Monday October 5, 2009

Bleeding scam: LBA is 'junk science'

By LIM WEY WEN

PETALING JAYA: There’s a scam going around and what they are after is your blood. With just a drop, unscrupulous doctors, sinsehs and alternative medicine practitioners claim they are able to diagnose a host of illnesses, ranging from vitamin deficiencies to cancer.

They are able to convince their unsuspecting patients by using an impressive but discredited test method called Live Blood Analysis (LBA).

It is believed that thousands have fallen victim to this scam over the past 10 years. Alarmed by the growing number of centres offering such services, medical associations are now urging the authorities to take action against those offering LBA.

Up to press time, Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Ismail Merican had yet to respond to requests for comment on this practice.

The test is currently available in the Klang Valley, where some centres advertise the service, and in several other states, including Malacca, Terengganu and Sarawak.

It is also known as Nutritional Blood Analysis or Live Cell Analysis. All methods require a drop of the patient’s blood to be put under a high resolution darkfield microscope.

Those using LBA claim they are able to assess a patient’s health and detect infections, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, toxic substances, weak kidneys, bladders and spleens, and even cancer earlier than standard laboratory tests.

LBA, however, has been deemed “unestablished” and “experimental” by US health authorities.

Robert W. Bradford, who invented the microscopy system used for the test in 1996, is facing charges in the US Federal Court for fradulently marketing it as a diagnostic test for an infectious disease.

Medical doctors also criticise the test as a fraudulent practice to mislead unsuspecting people into buying unnecessary and expensive supplements or alternative therapies for non-existent medical conditions. (See ‘A bloody encounter’)

Malaysian Society of Haematology president Dr Ng Soo Chin said: “The society’s stand is very clear - LBA is junk science. It is a mixture of a little bit of science that is unsubstantiated and interpretations that are erroneous.

“We think that this sort of practice should not be condoned, and action should be taken against those who prey on patients.”

Although LBA has been available in Malaysia for at least a decade, it appears to have attracted little concern from the authorities because, as a doctor who asked for anonymity observed, the test itself is harmless.

In fact, currently, most LBA practitioners offer the test free with the purchase of certain products. But there are others who charge up to RM1,200 with consultation sessions and reports thrown in.

StarProbe was alerted to LBA after a member of the public sent an e-mail to express his outrage after a relative was duped into taking the test.

He said his relative had the LBA test done by a Chinese sinseh in Kuala Lumpur recently.

“The sinseh told my relative he was in ill health and could die anytime. Subsequently, he was told to buy supplements amounting to RM500 monthly from the sinseh to cure these ‘illnesses’.”

He added the supplements were to help the relative “detox the colon, clean the liver of bad blood, remove bad cholesterol clogging up blood cells, promote weight loss, and boost energy.”

According to Dr Ng, this was the modus operandi of some LBA practitioners. Many would also claim the patient had a blood infection caused by a type of yeast, which they would then proceed to treat with costly supplements and alternative treatments.

Dr Ng said the public should know that if yeast was truly present in a patient’s blood, he would be very sick and require hospitalisation.

However, a Klang Valley medical doctor, who only wishes to be known as Dr Lim, defended the test, saying that it was done by many medical doctors in countries such as Taiwan, but here it has been misused to sell nutritional supplements.

Dr Lim insisted that the problem lies in the fact that non-medically trained people were performing the tests.

LBA practitioners claim a high resolution dark field microscope, which is a valid medical tool, uses special lighting to view specimens against a dark background, enabling a trained eye to see abnormalities that cannot be detected by a regular microscope.

But Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr David K.L. Quek said looking at something under a microscope cannot scientifically determine diseases, however powerful the microscope.

According to reports, authorities in the United States, Australia and elsewhere have warned or prosecuted health practitioners, including chiropractors and naturopaths, for misleading their clients with LBA tests.

On whether the MMA would take action against such practices in Malaysia, Dr Quek said that without a patient’s official complaint, or proof that such tests or therapies had caused harm, there was little the MMA could do.

He urges the public to be more aware, less gullible, and more discerning when dealing with claims about unproven therapies, which are not always what they seem. He also said those affected by the scam can forward their complaints to the MMA or Malaysian Medical Council.

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Monday October 5, 2009

Bleeding scam: LBA is 'junk science'

By LIM WEY WEN