Categories
Friday Woo Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Seqex: Ion Cyclotron Resonance quackery boogaloo

Meet Seqex. It’s like a Scientology E-meter, only so much more unscientifically complicated, complete with over 2 million waveforms! That must mean it’s better! Actually, Segex is based on decades old pseudoscience.

Three weeks ago, I applied a bit of the old ultraviolence not-so-Respectful Insolence to a quacktastic product that desperately begged for it, the JING ORB, or, as I put it, electric water woo. As far back in my blogging career as I can remember, there’s been something about electricity that attracts pseudoscience and quacks like proverbial moths to a flame. The JING ORB was truly quacky, too, with so many nonsensical claims packed into such a small area that it threatened to form a black hole of pseudoscience and quackery. I thought it would be the most amusing bit of pseudoscience I would see for a while, given that I had only written about it three weeks ago, but I was wrong. Why do I say that? Easy. It’s because I just discovered the Seqex. What, you may ask, is Seqex? Well, the Seqex website is more than happy to tell you:

Seqex is a revolutionary health & wellness technology in the form of a pulsed electromagnetic field therapy device that produces Ion Cyclotron Resonance phenomena. This phenomena promotes the reduction of inflammation; induces a muscle relaxant effect and contributes to improving microcirculation.

So much woo. “Ion cyclotron resonance”? What does that even mean? Actually, as is the case for so much woo, it’s a real phenomenon, just misused and made nonsensical because the people using it don’t know what they’re talking about. Basically, ion cyclotron resonance is a phenomenon that has to do with the movement of ions in a magnetic field. It has a bunch of uses, including mass spectroscopy, accelerating ions in a cyclotron, and more. As you might imagine, the fact that Seqex uses the term “ion cyclotron resonance” doesn’t mean that its product has anything to do with the actual scientific meaning of the term. I’m sure that physicists and chemists who work with applications involving actual ion cyclotron resonance will either cringe or laugh (or probably both) as they read the claims of Health Wellness Industries, Inc., the company that markets the Seqex in Canada. Here’s what I mean:

Health Wellness Industries Inc. is the exclusive Canadian Distributor of Seqex. Seqex is a revolutionary health & wellness technology in the form of a pulsed electromagnetic field therapy device that produces Ion Cyclotron Resonance phenomena. This phenomena promotes the reduction of inflammation; induces a muscle relaxant effect and contributes to improving microcirculation. The Seqex is unique as it has the ability of producing up to thirty wave forms and can use up to 2.4 million frequency combinations. This ICR phenomenon allows the cells to become more permeable allowing toxins to be released and nutrients to be absorbed. It is the only ICR full body applicator in the world.

Whoa. 2.4 million frequency combinations! That must mean the Seqex is awesome! At least, so the manufacturer would want you to believe. Now, in fairness, there is such a thing as pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF) therapy that does show some mild promise in some applications, as I’ll discuss. However, like so many purveyors of questionable medical devices, the sellers of Seqex take a potentially science-based modality and then run right off the cliff of pseudoscience with it. You can see this right from the start in a promotional video on the Seqex website by Valerio Dallago, owner of Sistemi, the Italian company that manufactures the Seqex units being sold by Health Wellness Industries:

I noticed something at the 0:22 minute mark that should catch the notice of any skeptic, and that’s a brief scene showing a book, Bioelectromagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine, Second Edition, by Paul J. Rosch, MD. In searching for this book to learn a more about it, I found that it’s packed with “energy medicine” pseudoscience. For instance, here’s part of the publisher’s blurb about the book:

This second edition updates previous topics and features many new chapters describing novel approaches that promise to replace drugs or surgery because they are more effective and much safer, such as rTMS for depression, MRI-Guided Focused Ultrasound for bone and uterine tumors, and TheraBionic LEET for liver cancer. Others discuss biological water (H3O2) that acts like a battery, health benefits of Earthing, malignant and other brain tumors from cell and cordless phones, visualizing and measuring energy fields in humans and nature, making sense of homeopathy and “memory of water,” basic science support for acupuncture, electrosensitivity, ion cyclotron resonance, the role of the pineal gland, the health effects of solar storms and terrestrial influences, and why Bioelectric Resonance Therapy bridges Chinese and Western medicine.

The idea that biological water works like a battery was part of the nonsense behind the quackery of the JING ORB. Of course, earthing is the idea that there are health benefits from direct contact between the skin and the ground because that contact releases a “flow of free electrons and frequencies from the earth,” a flow that “travels all throughout that person’s body, neutralizing free radicals, erasing pain and inflammation and revitalizing one’s energy.” Those who believe in earthing claim it’s much better to walk barefoot outdoors with direct contact between the earth and the soles of your feet (don’t mind the glass and stones!) and sell elaborate body-length conductive pads for people to sleep on that allegedly channel the electrons of the earth into your body if you sleep on it with enough skin uncovered to have a decent surface area in contact with the pad. How do these pads do this? Easy. They’re attached to a wire that is grounded. No, I mean literally grounded, as in the other end is put in direct contact with the ground, like this:

You thought Orac was joking about it when he said that these grounding pads are just conductive pads or blankets wired to ground. Fools!

