- Case reports of adverse effects are mere anecdotes and thus not reliable evidence. As there is no post-marketing surveillance system of adverse events after CSMs, case reports are, in fact, the most important and informative source of information we currently have on this subject.
- Case reports of harm by CSMs are invariably incomplete and of poor quality. Case reports are usually published by doctors who often have to rely on incomplete information. It would be up to chiropractors to publish case reports with the full details; yet chiropractors hardly ever do this.
- Case reports cannot establish cause and effect. True, but they do provide important signals which then should be investigated further. It would be up to chiropractors to do this; sadly, this is not what is happening.
- Adverse effects such as arterial dissections or strokes occur spontaneaously. True, but many have an identifiable cause, and it is our duty to find it.
- The forces applied during CSM are small and cannot cause an injury. This might be true under ideal conditions, but in clinical practice the conditions are often not ideal.
- If an arterial dissection occurs nevertheless, it is because there was a pre-existing injury. This argument is largely based on wishful thinking. Even if it were true, it would be foolish to aggravate a pre-existing injury by CSMs.
- Injuries happen only if the contra-indications of CSMs are ignored. This obviously begs the question: what are the contra-indications and how well established are they? The answer is that they are largely based on guess-work and not on systematic research. Thus chiropractors are able to claim that, once an adverse effects has occurred, the incident was due to a disregard of contra-indication and not due to the inherent risks of CSM.
- Only poorly trained chiropractors cause harm. This is evidently untrue, yet the argument provides yet another welcome escape route for those defending CSMs: if something went wrong, it must have been due to the practitioner and not the intervention!
- Chiropractors are an easy target. In my fairly extensive experience in this field, the opposite is true. Chiropractors tend to have multiple excuses and escape routes. As a consequence, they are difficult to pin down.
- Other causes, e.g. car accidents, are much more common causes of vascular injuries. Even if this were true, it does certainly not mean that CSM can be ruled out as the cause of serious harm.
- Patients who experience harm had pre-existing issues. Again, this notion is mostly based on wishful thinking and not based on sound evidence. Yet, it clearly is another popular escape route for chiropractors. And again, it is irresponsible to administer CSM if there is the possibility that pre-existing issues are present.
- The alleged harms of CSMs are merely an obsession for people who don’t really understand chiropractic. That is an old trick of someone trying to defend the indefensible. Chiropractors like to pompously claim that opponents are ignorant and only chiropractors understand the subject area. They use arrogance in an attempt to intimidate or scilence experts who disagree with them.
- Chiropractors do so much more than just CSN. True. They have ‘borrowed’ many modalities from physiotherapy and, by pointing that out, they aim at distracting from the dangers of CSMs. Yet, it is also true that practically every patient who consults a chiropractor will receive a CSM.
- Doctors are just jealous of the success of chiropractors. This fallacy is used when chiropractors run out of proper arguments. Rather than addressing the problem, they try to distract from it by claiming the opponent has ulterior motives.
- Medical treatments cause much more harm than CSM. Chiropractors are keen to mislead us into believing that NSAIDs, for instance, are much more dangerous than CSMs. The notion is largely based on one lousy article and thus not convincing. Even if it were true, it would obviously be no reason to ignore the risks of CSNs.
I am sure my list is far from complete. If you can think of further (pseudo-) arguments, please use the comments section below to let us know.
Chiropractors may have a bad reputation, but that’s all wrong. They are selfless and dedicated to the extend that some of them even offer their services for free! A UK chiropractor, for instance, proundly claims on his website this:
If your spine is not healthy, you are not healthy. Chiropractic care works to help ensure your spine is aligned so that your central nervous system works properly as it controls every single organ, gland, blood vessel and cell in your body. Over the years, Dr Jason (Chiropractor) has seen how chiropractic care goes far beyond pain relief to find the underlying cause of your problem. “I have seen people simply giving up all hope of a life free from pain and illness, then taking an active role in their health and completely turning their own and their families’ quality of life around.”
