In the past, I have been involved in several court cases where patients had complained about mistreatment by charlatans. Similarly I have acted as an expert witness for the General Medical Council in similar circumstances.
So, it is true, quacks are sometimes being held to account by their victims. But, generally speaking, patients seem to complain very rarely when they fall in the hands of even the most incompetent of quacks.
Here is one telling reminder showing how long it can take until a complaint is finally filed.
Dr Julian Kenyon is, according to his website, an integrated medicine physician and Medical Director of the Dove Clinic for Integrated Medicine, Winchester and London. Dr Julian Kenyon is Founder-Chairman of the British Medical Acupuncture Society in 1980 and Co-Founder of the Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine in Southampton and London where he worked for many years before starting The Dove Clinic in 2000. He is also Founder/President of the British Society for Integrated Medicine and is an established authority in the field of complementary treatment approaches for a wide range of medical conditions. He has written approximately 20 books and has had many academic papers published in peer review journals* and has several patents to his name. He graduated from the University of Liverpool with a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and subsequently with a research degree, Doctor of Medicine. In 1972, he was appointed a Primary Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh.
*[I found only 4 on Medline]
Kenyon has been on sceptics’ radar for a very long time. For instance, he is one of the few UK doctors who use ‘LIVE BLOOD ANALYSIS’, a bogus diagnostic method that can harm patients through false-negative or false-positive diagnoses. A 2003 undercover investigation for BBC 1 South’s ‘Inside Out’ accused Dr Julian Kenyon of using yet another spurious diagnostic test at his clinic near Winchester. Kenyon has, for many years, been working together with George Lewith, another of the country’s ‘leading’ complementary doctors. In 1994, the two published an article about their co-operation; here is its abstract:
This paper outlines the main research effort that has taken place within the Centre for the Study of Complementary Medicine over the last 10 years. It demonstrates the Centre’s expertise and interest in a whole variety of areas, including the social implications and development of complementary medicine, clinical trial methodology, the evaluation of complementary medical machinery, the effects of electromagnetic fields on health and the investigation of the subtle energetic processes involved in complementary medicine. Our future plans are outlined.
Lewith and Kenyon have been using a technique called electrodermal testing for more than 20 years. Considering the fact that the two doctors authored a BMJ paper which concluded that electrodermal machines couldn’t detect environmental allergies, this seems more than a little surprising.
Using secret filming, ‘Inside Out’ showed Dr Kenyon testing a six-year-old boy and then deciding that he is sensitive to dust mites. Later, Dr Kenyon insists that he made his diagnosis purely on the boy’s symptoms and that he didn’t use the machine to test for dust mites. The BBC then took the boy for a conventional skin prick test, which suggested he didn’t have any allergies at all. But Dr Kenyon then says the conventional test may not be accurate: “He may be one of the 10% who actually are negative to the skin tests but benefit from measures to reduce dust mite exposure.”
Despite this very public disclosure, Kenyon was able to practice unrestrictedly for many years.
In December 2014, it was reported in the Hampshire Chronicle that Dr Kenyon eventually did, after a complaint from a patient, end up in front of the General Medical Council’s conduct tribunal. The panel heard that, after a 20-minute consultation, which cost £300, Dr Kenyon told one terminally-ill man with late-stage cancer: “I am not claiming we can cure you, but there is a strong possibility that we would be able to increase your median survival time with the relatively low-risk approaches described here.” He also made bold statements about the treatment’s supposed benefits to an undercover reporter who posed as the husband of a woman with breast cancer.
After considering the full details of the case, Ben Fitzgerald, for the General Medical Council, had called for Dr Kenyon to be suspended, but the panel’s chairman Dr Surendra Kumar said Dr Kenyon’s misconduct was not serious enough to warrant a ban. The panel eventually imposed restrictions on Kenyon’s licence lasting for 12 months.
I estimate that patients are exposed to quackery from doctors and alternative practitioners thousands of times every day. Why then, I ask myself, do so few of them complain? Here are some of the possible answers to this important question:
- They do not dare to.
- They feel embarrassed.
- They don’t know how to.
- They cannot be bothered and fear the agro.
- They fail to identify quackery and fall for the nonsense they are being told.
