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May 17, 2011

THE POWER YOURE SUPPLYIN, ITS ELECTRIFYIN!

Posted by Flora in Conspiracy theories, Quacks, Science, Woo

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Every once in a while I stumble across one of the dark recesses of the internet in which commercial websites shill free health information in order to promote their insane pseudoscientic therapies for diseases that may or may not even exist. Lets play a little game of Sales Pitch Vs. Reality. Sales pitch: YOUR BODY ELECTRIC

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Rev. Tom Lawler BBA, MBCP Reality: Well, the title isnt too scary. Electricity is absolutely vital to the normal physiology of everything from the smallest cell to the largest mammal. Electricity is just the movement of ions, and the movement of ions powers everything from import of nutrients into our cells to the spread of information in nerve cells to muscle contraction to heart rhythm pacing.

it's electrifyin'! Paying dues

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Why do I get the sinking feeling that this will not have anything to do with this article?

Oh, I know, because the author proudly displays his utterly irrelevant degree titles hes a Reverend of the Universal Brotherhood (an online spiritual diploma mill), has a Bachelor of Business Administration (so?) and an MBCP, which as far as I can tell is a Master Business Continuity Professional certication, which means he worked in the industry of creating plans of action in worst case scenarios for businesses for at least ve years. Oooooh. I am so impressed at your credentials as a health professional! Sales pitch: NOTHING IS NEW The rst reported use of

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electricity in medicine was in 2750 BC. Several descriptions of therapeutic benets, including pain control from exposure to the electric eel, were described by the Greeks in the rst century.1 Around 1600, William Gilbert, an English physician, coined the word electric and established the difference between electricity and magnetism. In 1752, Johann Schaeffer published the book Electrical Medicine. Electrodermal (sublingual) testing and treatment techniques offer tremendous benets and safety as compared to traditional invasive testing. Effective results often occur within minutes from the time support is started instead of taking months, years or never with more traditional approaches. Electrodermal testing utilizes micro amounts of electromagnetic energy to trigger a biofeedback response detectable with very sensitive computerized equipment. It is now possible to electronically view the inner workings of your glands and organs non invasively even from the comfort of your own home. Reality: Not only is this painfully self-contradicting (advocating that theres nothing new and then criticizing traditional medicine) but it

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seems that hes trying to say that because we have a tradition of using this particular concept, we should continue to do so. It works because its always worked, i.e. argumentum ad antiquitatem, the appeal to tradition. Please ignore the fact that the ancient Greeks lived to an average age of 28. Please neglect the fact that the Egyptians referenced in 2750 BC electrocuted people with catsh as a treatment for gout, which is sort of just adding insult to injury.

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Geez, you're looking pretty inamed. Here, hug this.

Also, the distinction between electricity as treatment and electricity as diagnostics seems utterly lost here. This false equivalence is hilarious treatment is doing something while diagnostics tells you something. Imagine if someone started using a deck of playing cards to tell the time because itd traditionally been fantastic at passing the time. People would think they were insane! Of course, the blinding with science fallacy comes into play. Its not applying an electric current to your skin, its electrodermal testing. Its not low voltage electricity, its micro amounts of electromagnetic energy. It doesnt monitor your skins electrical current, it triggers a biofeedback response. He nishes off by claiming that electrical energy in the skin