He also states that:
When complications during delivery led Dr Jason’s (Chiropractor) son Jake to be born via a ventouse birth, his passion for paediatric care was also born. Seeing his son immediately benefit from care inspired him and has led the O’Connor Chiropractic direction to focus on helping Yorkshire families experience wellness. Now, Dr Jason (Chiropractor) has paired a passion for helping children with specialised paediatrics training so he can help children to live life to their full potential.
Children are being offered free spinal checks in Harrogate this weekend.
O’Connor Chiropractic on Station Parade is welcoming visitors for a Christmas party on Saturday (16th December). Families are being invited to attend the family wellness centre for coffee and treats from 7:30am until 12pm. And children are being offered free spinal checks from chiropractor Jason O’Connor alongside an offer for 50% off full assessments.
_________________
The 16th December has long passed, and we all missed the occasion of free spinal checks for our kids.
What a shame!!!
Think of all the subluxations that will now have to remain undiagnosed!
Think of all the Yorkshire families unable to experience wellness now!
Think of all the children unable to live life to their full potential!
PS
To those who are not regulars on my blog, I recommend a few previous posts that put the above into context:
- A chiropractic paper that, in my view, is nothing less than the promotion of child abuse
- Pediatric care by chiropractors borders on child abuse
- Spinal manipulation in children amounts to abuse
- Children are regularly (mis)treated by practitioners who do not have adequate competence to do so
- What are the competencies of a ‘certified paediatric doctor of chiropractic’?
The story about Thomas Rau made me once again look into the plethora of hair-raising nonsense that is being claimed on social media and elsewhere about live-blood analysis (LBA). LBA is a form of ‘dark field microscopy where the sample is illuminated with light that will not be collected by the objective lens and thus will not form part of the image. This generates the appearance of a dark background with bright objects on it. LBA is employed as a diagnostic method used by many practitioners of so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). The procedure is faily simple:
- a drop of blood is taken usually by a finger prick,
- it is then put on a glass plate without anticoagulation,
- the glass plate id placed on a darkfield microscope,
- the blood cells (mostly erythrocytes) are oberved,
- the SCAM practitioner can make patients watch their own blood cells on a TV screen while they are listening to his/her interpretation of the phenomena on display.
LBA is quick and simple – provided you have a dark field microscope – looks very ‘cutting edge’ to a lay person, and commands impressive fees. For all of these reasons, it is popular in the realm of SCAM.
The claims that are being made for LBA are varied and far-reaching, e.g.:
- LBA can allegedly find pleomorphic bacteria in the blood of healthy and diseased humans.
- LBA can allegedly be used to evaluate immune system status.
- LBA can allegedly diagnose diseases or predispositions to diseases such as allergies and chronic diseases, including cancer, cardiovascular disease, immunity-related disorders and many more.
LBA has a long and colorful history, e.g.:
- In the early 1900’s, Béchamp claimed that animal body fluids contained subcellular living particles (i.e., microzymas) that transformed into bacteria upon death and decay of the host (Béchamp, A. The Blood and its Third Anatomical Element. (John Ouseley Ltd, 1912)).
- Enderlein described small entities called endobionts and protits in human blood and believed that these particles underwent a complex life cycle that correlated with disease progression ( Enderlein, G. Bacteria Cyclogeny. (Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 1925)).
- In the 1950’s, Villequez proposed that human blood was infected by a latent parasite similar to bacterial L-forms.
- In the 1960/70s, Tedeschi and Pease reported that the blood of healthy and diseased individuals appeared to be continually infected with bacteria.
For a range of reasons, I am confident that LBA is hocuspocus. In the first 10 years of my career as a scientist, I was a researcher of ‘hemorhelology’, i.e. the flow properties of blood. One of the phenomena of interest in this field is that of red cell aggregation (RCA), the tendency of erythrocytes to reversibly aggregate when left still (i.e. in the absence of shear forces normally provided by the flow of blood). In the course of our research we even developed a method to quantify RCA.
Suffice to say that I think I understand the main phenomenon SCAM practitioners see when they look down their dark field microscope. They see red cells aligning in ‘rouleaux’ similar to stacks of coins. So far, so good! Where they go wrong is the interpretation of this phenomenon. It is the normal tendency of red cells to aggregate. It is not indicative of any of the conditions SCAM practitioners think it to be.