There are even “earthing” garments, like pajamas, that you can sleep in, the better to soak in the earth’s electrons; that is, if you’re gullible enough to believe these claims.

Earthing, is, of course, pure woo. So is the claim that cell phones cause brain tumors, but if you don’t believe this is all pure nonsense, just take note of the mention of “bioenergy” as a potential way to “make sense” of the “memory of water” in homeopathy, or, as I like to call it, The One Quackery To Rule Them All. As for Dr. Rosch himself, check out this paper by him thatI found, Biomagnetic and Subtle Energy Medicine: The Interface Between Mind and Matter. It’s full of vitalism and credulous discussion of “life energy” and other mystical-pseudoscientific ideas. There are also chapters from the book available online as PDFs. For instance, there is Chapter 38: Biophysics of Earthing (Grounding) the Human Body. It’s written by the guru of earthing woo himself, Clinton Ober, who, predictably enough, lays down some serious pseudoscience. For example:

People who work barefoot in the garden or walk barefoot along the beach often experience a special sense of well- being, just from being in direct physical contact with the earth. Some teachers of ancient practices such as Yoga and Qigong recommend that all exercises be done while barefoot on the earth. There is no comparison between walking, run- ning, or practicing any form of movement therapy or martial arts indoors and doing the same activities with bare feet in direct contact with the earth. Why should this be the case?

Perhaps my favorite part of the chapter is this graph, which correlates sales of synthetic-soled shoes and the increase in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes: GRAPH

Again, you thought Orac was joking when he said that Ober would do something so mind-numbingly silly as to correlate the prevalence of type 2 diabetes with the sales of shoes with synthetic soles. Of course, this begs the question: Why would

Holy confusing correlation with causation, Batman! I can’t help but note that Clint Ober’s earthing has made a bit of a comeback with his earthing quackery, courtesy of—who else—Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop, who took umbrage at criticism of earthing. Not surprisingly, Clint Ober’s woo has also been featured on The Dr. Oz Show, and Joe Mercola is a big fan, having promoted grounding during an appearance. So, right away, let’s just say that I’m…skeptical…of the scientific basis of this particular family of devices. Particularly amusing is how Dallago describes how he first discovered these devices and thought they were so promising. However, like any good woo-meister, he was unhappy that they were so simple, producing limited range of relatively simple signals. So he did what any woo-meister does when confronted with simplicity. He made things complicated, the better to obfuscate the lack of scientific basis of what he was doing. In this case, it meant more frequencies and, allegedly, making the devices so that they can detect whether the treatment is having an effect on the user. If you believe Dallago, hooking up the electrodes to your body and then to the device, will lead the device to conduct a test and identify which of the 2.4 million electromagnetic patterns will be best for you. (Personalized medicine! It’s what every quack claims to provide!)

Of course, Dallago notes that pulsed electromagnetic fields can accelerate the healing of fractured bones. This is an area where it was once thought that PEMF therapy would be very useful, particularly for nonunion. However, more recent systematic reviews are much more cautious, as this 2011 Cochrane review, which summarized existing evidence concluding that PEMF “may offer some benefit in the treatment of delayed union and non-union of long bone fractures, it is inconclusive and insufficient to inform current practice. More definitive conclusions on treatment effect await further well-conducted randomised controlled trials.”

Dallago, of course, “discovered” that the applications of PEMF that go way, way beyond just bone healing, boasting that the “possible fields of application” were much wider, noting that doctors using PEMF to treat bone fractures “noticed” that “other conditions” that patients had also improved. As a result, these devices found their way into integrative medicine clinics.

Because of course they did.

There’s then the usual blather about how Seqex “mimics nature” and “promotes the natural processes of self-regeneration” by—wait for it—reproducing the same electromagnetic signals that are already present in the earth’s own electromagnetic field. Yes! Seqex is basically a fancier, more expensive form of earthing quackery! But why would anyone want an “unnatural” device that mimics grounding when you can just do grounding? Why do you need a device to simulate the earth’s electromagnetic field when you spend every second of every hour of every day of your life bathed in the earth’s electromagnetic field? I don’t know.

If you wander over to the main Italian Seqex site and click on the English version, you can find even more of this pseudoscience. I particularly liked the explanation of how Seqex got its name:

The name SEQEX is formed from the combination of the ancient Inca word SEQE, which means direction or polarity, and their symbol X, which represents the point of encounter between electromagnetic and magneto-electric energy.

I really must tip my hat to Sistemi for combining ancient Incan mysticism with a nod to electromagnetic radiation in the very name of its woo device. Well done! Sistemi also explains:

In 1984 Prof. A.R. Liboff, interested at the time in the biological effects of cosmic radiation, hypothesized that the discoveries of Adey and Blackman could easily be explained by assuming that the terrestrial magnetic field, or geomagnetic field (GMF), interacted with the applied variable fields, producing a phenomenon known as ion cyclotron resonance (ICR) directly inside tissues. The phenomenon of ICR is well known to physics: it requires the simultaneous application of two parallel magnetic fields, one static and one variable through time. Assuming that the effects observed in the laboratory by Adey and Blackburn were caused by ICR, Liboff demonstrated that, on the basis of the frequencies used and the values of the GMF, the range of intensity of the GMF on the Earth’s surface corresponded with ICR frequencies, so that very low physiologically significant frequencies were capable of affecting key biological ions, like for example calcium, potassium, and magnesium.