- They even might perceive benefit from treatments which, in fact, are pure quackery.
Whatever the reasons, I think it is regrettable that not far more quacks are held to account – regardless of whether the charlatan in question as studied medicine or not. If you disagree, consider this: not filing a complaint means that many more patients will be put at risk.
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I might expand on those reasons:
* Patients’ lack medical knowledge results in a power imbalance between practitioner and patient. The patient assumes the practitioner is a trustworthy and knowledgeable person acting in their best interests, and doesn’t feel confident in questioning the therapy or the lack of results or even any harm done.
*Patients often blame themselves if the treatment doesn’t work or harms them. They think it’s because their illness is difficult to treat, or their bodies are flawed, or they’re not aware adverse effects are not an acceptable result of treatment.
*They’re told the adverse reaction they’re experiencing is a ‘healing crisis’, and they’ll get worse before they get better.
*Complaints processes are overcomplicated and gruelling.
*They’re too sick or demoralised to complain.
thank you – all very important points!
You forgot one-
They’re dead (and sometimes the family doesn’t know they were seeing an alternative practitioner).
…or worse than dead, locked in and unable to tell about a recent “treatment”.
This lady was lucky to recover out of her locked-in state. The joker who wrung her symptom-free neck for no other reason than money, apparently not an uncommon practice, had the guts to forge her signature on a consent form. He seems to have gotten away with a settlement out of court and a short suspension.
It goes deeper than the physician patient power imbalance and seems to be a case of blind leading the blind.
“Because researchers are free to bury any result they please, patients are exposed to harm on a staggering scale throughout the whole of medicine, from research to practice. Doctors can have no idea about the true effects of the treatments they give. Does this drug really work best, or have I simply been deprived of the data? Nobody can tell. Is this expensive drug worth the money, or have the data simply been massaged? No one can tell. Will this drug kill the patients? Is there any evidence that it’s dangerous? No one can tell.” BG
If you want more accurate information about this topic, read “Bad Pharma” by Ben Goldacre.
However, none of this is reason to nurture quacks. Compare two explanations: drug X binds to receptor Y, inducing reaction (or cascade of reactions) that leads to effect Z, with “blah-blah-blah” of CAM! Yes, it does happen that drug does not work and not necessarily because Pharma fiddled with results or doctor is idiot. We are different enough, that one fits for all may not be the case, BUT in case of real medicine dose of drug can be adjusted, drug can be changed (taking into account objective tests), but how can you adjust dose of “blah-blah-blah” that cannot be even measured? And what will you change it to?
It is not easy to admit, you have been a fool. This is very obvious in smokers who have developed any of the terrible diseases associated with smoking.
Hi. I took my son to Kenyon for ten years. I now realise I was exploited. I had health insurance. He claimed large sums from my insurance for many unnecessary tests and prescribed very expensive medicines. My son did not improve much while in his care
why did you need 10 years for this insight?
So glad I’ve seen this, thank you for posting. I was considering booking an appointment for my mum who has a cancer diagnosis. I will definitely avoid him. Hope your son is well.
Many thanks Michelle. I’m so sad that I trusted him so come and allowed my son to receive bogus treatment. I hope you are helped somehow. My son is doing well now by the grace of God. We now belong to Sukyo Mahikari and give Gods light which has helped my son enormously. He now devotes his life to this practice and is very well
Kenyon also seems to be rather mathematically challenged. How does one calculate a median when n=1?
must be alternative mathematics!!!
I think there has been some research that shows the more a person “invests” in something,the harder it is to admit that it is wrong. In the case of alternative medicine this will involve many hours of time….and a lot of money.
good point: THE MORE YOU PAY, THE MORE IT’S WORTH
Laura, you’ve made an important point that is not nearly as well documented and frequently mentioned as it ought to be. It is, I think, related to the sunk cost fallacy, aka the escalation of commitment. Perhaps the following expand your point:
1. “More recently the term sunk cost fallacy has been used to describe the phenomenon where people justify increased investment in a decision, based on the cumulative prior investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the cost, starting today, of continuing the decision outweighs the expected benefit.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment
2. “There have been several suggested reasons why quackery is accepted by patients in spite of its lack of effectiveness… Pride: Once a person has endorsed or defended a cure, or invested time and money in it, he may be reluctant to admit its ineffectiveness, and therefore recommends the cure that did not work for him to others.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quackery
3. “The Misconception: You make rational decisions based on the future value of objects, investments and experiences.