While RCA is well researched and understood, it’s re-branding under the banner of LBA has attracted almost no research at all (and this in itself should make us think: valid methods of diagnosis are invariably well-researched). The little research that did emerge fails to show that LBA is a valid diagnostic tool. Judge for yourself, here are the abstracts of the 3 recent papers on LBA that I managed to find:
BACKGROUND: Dark field microscopy according to Enderlin claims to be able to detect forthcoming or beginning cancer at an early stage through minute abnormalities in the blood. In Germany and the USA, this method is used by an increasing number of physicians and health practitioners (non-medically qualified complementary practitioners), because this easy test seems to give important information about patients’ health status.
OBJECTIVE: Can dark field microscopy reliably detect cancer?
MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the course of a prospective study on iridology, blood samples were drawn for dark field microscopy in 110 patients. A health practitioner with several years of training in the field carried out the examination without prior information about the patients.
RESULTS: Out of 12 patients with present tumor metastasis as confirmed by radiological methods (CT, MRI or ultra-sound) 3 were correctly identified. Analysis of sensitivity (0.25), specificity (0.64), positive (0.09) and negative (0.85) predictive values revealed unsatisfactory results.
CONCLUSION: Dark field micoroscopy does not seem to reliably detect the presence of cancer. Clinical use of the method can therefore not be recommended until future studies are conducted.
CONTEXT: In 1925, the German zoologist Günther Enderlein, PhD, published a concept of microbial life cycles. His observations of live blood using darkfield microscopy revealed structures and phenomena that had not yet been described. Although very little research has been conducted to explain the phenomena Dr. Enderlein observed, the diagnostic test is still used in complementary and alternative medicine.
OBJECTIVE: To test the interobserver reliability and test-retest reliability of 2 experienced darkfield specialists who had undergone comparable training in Enderlein blood analysis.
SETTING: Inpatient clinic for internal medicine and geriatrics.
METHODS: Both observers assessed 48 capillary blood samples from 24 patients with diabetes. The observers were mutually blind and assessed their findings according to a specific item randomization list that allowed observers to specify whether Enderlein structures were visible or not.
RESULTS: The interobserver reliability for the visibility of various structures was kappa = .35 (95% CI: .27-.43), the test-retest reliability was kappa = .44 (95% CI: .36-.53).
CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study indicates that Enderlein darkfield analysis is very difficult to standardize and that the reliability of the diagnostic test is low.
Although human blood is believed to be a sterile environment, recent studies suggest that pleomorphic bacteria exist in the blood of healthy humans. These studies have led to the development of “live-blood analysis,” a technique used by alternative medicine practitioners to diagnose various human conditions, including allergies, cancer, cardiovascular disease and septicemia. We show here that bacteria-like vesicles and refringent particles form in healthy human blood observed under dark-field microscopy. These structures gradually increase in number during incubation and show morphologies reminiscent of cells undergoing division. Based on lipid analysis and Western blotting, we show that the bacteria-like entities consist of membrane vesicles containing serum and exosome proteins, including albumin, fetuin-A, apolipoprotein-A1, alkaline phosphatase, TNFR1 and CD63. In contrast, the refringent particles represent protein aggregates that contain several blood proteins. 16S rDNA PCR analysis reveals the presence of bacterial DNA in incubated blood samples but also in negative controls, indicating that the amplified sequences represent contaminants. These results suggest that the bacteria-like vesicles and refringent particles observed in human blood represent non-living membrane vesicles and protein aggregates derived from blood. The phenomena observed during live-blood analysis are therefore consistent with time-dependent decay of cells and body fluids during incubation ex vivo.
So, what does all of this mean?
It means that LBA is not a valid diagnostic tool. Its use carries the serious danger of making false-positive and false-negative diagnoses. LBA has a poor reproducibility and is prone to all sorts of artefacts (including temperature, time, contaminants, method of obtaining the blood sample, etc.) that influence RCA. RCA is a normal and reversible phenomenon that determines the flow properties of blood in vivo. In itself, it is not a sign of any disease or disposition to fall ill.