The local connection embarrasses me. Prof. Liboff was faculty at a local university, Oakland University, which is located in a northern suburb of Detroit. In the 1980s, he promoted the idea that extreme low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields had an effect on living cells through ion cyclotron resonance. Of course, the problem with his idea is that the ion cyclotron resonance observed in mass spectometers that produces particles moving in a circular trajectory occurs in a vacuum (or near-vacuum). In living cells, there’s water, macromolecules such as proteins and DNA, ions, and lots of other chemicals. Liboff got around that by suggesting that the ion cyclotron resonance could occur inside calcium channel, but these pores are barely larger than the calcium ions that travel through them, and any ELF signal would be overwhelmed by the existing electromagnetic gradient across all cell membranes. Finally, no one was able to reproduce Liboffs results. This is all explained in depth in a blog post by Martin Bier from 2017, which as a bonus for purposes of this post even briefly discusses Seqex and its competitor, BICOM, referring to their bioresonance treatments as “merely a form of electromagnetic homeopathy,” which is as good a description of them as I can think of.

Next up:

The other widely available magnetotherapy devices on the market produce digital electromagnetic signals consisting of waveform, intensity, and frequency combinations referred to as “codes” or protocols. These devices administer the same identical sequence of codes (generally a few dozen) to all patients with the same pathology. Seqex instead is capable of producing more than 2 million of these codes, requiring computerized management. During the test procedure, the sequence of codes is customized on the basis of the measured response of the patient’s body. In addition, the 30 waveforms generated by Seqex are “constructed” as analog signals to ensure “harmonic complexity”, unlike the smooth “digital” signals produced by almost all the other available devices. The exclusivity of Seqex derives from the customization test, conducted at a Seqex center by authorized medical personnel, using a professional Seqex Med device.

I wonder if Dallago likes vinyl over digital. He’s making the same sort of arguments that vinyl mavens make for the supposed “superiority” of analog music recording compared to digital. Also, doesn’t he have it all backwards? Digital signals are the ones that consist of discrete levels, while analog signals are “smooth.” Or so I always thought. Speaking of sound reproduction (and also not wanting to provoke long, tedious arguments in the comment threads about the relative merits of vinyl versus digital—not-so-subtle hint, hint), if you want to be amused, wander over to the Canadian page and see several of the waveforms that Seqex produces converted into acoustic frequencies, so that you can listen to the sound snippets and see how different they are. The sound snippets sound not unlike screeching cats. (An Orac pat on the back to anyone who comes up with the best description of these sound files!)

But, Orac, you say, surely there must be some science behind this? I suppose you could call it that, but also surely the scientific basis of the ideas behind the Seqex devices is highly dubious. On the Canadian site, you can find some unimpressive scientific studies claiming that Seqex (or PEMF) can be helpful for a variety of conditions. For instance, one study of eight children without a control group claims that Seqex caused improvements “in all cases.” Another is a review article by Abraham Liboff himself. There are other review articles, as well as some cherry picked studies of PEMF and bone healing. Perhaps the worst one is an article touting PEMF as a “safe alternative therapy treatment for the treatment of cancer and other health problems.”

The Seqex is also touted as as having been approved by Health Canada as a class 2 medical device, as if this means that the device is approved for the uses claimed for it. In Canada, class of medical device is based on risk, with Class I devices being the lowest risk (e.g., thermometers) and Class IV devices being the highest (e.g., pacemakers, implantable defibrillators). In other words, it’s no big deal that these devices can be marketed this way; it certainly doesn’t mean that the Canadian government has approved the device as safe and effective, merely that it is not dangerous.

Sadly, people who need effective medicine are falling for these claims and purchasing these devices. For instance, here’s an article about the Collingwood Fire Department that’s basically a glowing testimonial for the Seqex device. It does provide some useful information in that now I know how Seqex was approved in Canada. Basically, the president of Health Wellness Industries, Kim Sartor, did the heavy lifting based on her conversion:

Sartor first learned of Seqex while watching a video during a visit to the Science Centre in Toronto. At the time, Sartor was suffering from chronic issues including asthma. She was suffering further complications from long-term use of prednisone. She was looking for answers and another way to treat her chronic conditions. The founder of Seqex was in Italy, so she made the trip across the ocean to meet him and learn more.

Does this machine help the sequelae of Sartor’s longterm use of steroids to treat what must be pretty severe asthma? The article implies that it does but doesn’t explicitly state it. I also can’t help but wonder: What the hell was the Science Centre in Toronto doing displaying quackery like the Seqex? In any event, as a result of her “conversion,” Sartor went to work:

She has been to Italy 17 times in the last three years, and worked with Seqex to get Health Canada approval. Now the Seqex is a Class 2 medical device, which means it can be used without a doctor administering it – similar to a sleep apnea machine.