The Truth: Your decisions are tainted by the emotional investments you accumulate, and the more you invest in something the harder it becomes to abandon it.” — David McRaney
http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/03/25/the-sunk-cost-fallacy/
I am a retired M.D., board certified surgeon and FACS. I never had anything to do with alternative medicine but have studied some topics recently. The greatest hoax in the history of medicine is the lipid-cholesterol theory of arteriosclerosis and coronary disease. This was proposed by Dr. Ancel Keys a physiologist at my medical school. Keys was at his peak and did not give one lecture to my class on nutrition. He was responsible for selecting the American battle rations of WWII, the “K ration”. The result of his influence and falsified data has resulted in a national and world disaster. This disaster includes the development of a $30,000,000,000 statin industry. The hypothesis was accepted by the McGovern Commission and cholesterol and saturated fat ingestion was condemned by the USDA (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture). The low fat, high carbohydrate food pyramid has been a disaster with obesity, type 2 diabetes,hypertension, renal failure etc. well on its way to destroying the nations health and economy. All this caused by the conventional accepted medical establishment. The damage that has been caused by statins and obesity metabolic syndrome makes any errors resulting from alternative medical treatments whether well intentioned or malevolent, trivial by comparison.
Dr. Johanna Budwig a charlatan? She had two Ph.D.’s, one in physics and one in pharmacology. She was a world expert on fatty acid metabolism. She claimed a 90% cure rate. Her flax oil- flax meal-cottage cheese theory based upon her knowledge and understanding makes a lot of sense too.
Dr. Jerry Tennant, Texas M.D. seems to share some of Dr. Budwig cell wall electron and polarity theory but not as sophisticated. He has an interesting story. He sells a gadget too. Claims to cure AMD in 4 days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PnxRUw-f3Q
Dr. John Holt, a charlatan? Dr. Holt ,a surgeon in Perth retired at 80 yrs. treated cancer patient who had been given up by others and used a combination of high freq. radiotherapy and IV suflated amino acids to reduce tumor glucose uptake during therapy.. Australian TV did a program about him and his tribulation by the medical association.
Richard Rife—look up on you tube—died a pauper. He was a genius and was personally attacked as a quack by AMA president Fishbein.
Burlington
Ignoring your (many) logical fallacies and clear lack of critical thinking, perhaps you can link to some good evidence for your Rife and Budwig claims? And a youtube video or a TV programme won’t cut it…
Dr Johanna Budwig a charlatan? According to the best available evidence, very much so.
Thanks for asking.
Guy Chapman,
What evidence is that?
Agreed.
I do not intend to get into a pissing contest with anyone and am not riding anybody’s hobbyhorse. The greatest hoax in the history of medicine is the lipid-cholesterol hypothesis of heart disease proposed by Dr. Ancel Keys who cherry picked his data to make a point. This was accepted as truth by a joint federal congressional committee headed by Sen. George McGovern and promulgated by the USDA.
This theory among other factors has altered eating habits of the USA and western world. The high carb low fat diet is the cause of the the obesity and type 2 diabetes epidemic.
@Burlington
So, can you link to some good evidence for your Rife and Budwig claims?
@Alan Hennessy
As for Burlington’s “Rife” concerning Lipid / Cholesterol hoax, this absolutely true. You want good evidence, the collapse of the health care system in the US. The most over fed and over medicated population in the world, with the most unhealthy individuals… theres your evidence right there. Open up your eyes, you people are truly unbelievable.
Still no evidence (good or otherwise) for your claims about Rife and Bugwig, then?
The ONLY cause of obesity is consumption of more food than you need. After all humans are not able to produce carbs or fats out of thin air. Type II diabetes is more complicated, because there is some genetics involved, however it does not matter whether your diet is high in fats or in carbs: if you eat to much, you will get fat, and very probably develop Type II diabetes and/or aterosclerosis and coronary heart disease.
Of course, there are ketogenic diets (like Atkins’s), but it is actually a form of bulimia.
