The Cruelty of Pseudo-Science

The Cruelty of Pseudo-Science
by Stuart Forsyth

Every so often I am forced to write about products that are touted as cure-alls, panaceas for any number of horrific illnesses and how groups of marketeers are able to get away with advertising these products legitimately. I have a medical background and having once been involved with homoeopathy I am very sensitive to medical pseudo-science of any type because if it can con a reasonably healthy skeptic, then people who are desperate for any glimmer of hope in an otherwise desolate situation are easy game.

The latest farce to come to my attention through a work colleague is the MediZone BubbleSpar (http://www.medi-zone.co.za). Allow me the luxury of quoting their marketing blurb in it’s entirety before I attempt to rip it limb from limb.

For the millions of people afflicted with dread diseases (Cancer, AIDS, Heart attack, Stroke, Alzheimer’s, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes etc) and numerous other so called “ common ailments” (Asthma, Sinusitis, Arthritis, Rheumatism, Hay fever, Skin Disorders etc) the information contained in this website may astound them. It will also bring new hope in a world fraught with expensive medicines, countless therapies and treatments!

Lets pause for a moment here to examine the diseases this bubble mat can help with. HIV (Human immunodeficiency virus) is a retrovirus that is responsible for attacking the immune system. The syndrome of symptoms that follows is known as AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficient Syndrome). Eventually the immune system fails to such an extent that life-threatening opportunistic infections like TB or pneumonia kill you. Does it sound like a bubbly bath mat can help with this? I suppose in South Africa, where our health minister touts the African potato and garlic as effective alternatives to anti-retrovirals at the Toronto conference, anything is possible.

Stroke or cerebrovascular accident occurs where blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted – often resulting in that affected area of the brain being damaged leading to crippling neurological and physiological conditions. No doubt bubbly Ozone can re-grow brain matter – excellent! … next.

Alzheimer’s occurs due to neuron loss or damage in the brain and is a progressively degenerative condition that leads ultimately to the most terrible forms of dementia. Perhaps the makers of the BubbleSpar mean for Alzheimer’s patients to enjoy the rejuvenating effects of a tickling bubbles while they smear their faeces on the wall. Multiple sclerosis is a caused by chronic inflammation of the Central nervous system resulting in muscle weakness, impaired speech and movement, fatigue and pain – I grant that warmth may relieve the inflammatory condition but that is as far as I will go, as to being able to cure this condition – I think not.

and to finish up:

Diabetes, in a nutshell, is a metabolic disorder whereby the pancreas stops producing insulin that regulates the uptake of carbohydrates by the cells. Who needs insulin injections to preventing you dying .. bubble bubble.

They go on to use the wonderful method of conning the public called “Blinding by Science”. Blinding by Science is the attempt to con a lay person into believing your false claims by introducing just enough scientific (or scientific sounding) information to make it sound convincing. People by their nature are averse to arguing with others more in the know and thus tend to back down when you throw science-babble or mathematical equations at them. The makers of products such as these prey on either fear or hope and use the method of blinding by science as they know full well that their target audience is not well grounded in scientific principal.

There is a humorous anecdote about the ability of science to blind.

Diderot had been invited to the court by Catherine the Great, but then annoyed her by trying to convert everyone to atheism. Catherine asked Euler for help, and he informed Diderot, who was ignorant of mathematics, that he would present in court an algebraic proof of the existence of God, if Diderot wanted to hear it. Diderot was interested, and, according to De Morgan, Euler advanced toward Diderot, and said gravely, and in a tone of perfect conviction: “Sir, ( a + bn )/n = x , hence God exists; reply! ” Diderot had no reply, and the court broke into laughter. Diderot immediately returned to France.

Back to the “proof” of the Bubbly Bath Mat – Medizone quotes the following as scientific proof for Cancer:

In 1926, two times Nobel Prize winner for Medicine, Dr Otto Warburg of the Kaizer Institute in Berlin, announced to the world his findings on his research on oxygen and cancer in the human body. THE CAUSE OF ALL CANCER IS THE LACK OF OXYGEN AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL IN THE BODY!

1926, just in case you missed it – before antibiotics (Flemming and Penicillin, 1928) or a proper understanding of the atom (Schroedinger and Heisenberg, 1926) – I feel sure a 1926 doctor knew a lot more about cancer than the millions of current professionals the world over who dedicate their life to understanding the intricacies of this cellular proliferation gone wrong.

 

The Medizone website provides some very basic and inaccurate information regarding what Ozone is and how it is beneficial for you. They make no attempt to show how a bubble spar could make any difference to reducing or killing the HIV virus, or reversing cells gone mad in their proliferation or fixing a pancreas that can no longer produce insulin. Advertising is especially good at this, any number of fat pill on the market have pictures of people in white coats holding pipettes and looking pensive. “Gee look ma, dem are scientists, surely to goodness dey know what dey doin!”

The medizone “proof” for the rejuvenating effects of Ozone are the following ridiculous anecdotes

In Asia the people of Tibet is reported to live up to an average age of 132-135 years of age while an Indian tribe in the Peruvian mountains in South America reaches 145-150 years of age! Upon investigation it was found that these people at age 80-90 years old look like we do at the age of 40-50 years old. They work 2-3 times harder than we do…

This is completely unjustified and any sane person would surely call for the proof as journal article or quotation from any number of reputable scientific sources, I am sure that should people live to these unbelievable ages, science and the Guinness book would know about it and their lack of supporting evidence shows this to be merely anecdotal and entirely false. Searching back in time in Tibetan literature, most of the highly ranked monastic officials who really did all the right things including meditation and exercise and weren’t subjected to “hard labour” lived to the ripe old age of 70 or in some extreme cases 80. Extreme longevity however abounds in myth, in the stories of Methuselah and other religious icons of all faiths. The Canada-Tibet Committee recently published findings that the average life expectancy in the region has almost doubled: from 35.5 years of age to 67 years of age.

After quoting all this spurious crap, their disclaimer goes on to say – and this sums it all up for me – “There are no health claims being made in the areas of Therapy and Scientific validity”. Whatever happened to standing by the courage of your convictions. They are quoting “science” as a means of justifying their bubbly bath mat as a cure all and then in the disclaimer go on to say we are not making any claims that this product has any therapeutic or scientific validity. They have to put this in I suppose, God forbid someone actually dies from throwing out the insulin or chemotherapy and lazing about all day on the bubbly bath mat.

The sad thing about this is that there is very little recourse for people who are conned to this level. Unlike victims of traditional monetary fraud, the cancer patient who has a relapse through discontinuing her treatment has absolutely nobody to turn to. It would not stand up in court – it very clearly states in the disclaimer that they cannot be held liable for anything because they didn’t say it was scientific or had a therapeutic effect. So people can go on, becoming very rich in the process, selling misinformation, preying on the misery and suffering of others and offering them false hope and not lose a penny or a sleepless night in the process.

This almost makes me wish I was a religious man, then I could claim some comfort in the concepts of eternal damnation, hell-fire and brimstone.