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allows you to measure the inner workings of both your organs and your glands, since apparently the glands have been demoted and no longer count as organs.While appropriately placed electrodes can indeed measure the electrical impulses of the body, such as those which are active in the brain, heart and muscles, there is little electrical activity that correlates with, for example, insulin resistance. Hes taken a well-known technique like the electrocardiogram, and generalized it to everything. He clearly hopes that people will assume If it works for your heart, why shouldnt it work for your pancreas or your liver or your kidneys? Mechanism be damned! Sales pitch: Incredible advancements in the emerging eld of Bionetics has now made it possible to send a sample of your own DNA (via blood, urine, saliva, nger nail or even hair) to a state of the art testing laboratory for a BioScan. This computerized process can now accurately identify the underlying stressors in ones body that can precipitate disease. This process is so sensitive, as many as 10,000 stressors (toxins, bacteria, viruses, mold [sic], etc.) can be identied years before they even appear as symptoms. Thus it is possible to both address active issues and prevent future issues before they may manifest as a symptom or disease. Reality:
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Bionetics sounds eerily similar to dianetics, Scientologys junk science, so right off the bat Im wary. Then, they talk about taking a sample of DNA and using it to identify diseases. This, by itself, is the basis of many genetic tests, which are extremely useful for the identication of people with Huntingtons, or Downs Syndrome, among many, many other diseases. They can also be used to screen for cancer risk. However, the crazy quickly creeps in here. The author marvels at the ability to get your DNA from your hair or saliva, when these are methods usually used to obtain samples, as theyre minimally invasive and rich in cells, and thus DNA. Urine is a silly way to get DNA, because youre relying on cells that line the bladder, ureter, etc. shearing off and nding themselves in the urine. Not a very high concentration. Blood is even sillier, because the majority of the cells are red blood cells, which are most notable for their complete lack of a nucleus, and thus their lack of genetic material. It is possible, of course, as there are white blood cells circulating as well, but considering it is painful for the patient, if youre only looking at DNA, why should you look at the blood? And nally, the nger nails? Well, not only are they ridiculously hard to get appropriate samples from, theyre usually only used to get other peoples DNA, from blood, skin cells, or other potential sources that end up trapped underneath the nail. Fingernails, as it turns out, are just made of keratin, not living cells imbued with our DNA. Its possible to get our own DNA from them, but in order to get at it, you have to break that hard keratin apart. Why go to all this ridiculous trouble when a simple cheek swab will do? (By the way, the cheek cells are what were after with the swab, not your saliva.
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Of course, all of this is completely ignoring the fact that this information works on the base assumption that 10,000 stressors can be found in your DNA, and not just oating around in these various samples that youre giving them. Why, exactly, would mould be in your DNA? Some viruses can be found in your DNA, but if you nd them there, you have much bigger problems than the kind youll x with electricity..

Problems like AIDS. Yeah, I don't think you want to be treating that with anything but a hell of a lot of drugs.

Illnesses are usually a manifestation of some sort of impairment of the functional aspect of our bodies the proteins. Although nding the DNA of pathogens in our system is certainly a denitive diagnosis of infection, it isnt necessarily a diagnosis of illness. Carriers can have a pathogen and never feel ill. Their immune systems deal with it, no intervention required. What is a denitive diagnosis of illness is when we see stuff going wrong at the functional level, and perhaps a DNA test could tell us what the underlying cause is. However, we are not looking at our DNA. Furthermore, what the hell is a toxin? Could someone please dene this term for me? You know, aside from random pseudoscientic word used to mean anything that is bad for you or even potentially bad for you and usually

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something that isnt there to begin with. Sales pitch: PROFIT VRS [sic] EFFICACY Despite the wonderful progress in this technology, it hasnt been easy to get to where we are today. Around 1910, the Carnegie Foundation established a commission headed by Abraham Flexner, who relegated the well supported science of electrodiagnosis and electrotherapy devices to quackery in favor of the more lucrative drugs invested in by Carnegie. Anyone using these devices were cast as charlatans and thus the dominance today of drugs, surgery and radiation. It has been estimated that only 10 to 20 percent of all procedures currently used in medical practice have been shown to be efcacious by controlled trials. Reality: I was unaware that prot and efcacy opposed each other? People make prot off of both efcacious and non-efcacious medicine see homeopathy, for example. In any case, they make themselves out to be falsely vilied, and yet dont explain how their devices are well-supported by science. Its easy to make a claim like that wheres the proof to back it up? In any case, heres a fun game. Google 10 to 20 percent of all procedures currently

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used in medical practice have been shown to be efcacious by controlled trials. Youll nd websites advocating pretty much every alternative medicine out there, but not the original paper this is supposedly cited from. Interestingly, I could not nd this phrase at all in an otherwise decent but anecdotal review of the current (circa 1983) uses of electricity in medicine. The cited data comes from this 1978 paper advocating science-based medicine. The paper throws the statement in as a one-off, with no empirical data to support it. No data, no fact. This is not to say that all procedures in medical practice are efcacious, of course. Overprescription of antibiotics is a major issue. However, to assert something as patently silly as 10% of all procedures in medicine are actually doing anything, we need to demand more than a haphazard statement. Which controlled trials? How long ago? How many people were in them? What was the denition of efcacious? None of these answers are, of course, to be found here. Sales Pitch: YOU CANT SUPPRESS THE TRUTH FOREVER We are accustomed to having men jeer at what they do not understand. Johan Wolfgang von Goethe, 1700s Reality: Poor, poor salesman. Its so much easier to accuse someone who disagrees with you with persecution than to actually deal with their arguments. It must be hard, being asked for proof and mechanism all the time. Life is hard. Its this sort of persecution complex which

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lends people to really want to believe stuff like this is true. We want to root for the little guy whos being censored by the big bad evil government/corporation/entity. Unfortunately, that sort of sympathy prevents us for criticizing the little guy, and little guys can be douchebags too.

