Do you know where your anesthetized WBC's are?

[Giemsa]

I can't believe this kind of flim flam isn't illegal.

http://www.betterblood.net/gallery.htm

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[KluverB]

Sadly, just like all sCAMs, it is not. All those naturo-/homeopaths have to have some "tests" they can do to "legitimize" their woo.

Oh, here you go... http://www.betterblood.net/testimonials2.htm

Robert O. Young..... "Dr"???? ..... http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org...r-an-alternative-medicine-breast-cancer-cure/

 

[Enkidu]

I liked the video of "raw egg mixed with live blood under a microscope". No explanation of why this video was included with the one of a "morphed parasitic RBC attacking other RBCs" and the one of a "white blood cell expelling a yeast".

Actually, though, I have to say that the people who fall for this type of pseudoscience are actually more respectable than most others. The essential premise is that microscopic analysis of cells can reveal the cause of disease. This is completely correct. It's just that these charlatans don't know how to do it right, and are in fact making it all up to scam money.

Contrast this with other forms of woo in which people are meant to believe that crystals can heal them, or invisible energy rays shot from across the world can cure their cancer, or that infinitely dilute caffeine will help them sleep...

In fact, this stuff is so scientifically plausible on it's face that I think a lot of reasonable people might be fooled, which also suggests that the practitioners could be charged with practicing medicine without a license, unlike a reiki practitioner, say.

 

[Daddydoc]

I can't believe this kind of flim flam isn't illegal.

http://www.betterblood.net/gallery.htm

Wow. I can't believe crap like this is out there. Sad thing is, we could probably make more money doing this than real medicine.

 

[Entgegen]

http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org...r-an-alternative-medicine-breast-cancer-cure/

Are you an SGU listener as well?

 

[KCShaw]

I've often wondered what competition the oldest profession in the world has for that title, and suspect that the various forms of pay-for-health (snake oil, modern medicine, homeopathy, even religious/faith-based) have to be up there. How could anyone -possibly- think it's going to go away now, just because one method is much more mainstream?

The BetterBlood site allows one to sign up to be a microscopist, and I don't see anything about qualifications (or needing a microscope) -- just plug in your name and email address and evidently you're in business, after agreeing to terms which say something or other about limited liability, taking legal responsibility for outcomes yourself, and so forth. My local microscopist is named Bub.

What's most sad isn't that people without any sort of training or certification can make money off of the desperate and/or those with alternative preferences, it's that if someone -with- mainstream training and widely accepted certification became involved they would almost certainly be liable for going against mainstream standard-of-care. As long as no-one is claiming to be a licensed physician they may be essentially liability free. Low risk, high reward..

 

[KluverB]

... Low risk, high reward..

The "pathology" market is suddenly looking on the up-and-up!

 

[Enkidu]

The "pathology" market is suddenly looking on the up-and-up!

Well, now that you phrase it like that, why can't pathologists take advantage of this? Apparently these people who have vague concerns about their health just go to these microscopists to give a blood sample in order to only learn false "information" about their acid/base status.

Why can't pathologist just advertise their services for overly neurotic people to come by to have a peripheral smear looked at? If they care so much to know their acid/base status, they can get an ABG too. Maybe some are a bit iron-deficient or have B12 deficiency, not too rare, right? You can tell them that they have no parasites or whatever in their blood too, they seem pretty concerned about that.

After you tell them something about their blood, you can counsel them about their cholesterol or whatever and be done with it.

 

[KluverB]

As long as you are a licensed M.D., something called "scope of practice", I suppose.

 

[Enkidu]

As long as you are a licensed M.D., something called "scope of practice", I suppose.

Okay, I guess it's a pretty naive question, but how does it work exactly?

Isn't interpreting peripheral smears within the scope of practice for pathologists? If you just hire a phlebotomist and start reading peripheral smears directly for patients does that fall outside of a pathologists scope of practice?

 

[KluverB]

Isn't interpreting peripheral smears within the scope of practice for pathologists? If you just hire a phlebotomist and start reading peripheral smears directly for patients does that fall outside of a pathologists scope of practice?

Sorry, I misunderstood your original question/statement. Yes, what you've stated would fall under the purview of a pathologist's scope of practice. Though, I'm not sure how much business you'd be able to drum up unless you descended into the touchy-feely realm of BS, quackery, and what a(n unlicensed) "microscopist" purportedly does. But then again, who knows. P.T. Barnum was right on the money.