Yes, but CPAP machines for sleep apnea are safe and effective and have to be prescribed by a licensed practitioner. Their optimal settings have to be determined based on the results of a sleep study. In any event, Sartor is quoted making ludicrously psuedoscientific claims for her Seqex devices:

The technology uses a magnetic field generator, one field is static, one is alternating. When both work together, they create what’s called ion cyclotron resonance. The effect is increased oxygen flow and cells that are able to move more freely and absorb what they need to repair and restore the body. “In Europe, they call it ‘electroceuticals,’” said Sartor. “In Canada and the US, we test a lot of things by electrical methods (like an electrocardiogram) … So we know there’s an electrical side to our body, but we mainly treat biochemical.”

Oh, goody. Another variant of the “doctors just want to prescribe drugs” gambit so favored by alternative medicine quacks, only this time by someone who apperas to think that magically manipulated electromagnetic fields are the cure for everything. Basically, the Seqex is nothing more than the latest (maybe not even the latest) in a long line of pseudoscientific electrical devices whose pedigree traces back to the Scientology E-meter and even earlier. Indeed, as soon as scientists began to learn to harness the power of electricity, electricity became central to a whole field of quackery. Same as it ever was.

By Orac

Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as David Gorski.

That this particular surgeon has chosen his nom de blog based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights that he originally encountered when he became a fan of a 35 year old British SF television show whose special effects were renowned for their BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction ever televised, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.)

DISCLAIMER:: The various written meanderings here are the opinions of Orac and Orac alone, written on his own time. They should never be construed as representing the opinions of any other person or entity, especially Orac's cancer center, department of surgery, medical school, or university. Also note that Orac is nonpartisan; he is more than willing to criticize the statements of anyone, regardless of of political leanings, if that anyone advocates pseudoscience or quackery. Finally, medical commentary is not to be construed in any way as medical advice.

To contact Orac: [email protected]

69 replies on “Seqex: Ion Cyclotron Resonance quackery boogaloo”

The Seqex disclaimer states, “Pursuant to the New Guidelines of the Ministry of Health of 28/03/2013, regarding the advertising of medical devices, the user is advised that the information contained herein is exclusively addressed to professional operators.”

http://www.seqex.it/?lang=en

MJD says,

How does one become a “professional operator?” figlio di puttana

Orac should have a disclaimer at the blog Respectful Insolence that states, ” According to the guidelines of Orac, regarding the use of not-so-respectful insolence, the commenter is advised that the information contained herein may cause uncontrolled fits of rage, therefore, commenting should be done with extreme caution.

All this can be yours for only $4995.00 (US, per Ebay). Wow. What a deal. I’ll at least credit them for going to a CPU driven interface (oh, and that memory card–so 1997) that probably will require the user to buy expensive software “upgrades”, something you couldn’t do on those old analog switch boxes. And who can beat 2 million codes? Why my garage door opener only has 65536 possible codes, so cleary the Seqex is far superior to a garage door opener.

Their web site actually shows a baby sleeping (presumably on top of their device). I’m sure they have lots of research and safety testing to back this up.

And given the pose of the model on their device, I think the name should be changed to Eqsex.

And don’t forget grounders get to worry about tetanus as well while clomping around barefooted.

Memory card? I wondered if it was a credit card reader to more conveniently and efficiently extract money from the marks er clients?

Treading on a bee with bare feet can be very painful. I still remember doing that, and I couldn’t have been more than 3. I wasn’t “earthing,” thought – just being 3 and running barefoot in the grass.

Always with the resonance, always at frequencies orders of magnitude too low for the thing to be resonated, always with devices that are really convenient to use instead of giant boxes with magnets that will suck the heme right off the globin. And always the devices somehow manage to make ions or other bits and pieces move in the “good” direction.

From Italy? Probably developed using Arduino.

It would be nice if the graph of shoe sales were per capita, even if people don’t wear shoes on their head, Anyway, anyone who knows anything knows that the problem isn’t synthetic soles, its the change of underwear from being made from wool to being made from cotton or synthetics.

The magnet on the first ICR-FT-Mass Spectrometer I used was the size of a VW Beetle. Subsequent models were smaller, but only by ~1/3.

The crux of the problem is why do so many people fall for this kind of crap? I do not have a hard science degree, though I was heavily exposed to Darwin, the history of science, the importance of scientific rigor, and crititical thinking in college. I went to an ordinary state university. Maybe the difference is that I have continued to read widely on science, science history and scientific biography as well as on skepticism? Since I’m not an academic, all this reading has mostly led to a frustrating social life, so I’m very happy for science blogs and the virtual “friends” it has provided.

Actually, your experience in critical thinking is a lot more important than any “hard science degree” (which I have myself). Countless people with those “hard degrees” in science still fall for many pseudoscience (though often not all of them). Science degrees don’t really teach you critical thinking, but mostly science facts. Not that those are wrong, but the thought process to get to those facts is often lacking (often for lack of time and/or resources).

People fall for this for the same reasons they “fall” (pun intended) for religion. They need to believe in something, specifically something that promises peace and happiness around the corner. Education, in science or otherwise, has long had only a limited ability to reduce this apparent aspect of human nature.

