Fibromyalgia and Quack Therapies

Fibromyalgia patients as well as other patients with chronic pain suffer so much, that they are so desperate and would to do anything to relieve these pains. I feel very sad, when I see “colleagues”, pharmaceutical or neutriceutical firms, institutions, or self acclaimed gurus to exploit these people with quack medicines or therapies.


How can they get past scientific scrutiny? Very easily. These quack methods stay well outside the scientific world. The masterminds behind do pseudoscience, which they publish in esoteric corners. They might use some scientific reference or reference from other fields that are irrelevant to medicine. These masterminds become gurus, with followers, who try to cry or sue silent any critic with proclaiming unquestionable truths. For example: “It has been proven without any doubt: fibromyalgia can be cured!” or (my favourite): “Are you afraid you wil lose your desperate patients who believes in your ignorance and stupidity”. Questioning and discussing new methods or hypothesis is essential for scientific research.


Now, we shall build a quack therapy against fibromyalgia. You will see, how easy it is and how easily you might believe someone, who relieves you of your money, but hardly of your pain.


Let’s call our therapy: Shamanistic tattooing of fibromyalgia. That’s still too long, abbreviations look more convincing, so it’s the STF Therapy.


We have a name, now we look into the method. Ötzi, the Tyrolean iceman, had several carbon tattoos. Have a look at the Wikipedia article of Ötzi under tattoo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96tzi_the_Iceman . Do you see it? We’ve already hit the mark! Someone asked questions about these tattoos like “5200-year-old acupuncture in central Europe?” or: "A medical report from the stone age?". These questions were articles. published in scientific papers. We can refer to these papers ( http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9841386 and http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10501382 ). And now we look for a crude method concerning healing with symbols: esowatch has something (esowatch does in German what quackwatch does in English, both are highly recommended) worth looking up: http://www.esowatch.com/ge/index.php?title=Neue_Hom%C3%B6opathie#ixzz1hRjftsSJ . "New homeopathy is a form of pseudo medical, magic spirit healing, in which certain characters are painted on the skin of sufferers." "This goes back to the Viennese electrician of the Austrian Mail, esoteric, and medical laymen Erich Körbler (1938-1994)..." Esowatch


“According to Körbler’s conviction, symbols ("bar code antennae") are used to "influence cell communication and exchange of energy in living systems". The geometry of the painted symbols at acupuncture points should have "balancing" effects on a supposed meridian system." Esowatch


You can further refer to people practicing painting symbols to heal like http://www.leonie-zander.ch/021_aim_alltag.html in Switzerland (Angewandte Informations Methode - Applied information method).

Now we look for a tattoo artist, who wants to make money. You come across this guy from Siberia, whose grandfather has indeed been a shaman. You copyright and trademark your method. You set up a practice with enough shamanistic paraphernalia and are ready for floods of clients (better call your patients clients). You have a talk with your lawyer not to break a law you have overseen. You send articles that praise your method to self help groups. You start business. You get rich. You escape to the Bahamas.


If someone offers you STF Therapy or any equal quack therapy because you are desperate to get rid of your pain, please keep a critical mind!