Quackery comes in all shapes and sizes, and it is often presented to you by someone within your own family. It is easy enough to cry fowl when you read about magical unicorns of wart removal on the internet, but far more difficult to tread the narrow line between truth and faith with someone whose feelings you’d prefer not to hurt. The subject of this post is just such an encounter I had with an acquaintance who is dear to somebody in my family.
While discussing my persistent knee problems (caused by a motor cycle accident) Lisa* suggested that I allow her to demonstrate her amazing BEAMER3000. A device which, she claimed, has magical healing abilities and has cured everything from her sore back to her horses spider bites. Always game for a laugh, I agreed. Twenty minutes later I had a small box strapped to my right knee with pretty lights blinking at me and Lisa sat expectantly awaiting my declaration of miraculous healing. Before I tell you the result of my BEAMER session, perhaps I should tell you exactly what it is and what it claims to do.
I am holding in my hands a pamphlet for the BEAMER3000 and am pleased to discover that “BEAMER” is an acronym for Bio-Electro-Magnetic-Energy-Regulation. Isn’t that clever? Well, that’s about as clever as it gets I’m afraid. On the first page of the brochure they make some pretty bold (and in complete opposition to the germ theory of disease) claims:
The human organism is created in such a way, that if it has a sufficient supply of energy, it can compensate for illness and disease with natural regulatory mechanisms and self-healing capacities.
Each form of illness has at its foundation an energy deficit.
When further considering that BEAMER treatment is non-invasive, has no negative side-effects and is safe and easy to apply, it is a no-brainer to at least try it out for yourself.
And my personal favorite:
Are you Skeptical?
You don’t believe in scientific exploration, clinical tests, experiences of numerous physicians, therapists, naturopathic practiotioners and delighted users?
Then why not try it yourself?
After reading this brochure a few times I feel no more enlightened as to what scientific exploration or clinical tests they might have run in order to establish the truth of the claims about the BEAMER3000. So I reach for the second flyer I have picked up regarding this device, a black and white slip of paper with personal testimonies on one side and the following claims for what the BEAMER VET can do for your horsey:
- Ease muscles
- Reduce tension
- Relax mentally
- Increase suppleness
- Maintain performance
- Reduce lactic acid build-up
- Increase blood circulation
- Assist with natural healing
- Reduce recovery time
- Warm your horse up before you ride
Nothing there except more bold claims, taking the next logical step; I Google it and find a bewildering array of unsubstantiated claims, personal testimony and pictures of people smiling like idiots.
I am particularly interested in two things: firstly, what claims are being made for the health benefits of the BEAMER products, and secondly, what evidence do they have to back up these claims? There is no shortage of supposed benefits, here are a few I have gleaned from local BEAMER websites:
What the Bemer 3000 can do for you:
~ Chronic pain relief/recovery
~ Chronic condition relief/recovery
~ Improved vitality and quality of life for disabled
~ Accelerated healing (wounds, surgery, injuries)
~ Boosts and supports immune system
~ Prevention and relief of “age-related” conditions
~ Optimising fitness and performance in sports
~ No overdosing. No side-effects. No risk.
~ More….
And as if that isn’t enough:
This is exactly what BEMER therapy accomplishes, nothing more, nothing less:
• Improved macro circulation (dilation of blood vessels)
• Improved micro-circulation (opening of capillaries and thus increasing capillary blood flow)
• Increased partial oxygen pressure
• Improvement of the blood’s ability to attach and transport oxygen to the individual red blood cells
• Improved cell metabolism
• Strengthened immune system
Those are some pretty bold claims! I imagine they have plenty of high quality clinical trials available to substantiate these statements.
BUT THEY DON’T!
All I could find was mumbo-jumbo about the shape of the electromagnetic wave emitted by the BEAMER, and a .pdf entitled “Superiority: Classification / Comparison to other PEMF devices” – a long winded marketing brochure touted as “scientific evidence”. I have requested copies of studies claiming to show remarkable effects, but won’t hold my breath about receiving these.
Let’s take a step back and look at what we do know:
- Magnet Therapy is Bullshit
- When I hear “No bad side-effects” I immediately think of homeopathy – if it has no side effects, it probably doesn’t have any real effects either.
- The Placebo effect can account for most, if not all, of the claims made for the BEAMER
Allow me to quote the indestructible Brian Dunning of Skeptoid fame:
Got some chronic pain? An itchy rash? Hypertension? Depression? We’ve got the solution for you. It’s guaranteed to have no side effects, but it’s an extraordinary treatment for your symptoms. It’s the placebo, a completely inert and ineffective intervention, that does nothing to your body at all, except to convince you that it does. Whether it’s a pill containing no medication, an expensive looking electronic device that does nothing, an inhaler that provides the same air you’re already breathing, or just a manipulative treatment that doesn’t manipulate anything, the medical placebo is not only a crucial component of clinical trials, but it can also be an effective medical treatment in itself.
…
Understanding the power of the placebo effect is crucial to understanding the value of a claimed alternative therapy. If it’s well designed and well delivered, an implausible therapy with no clinical value can indeed produce a subjective improvement in the patient’s symptoms. To debunk a worthless alternative therapy, it’s not necessary to prove that it has no effect at all. Rather, understand that under the right conditions it can, in fact, have a sometimes significant effect; an effect which can almost certainly be fully explainable as a placebo.
What effect did the BEAMER have on my knee? None, I had to undergo a second operation and many months of physiotherapy before I was able to walk without pain. That’s after the BEAMER therapy. And my father who was using it extensively for a shoulder injury also returned to the physio. But those are just anecdotes, and anecdotes (such as the pervasive drone of personal testimonies from people who use the extremely expensive BEAMER) are worthless in the domain of science.
BEAMER3000 – no evidence for any effect beyond that of placebo.
*Not her real name
You are rather funny! After reading your post It is clear that you didn’t do the real research required to make such unsubstantiated claims to the contrary of what the BEMER research group has made. You stated you tried it once, whoopee, I tried Brussels sprouts once and I didn’t see any positive health benefits directly after either.