We humans are a strange lot. We’d rather die than be told that our lives have no real meaning, and not even this anonymous coward is really an exception. Religion might indeed be the opium of the people, but it really is no good to just take away a junkie’s supply and expect them to just deal with the agonies of withdrawal unaided. Even Karl Marx himself seems to have understood that, as in full his quote actually reads: “Die Religion ist der Seufzer der bedrängten Kreatur, das Gemüth einer herzlosen Welt, wie sie der Geist geistloser Zustände ist. Sie ist das Opium des Volks.” (“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”)

Yes, yes, sadmar, I know, but it still baffles me that this “need to believe” persists in spite of hundreds of years of scientific inquiry.

I marvel at the people who’d eagerly treat themselves with “pulsed electromagnetic fields” or Rife machine radiowave frequencies, while simultaneously obsessing about “malignant and other brain tumors from cell and cordless phones”.

As for walking barefoot, that’s OK except when you step on a thorny twig in the yard or (in some locales) contract hookworm disease.

Thanks to Orac for the latest update on quack health devices – a never-ending source of income for sleazy promoters.

Exactly what I was thinking with the “sensitivity to electromagnetic waves” thing. It’s wanting to have both the butter and the butter’s money, as my mom says. Although they would surely argue about the dose/strength of the waves (as if they actually knew anything about dosing).

Don’t assume every quack health device makes money. I’m quite sure most don’t. That would due to a variety of factors, many of them non-woo-related. After all, most legit start-ups fail. And if some of these faux-high-tech high-buck gizmos do provide windfalls for sleazeoids, that might be sort of Theranos-esque rip-offs of gullible investment capital rather than actual sales. And, greed being what it is, who knows if the investors who pump money into cons that won’t actually fly think the gizmo is real, or just think that 1%ers are easy to dupe into buying an expensive whatsit if it sounds at all like an upgraded Scientology E-meter… OK, maybe this one will make $$$. My point is that people who promote magical thinking often fall prey to it themselves in their own get-rich-quick schemes.

That graph…I’m pretty sure fast food was there before the 1960s…There’s also no correction for even population.

Just rapidly went through their “research” section, with the first article in the list. Of course, autism treatment. This is their study group:
“There were 8 patients, 5 males and 3 females, ages 4 to 12. They were
homogeneous as per ICD-10 diagnostic criteria for autism syndrome. The disease
had been diagnosed for all the children before they were three years of age.
In 7 patients the pathology set in after vaccinations. All were affected by intestinal
desease and parasitism. Seven patients presented self-agressiveness and agressiveness
towards school friend and relatives. All the children were already in therapy with
allopathic and homotoxicological drugs.”

That tells you everything you need to know…

I’m pretty sure fast food was there before the 1960s…

I once made it to Seattle from Chicago in a Ford Escort in 40 hours with 40 <a href=https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Castle_(restaurant)”>White Castles. And one shot of cold coffee extract, each on the hour. And two friends. Thanksgiving.

Yah, predates the ’60s, perhaps best known for a number of non-fast-food food fads. (May your spirit be with me, Gypsy Boots.)

(An Orac pat on the back to anyone who comes up with the best description of these sound files!)

Shite.

Sounds of extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI)?

@ Orac,

Instead of a pat on the back could you let MJD out of auto-moderation? My comments often have a 1-3 hour delay before being accepted, and this is totally unacceptable. Isn’t it disheartening knowing one did time but committed no crime.

My comments often have a 1-3 hour delay before being accepted, and this is totally unacceptable.

I think most here would agree, except that it’s too short.

Abortive attempts to create a new fire alarm? I will say listening to them was less painful than listening to a lot of what is called “music”.

Definitely not cat yollowling. My cat was sitting beside the speakers and never even blinked.

Some issues:
1) Is the pulsed electromagnetic field the same as an electromagnetic pulse? If so, how does it keep from shutting down everything electric around it, or even itself?
2) “This ICR phenomenon allows the cells to become more permeable allowing toxins to be released and nutrients to be absorbed.” Would it also allow toxins to be absorbed and nutrients released?
3) “Earthing” and “grounding” are terms from electrical engineering that are basically equivalent in meaning. Neither has much to do with current passing through you that affects your health, unless you’re out on the golf course in a thunderstorm or in the habit of grabbing live wires with your bare hands.

Incidentally, the dochniak distimms the doshes.

I used to work at the same technical college with teacher who was a big enthusiast for earthing or grounding. He had a 10 ft steel rod driven into the ground outside is classroom/lab. You could see him out watering it ever workday morning.

My professor did the same thing, only he also spread manure and compost around it. By the time he retired it had already grown past the second floor;

An EMP and and a pulsed magnetic field are quite different. The latter is extremely common in power supplies for all manner of electronics, though the field is more or less locally “contained.” Anyway, a cyclotron uses a fixed magnetic field and a varying electrical field.

As I said previously, they always seem to be able to make everything go the “right” way. Perhaps the waveforms are imbued with some ancient eastern wisdom.

I watched a video about “earthing” one time. It would have Kirchhoff and Ohm resonating angrily in their graves. The person who made the video was utterly clueless about electricity. In electronics, “ground” is very often used to simply mean circuit common, whereas “Earth ground” means connection to, well …. Earth.