In a nutshell:
LBA is an ideal tool for quacks to rip off their gullible clients.
He came to my attention via the sad story recently featured here about patients allegedly being harmed or killed in a Swiss hospital for so-called alternative medicine (SCAM). What I then learned about the doctor in charge of this place fascinated me:
Rau states about himself (my translation):
Early on, Dr Rau focused on natural therapies, in particular homeopathy and dietary changes. The healing success of his patients proved him right, so he studied alternative healing methods with leading practitioners. These included orthomolecular medicine, Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine and European holistic medicine. With his wealth of knowledge and over 30 years of experience, Dr Rau formed his own holistic theory of healing: Swiss Biological Medicine – Dr Rau’s Biological Medicine. It is based on the principles of detoxification, nutrition, digestion and sustainable strengthening of the immune system.
Career & studies:
- Medical studies at the University of Bern
- Final medical examinations in Switzerland and the USA
- Subsequent work in rheumatology, internal and general medicine
- Member of the Swiss Medical Association FMH since 1981
- 1981 to 1992 conventional physician & medical director of a Swiss spa centre for rheumatology and rehabilitation medicine
- 1983 to 1992 Doctor at a drug rehabilitation centre
- 1992 to 2019 Establishment of the Paracelsus Clinic Lustmühle as medical director and partner
- until 2020 Head of the academic network and training organisation “Paracelsus Academy”
Rau also states this:
- 2019 mit dem Honorarprofessoren-Titel von der Europäischen Universität in Wien ausgezeichnet (2019, he was awarded the title of homorary professor at the European University in Vienna)
This puzzles me because there is no such institution as the ‘Europäische Universität in Wien’. There is a Central European University but this can hadly be it?!
Now, I am intrigued and see what the ‘honorary professor’ might have published. Sadly, there seems to be nothing on Medline except 2 interviews. In one interview, Rau explains (amongst other things) ‘live blood analysis’, a method that we have repeatedly discussed before (for instance, here and here):
Darkfield microscopy shows a lot. We take 1 drop of blood and look at it under a very large-scale magnification. The blood is life under the glass. Once it’s on the glass, there isn’t oxygen or light or heat. This is a giant stress for the blood. So we see how, over a time, the blood reacts to this stress, and how the blood cells tolerate the stress. You can see the changes. So we take a drop of blood that represents the organism and put it under stress and look at how the cells react to the stress, and then we can see the tolerance and the resistiveness of these cells. Do they have a good cell-membrane face? Do they have good energetic behavior? Do they clot together? Is there a chance for degenerative diseases? Is there a cancerous tendency in this blood? We see tendencies. And that’s what we are interested in, tendencies.
Question: If you saw a cancerous tendency, what would that look like?
Rau: Cancerous tendency is a change in the cells. They get rigid, so to say. They don’t react very well.
Question: And how long does blood live outside the body?
Rau: It can live for several days. But after 1 hour, the blood is already seriously changed. For example, a leukemia patient came to my clinic for another disease. But when we did darkfield, I found the leukemia. We saw that his white blood cells were atypical. Look at this slide—the fact that there are so many white blood cells together is absolutely unusual, and the fact that there are atypical white blood cells. This shows me that the patient has myeloid leukemia. The patient had been diagnosed as having rheumatoid lung pain, but it was absolutely not true. The real cause of his pain was an infiltration of the spinal bone by these lymphocytes.
This is, of course, complete nonsense. As I explained in my blog post, live blood analysis (LBA) is not plausible and there is no evidence to support the claims made for it. It also is by no means new; using his lately developed microscope, Antony van Leeuwenhoek observed in 1686 that living blood cells changed shape during circulation. Ever since, doctors, scientists and others have studied blood samples in this and many other ways.
New, however, is what today’s SCAM practitioners claim to be able to do with LBA. Proponents believe that the method provides information about the state of the immune system, possible vitamin deficiencies, amount of toxicity, pH and mineral imbalance, areas of concern and weaknesses, fungus and yeast infections, as well as just about everything else you can imagine.