Why don’t you do the proper research by actually renting a BEMER for three months, use it the way it states it should be used, be consistent in your usage other wise it’s like going on an exercise program for three months doing it only a few times a week for the three months wondering why you didn’t loose weight. You may want to try reading the research into micro-circulatio, there are book by Dr. Rainer Klopp regarding Micro-circulation which you can purchase upon request at a book store or a college book store. You will not find it on line because this book is used in some medical schools as a text book. About 1/3 of this book has the research results of the BEMER and its effects. You might like to go on amazon.com for other books such as Dirty Electricity by Samuel Milham, MD, MPH, Energy Medicine the Scientific Basisi by James L. Oschman, The Body Electric by Robert O. Becker, MD, that is if you’re not afraid to educated yourself. Education and experience is key to anything just make sure you take your blinders off and leave the ego behind as well. We have an amazing universe with unending possibilities, discoveries, and knowledge. I find those not willing to go the extra mile lazy or afraid of the unknown.
Hi Angela,
I am sure a lot of people don’t understant what proper research is all about, ie double blind studies etc. There is not much out there so when I decided to investigate I used the term PEMF pulsed electro magnetic fields and got quite a few hits on pubmed and google .scholar. Obviously they used differeny wave forms and pulses but there was enough evidence out there to convince me that this played a positive role with the body . I am still surprised at the results that the bemer gets and am convinced that it works!!. Good luck with your research I hope you find some positives.
David
That’s exactly what I am looking for David. And then working out what the diffence is between PEMF and what the BEMER does, and finding out if that difference is material or not.
It’s not easy going, but I’m being as thorough as possible.
First, I am a BEMER distributor and have a wellness/ fitness studio in Spokane, WA.
My comments:Very interesting back and forth between the author of this blog and its readers. To the author I would say: you make blanket statements and dismiss everyone’s positive experiences with complimentary medicine (no matter which) as placebo (how stupid is that) and assert that because someone has a commercial interest that the results cannot be true. Then what about all the allopathic doctors who prescribe medicines and get kickbacks from pharmaceutical companies to push these drugs and make people guinea pigs.
To the readers, I would say: a skeptic cannot be convinced no matter what is in front of them. Even if millions report the same consistent results worldwide, it will do nothing. It merely remains in the anecdotal and placebo stage. Very sad!
Amen, Bettina!
What is sad, Bettina, is that in history sceptical people were the ones that shut their minds to innovation and progress and were responsible for the Inquisition, the Holocaust, burning of books, censorship, fundamental religion etc. etc…. I could go on ad infinitum. While there are still people who want to limit everybody’s thinking into their box and who insist that any other way is wrong and enough people listen to them, then we all remain unenlightened and intellectually poorer for it.
Bettina and Patrizia, you both misrepresent the skeptical mindset completely. Something will remain “anecdote” or “placebo” until there is evidence that it works. This is not being close-minded, this is intellectual rigor.
Furthermore, Patrizia, the suggestion that skeptics are responsible for ” Inquisition, the Holocaust, burning of books, censorship, fundamental religion etc.” is so incredibly insulting and odious that you have officially earned the very first post in my new Hall of Shame. Congratulations. You’ve earned it.
Wow Angela, that someone with a tinpot dictator mentality like yours puts me on her “Wall of Shame” will surely leave me sleepless at night. The ludicrousness of your statement apparently completely escapes you! Your sensibilities are offended that I perceive you to be in the same boat as those who try to oppress freedom of thought and you react by putting my name on some silly list of yours that has no credibility? The irony boggles the mind…..
I certainly do not try to suppress freedom of thought Patrizia, I encourage it. What I try to fight against is people being conned into believing things that are not true. You clearly have NO IDEA what my intentions are and your equating me with book burners, the Nazi’s and the Spanish inquisition shows just how deeply misinformed you are.
Dear Angela, I was not going to get drawn into any discussion on this website again about the Bemer (by the way the Bemer I use is not the Bemer 3000 but the newer version) but I will say it again, people around me using it have nothing but good results from bone healing to improved hairgrowth and people affected by multiple sclerosis being able to walk normally again. Medical practioners confirm that results are due to improved circulation. Please refrain downtalking an outstanding product YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT because you never tried it as one is supposed to (and that does not mean one 8 minute session)! As David Dyson pointed out a while ago, you are never going to give in. I heartily agree with him that that is your loss as before long Bemer will be a household name!
Contrary to you, I do not need to “inform” myself to form an opinion of the kind of person you are based on the garbage you produce. You, on the other hand, need to inform yourself more efficiently before you attack subjects you are clearly completely ignorant about. Please stop lowering your readers’ intelligence to yours by assuming that they will accept your version of what is “true”.
Hi Myriam,
I realise that this particular article is out of date and I am in the process of researching a new article. I hope to find evidence to support the good things that you are saying about this device because it clearly has some effect and I want to know what it is.
It is taking a long time because this is a complicated physiological question. Please bare with me and read the next article when I have finished it?
Dear Angela,
Thank you for your more positive attitude! Myriam
It’s not really a matter of positive or negative attitude, when I wrote this article there was very little information about these products available and the only “trials” I could find were company materials and not independent. I reported as honestly as I could back then.
Luckily, a lot more work has been done, with some decent looking trials and I am trying to understand these new trials, and get a good idea of their quality and the reliability of their findings.
This is the great thing about science, people keep working at ideas and new information becomes available, I am never ashamed to say “I was wrong” and if that is the case here I will be happy to do so.
Angela
First of all, if for no reason other than to raise your non-existent credibility, as a self-declared “professional writer” I suggest you either edit or get an editor to edit your articles and the replies you post because the grammatical, spelling and punctuation mistakes that pepper your writing embarrass you (it’s “cry foul” sweetie, not “fowl”…. that’s a chicken).
Secondly, what qualifies you to make comments in the public domain on methodologies/devices other than declaring yourself an “amateur scientist by night” – which does not add any weight to your opinions and articles at all?
The SCIENTISTS who created and tested the Bemer and those that subsequently investigated it – the independent Institute of Microcirculation of Berlin being one – actually studied science way beyond Grade 8 before presenting a device to the world which has been demonstrated to improve circulation and boost the immune system. The added benefit of this is that if your circulation vastly improves, many associated conditions are either relieved, partly or completely: Medicine 101. Unfortunately, as you’re not a scientist, technically “how” it works would be beyond your ability to understand.
As for refuting “anecdotal” evidence – what exactly does your doctor do when he prescribes medication?… On the anecdotal evidence that you provide – it worked or didn’t work – he then either prescribes some more medication or pronounces you cured! I understand that you’re refuting anecdotal evidence as being insufficient clinical proof of whether the device is effective, but the purpose of medication is to cure or heal. And the clinical studies and years of experiments by drug manufacturers are more about discovering the serious and often-fatal side-effects of the drug rather than its efficacy. Bemer has helped thousands of people to date and not harmed or killed anybody… can the current medical profession say the same? How many drugs have been tested and pronounced safe after years of studies and then recalled after related deaths or irreversible side-effects? Your comment: “When I hear “No bad side-effects” I immediately think of homeopathy – if it has no side effects, it probably doesn’t have any real effects either.” is infantile and displays a lack of thought.