In electronics, “ground” is very often used to simply mean circuit common, whereas “Earth ground” means connection to, well …. Earth.

I had an apartment years ago with true earth ground on the pipes (read: sink) and the radiators when they were on. This is how I discovered that my PPC aluminum PowerBook had a mains ground floating on the chassis.

I really like to go barefoot. I love the feel of a nice lawn under my feet of a sandy beach. But, I also like the feel of clean flannel sheets fresh from the dryer. It’s okay to like something, to take pleasure in it without it being some deep religious experience.

And, as noted, there are rocks, broken glass, bees and, right now, really cold weather. I think my entire body will be happiest if I avoid my feet getting frostbitten.

One of the sounds is a bit like a savannah sparrow. Several are rather like some of the sounds “my” bluejays make when they are pretending to be something else. Most have some semblance to a moderate-speed small rotary tool biting into something (sans the sound of the motor itself). The all have a very “digital” quality to them. None of them sound like Katzenjammer to me.

Wow, that’s some impressive woo. As a guy who has done a bit of work at a synchrotron light source, I need to open my mouth at least a bit…

As Doug said above, it’s actually a static magnetic field with a time varying electric field. Magnetic fields do no work.

Got to laugh at this:

represents the point of encounter between electromagnetic and magneto-electric energy.

It’s all just “electromagnetic energy.” The equation has an electric component and a magnetic component, nothing more. Reversing the words does not make anyone sound smarter.

Oh but you don’t understand – reversing the words to make magneto-electrical provides corrective vibrations to ameliorate the prolixity of the flambulacious eructitisticies. Obviously!

“In Europe, they call it ‘electroceuticals’”

Dunno about anyone else but this European calls it “a load of old bollocks”…

“Electroceuticals” as a word is a little too close to “electrocute” for my comfort.

From the above quote from Seqex shills Health Wellness Industries Inc., Canada:
“This ICR phenomenon allows the cells to become more permeable allowing toxins to be released and nutrients to be absorbed.”
.
How does this fantasy “ICR induced cell permeability” know which way teh tocksuns and gnutrients are supposed to go?
I read on teh internets that the effect is really:
“This ICR phenomenon allows the cells to become more permeable allowing nutrients to be released and toxins to be absorbed.”?
.
There are some really dumb people out there.

Seqex is a revolutionary health & wellness technology in the form of a pulsed electromagnetic field therapy device that produces Ion Cyclotron Resonance phenomena. This phenomena [sic] promotes the reduction of inflammation

This is why the solar wind cools, right?*

the role of the pineal gland

It’s always the pineal gland.

*Yes, I took this from the W—ia entry, but I couldn’t resist, because Adam Szabo and I used to share an office as undergraduates. I was a year ahead; he introduced himself when he invaded my space by telling some sort of bizarre Hungarian bestiality joke.

“Health Wellness Industries Inc. is the exclusive Canadian Distributor of Seqex.”

…and that appears to be their only business. I’m guessing the company was created solely for the purpose of trying to market the Seqex, and Kim Sartor’s miraculous “conversion” tale is heavily fictionalized. I mean, “Health Wellness Industries”?? Funny smell off of that alone, yes?

In other Canadian quackery news:
David Stephan has again been removed as a speaker at the Calgary Health Show due to public and sponsor pressure. This is a show whose organizer is a cynical shit (assuming the same guy as last year, and I have no reason to believe it isn’t) who last year said the controversy was good for ticket sales, but did ultimately remove Stephan when sponsors started dropping out. Grandpa Stephan’s company Truehope will still be flogging its wares at the show.

Hey pharma shills, just thought I’d drop this here:

Members of the Sackler family worked on a secret plan codenamed “Tango,” which would have expanded Purdue’s business into addiction-treatment drugs.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/heres-what-the-sacklers-didnt-want-you-to-see-in-the-oxycontin-lawsuit/

Git gud, get it? It takes ‘two to TANGO’.

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to oppose the scheduling of Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine which would effectively ban the theraputic plant, kratom. Kratom has helped many with anxiety, depression, ptsd, pain, and addiction. The two alkaloids in question are being investigated for their properties to manage pain without the dangerous side effects and overdose risk of currently available pharmaceutical pain pills — Some of these research compounds are known as MGM-9, MGM-15, MGM-16, PZM21, and Oliceridine which is in phase III clinical trials. Scheduling the plant would put a halt on this scientific research in the near term.

Kratom was banned in Alabama on May 10,2016. From that month to the next, overdoses on opiates both FDA approved and illicit doubled:

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded to 101 overdoses last month alone, said Capt. Bryan Harrell. That was up significantly from 56 in May and 47 in April.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/07/jeffco_sees_25_heroin_fentanyl.html

I am fifty years old and without insurance or a primary care physician; At such time as I may become in pain, I would like the choice of this natural herb over pharmaceutical solutions which, for me, will be unobtainable through an insurmountable prescription wall.

