Live blood analysis - snake oil or real results?

Microscopic view of blood.  The fluid is plasma.

My wife and I went to a talk about live blood analysis last night.  I wasn't interested in going, but she wanted me there to see if what she was saying was true.  I was actually flattered by that, as I am often skeptical of many health-related schemes designed to separate you from your wallet.  I am often accused of being overly opposed to the myriad of claims out there purporting healing where all other methods fail.  And it's true - I am a nay-sayer when it comes to some of these elaborate means to an end, and rightly so.

So, off we went, and there we were, in the front row, listening to the presenter's every word.  She had an impressive microscope (phase contrast, dark field, light transmission) with good quality optics and an HD feed to a large screen TV.  She drew the blood of a volunteer client and created a cover-slipped slide.  She did not use any stains or viscous agents.  Then she mounted the slide on the microscope.

The view was similar to the one above, except the white blood cells (large purple cells) were not stained and were mostly devoid of colour.  All this was pretty good - visually - but the words did not make a lot of sense.  Rather, they did not belong together.  She talked of interferon as being an amino acid, the tiny dark spots in the blood as being food particles (they were actually platelets), and threw around a lot of ideas that had no truth or basis to them.

I looked up some of her claims on Google as she was sharing them and found many of them to be off.  And then she talked about using Black Walnut extract as a cure for nematode infections.  The little red flags on the back of my neck were waving vigorously at this; later research would support the doubts being propagated by my nervous system.  

After her presentation, I talked to her and told her that many of her concepts were very flawed, but tried to do so privately and in a well-meaning manner. I encouraged her to research her suppositions and that I was happy she was having success with her clients.  I believe she is making a difference for some people, and, snake oil or not, there is value there.  Placebo?  Maybe, but I have been known to be wrong.  Sometimes.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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