Finally the “placebo effect”. You sarcastically glossed over the use of Bemer with animals and thereby completely missed the important (but perhaps too subtle) fact that the Bemer is VERY successful with animals and their various conditions. Animals are not affected by “placebos” as they don’t have belief systems – the method used either works or it doesn’t. There are innumerable farmers, breeders and horse-owners etc. who can testify to the success of the Bemer in relation to their animals’ health.
I think you’ve climbed onto the blogging bandwagon and as a hook you present subjects that you hope are sufficiently controversial to attract traffic to your blog. Unfortunately most of the subjects you have chosen have been done ad nauseum and nothing you offer is going to be good enough to revive a serious debate, so all you have succeeded in doing is offend people whose livelihood you have attacked or whom you have insulted by suggesting they are stupid.
Vicious controversy interspersed with foul language does not make for good journalism and if that’s what you’re trying to achieve you’ve failed dismally.
So now you are scraping the bottom of the barrel and attacking my Chiropractic degree. I bet you don’t know how long we study for and what subjects we study? And implying that I don’ t know how to look up research? Looking at the responses to your blog I see many are pro bemer and not too many against – The one from the Gp Harris is predictable although many gps here and in Germany use the bemer. We tend to only believe in what was taught to us in university and I am not just saying this about GP’s but also many of my colleauges as well. It’s called “tunnel vision”, so don’t worry you are in good company. Try and avoid slagging off against me or my profession it does not make you look good, try and stick to the subject matter. By the way what is your degree status assuming you have one??
Dear David, many people have no idea that chiropractic studies much longer than, for example, to become a general practitioner.
This is definitely going to be my last entry related to Angela’s blog, life is too short to be nit-picking. I am a user and do not sell the Bemer so I have no commercial interest whatsoever but would like the world to know there is something else out there than allopathy. Let us start a site being skeptic about skeptics!
Thanks Myriam,
It seems clear to me that Angela would never agree to the Bemer no matter what? But so far her blog is making the bemer look good and keep watching – it’s going to get better!
David
In truth, David, I would admit the efficacy when your evidence outweighs your ad hominem attacks against me. So far… No good.
Angela:
If you’re going to complain about ad hominem attacks, then you should realize that criticizing David on the grounds that he sells Bemers constitutes an ad hominem attack.
Actually, I’m not criticising him for it, I am pointing out the vested interest that prevents him from being neutral on the subject.
What are you even talking about?
There is a lot of research on pulsed electro magnetic therapy. Google pubmed and pemf. I spent 3 months googling before I bought my bemer As I was not about to spend a lot of money on something that had no scientific basis. The other thing I like about bemer is the fact that they do not claim that they can cure any disease but help the body work better. I have reccomended the bemer to 7 patients and offered to buy the unit back if they felt it was not helping – so far no one wants to sellback to me!! Please google pubmed and google .scholar type in PEMF.
So, what is it supposed to be interaction with in our bodies? What does the EM influence?
It increases microcirculation and because of more oxygen in small bloodvessels, defence mechanisms work better. I now also use the Bemer Light and any spot or blemish disappears within 2 days – even zinc cream doesn’t do that. I use the sleep program and for the first time in 10 years I sleep through the night. Before using Bemer I would wake up at 3 or 4 in the morning and not be able to go back to sleep.
A friend of mine ,who is a Reiki adept, broke her right wrist. As she was in considerable pain, she agreed to use the Bemer pad and spot and told me she could feel the tingling straightaway (something which I myself don’t). Moreover, after the first session of 8 minutes the pain diminished and after 3-4 sessions the pain was gone. Yet my friend is against any electrical gadget because she believes in ‘natural healing’ only. Anyway Angela, I am not trying to convince you to buy the machine. But please kindly refrain from telling the world it is useless because you have not experienced it first hand.
I have experienced it first hand. Perhaps you should actually read my blog post.
But I have a few further questions:
1. How does it increase microcirculation?
2. How does oxygen in the blood vessels make “defence mechanisms” work better?
3. How sure are you that your sleeping is not caused by the placebo effect?
4. Over what time period did the 3-4 sessions of your Reiki friend take place? (one week, two weeks…)
5. I felt the “tingling” – what makes a person who believes in unproven faith healing any more likely to feel that?
I’m not going to buy it, and I am not going to rescind my statement that this is a scam and the BEAMER has no real effect, not unless I see some high-quality evidence to the contrary.
I apologise for not reading all of your blog – will do so when I find a moment.
Did you try it just once and did you have a particular problem?
To me the Bemer works like when you apply an electromagnet to the taps and waterducts in the house. The magnetism makes the molecules bounce around and thus clear the pipes or keep them clear.
When I used the Bemer the first time, it was at some exhibition and I was waiting to attend a presentation so I had some time to kill. Was not at all looking for anything like it nor did I need it. I dosed off after 5 minutes and felt totally relaxed. Like you I did not want to spend such kind of money but asked if I could try and hire because I wanted to see if there would be any effect on the pain from a longstanding slipped disc. And was intent on giving it back after 6 weeks. When the 6 weeks were up my backpain was considerably less although I still would wake up during the night as I had done for many years- at that stage I was using the Bemer Classic which doesn’t have the sleep program. Anyway, I asked for an extension to make absolutely sure and after another 4 weeks decided to buy one. But I went for the Pro as it has all attachments. And have not regretted the purchase for one moment.
Hi Myriam,
There is nothing magnetic in our blood that would be influenced by the BEMER. The iron in our blood is non-ferromagnetic and is not affected by magnetic fields.
Secondly, your experience could be influenced by too many other factors outside of your ability to exclude them as a possible cause. I’m glad you have been able to sleep, but I don’t believe that you are getting any effect except placebo from the BEMER.
Also, before you comment on a post, you really should read it. How can you hope to make a decent contribution if you don’t know what the context is?
Dear Angela,
Like I said before, Swiss health insurance companies do actually reimburse Bemer sessions. Do you really think they would if they thought it did not have any positive effect? Anyway, this is enough as you are clearly intent on being negative about Bemer and other alternative therapies. Please keep your viewpoint and I know I will stick to mine.
Good luck!
Whether or not Swiss (or any other country) health insurance companies reimburse BEMER treatments is not evidence that they work any better than placebo. This is not about whether or not I am negative about a treatment option, it’s about what the evidence shows.