In Thailand, kratom was first scheduled for control in 1943 under the Kratom Act. At the time, the government was levying taxes from users and shops involved in the opium trade. Because of the increasing opium costs, many users were switching to kratom to manage their withdrawal symptoms. However, the launch of the Greater East Asia War in 1942 and declining revenues from the opium trade pushed the Thai government into action to curb and suppress competition in the opium market by making kratom illegal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mitragyna_speciosa&oldid=732653479

So, here we are again. Only this time, the windfall profits to be protected are the pharma solutions to clean up pharma-induced addiction; Suboxone, buprenorphin, and methadone.

There have been far too many medicinals blocked and lives irreperably harmed over the immutable wrongness that is cannabis prohibition; I implore you not to go down that same path with kratom.

sincerely,
Tim

Thought i’d drop this here, pharma shills:

<Members of the Sackler family worked on a secret plan codenamed “Tango,” which would have expanded Purdue’s business into addiction-treatment drugs.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/heres-what-the-sacklers-didnt-want-you-to-see-in-the-oxycontin-lawsuit/

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to oppose the scheduling of Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine which would effectively ban the theraputic plant, kratom. Kratom has helped many with anxiety, depression, ptsd, pain, and addiction. The two alkaloids in question are being investigated for their properties to manage pain without the dangerous side effects and overdose risk of currently available pharmaceutical pain pills — Some of these research compounds are known as MGM-9, MGM-15, MGM-16, PZM21, and Oliceridine which is in phase III clinical trials. Scheduling the plant would put a halt on this scientific research in the near term.

Kratom was banned in Alabama on May 10,2016. From that month to the next, overdoses on opiates both FDA approved and illicit doubled:

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded to 101 overdoses last month alone, said Capt. Bryan Harrell. That was up significantly from 56 in May and 47 in April.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/07/jeffco_sees_25_heroin_fentanyl.html

I am fifty years old and without insurance or a primary care physician; At such time as I may become in pain, I would like the choice of this natural herb over pharmaceutical solutions which, for me, will be unobtainable through an insurmountable prescription wall.

In Thailand, kratom was first scheduled for control in 1943 under the Kratom Act. At the time, the government was levying taxes from users and shops involved in the opium trade. Because of the increasing opium costs, many users were switching to kratom to manage their withdrawal symptoms. However, the launch of the Greater East Asia War in 1942 and declining revenues from the opium trade pushed the Thai government into action to curb and suppress competition in the opium market by making kratom illegal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mitragyna_speciosa&oldid=732653479

So, here we are again. Only this time, the windfall profits to be protected are the pharma solutions to clean up pharma-induced addiction; Suboxone, buprenorphin, and methadone.

There have been far too many medicinals blocked and lives irreperably harmed over the immutable wrongness that is cannabis prohibition; I implore you not to go down that same path with kratom.

sincerely,
Tim

Get it? Git gud; it takes two to tango.

Thought i’d drop this here, pharma shills:

<Members of the Sackler family worked on a secret plan codenamed “Tango,” which would have expanded Purdue’s business into addiction-treatment drugs.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/02/heres-what-the-sacklers-didnt-want-you-to-see-in-the-oxycontin-lawsuit/

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to oppose the scheduling of Mitragynine and 7-Hydroxymitragynine which would effectively ban the theraputic plant, kratom. Kratom has helped many with anxiety, depression, ptsd, pain, and addiction. The two alkaloids in question are being investigated for their properties to manage pain without the dangerous side effects and overdose risk of currently available pharmaceutical pain pills — Some of these research compounds are known as MGM-9, MGM-15, MGM-16, PZM21, and Oliceridine which is in phase III clinical trials. Scheduling the plant would put a halt on this scientific research in the near term.

Kratom was banned in Alabama on May 10,2016. From that month to the next, overdoses on opiates both FDA approved and illicit doubled:

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded to 101 overdoses last month alone, said Capt. Bryan Harrell. That was up significantly from 56 in May and 47 in April.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2016/07/jeffco_sees_25_heroin_fentanyl.html

I am fifty years old and without insurance or a primary care physician; At such time as I may become in pain, I would like the choice of this natural herb over pharmaceutical solutions which, for me, will be unobtainable through an insurmountable prescription wall.

In Thailand, kratom was first scheduled for control in 1943 under the Kratom Act. At the time, the government was levying taxes from users and shops involved in the opium trade. Because of the increasing opium costs, many users were switching to kratom to manage their withdrawal symptoms. However, the launch of the Greater East Asia War in 1942 and declining revenues from the opium trade pushed the Thai government into action to curb and suppress competition in the opium market by making kratom illegal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mitragyna_speciosa&oldid=732653479

So, here we are again. Only this time, the windfall profits to be protected are the pharma solutions to clean up pharma-induced addiction; Suboxone, buprenorphin, and methadone.

There have been far too many medicinals blocked and lives irreperably harmed over the immutable wrongness that is cannabis prohibition; I implore you not to go down that same path with kratom.

sincerely,
Tim

Get it? Git gud; it takes two to tango.

sorry for the multiple posts if this did go in — it seemed not to post immediately as in the past here.

Tim: Were you thinking that you would get much respectful attention by insulting (and stereotyping) us from your very first line? I lost any interest in what you have to say right there. That disrespectful “salutation” is a sure symptom that crackpottery is on the menu for today.
For that reason alone I am making a point not to read your post past that first line, and if you post any more, I will stop reading after your name. Don’t bother responding to me. You can be sure I won’t read it.
Goodbye, and don’t forget to wear your tinfoil hat.