That’s actually not factually correct because human cells are out numbered by bacteria. Bacteria strains are linked to obesity. Also look up Professor Mike Depledge’s work on obesogens and environmental toxins causing metabolism issues leading to obesity. Humans are a complex organism interacting with a complex ecosystem. Bacteria changes how we process food to the point where it is not as simple as calories in, energy expenditure out = weight. Check out the link below and the Human Gut Project.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-gut-bacteria-help-make-us-fat-and-thin/
Burlington – you are asked to supply evidence for your claims not get into a pissing contest.
You say Budwig claimed a 90% success rate. So do other quacks. Why should anyone believe her?
Has anyone thought that it is because ao many doctors are useless now that it is impossible to tell the difference.
I have been to many NHS quacks that ignored my condition for 13yrs! I was forced to go to a “quack” who diagnosed me on all 4 conditions. My doc dismissed it saying they were rare and it was “psychosomatic ”
I eventually got a firm dx but maybe the reason that people don’t complain is every doctor has failed them so what difference does it make?
I had physical MRI scans and reports that showed a multitude of issues. The orthopaedic team decided they were irrelevant so told me it was irrelevant and all in my head…
It has taken 13yrs to get a main stream doc to listen and you know what? The quack was right. Every condition he diagnosed was confirmed by the MRI!
I completely agree. I have seen many doctors on the nhs and all they have done is prescribed pain relief and antidepressants. I eventually saw Dr Kenyon having been diagnosed with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, primary biliary cirrhosis, enlarged spleen, hypothyroidism which is hashimotos, demodex infestation and too many brain lesions for my age, not to mention the anxiety and depression that came with all these and being bed bound and signed off work for a year.
3 months after being treated by Dr Kenyon I am returning to work, my blood tests and liver function tests are in the normal range for the first time in 4 years, my spleen is no longer enlarged, my demodex infestation has cleared and my cognitive function has returned.
Conventional medicine and doctors are very arrogant to pretend they have all the answers whilst basically watching you deteriorate.
What was the treatment?
I have seen Dr Kenyon myself. After 4 years spent deteriorating on the nhs under my GP, hepatologist, neurologist, rheumatologist, dermatologist and pain clinic specialists he has managed to get all my blood tests and liver function tests back into the normal range, my cognitive function has returned, I have lost a stone in weight, I am off all antidepressants and pain relief and I am returning to work having been signed off sick for a year. He never promised to make me better but he researches current developments and is willing to try things that conventional practitioners refuse to. I was bed bound and in constant pain before Dr Kenyon treated me. There are many other patients being given back their quality of life like me. Please look at both sides of this story. He never promised to cure anyone.
I saw Dr Julian Kenyon for a 1 hour consultation and he immediately struck me as a quack. He attempted to sell bogus overpriced treatments costing many thousands.
If you questioned any of the treatment or diagnoistic rationale he got aggressive & patronising. The one hour ‘consultation’ was simply a hard sell, with an attempt at a quack diagnostic using equipment which he refused to explain.
I’m an avid supporter of traditional medicine and see some amazing dedicated practitioners. However, Dr Julian Kenyon is a parasitic host exploiting the vunerable, with the full blessing of the medical council who only appear to offer a slap on the wrist when there’s a complaint against him.
This man should be locked up. He attempts to extract tens of thousands from seriously sick people desperate for a life.
I am convinced that the main stream medical practice has some major holes that could be construed as quackery. Example: I had a root canal done about 20 years ago. Year after year I would get sinus problems if I got run down. After reading a book by a “quack” dentist, it appeared to me that the root canal was the cause. I had to tell the dentist that I thought the tooth was bad. After a close physical exam, he could see some problems and recommended it be pulled Another dentist never picked up the problem in a regular check up two weeks earlier. The surgeon, who pulled the tooth had to scrape the one root to remove a lot of the infection. I had no pain or swelling. When I went to an allopath with a sinus infection, he never thought to look at a tooth as a possible cause-he just prescribed an antibiotic. From all I can read, a root canal should never be done, because it will almost always become infected-it is insidious!!!!!
Social isolation. Chronically ill patients risk being banned from online forums and groups when they dare to criticise or even share their negative experiences about a doctor/therapist who is strongly promoted in that group.