Angela, you really should rename your blog “The Skeptic” because you’re not a detective. A detective looks at the clues and doesn’t come into the scene with preconceptions about what they will find. They let the evidence prove or disprove the theory that evolves from the data. Your approach, on the other hand, is to declare that anything you don’t believe in is a placebo effect. If everything you don’t like can be attributed to a placebo effect, then why do people NOT get placebo effects from cheaper devices or prior treatment attempts? Why would people who have tried numerous modalities prior to the Bemer (or acupuncture) not have chosen unconsciously to have other modalities work for them, thus obtaining the benefits of a placebo effect before?
You don’t really look at the data. Sure, you look at some of the data, but your sense of science and the scientific method is very dated and incomplete. To cite some studies that show that a modality doesn’t work for certain conditions and conclude on the basis of that that the modality is therefore a waste of time would also apply if you were being consistent to studies of the failures of allopathic medicine to cure certain diseases. Does the fact that allopathy can’t cure those diseases therefore mean that allopathy is useless? Of course not.
Your contention that electromagnetic waves can’t possibly effect the blood flow in our bodies because there is no metal in the blood to respond to magnetism shows that you have a very limited understanding of the nature of electromagnetic waves and their impact on cellular systems.
Have you any idea what it costs a country in medical reimbursements and do you really think that Switzerland would be reimbursing people for a treatment modality (the Bemer) that was merely a placebo?
You’re right Dennis, clearly I need to look at the evidence, OK. PubMed, as suggested by many commentators has a systematic review available. I chose this one because a review of many studies gives slightly better evidence than a single study. Their findings:
“In some trials sporadic positive effects on health were observed. However, independent confirmation of such singular findings was lacking. We conclude that the scientific evidence for therapeutic effects of whole-body PEMF devices is insufficient. Acute adverse effects have not been reported. However, adverse effects occurring after long-term application have not been studied so far. In summary, the therapeutic use of low-frequency whole-body PEMF devices cannot be recommended without more scientific evidence from high-quality, double-blind trials. Bioelectromagnetics.”
(http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21938735)
And from the Cochrane collaboration which also does systematic reviews of high-quality studies:
“Pulsed electric stimulation as a treatment for osteoarthritis has appeared promising since the stimulation of cartilage growth was recorded at the cellular level; its growing popularity has now called for evaluation of its effectiveness. The literature search and hand searches identified 3 trials with a total of 259 patients. All trials examined knee OA and one also performed a separate evaluation for cervical OA patients. The results of this analysis show improvements in all measurements for knee OA, but their clinical significance from a patient’s perspective was questionable. Only two outcomes favoured treatment for cervical OA trial and none were considered clinically important. There were no reported side effects. The reviewers conclude that there is an urgent need for further large-scale studies of pulsed electric stimulation with a focus on knee OA to establish the clinical relevance of treatment.”
(http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD003523/electrical-stimulation-to-encourage-cartilage-growth-might-be-able-to-improve-osteoarthritis-of-the-knee-but-more-research-is-needed-to-be-certain.)
So what we have here is a treatment that doesn’t offer any clinically significant improvements. This is not my opinion, this is what the literature shows. I wholeheartedly support the conclusion in both reviews that more testing needs to be done. If we can show a clinically significant effect, great! If not, then this is an expensive treatment with questionable efficacy.
Morning Angela,
It looks like you are going have to be spoon fed. I have just googled -pemf pubmed microcirculatio – and- pemf pubmed bone union. Both studies show a marked response with subjects ( guinie pig/ rats) exposed to pemf. There are many more studies, pemf definitely has an effect on living organisms. So sorry to burst your bubble.
David
David, you SELL the BEMER. It is advertised on your website. You have a vested interest in this being true because it makes you money.
I bring meta-analyses of human trials that show no clinically significant effect and call for more research and you bring rat studies.
How am I supposed to take you seriously? How can you be considered to be neutral in this debate if the very device we are talking about pads your bank account?
I don’t like to point out your personal involvement, but I think it seriously colours your opinion here.
Hi Angela, I am a Chiropractor and have been in practise for 30 years during which time I have seen lots of Gadgets out there professing to do cure everything so when I heard about the bemer I was just as skeptical. I was introduced to the bemer 8 years ago and fobbed it off as a con. Then two years ago my cousin ‘s friend was admitted to icu with heart failure etc and was discharged after 3 weeks with a bag of meds and a good luck wish. He purchased a bemer so I observed his status. His heart went from 30 % function too 70 % in 1 year and every time he went to the cardiac specialist he was surprised at his progress and wanted to know if he was seeing a “sangoma”. He told the doc he was using a bemer and that is as far as it went. So now this machine had my attention but I was still skeptical and R30000 is a lot of money. I spent about 4 months googling the net for info and realized that if I googled bemer they would just blow there own trumpet so I googled PEMF and looked in the published medical research archives and was pleasently surprised so much so that I bought one for use in my clinic and have since sold 7 to patients. I sold one a month ago to a chap suffering from exema all over his body and has seen many specialists and taken many drugs with no results. I told him about the bemer and pointed out that I could not garantee the results. he has had it for about three weeks and called me today saying that for the last four nights he has slept thru and not scratched all night. If it was a placebo it would have worked from the first night. Angela please do some proper reseach and do some lateral thinking.
So, you are a Chiropractor giving me an anecdote. Yeah, like that’s going to convince me of ANYTHING! I did a lot of research before I wrote this article and I found NOTHING at the time that seemed convincing. It has been a year since I wrote this article though, so new evidence may have come to light. I will look for some.
Just a couple of points:
1. Don’t insult my intelligence by telling me how I think, you have no idea what went into this article.
2. Chiropractor offering treatment advice for exema… I’m sure that can’t be entirely within your discipline, such as it is. Unless you are a Straight and you believe in innate intelligence, in which case nothing you say could have any influence on my opinion or writings without serious, high quality studies to back it up.Hell, same goes if you are a Mixer.
well, well, well, I seemed to have touched a nerve. Please accept my apologies as I did not mean to insult your intelligence, but would like you to research a bit more. As I said I was also a skeptic and am old enough not ot just accept what a pamphlet or people say. I need proper research. So if you google pubmed and pemf and research you will find lots of studies from across the globe. They might not be the bemer but I believe it is based on the same type of energy. Also check out and research the earth’s magnetic field – fascinating stuff. Also when you ever go to Hermanus go and check the Magnetic observatory – one of 108 worldwide! Sadly I have a sneaking suspicion that no matter what you are never going to admit that maybe there is some positve effects the bemer and other devices like it are benificial to mankind. Medical history has shown us that sometimes we get it wrong like when a certain doctor told his colleauges to wash there hands between
the cadaver room and their patients as they may be the cause for spreading infections – he was told in no uncertain terms to but out. Finally look up IATROGENIC DISEASE, it has nothing to do with Bemer but it will make you think!