But, but, but… he posted it three times! What is not to love? Well, most of it. Because it was very silly.

ORD: Tim has been to RI before. He really is into cannabis and kratom, but he’s also a jokester prone to constructing silly fake personas, contradicting himself on purpose, fooling around. In short, I don’t think he’s totally serious with that “Hey, pharma shills!” opener. Which is not to say that what follows is anything but crackpottery, or is in any way worth your. I’m just saying there’s a lot more to Tim than to the typical trolls here, and I don’t think he actually has the sort of animus inside him they typically do. Based on past experience, I take him at his word he wasn’t trying to post the same thing 3 times. I can’t remember seeing him here since Orac moved from SciBlogs, and this may be his first experience with the new comment software, which IS as slow as mollasses and make your comments appear to have disappeared, especially, maybe if your blood THC level is past a certain point… 😉

Sadmar, thanks for the clarification. Being something of a deadpan comic myself, and often being misunderstood because of it, I wouldn’t like to think that I had turned my scorn on someone who does the same.
I have no knowledge of kratom, and not much more interest, but I look with anticipation to the impending legalization of recreational marijuana here in New York. Having indulged more than somewhat back in the day, and having made a little foray into that line of commerce too, it will be interesting to see what has become of it.
Tim, if I have misread you, my apology, and if not…well, we can leave it like that unless and until I find out different.
I have become so accustomed to pharma shill slanders here and elsewhere that the final straws are raining down on me thick and fast, and I have become touchy about it.

To whom it may concern

I’m pretty sure that encompasses pretty much nobody here but the one person with the kratom fixation. I presume you’ve seen this bit from Derek Lowe, but I’m sure not rooting around for truffles in the comments.

Only this time, the windfall profits to be protected are the pharma solutions to clean up pharma-induced addiction; Suboxone, buprenorphin, and methadone.

Ms. Dupree, you may find interest in this bit about the Dopey podcast. Or go straight to the source.

Well, I hear that it is somewhat ‘addictive’ for many; There is a /rquitting kratom subreddit, after all.

The buzzword is “doesn’t recruit beta-arrestin” so that it does not repress respiration (the way other opiods cause death). Harm reduction, people.

As an aside, I’ve never used kratom though I always meant to try it someday. I first saw it on a site where I ordered some passion flower (passiflora incarnata) and didn’t even realize it was avalible in Alabama until they banned it — who knew it was right under my noze at the gas station this whole time??

Of course, now that the FDA can find no fault with its’ pharmacognosy, they are now going after it for being tainted with heavy metals and spreading salmonella. There are much cheaper ways for me to get the salmonella I crave by just licking a turtle.

A shout-out to sadmar: Thx. But it is much to my detriment that I have not used cannabis in four years — a sessation that put me into such a state that I thought my father had put a ‘hit’ out on me. In lew of cannabis (and I suspect it was mostly the CBD doing good things), I now take an antipsycotic wich has made me gain weight — something good ol weed never did and I never spontaneously murdered a bag of cheetos for all my smoking troubles.

I first saw it on a site where I ordered some passion flower (passiflora incarnata

Ah, the olden days. How did that work out?

Enjoy your salmonella poisoning. (Many, many, many kartom products were recalled in 2018 for salmonella contamination.)

Ohh. Do you make it a habit of following the status of kratom? How very interesting — not that I’m implying that you are a pharma shill or anything.

It’s all good, Old Rockin’ Dave. Besides, shills get paid and I dout anyone here is getting paid. However, …….. Oh look, Sciuridae!!!

Bob, everything you do is masturbation
Depending on the continent, you are either a jerk-off or a wanker, or both.

Quack-tech changes with the times.

Not long ago it was all about boxes with dials and flashing lights. Now it’s all about computer screens with slick-looking interfaces.

Notice how that interface looks like a legit medical device, right down to the pastel blue color scheme.

I wonder how difficult it would be to infect those things with a virus that would spread among them and cause them to display a warning message about quack-tech? For example:

“Congratulations. You just spent four or five thousand dollars on a device that does exactly nothing. At least it won’t electrocute you, unlike earlier generations of electro-quackery.

“Here’s why this is useless dreck: (insert relevant scientific explanations here)…

“Now since this machine is infected with a virus, which was easy because its security was nonexistent, you can demand to get your money back. At least you should try!”

Yes and if enough people try to get their money back, it might just put the purveyors of this cr@p out of business. Minus one quack-tech company in the world: every increment of progress is good!

Nah. After they get the “useless dreck” message, they’ll just double-down on their enthusiastic testimonials to anyone within earshot. Good ol’ lcognitive dissonance. Because they’ll never admit they got scammed for 4-5 thou. [Same phenomena as die-hard MAGAs…]

@Tim How good painkiller kratom is ? And you are kratom shill..
Why do you think that I am fond of Sacklers ? Sue their pants out, if reports are true.

Comments are closed.

Discover more from RESPECTFUL INSOLENCE

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading