Nov 02 2012

The Light Fantastical

Published by under Science and Medicine
Comments: 21

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21 responses so far

21 Responses to “The Light Fantastical”

  1. # Jan Willem Nienhuyson 02 Nov 2012 at 7:06 am

    Just a little nitpicking: sulfa drugs are antimicrobial allright, but the word ‘antibiotic’ is reserved for substances that are obtained from living microorganisms or chemical variations of these excretions. Sulfa drugs (I remember getting them once in the beginning of the 1950s and immediately developing a rash all over me) are based on coal tar dyes, not on secretions of bacteriae or fungi, and when the word ‘antibiotic was coined in 1942 sulfa drugs were explicitly excluded. Although one might say that penicillin was discovered in 1928, they became available outside of experimental settings only in the 1940s (mass production started in 1945).

  2. # Bryan Bartenson 02 Nov 2012 at 7:34 am

    Very enlightening post ;)

    However, UV treatment dead because it didn’t work? Very wishful thinking. I think. Homeopathy, acupuncture and other forms of witchcraft are still going strong, probably because of their lack of effectiveness, as Mark Tanaka et al. suggested in 2009:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2664922/

  3. # windrivenon 02 Nov 2012 at 7:50 am

    “Multiple machines are available for purchase and appear to run around $5,000, and, as would be expected, the indications for UV light therapy have broadened:”

    So who is using this technology? The availability of multiple machines suggests that there is a market for them. Are carnival barkers, naturopaths and chiroquacksters withdrawing, irradiating and injecting blood? Is that legal anywhere except maybe Haiti?

    Also, @ Dr. Crislip: what up with Puscast? October 15 (non)issue is nowhere to be found.

  4. # DevoutCatalyston 02 Nov 2012 at 9:26 am

    So, windriven, what attracts you to Puscast?

  5. # windrivenon 02 Nov 2012 at 10:10 am

    @DevoutCatalyst

    “what attracts you to Puscast?”

    What’s not to like? A little info about a field far different from my own, a little humor, a little snark, and a near-monotonic voice that distracts from the tinnitus in my left ear so that I can go to sleep ;-)

  6. # Karl Withakayon 02 Nov 2012 at 10:40 am

    “Now they use lasers to irradiate the blood”

    It’s a bit of a stretch to even call this irradiation. Irradiation usually refers to the use of ionizing radiation. If shining a He-Ne laser on something is irradiation, than so is shining a flashlight on something.

  7. # Mark Crislipon 02 Nov 2012 at 11:00 am

    windriven is evidently a person of quality.
    I fixed the rss feed.
    They are also available for manual download on my website: http://edgydoc.com/puscast/
    Thanks.
    Have a good nights sleep.

  8. # Janeton 02 Nov 2012 at 11:43 am

    I have the same question as windriven about WHO is using these machines? Do they (machines and users) have a legitimate purpose?

    I go to sleep to podcasts as well, including puscast sometimes. Most times just the BBC News live streaming. I used to have to fiddle with a shortwave radio in the olden days, but now there is so much and so easy to get! Now if I could only get the weenie dog to stay on her side of the bed.

  9. # DevoutCatalyston 02 Nov 2012 at 11:46 am

    Left ear? Farm tractor tinnitus?

    Thanks Mark, I do whatever I can to touch the hem of your garment too. Puscast is a gem.

  10. # windrivenon 02 Nov 2012 at 12:48 pm

    @DevoutCatalyst

    “Farm tractor tinnitus? ”

    Competitive shooting tinnitus. Back in the day real men didn’t use ear protectors. I take this as proof that artificial men are considerably smarter than real men.

  11. # Quillon 02 Nov 2012 at 12:57 pm

    Thank you for the column today and for providing me with a good laugh, that Wikipedia page included.

    “From basic principals it appears to be almost the homeopathic application of light.”

    So I supposed patients can be seen at night or in a darkened closet? Or perhaps a single candle can be lit and the light shaken about then “stored” in some water which then can be taken twice daily.

    I wonder why Duracell hasn’t caught onto these things?

    I also can’t help but imagine Star Trek medical bays with all this UV/laser stuff beaming about. When did the reality that it is just a series of tv shows disappear from CAM minds? And why do so many of their gadgets look like something assembled during a drunken frat house robbery of a Radio Shack? Oh wait, I bet they’ll say UV/laser is in its infancy and we all know how badly infants assemble things.

  12. # Rafael Scienceon 02 Nov 2012 at 1:39 pm

    Use UV light to treat blood is the most stupid thing ever posted on this blog. How on earth someone could possible thing in such an thing ?

  13. # windrivenon 02 Nov 2012 at 3:08 pm

    @Janet

    “WHO is using these machines?”

    In an earlier comment I had asked whether various quacks, squirrels and poseurs were using this and if it was legal. Your question prompted me to look a little further.

    Who is using (or at least advocating) this?

    Phoebe Chow, ND. ND does not stand for (k)nuckle dragger – it stands for naturopathic dimwit or something.
    http://www.oxygenhealingtherapies.com/intro_uvb.html

    Kevin and Annmarie Gianni, NAC* proprietors of RenegadeHealth.com
    renegadehealth.com/blog/2012/01/27/what-the-heck-is-ubi-ultraviolet-blood-irradiation-therapy
    But if you want comic relief that will have you howling check out the “about” tab

    Dr. Bronner Handwerger, NMD
    http://www.docbron.com/UV_Blood_Therapy.php
    This douche credits it with doing everything but taking out the garbage.