Further to my last letter, Your Article that you copied off a bemer pamphlet or web site then found some guy to say that it did not fix his knee or his dads shoulder, where does the bemer claim to cure everything?? They have a pie chart on the pamphlet which shows only 67% of people over a period of time experienced some relief from the bemer and a certain number of people had no benefit at all. So much for all the effort you put into your article! Also what has my profession got to do with whether I can or can not treat people with excema?? And whether I am a straight or a mixer- what has that got to do with bemer?? I would guess that you don’t believe in any alternate medicine, however I have to admit that homeopathy and acupuncture does not really exite me but they seem to help a lot of people!!. But you probably believe in everything your GP tells you. By the way I have a lot of respect for allopathic medicine, including drugs and surgery etc . The human race has come a long way with treating disease and understanding the body but we still have a long way to go. By the way did you know that the third biggest cause of unatural death in America is death by MEDICINE.
David, if you can point me at the best study to support your claims I will be more than happy to give it my full attention. This is not a matter of personal conviction, if the evidence is strong enough and the study of a high enough quality I will be more than happy to correct my mistake. You aren’t tellling me my faith is wrong, you’re saying “hey, there’s evidence to show that this works” and then not providing the evidence.
I read what I could find on PubMed on PEMF (gee! Imagine that!) when I was doing my first round of research for this article and I didn’t find anything convincing.
Once again, if you can point me to the study that substantiates your claims, I will read it with pleasure. If you can’t do that, I will have to assume that study does not exist.
And your being a chiropractor makes me doubt your ability to assess any evidence with any amount of scientific rigour. (Looks like I touched a nerve there)
Angela, As a Chiropractor I also sell my services, I believe I have found a form of treatment that may help people who are suffering from difficult conditions. Yes I sell bemers but I have told each patient that I cannot be sure that they will respond to the Bemer and that I will buy back the unit If they are not satisfied. Every few months I phone them and inquire how things are going and ask them if they want to sell back to me. So far no one has asked for a refund. I also ask the patients to do some research and not just take my word. About the rats, well why should their circulatory system be different from ours and why would medicine do much of it’s research using rats?? Maybe you debunk all of their research also!!. By the way I looked up ozone therapy and guess what?? There are lots of sites calling it a scam and I agree, but type in Pemf / scam and you wont find too much on that score except maybe your site and a few others, but on the other hand you will find a lot of positves re pemf.
Scientists use rat and mouse models as a testing ground, to make sure that treatments aren’t fatal. The rodent model is similar to, but not exactly the same as, the human body.
Many treatments show promise in rodent models but don’t have the same effects in humans.
If you present studies in rats that show promise and I present studies in humans that show effects that are not clinically significant, which is more relevant to humans?
I have personally been substantially cured of piriformis syndrome pain by acupuncture. I fought this pain on and off for 8 years with exercise and stretching, and sometimes it got so bad I had trouble sleeping. I have one leg 1/2 ” shorter from infantile polio and this I believe is the root cause of the problem. Let me say that I have a degree in structural engineering and an MBA, am a great beliver in the scientific method and do not believe in pyramid power or the vibrations given off by crystals. But my business partner’s son-in-law become an acupuncturist, this is a guy I play golf with and have known for years. So, I finally went to him for treatment, what could I lose? After the first time 50% better, after the second 95% better. I go once a month or so for maintenance treatments and I am doing great. It slowly gets sore over a few weeks of my walking with a limp, and then the treatment fixes it. Actually it is more sore the day after treatment, but then a lot better the second day. My wife is a health professional and I know what a placebo is. This sceptical, scientifically educated person believes that the actupuncture treatment works, at least in this case. Wnen it happens to you, its not anectodal evidence, its fact.
I have used the Bemer-Pro for about 2 months now and am completely free of back-ache caused by a slipped disc. My sleep has much improved and I feel generally much calmer. During this period I have NOT USED any other medication.
My 81-year old mother who has had a chinbone-transplant after some surgery gone badly wrong, is now also using as it was Bemer recommended to her by her surgeon and for the first time is free of pain after suffering 2 years.
In Switzerland where I live, Bemer sessions at a authorised practioner’s are actually reimbursed by health insurance.
Think what you will, Bemer works for us!
Anecdotal evidence is not good enough to prove the medical value of a treatment such as the Beemer. Pain relief could as easily be attributed to the placebo effect.
When in doubt, go with the explanation that requires the fewest new assumptions.
Finaly, the plural of “annecdote”is not “data”
Angela:
You really ought to investigate the things that you dismiss so readily as working due to a placebo effect. Does a placebo effect exist under certain circumstances? Yes. Is it the explanation for everything? No.
Your blanket assertions about Bemer, acupuncture and homeopathy are unfounded by sufficient investigation on your part. To call them magical thinking shows that you are not a scientist, rather it shows that you are a little bit lazy. If you actually did research on these things you would find that they are scientifically supported. Bemer, for example, produces enhanced blood flow in the capillaries and they have a substantial clinical trials literature. Evidence of that enhanced blood flow can be viewed on their website, for example, in video.
The scientific spirit is an inquiring one that does not make judgments before adequate investigation. You speak as if you are a defender of science but you are not showing a true scientific spirit.
Once again, Dennis, you make assumptions about the amount of research I have put into these articles. Instead of trying to attack my methods, which you underestimate, why don’t you provide the best evidence you can find for Beemer, homeopathy and accupuncture.
Not the whole internet please. If you link the best study / trial you can find for each modality, I will read each with an open mind and fair hand.
It has been a long time since I wrote these posts and science is always making progress, it is entirely possible that I have missed new evidence.
I keep as far up to date as I can, but can’t read all the literature on every topic. I would appreciate your collaboration.