Give the 100K deaths from prescription drugs and almost no improvement in cancer deaths who are the real quacks and why do people put up with MD’s who follow the standard of care which results on what you see at the malls today.
Ray Wnenchak said:
Citation required.
Wrong:
You said:
See elsewhere on this website.
What on earth are you on about?
You claim you’re a scientist on another forum, Ray Ray, but you make unsubstantiated remarks and talk like a child. There are improvements in cancer survival rates. Also, I’m pretty sure millions have been saved each year from prescription drugs (accepted fact), such as antibiotics and — AHEM — INSULIN (come on — deny this). I think your argument has fallen apart. Meanwhile, back at the barn, you poison the environment with the chemicals that make Goretex water resistant while ‘breathing’, as you shill in a trade dependent upon cancer causing chemicals, such as PTFE
I have been a patient of Dr Kenyon for the past two years, I went on recommendation as my GP was not s?understanding any of my symptoms I actually thought and being given the impression that I was being a hypochondriac. Dr Kenyon suggested 2two possible diagnosis and after blood tests confirmed one of them I started treatment and now have my life back and feel 100 per cent alive and happy. I have lost all faith in my GP and the NHS. I may have had to pay to see Dr Kenynon but I don’t have to wait 4 weeks for an appointment (as I would have to with my GP) or have to explain my medical needs to a ‘receptionist to go on a list for a call back to see if my needs are urgent enough to be seen!
I have been on the receiving end of bogus treatments from conventional, registered physicians on more than one occasion, and I am certainly aware of others with similar experiences.
I didn’t complain. I don’t believe there is a place, or a process to complain without making it into a big negative situation.
I would be happy to complain if there was a constructive process, independent of the type of physician. I would be happy to complain if I felt the results were going to benefit the doctor and future patients.
I saw him about 15 years ago for chronic fatigue. I was so ill and desperate that I bought expensive supplements and suffered extreme pain as he rammed needles into my ear for so called acupuncture.
I wanted to get better.
I would have complained but didn’t have the energy to do so.
I feel very angry that he is still exploiting vulnerable people and charging huge amounts of money
I have been treated by Dr Kenyon for the last 5 years after being diagnosed with breast cancer four years earlier and having had a mastectomy. My oncologist was unable to offer any further treatment other than annual mammograms and repeated PET/Ct scans. Those of you who have a medical background will know that is scans using nuclear medicine (not something you want to keep doing). We parted company as I wanted to do whatever I could to improve my immune system which clearly wasn’t coping.
I had met with Professor Jane Plant an eminent lecturer at Imperial college who herself had had breast cancer and given a few months to live. She had written many scientific books on both prostate and breast cancer related to diet and survived 20+ years after being given a few months to live. I started with my alternative journey here and led me to Dr Keynon – I have been able to see the increased activity of my white blood cells which his live blood tests and graph and monitor my circulating tumour cells( in a blood test offered) to see how the treatments I am having are changing that. In this particular case SPDT treatment. These numbers are going down and I keep up to date with research and what is still offered on the NHS – not a lot – certainly no mention of drastic changes in diet. And yet I hear say cancer treatment is improving. A figure now given by oncologists for UK is one in two people will get cancer. Cancer is multifaceted and has to be approached from many angles as the cells change – you have to try and keep one step ahead!
Dr Kenyon is no charlatan, just offering an alternative to slash, burn and operate for those who want to be in charge of their outcome. Yes it is expensive but, until mainstream medicine needs to accepts there is a place for complementary medicine as, finally, immunotherapy is being acknowledged. Which is what Dr Kenyon is involved in – boosting the immune system to cope with pathogens in this case cancer. Sadly often his patients have exhausted all other treatments so, by the time they come to him are very ill and that doesn’t do well with the statistics.
He uses a holistic approach including dietary advice as, did Prof Jane Plant (read her book it is filled with scientific findings regarding dairy).
What we are feeding our farm animals and injecting them with is having a knock on effect – what we are putting on our crops and ultimately the food we eat too.
Why is it there is a very low incidence of cancer in Japan and when they eat a western diet the incidence increases.