LBA is likely to produce false-positive and false-negative diagnoses. A false-positive diagnosis is a condition which the patient does not truly have. This means she will receive treatments that are not necessary, potentially harmful and financially wasteful. A false-negative diagnosis would mean that the patient is told she is healthy, while in fact she is not. This can cost valuable time to start an effective therapy and, in extreme cases, it would hasten the death of that patient. The conclusion is thus clear: LBA is an ineffective, potentially dangerous diagnostic method for exploiting gullible consumers. My advice is to avoid practitioners who employ this technique.
And what does that say about ‘honorary professor’ Rau?
I think I let you answer that question yourself.
Some articles are just too remarkable for me to alter them in any way. This one impresses already by its title: “Ameliorative effects of homeopathic medicines in the management of different cancers“. By way of a ‘Christmas treat’, here its summary:
Homeopathy is a commonly used complementary and alternative system of medicine for the treatment of various sorts of ailments throughout the world. Homeopathic medicines are made up of potential therapeutic natural products that are primarily acknowledged for their low doses as well as extended patient survival results. Homeopathic medicines are derived from plants such as arnica (mountain herb), red onion, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and belladonna (deadly nightshade); minerals including white arsenic as well as from animals such as crushed whole bees. Homeopathic medicines are synthesized as sugar pellets to be placed under the tongue and may also be used in the form of gels, ointments, drops, tablets, and creams. Homeopathic medicines can be used to treat various disorders including migraine, depression, gastrointestinal diseases, joint pain, inflammation, different sorts of injuries, flu, arthritis as well as sciatica.
Cancer is the 2nd major reason behind global mortalities. It is revealed that developing countries around the world shoulder most of the cancer burden. According to a survey conducted in 2020, low- and middle-income countries face 70% of the total mortalities worldwide which accounts for approximately 10 million people of these countries. Homeopathic medicines ensure low-cost cancer treatment with little or no side effects on the bodies of humans and animals. Besides, it is applied as a supportive and palliative therapy in a broad range of cancer patients to enhance the body’s fight against cancer, alleviate discomfort resulting from disease or conventional treatments as well as improve the general well-being of the patients. In this chapter, our primary focus will be on the anti-cancerous effects of homeopathic medicines against different cancerous conditions in the body along with their mechanism of action.
Let me just mention a few fairly obvious points:
- Homeopathic medicines are made up of potential therapeutic natural products … REALLY? Have a look at those remedies, for instance:
- Blue (colour)
- Eclipse Totality
- Electricitas (Electricity – 80,000 volts)
- Electricitas (High Voltage Pylon)
- Green (colour)
- Halogen light
- Indigo (colour)
- Laser – red (Diode Laser Red)
- Laser Beam (2940 nm)
- LED (white) (White L(ight) E(mitting) D(iode) Light)
- LIGHT (ENERGY SAVING BULB)
- Luna (Moonlight)
- Microwave 750 MHz
- Milky Way (Essence)
- Mobile phone (Eising)
- Mobile Phone 1800MHz
- Mobile Phone 900Mhz
- Mobile Phone Mast G3
- Polaris (North star)
- Purple (Colour)
- Radiation Combination (Guild Radiation Combination)
- Rainbow (Spectrum)
- Red (colour)
- Red ( A. Wauters)
- Sol Africana
- Sol Australis (Sunlight – Australia)
- Sol Britannic (Sunlight British)
- Stonehenge (Emanation)
- Sunlight Blue (Prismatic blue from sunlight)
- Sunlight Green (Prismatic green from sunlight)
- Sunlight Orange (Prismatic orange from sunlight)
- Sunlight Purple (Prismatic purple from sunlight)
- Sunlight Red (Prismatic Red from Sunlight)
- Sunlight Yellow (Prismatic yellow from sunlight)
- Ultrasound (General)
- Ultrasound (Vaginal)
- Ultraviolet Light
- Vacuum
- Wind (South-West)
- X-ray
- Homeopathic medicines are derived from plants such as arnica (mountain herb), red onion, poison ivy, stinging nettle, and belladonna (deadly nightshade); minerals including white arsenic as well as from animals such as crushed whole bees. REALLY? Consider these remedies, for example:
- Aqua Aurum (Gold and sea water)
- Aqua Fida Vetusta (Old Faithful Water)
- Aqua Hochstein (Spring Source water from the Bavarian Forest)
- Aqua marina (Sea Water)
- Aqua nova
- Aqua Odilien
- Aqua Pura Bottled Water
- Aqua Schuasta
- Aqua Sulis (Water from Bath, Roman Spa)
- Aqua Victoria Falls
- Aqua XwMuthkwium (Musqueam Creek Water)
- Chalice Well Water
- Dead Sea Water
- Double Helix Water
- Ganga water (water from the River Ganges)
- Ganga Water (Gaumuk)
- Ganga Water (Varanasi)
- Gastein (Gastein Aqua)
- Geum Rivale (Water Avens)
- Halltal Spring Water (Water from Solbadhall in Tirol)
- Levico water (from lake in N Italy)
- Lourdes Water
- Nadana Water
- Nigari (Concentrated Japanese seawater)
- Nordenau water
- Seven Spring Head Water
- Severn Water (Source)
- Water (Guild)
- Wiesbaden Aqua (Wiesbaden Water)
- Winchelsea Water
- Zamzam aqua (Zamzam spring water [Mecca])
- Homeopathic medicines are synthesized… No, they are manufactured.
- Homeopathic medicines can be used to treat various disorders… albeit without any effect beyond placebo!
- Homeopathic medicines ensure low-cost cancer treatment with little or no side effects… and no therapeutic effect beyond placebo!
- Besides, it is applied as a supportive and palliative therapy in a broad range of cancer patients to enhance the body’s fight against cancer, alleviate discomfort resulting from disease or conventional treatments as well as improve the general well-being of the patients. This, I’m afraid, is a dangerous lie.
- …the anti-cancerous effects of homeopathic medicines… do not exist.
My conclusion:
Those who advocate homeopathy don’t know what it is, while those who know what it is, don’t advocate it.
Jean-Maurice Latsague (85 years old) has a track record of sexual assaults. Recently, he stood trial before the Sarthe Assize Court from 13 to 15 December for rapes committed during healing sessions. He has worked as an energy healer for many years, and it was in this capacity that he came into conflict with the law nearly 30 years ago.
- In 1994, he was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for the rape and indecent assault of minors that he had committed in the Dordogne.
- In February 2023, he settled in Sarthe after his release from prison and was again convicted for sexual assaults.
- Now we’re talking about crimes again, with an accusation of rape against two women.
During the first few hours of the current trial, Jean-Maurice Latsague listened to the proceedings, bent over on his cane. He explained that he had asked his patients to strip naked because “healing energy doesn’t pass through tissue”.
The healing sessions seemed to always follow the same routine:
- They begin with discussions.
- This is followed by prayers.
- Subsequently, Jean-Maurice Latsague asks his victims to strip naked.
- Then he administeres massages with oil.
- Finally, he rapes his victim.
On the second day of the proceedings, one of the victims chose to bring a civil action. She is one of three other women attacked by Jean-Maurice Latsague (apart from a mother and daughter who gave evidence before), but who had not lodged a complaint at the time of the investigation.
New testimony sheds light on the healer’s practices, in a much more sordid and perverse way. “He would masturbate in front of me to stimulate ovulation,” said a victim who took the witness stand and was undergoing treatment for infertility.
At the end of a three-day trial, the Sarthe Assize Court found Jean-Maurice Latsague guilty of repeated rape and sexual assault committed by a person abusing the authority conferred by his position.
He was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment.
Sources:
Un magnétiseur accusé de plusieurs viols devant les Assises de la Sarthe (francetvinfo.fr)
À 85 ans, le magnétiseur condamné à vingt ans de réclusion criminelle pour viols (ouest-france.fr)