Angela:
I would be happy to collaborate but once again, I’m not drawing conclusions beyond what is justified by the evidence. You have made flat assertions without any qualifiers in your outright dismissals of the Bemer, acupuncture. and homeopathy that they are “woo woo” and placebo effects entirely. The evidence you have cited has been extremely limited for your sweeping conclusions. As you might know, scientists would not be satisfied with such paltry evidence. I have already mentioned that you can go to the Bemer website and see for yourself some of the evidence they offer. I am aware of over the years of clinical trials of both acupuncture and homeopathy but I would recommend that you do some searching for these yourself as I don’t have them at my fingertips and I am not the person who has been claiming, as you have, that these are all frauds. Since you are the Skeptic Detective, I suggest that you do the necessary detective work to do a much, much more thorough investigation of these practices before you reach conclusions.
Dennis, you are not helping your cause here, once again, I REPEAT, I have done a lot of research on these topics. I have read numerous trials, reviews and meta-reviews on many “alternative” therapies and I think you will find that my opinion does not differ from that of the scientific establishment.
Every trial I have seen of acupuncture and homeopathy show either results that can be accounted for by the placebo effect, lack of vigour in the trial, a trial that was too small and not statistically significant, or a trial that was plain falsified to show good results.
So far, from what I have seen, acupuncture does show some benefit for mild, lower back pain. And magical meridians are not involved.
Since you claim to be so knowledgeable on the subject, I thought it would be reasonable to ask you for your best examples. Your non response, by telling me to go back and read literature I have already read, would suggest that your commitment is emotional and not intellectual.
Angela:
You have not previously evidenced in your comments to people dismissing these modalities that you have done an extensive literature search. Ordinarily if someone HAS done such a search, particularly if they are a scientist, they will cite the nature of that research and cite a specific set of studies that they can name so that others can look them up too. If you are a scientist, then you are familiar with the protocols for that. I’m not asking for a professional journal article since this is merely a blog, but I do expect a more substantial showing. I would further add, as I mentioned earlier, that your rather simplistic statements such as dismissing Bemer’s claims that they can improve people’s immune system that this is disproven by the germ theory show that you don’t understand how germs and our immune systems are in a dialectical and dynamic relationship. That makes me think that you are not really that scientific in your approach.
I happened upon your blog as I was doing some reading on topics and couldn’t help but notice your cursory dismissals of modalities that I have read and experienced first hand. Do I have the time to go look up all that material? No, I have many other projects that I am engaged in that are much more important than a debate with someone who asserts her status as a scientific detective. You are the one, after all, who has made these bold assertions that these modalities absolutely are “woo hoo.” If you HAVE the studies that prove what you claim, then you should produce them. I would recommend, however, that you might want to qualify this ahead of time and perhaps make more modest claims than you have because you will not find unequivocal findings that support your bold prior claims. For example, I doubt that you can find the studies disproving Bemer that justify your dismissals of it as entirely a placebo effect. (I would also point out, incidentally, that even if, for the sake of argument, Bemer’s effects of getting rid of people’s chronic pain were nothing but a placebo effect, then the machine does work rather impressively given that nothing else that these individuals ever tried has had such a lasting effect. In which case you’d have to admit that it does help people!)
Cindy’s comments have been removed because they are clearly marketing for the BEMER and I will not allow that kind of thing on my website.
-SD
Alright Dennis, since your argument is based purely on attacking my level of knowledge about these topics, I hereby present you with Cochrane reviews. These are meta-analyses of scientific trials of homeopathy and acupuncture, these are unfiltered, I have simply chosen the first three results from each search:
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab005648.html – Homeopathy for ADHD
This review aimed to assess the evidence for homeopathy as an intervention for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Four trials were retrieved and assessed with mixed results. Overall the results of this review found no evidence of effectiveness for homeopathy for the global symptoms, core symptoms or related outcomes of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder.
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab003803.html – No evidence that homeopathy is effective in treating dementia. The researchers did not find any good quality trials and so cannot say whether it is or is not effective for treating this condition.
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab000353.html – no strong evidence existed that usual forms of homeopathy for asthma are effective.
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab005319.html – There is not enough evidence to say whether acupuncture works to treat shoulder pain or whether it is harmful. From the little evidence that there is, acupuncture may improve pain and function over the short term (2 to 4 weeks).
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab004987.html – There is no evidence from randomized controlled trials to determine whether acupuncture provides any effect when treating people with vascular dementia
http://www2.cochrane.org/reviews/en/ab001218.html – Collectively, the studies suggest that migraine patients benefit from acupuncture, although the correct placement of needles seems to be less relevant than is usually thought by acupuncturists.
***
I would like to point out that the correct placement of the needles is considered critical in acupuncture because the whole system is premised on the existence of (non-existent) energy meridians which allegedly flow through our bodies. These meridians were hypothesised by pre-scientific doctors in a culture which forbade the dissection of human bodies.
The weight of scientific evidence is against the effectiveness of these modalities.
Finally, your comment:
“Bemer’s effects of getting rid of people’s chronic pain were nothing but a placebo effect, then the machine does work rather impressively given that nothing else that these individuals ever tried has had such a lasting effect. In which case you’d have to admit that it does help people!”
is completely ridiculous. Saying that such-and-such might only have the placebo effect, but still helps people is ludicrous and completely betrays your lack of scientific understanding of the topic. If all they have is the placebo effect, why do they have to claim that there is any other effect? The placebo effect is not diminished by knowledge that it is happening. So why lie?
Dear Angela, I thought this thread was about Bemer but I have not been able to see it mentioned in the links above. So I looked up Cochrane.org myself. One small entry states that in the case of chronic neck-pain, pulsed electro-magnetic field therapy may work better than a placebo. So even Cochrane do not dismiss Bemer so readily as you do. It is also very easy to base your findings on some reports on internet. Have you actually tried homeopathy, Bemer, acupuncture yourself?
Dr Liu De, a traditional medical practioner who also does acupuncture here in Geneva will confirm that Bemer works. Moreover, acupuncture will have much faster results when used in conjunction with the Bemer.
I repeat that Swiss medical insurance companies reimburse sessions with Bemer, homeopathy and acupuncture when administered by authorised practioners.
Angela:
I am pleased that you have cited a few studies because that means that you are moving in the right direction by at least providing some evidence. I encourage you to do MORE of this and to not cherry pick your evidence but to do your very best to be impartial, no matter what your predisposition is. Impartiality and exhaustiveness are trademarks necessities for science. If you continue your research on the possible efficacy of these modalities, you will find evidence that they work, not on all conditions but absolutely for some. Let me emphasize that a modality doesn’t have to prove that it can treat all conditions to be efficacious. Otherwise, if we used that standard for allopathy then we’d have to conclude that allopathy is bogus because it can’t treat every single condition!