Stick it to Big Pharma!... Buy from me.

Sales Pitch: In spite of the virtual disappearance of all electrical therapy, investigation has continued particularly by Dr. Reinhold Voll, a German medical doctor in the early 1950s. He developed an electronic testing device (EAV) for nding acupuncture points electrically, known to Chinese acupuncturists for millennia. Voll then began a lifelong search to identify correlations between disease states and changes in the electrical resistance of the various acupuncture points. He

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found, for example, that patients with lung cancer had abnormal readings on the acupuncture points referred to as lung points. Reality: Remember that article that he just cited? Yeah, um, I think that sort of proves that electrical therapy has disappeared. Reinhold Volls method is essentially dianetics, only instead of holding the electrode, its placed on acupuncture points. The needle moves, you make some conclusion from it. The claim that he could detect abnormalities in lung cancer patients it cites a book, which as far as I can tell only exists for the purpose of this article, from 1980, not the original data. In actuality, studies have been done on EAV devices, especially for detecting allergies. Guess what? Readings are utterly random. Since people are prone to make patterns of random statistical noise (the very concept of luck is based on this), maybe a single individual could nd meaning in the needle jumping around from reading to reading, but ultimately, there is nothing there. Now we get to the fun bit. Sales Pitch: BioScan (remote DNA resonant testing) This procedure utilizes extremely sensitive EAV computerized equipment to accurately measure stressors in the body. It bombards the clients sample DNA (usually hair) with up to 10,000 frequencies to locate bacteria, viruses,

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pesticides, heavy metals, industrial pollutants, chemicals, parasites, foods, allergies, dental materials, trees, weeds, pollens, inhalants, molds, yeast, fungus and many other substances that poison the environment today. These stressors and related deciencies are identied in print form for the client along with the organs and glands affected by the stressors. Supplements are suggested that resonate with the test subject and homeopathics are customized to support the body to remove the stressors and return to homeostasis. Reality: Remote DNA resonant testing? What in the what-ing what-now is that? Remote means from a distant. DNA is genetic material. Resonant means vibration. How the hell do you combine those? Are they saying that they, from a distance, can measure the vibrations of your DNA for diagnostic purposes?? How do you utilize electroacupuncture (EAV) to analyze DNA? Certainly you can use electricity to move DNA (since it has a charge). But where does the acupuncture bit come in? How can electricity tell you about the foods and weeds poisoning your environment? Did you notice how they embedded the craziest things in the middle of that list? Dental materials are poisoning you? Trees? Is M. Night Shamaylan a prophet?

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If so, Marky Mark will save us all, and that is not a world that I'm ready to be a part of.

Then they suggest supplements which match your resonance. What? Yes, everything vibrates but What? Oy, so much craziness here, I dont even know what do with it. And of course, the old stand-by, homeostasis. Do you know what homeostasis is? Thats your base measures that your body maintains to keep you functioning. Things like 37 degrees Celsius, or uid retention, or oxygen levels, or blood sugar. Do you know what happens when those go out of whack? You die. Homeostasis is a really, really important part of being alive, and any major uctuation is lethal. Its only with modern medicine that things like diabetes arent an immediate death sentence. Returning to homeostasis is something our bodies do remarkably well and if they dont, you need a little more than an iron supplement help you with it.

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Thanks, body, for letting me eat candy without dying!

Sales Pitch: It is the belief of this writer that the use of electrodiagnostic testing fullls all the requirements to be considered adequately proven including: 1. A number of double-blind studies from various centers validating its efcacy. 2. Experts in the eld who deal with this technology acknowledging its usefulness and accuracy. 3. Electrodiagnostic testing having been in use around the world for many years by thousands of medical doctors. Because it has virtually no dangers and is very inexpensive, anyone who singles out this procedure for investigation above the myriad of medical procedures which are much less proven, more dangerous and more expensive, does so

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arbitrarily and capriciously and for reasons other than a concern for the patients health and well being. Reality: 1. Positive clinical trials dont exist. 2. Appeals to authority arent data. 3. Tradition is not evidence. Because it has no supporting evidence and is a complete waste of time and money, anyone who uses this procedure for investigation above the myriad of medical procedures which are much more proven, more accurate, and more effective, does so arbitrarily and capriciously and for reasons which are based in concern for their own bank accounts and not the patientss health and well being.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

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craigmarston
July 20, 2012 at 4:27 am

The original copyrighted image of the Burton Tonic can be found here: http://www.ickr.com /photos/beavis/509571697/ Please either credit Craig Marston, or use your own photograph, as you dont have permission from either the author of the image, OR the model in the image. Thank-you. Reply

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