Charlatan – no but we must not just blindly stumble on without a holistic approach – diet was never mentioned by my oncologist and any oncologist knows cancer cells love an acid environment so, good thing to give your cells an alkaline environment and you do that by the food you eat. Enough said!!!
Indeed, enough said.
Jill
Bravo !!
You hit the nail on the head. Many of these same themes I’ve been professing here for months…
…to the many unreceptive mindless robots here fixated on SBM.
Great to hear your living testimony !
We are happy for those who survive but let’s not forget that we only hear from those who had a good effect of whatever medical/surgical treatment they already had on top of good luck to be in the happy end of normal variability.
It is called survivorship bias. People tend to forget that for every exalted person who comes along boasting about surviving cancer thanks to some alternative diet regime or wonder cure, there are scores who bought into the same, without the luck. The dead ones don’t tell of their broken hopes and failed miracles.
Let’s try and post a K12 level educational Youtube video and see if RG manages to comprehend the message… I am not at all hopeful.
https://youtu.be/ZyLVIvBidIA
Very interesting and thanks for sharing. In the context we are discussing cancer stats would be even worse than they are if considering the side effects of chemo. (As your video says) Thankfully mainstream medicine has woken up to see the big picture and immunotherapy is now on board with a complete unit at Southampton University (I am sure there may be others) The science is there for instance a blood test when YOUR cells are tested with various treatment compounds, complementary and chemotherapy to find what works best with them. It is not an expensive test and disgusts me it is not mainstream and offered to everyone.
What is even more disgusting, should I give an oncologist my list showing the best chemotherapy treatment for my cells they wont comply because each hospital is told what chemotherapy drugs are available to that hospital for specific cancers and yes that backs up what your video implies -by chance there will be some patients who respond to those drugs given but what of all the others who could have survived with the technology we already have. Nothing against pharmaceutical companies but, they shouldn’t dictate.
I am not a medical doctor but enough of a scientist to know not all research is good. I have read may research papers on my ‘journey’ and I think the only way we move forward is for all sides to talk to each other and learn from each other. I do see a shift in the treatment of cancer but, it has been a long time coming.
By the way someone said there were only 4 of Kenyon research papers available – keep looking – there are many more and I have read most.
“By the way someone said there were only 4 of Kenyon research papers available – keep looking – there are many more and I have read most.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Kenyon+JN%2C+alternative+medicine
if you use the correct initials [JN], there are 4 Medline-listed papers.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-47837-7
I don’t have time to find them all but, this is the latest – very exciting developments with a drug called Propanc he is developing with a company in Australia
Bjorn
With regard to survivorship bias.
I performed my own life study. The better decision on my part was turning away from parts of SBM…. it’s just that simple.
if you are simple, things seem simple.
You just proved my point, RG. And your ignorance. No surprise.
I have read this thread with great interest since I suffer from a brain tumour. My neuro-oncologist introduced me a few years ago to a specialist in complementary medicine and cancer research. I was introduced to very classic ayurvedic supplements like turmeric, red grape seed extract and some others. The prices are ‘normal’ and I have had no side effects from the supplements. After my tumour resection (approx 95%) I will continue with a cannabis-based product. Costs a bit more but I found myself a sponsor. I know there is no guarantee for anything in life, but keeping a positive attitude is IMHO very important. This has not been researched as far as I am aware. But many friends who are medical doctors told me about the importance of being positive. I have embraced my illness and find a way to live in harmony. Everything will happen for a reason and we all need to be Karma-positive!
Dr Kenyon’s website offers a description of his main medical tool, the so-called Oberon Device:
https://www.doveclinic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Oberon-Device-LATEST.pdf
The device claims to couple ultrasound signals delivered via headphones to the magnetic properties of atoms in the body. The output signal is said to provide a measurement of the body’s “A field” (magnetic vector potential).
To the non-scientist, a tool named after the king of the fairies provides a hint that this is pure charlatanism. To the physicist such as myself, the claim that the A-field is distinct from the B-field and can be measured independently of it would merit an F grade in a physics examination. The claim that ultrasound can stimulate magnetic effects in the body is absurd, as is the belief that either effect could fundamentally influence chemical processes in the body or have therapeutic benefits (other than as a placebo). One suspects that Dr Kenyon is alert enough to know that ultrasound can damage hearing, and is likely not exposing patients to any signal at all.