A few of the comments in this thread have cited the attitudes towards acupuncture and Bemer in Europe where the willingness to recognize what works is greater than in the U.S. In Asia, of course, acupuncture has an exceedingly long history and it is also widely practiced in France. I will tell you a personal story since you allude to what you called my putative emotional reasons. Before you object I fully recognize that this is anecdotal, at least in some respects, and that anecdotal data is not sufficient in and of itself. My father was an M.D. who took up acupuncture after being in his practice as an M.D. for a few decades. His attitude towards acupuncture was skeptical as he was trained as an allopathic physician. He went into it trying to disprove its usefulness. He discovered to his amazement that he could treat conditions that were immune to his allopathic techniques. He had previously treated me while I was a teen for acne which involved extracting the pimples and squeezing them using a scalpel. A very painful procedure! Subsequently he gave me acupuncture for it (once he learned the technique) and gave me four treatments on my face on I think three or four points. After these treatments I stopped getting acne on my face after eating or drinking any milk products, which used to cause a breakout every single time. He treated countless patients with acupuncture with success such as an individual who had had a petit mal seizure everyday of their adult life and did not have any seizures after the treatments and patients who suffered migraines and he ended their migraines after several treatments. (And yes, of course it matters where the points are placed on the meridians!)
I could have told the researchers that you cite ahead of time that they are not likely to find acupuncture helping dementia. Just as with any other modality, a given one may not help. Anyone who claims that acupuncture helps dementia needs their head examined as acupuncture cannot address organic conditions where there is, as in dementia’s case, physical damage to the brain tissue. Acupuncture operates on functional conditions and is extraordinarily successful for certain conditions and useless for others.
I do not follow your reasoning regarding my parenthetical comment about the Bemer and a putative placebo effect. I HAVE run into physicians over the years whose way of dealing with phenomena that they can’t explain was to scoff and say “placebo effect.” My point was simply this: IF an instrument such as the Bemer’s ONLY result WAS that it was having a permanent placebo effect (and I emphasize again that I am only stipulating that it’s placebo for the sake of argument) then one would have to say, “Bravo” because it’s giving the patient what the patient requires. If what the patient needs is pain relief, for example, and the device is doing that for them, then what better result can one get? If people want to deride that and say, placebo, then even if it was a placebo effect, it’s working!
I don’t know what you mean when you say, “why lie?” Of course a placebo effect is diminished by knowing that it’s a placebo effect. That is the point about why something is a placebo: they don’t think it’s a placebo. In case you misunderstand my point, I am not saying that the Bemer is a placebo. I have seen some of the research on it including the videos of its effects on capillary circulation and I have experience with the product over an extended time and can tell you that I would much rather save the considerable amount of money that the device costs and tell myself that it is worthless, except that it has very definite and dramatic results on my energy and injury recovery! You and others who are skeptics can say what you like but before you scoff, do a thorough investigation. Roger Federer is a user. And yes, he can afford to buy any device he wants, but why waste the time on the device if it’s not going anything?
If I have pushed you into a corner and made you feel that you had to defend your reputation no matter what, then I was not doing so intentionally. I would rather that you feel on an emotional level that you can gracefully acknowledge where you have erred when you have erred. It is better to leave people a way to gracefully do so then to push them into a corner. I will end this by saying that my job is done here hopefully in the sense that if you’re going to continue to put your blog posts forward under the title of the Skeptical Detective and be a proponent of science, then please do science proud and present scientific findings in a much more comprehensive manner and cite the studies as a whole. Be impartial and go where the evidence tells you to go. This means a lot of work for you but your posts should be thoroughly footnoted and should reflect comprehensiveness in at least their citations if not the discussion. I’m not saying you have to be a medical journal but I am saying that your writing and evidence needs to be similar to theirs if you’re going to claim the mantle of science.
Doctors (and those making money off of mainstream
medicine) loooooove to call things placebo when it
does not put dollars in the pockets of the large institutions.
I have seen people heal from cancer, and use alternative
therapies for years to keep them out of surgery and get
completely well.
I worked for doctors as an alternative therapist and was
part of the staff. Blended care (mixing conventional medicine
with alternatives) is widely accepted in Europe and is the wave
of the future in the USA as effective healthy care that works!
It never ceases to amaze me that some doctors are still
so far in the dark ages that they can see a person get well
right in front of them by means they don’t agree with and
still say “It is all in the person’s head.” Wow! dcm
the only problem with your argument is that it is utterly stupid. You have pushed all the big red buttons; “Doctors don’t even know what placebo is” and “Big medicine is all about making money” and you are completely wrong.
If alternative medicine worked, do you know what it would be called ?
Medicine!
Angela, saying that alternative medicine would be called medicine indicates that you’re not aware of the differences between allopathic medicine and homeopathic/naturopathic medicine. What is called medicine in the U.S. is actually allopathic medicine. It is a particular approach which has a great deal of merit and a track record of many successes, but it is certainly not the only approach and definitely not the only tradition with medical successes. Homeopathy and naturopathy were very popular until the health insurance industry decided that it was going to pay for allopathy but not for homeopathy/naturopathy. Allopathy is based on a mechanistic model of the body and its functions. Useful, but not the greatest model and definitely not the only “medicine.”
Dennis, please don’t make assumptions about my understanding of different medical modalities, because you are wrong.
Health insurance won’t pay for homeopathy because it doesn’t work.
Your allusion to a “mechanised model” requires further explanation, are you saying that alternative medicine works in a non-mechanical way? What would that be?
Angela: I wasn’t making assumptions, I was simply responding to your flat assertion that non-allopathic medicine doesn’t work and isn’t medicine. As I’ve said previously, you should do more investigation and research on acupuncture, the Bemer, and alternative medicine before you make the categorical assertions that you make. If someone says that acupuncture works even if you’re not using the correct points, then I agree with you, that’s ridiculous. But you rely on that one example to prove your point that acupuncture therefore is quackery, which is a poor argument to make because you’re leaning entirely on this one person’s claims as representative of all of acupuncture. As for the mechanistic nature of allopathy medicine, its origins lie in the separation philosophically and analytically between agents such as germs and the body as if the two weren’t in a dynamic and ever-changing relationship to each other. Germs = Disease would be one way of putting it and as you yourself put it previously. Allopathy’s treatment of single organs as if they can be separated from the rest of the body is another example of mechanistic thinking. The body and our environment (internal and external) are in dialectical relationship to each other and subsystems operate in relationship to the systems they are part of. One doesn’t get sick merely because one is exposed to germs. Germs are around us constantly. We get sick when the relationship between our body’s immune system is compromised or overwhelmed by the presence, virulence, and/or size of the germs.