    Pangaea Clinic of Naturopathic Medicine
    http://www.pannaturopathic.com/photox.html
    When you’re done laughing at the Kevin and Annmarie show above, read this for a sharp slap in the face:

    “There are two methods of doing photox therapy, including using hydrogen peroxide intravenous in one arm, and then within an hour doing ultraviolet irradiation in the other arm; however, ozone and UV is more convenient for both the patient and the doctor, and tends to be more effective for most chronic diseases. The exception may be in cancer, where the peroxide-UV combination may be best.”

    This mess is run by two naturopaths who proudly tell us that, “[b]oth Dr Tawnya Ward and Dr Eric Chan prefer to take a more interventional stance and as such prefer more innovational therapies.” BTW, the fee for IV H2O2 + UV is $150. You’ll be happy to know that these clowns “have achieved board certifications in chelation therapy, acupuncture, and oxidative medicine. ”

    Jesus. You couldn’t make this stuff up.

    *NAC = No Apparent Credentials

  14. # mousethatroaredon 02 Nov 2012 at 3:22 pm

    I spend all this money and time trying to prevent sun exposure…UV exposed blood just don’t seem like a good idea.

  15. # Vashaon 02 Nov 2012 at 5:13 pm

    Penicillin became widely available in 1945, and the dialysis machine also began saving lives in 1945. I had wondered why these inventors never tried irradiating the entire volume of blood, and there probably is your answer: once the sort of equipment needed to do so was available, better treatments for infection were too.

  16. # Vashaon 02 Nov 2012 at 7:01 pm

    Actually, it occurs to me that the story of dialysis might be a good comparison to see just how it was that Knott & co. failed to demonstrate that their technique worked — because they claimed miraculous recoveries yet didn’t convince the medical profession. By contrast, Kolff’s first successful patient was in end-stage kidney failure, comatose and dying; with dialysis she went on to live another seven years. That certainly seems “miraculous” enough. What trials, what evidence, led to the equipment being adopted widely? It must have helped that it was based on known physiology with an understandable mechanism of action; indeed I’ll bet that Kolff wasn’t the only one trying to develop something similar.

  17. # Dionigion 03 Nov 2012 at 7:54 am

    I have a UV flashlight and will have to start trials by pushing it up my nose. I will let you know if anything comes from it.

  18. # Janeton 04 Nov 2012 at 12:09 pm

    Thanks windriven for a great laugh (or should it be cry?).

    Can someone actually put hydrogen peroxide into veins without violating some kind of law? Dear goddess!

    Since the machines cost $5k, there must be a brisk business in this “therapy”– [completely lost for words]

  19. # Janeton 04 Nov 2012 at 1:07 pm

    Some gleanings from windriven’s googles.

    Phoebe Chow says (in a long list of claims for uses of Photo Oxidation Therapy–POT)

    “Geriatric – With old-age phenomena P.O.T. produces well-being”–I suppose a lot of my old pothead friends would testify to that one!

    I cannot even find words for the vacuousness of Annmarie and Kevin. This one doesn’t even rise to the level of quackery–more like pointless self-indulgence.

    This from “Dr.” Handwerger (who charges $295 for an initial visit and doesn’t “accept” insurance):

    “Called Sub-Lingual Photoluminescence we can expose the blood to these UV rays without the need to remove the blood from the patients body. The UVB is delivered under the tongue to the sub lingual veins where the blood is very superficial.”

    And from the Pangaea Clinic:

    “Cancer Support:

    In the treatment of cancer, conventional medicine includes surgery, chemotherapy (the use of drugs), and radiation. By contrast, complementary therapy includes nutritional supplements, enzymes, diet, detoxification, change in life style, stress control, prevention, and biofeedback.
    Which is best? That depends on one’s view regarding the nature of cancer. Conventional practitioners view cancer as the tumor, whereas Naturopathic doctors see the tumor as merely the symptom of the cancer.”

    Is the last part about tumors and symptoms really English? Does cancer have a “nature”? Once you have a “symptom” (tumor!) of cancer, how does prevention fit in? I think fatigue, weight loss, or pain is a symptom of cancer and that a tumor IS cancer.

    ———–
    And…..
    I’m sure Dr. Crislip will be glad to know about this one so he can quit wasting time killing his bugs the silly allopathic way:

    “Exposing the blood to the ultraviolet light has been shown to have the following effects:

    -Increase in the oxygen combining power of the blood.
    -Inactivation of toxins and viruses.
    -Destruction and inhibition of fungal and bacterial growth.
    -Activation of the immune system.”

    ————–
    You are right windriven, you cannot make this stuff up–but they do anyway.

  20. # windrivenon 05 Nov 2012 at 10:51 am

    @Janet

    The one that left me most infuriated was this:

    “The exception may be in cancer, where the peroxide-UV combination may be best.”

    The idea of naturopaths diddling around with cancer patients takes me right off my hinges. I’m sure that it is all perfectly legal in some jurisdictions but I can’t help but see it as reckless endangerment at best and manslaughter at worst.

  21. # Andreson 22 Nov 2012 at 9:28 am

    I suspect it died as antibiotics like penicillin were more practical/profitable.

    You have to realize that your (their) list of possible mechanisms doesn’t have the plausible one: vitamin D generation. This is Dr. Cannell’s hypothesis, plausible through the cathelicidin upregulation due to vitamin D.

    The beauty of the hypothesis is that no RCT is needed to prove or disprove it, only the irradiation of the blood of a donnor and measuring it for the variation of any vitamin D metabolite.