The description of the Oberon Device reminds me of the writings of delusional members of public who sometimes used to walk into my office to ask me to read their own scientific theories. But the nature of the terms used and the mention of a Russian connection suggests origins in the pseudoscience that circulated in Russia in the 1990s, sometimes with official approval, and was used for fraudulent purposes. Here is one example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torsion_field_(pseudoscience)
I could easily imagine a device of this nature being cooked up by a crooked Russian scientist turned con man, or by someone who has read of a similar scheme. The actual description is attributed to Dr Kenton himself.
Dr Kenyon is certainly exploiting the layman’s lack of knowledge of science, as well as the typical GP’s fear of physics which goes back to medical student days. I suspect the GMC lacks the confidence to critically evaluate claims based on physics pseudoscience. If the good doctor, by a careful choice of words, does not claim to offer any cure; and if he does no actual harm to the patient’s body, I suppose there is nothing for the GMC to get its teeth into.
I have a friend who was at medical school with Dr Kenyon, so I know that he is actually medically trained. From the reports I have had from my own patients consulting him I would otherwise have found this hard to credit. Rather sadly, he convinced one of them to have clearly bogus treatments instead of conventional therapy for her high-risk but localised breast cancer, and when she came back to me some time later there had been so much disease progression that there was no longer any question of curing her. With his background he must surely know that what he is offering is bogus, and indeed his Web site is very carefully worded to avoid making claims that could lead to direct legal action while still being quite misleading.
There is a lot of money to be made by unscrupulous people preying on the vulnerable.
Jane Plant, on the other hand, is an example of a scientist straying outside her field, and applying the thought processes of geology to biology. She also clearly didn’t understand statistics well enough to realise that what she regarded as evidence was anything but, nor that the behaviour of her breast cancer, while not typical, was still well within the range that oncologists expect to see. I don’t think she was a charlatan, just wrong.
It is much worse. We even found people around patients, who, after the patient had died, refuse to speak out against the charlatans and fraud, DESPITE KNOWING that the charlatans and frauds were responsible for that crime. I do not only me SOME people around, but relatives and husbands or wives.
It is not, that these people were asked to make statements in public. No, they even refused to talk, to give some more details.
Imagine a bank robbery, some employees or customers at the bank do not survive the attack, and then the survivors refuse to talk about the attackers. Not possible, isn’t it?
But here, even when a loved relative is killed by a fraud, the loving relatives keep silent, even get aggressive against the asking.
There still is a silent complicity with the frauds. There is a tie around the neck and the brain of the surrounding persons. “Alternative medicine” is a deep-rooted insanity, so strong, that it even accepts dead.
Would you believe that journalism is not very far from that? OH YES! We encountered the same behaviour in the journalism league.
Mankind by far is not as intelligent as we are told.
The behaviour you’ve described has similarities with:
QUOTE
There are four key components that characterize Stockholm syndrome:
• A hostage’s development of positive feelings towards the captor.
• No previous relationship between hostage and captor.
• A refusal by hostages to cooperate with police and other government authorities.
• A hostage’s belief in the humanity of the captor, ceasing to perceive them as a threat, when the victim holds the same values as the aggressor.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
@ama
I have seen this happen first-hand, with this case of a friend of the family that I mentioned here on several occasions: a stupid homeopath (pardon the pleonasm) convinced this man (about 58 at the time) that his fatigue was due to ‘negative energy’ and could be treated successfully with her homeopathic sugar crumbs. And oh, he had better stay away from regular doctors, as they would only ‘poison him and interfere with the real treatment’.
After 9 months of slowly getting worse yet never consulting a real doctor, the man died in the ICU – as it turned out from preventable causes, had he sought professional help instead of this stupid homeopath (pardon the pleonasm).
But even after it became clear that this homeopath lady had killed more people in a similar way, the man’s wife still wouldn’t file charges. “She meant well” and “she did her best”, and “it’s alternative medicine, so we knew it might not help” etcetera etcetera.
And oh, the 9 months of ‘treatment’ prior to the man’s death also cost him quite a bit financially – an estimated 3,000 euros, much more than if he would have opted for an effective regular treatment.