Cindy’s comments have been removed because they are clearly marketing for the BEMER and I will not allow that kind of thing on my website.
-SD
Angela:
I have read your dissection of Bemer and of acupuncture so my comments here are based on those two articles. I say the following things as someone who shares your esteem for the scientific method and as a social scientist whose father was a physician. I must strongly disagree with you, however, both in terms of some of your methods of investigation and your conclusions. First, as to your investigation: it is superficial. If you’re going to dismiss a practice that is as old – thousands of years old – and as widely practiced as acupuncture – on billions of people over time – you ought to be a little more hesitant to draw the sweeping conclusions that you draw, that it is “woo-woo” science. You ought to look into the studies and experience with it more thoroughly. When you state that there are no studies showing its efficacy, you are wrong. Acupuncture, for example, has been and is used successfully on animals. There are no appreciable placebo effects attached to its use on animals. It has been used successfully on numerous conditions, with its recipients in many cases, as skeptical as one can expect, yet getting results that they had a psychological stake in not seeing. To think that you can blog about acupuncture in one relatively short entry and think that you have defeated it is silly. While I would agree with you that anecdotal data does not represent valid data from a scientific perspective, you aren’t just dealing with people’s personal experiences. You also have to confront the single and double-blind studies that have been done of practices such as homeopathy, which you also dismiss as nonsense, that show that homeopathy does work on conditions such as diarrhea. Homeopathy is probably based on the fact that substances emit a characteristic and unique vibration.
As you well know, science does not understand everything there is to understand. There are certain principles the violation of which should make us wary, but for centuries, for example, it was thought that mass and energy were completely separate phenomena and that time was immutable. Anyone who said anything different was considered nuts. Yet Einstein, basing himself on other scientists’ work and evidence from their experiments that confounded them, overturned those earlier views. Which leads me to my final point. You say about the Bemer that its representations about helping people with diseases violates the germ theory. If the germ theory as you depict it were so accurate, then why wouldn’t we always be sick since germs are around us 24/7? You are being mechanical in your reasoning. Germs and our immune systems operate in dialectical relationship to each other. When our immune systems are strong we can resist germs better. That is, or should be, basic medicine. When our T cell count falls, for example, we become sick. When our immune system is weakened, guess what, we get sick. It’s not the germs per se, it’s how vulnerable to the germs we happen to be. That is why some people who are exposed to the same germs as others who get sick, don’t get sick themselves.
I agree with Doti………people all look for the quick fix!!! I have used the Bemer for a couple of years now for numerous problems. I no longer make my regular monthly or bi-monthly visit to the chiropractor and this week successfully treated the onset of shingles over a period of two days!!! Fortunately I know the symptoms and was able to nip it in the bud using the light, and two different settings 5 hourly during waking hours. In the past I had to use really expensive meds. which made me feel quite ill when treating shingles. Yes, I have had it a couple of times
Have also had great success treating a 21yr old male with chronic measles and a badly injured Daschund (car accident) – had plates put into his hip and pins into his one leg…………10days later he was mobile and is now almost 100% fit.
I am a doctor who does clinical research. I see a great deal of placebo responses in my studies. I have seen people write glowing reports like Doti, when they were unaware that the “treatment” was completely inactive! Yes, ziltch. Of course they do not believe me when I reveal the truth. Not many years ago, when surgeons used to bleed patients in order to treat/cure them, they collectively believed the treatment helped their patients and that patients survived longer than when not being bled. What was probably the first placebo controlled study ever done, the doctor (researcher) showed clearly, and to surgeons surprise, that patients being bled were worse off and many more died, compared to a group with the same conditions who were not bled. So Doti may feel he was helped but we cannot be sure whether he is a plant for the company, whether the relief was a placebo effect, whether his symptoms wax and wane like many diseases, or whether the product worked. Having looked carefully at this product, is is highly unlikely to be because the product worked. Don’t waste your money in trying to test a hypothesis based on baloney. Dr Harris Steinman
Would like to know how to treat circulation problems and water retention. (swollen ankles) Which programes do you suggest? After sales service not too good.
My husband is a diabetic. Any suggestions there?
Yes, speak to a registered physician (your doctor), don’t ask for people’s opinion on the internet, there are too many crack-pots out there who will try and sell you something that doesn’t work!
Cindy’s comments have been removed because they are clearly marketing for the BEMER and I will not allow that kind of thing on my website.
-SD
Hey so, I just tried this thing out today at my Orthodontist office. He used to train for the Olympics and has one in his office upstairs. I told him I had Lyme Disease and my bones/joints always hurt. I laid on this thing for 20 minutes today and DAMN, I have TONs of energy. I googled to find out exactly what the heck this thing really is and found your blog. Your blog is funny and I agree about needing more evidence but, I think you’re also making a lot of bold comments without actually knowing real life people that it’s helped. Let me be one of them. This thing works, my circulation is pretty messed up and so are my energy levels. Today after many days, I feel great. And for the record, my orthodontist, is a genius, so….I don’t think your family friend is an idiot. I think she got results unlike you and you should respect the fact that it has helped people. Your blog is funny though, I’ll give you that, you know how to cut people down in size in a funny way.
This effing Beamer is awesome, I’m going again tomorrow. Hope your knee gets better….maybe you just need more sessions.
Well, I hope he’s not charging you Aman.
When you say your “circulation is pretty messed up”, what exactly do you mean?
For the record, your Orthodontist is an orthodontist, you should not let him give you any medical treatment except for your teeth. You wouldn’t go to him if you were pregnant would you?
I do respect the fact that the Beamer elicits a strong placebo effect, but it has no scientific basis and is made of pure magical thinking.
Thank you for the compliments.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/positive-thinking/SR00009
That’s cheaper and has similar results …
Thanks! Added at http://www.camcheck.co.za/beamer3000/
Hi Angela,
Great article and deconstruction. Can I link to this article from my blog?
Harris
Thanks Harris, glad you liked it. You are welcome to link to me (of course!).
Hi Doti, please read my last paragraph again.
Did you only try the Bemer once? How long did it take for your knee to be bad. Did youu expect miracles righ away. the Bemer is a very suttle piece of equipment. the more you use it the more it helps your body heal it self. sorry it did not help you. I have had a Bemer for two years and it has helped me a lot. I do NOT USE DRUGS. the drag in my left leg is gone. My sinus is clear. and a few other items. Any way. I would hope you would give it more than one chance. Good luck in your life to follow. How old are you?