You may remember that some time ago I wrote an article about the K-Test, a supposed method of detecting food sensitivities which appears to be merely the latest version of the worthless electrodiagnostic devices used by quacks since the 1950s:
I e-mailed the article to BBC's "Watchdog", where it caught the attention of a researcher. Well, I've just learned that the K-Test will be featured on the Monday 16th February edition of the show, so don't miss it!
Re your message. I can see now that it is non-invasive and doesn't involve the introduction of the potentially dangerous food stuffs. However, there are a few things about this which annoy me (not you, the test!)
First of all, the list of indicative symptoms of allergy/sensitivity covers just about every minor ailment known to man!
Secondly, according to the article, the test actually only records senstivities as opposed to allergies. What bothers me about that is, although there are some very obscure allergies out there, they are rare. It would be easy for the test to 'indicate' that a person MAY be sensitive to foods and have a fairly high percentage of being correct. A bit like cold reading by a machine.
For example, there is a common group of food allergies. Very common in fact, and since the proportion of allergies in people has gone up drastically in recent years, the 'test' stands a fair chance of striking oil. If I was the machine and I was pushed to offer possible sensitivites in someone submitting to the test, this would be the list I would come up with:
Eggs Nuts Berries Shellfish Honey Milk Gluten
And I bet you many people out there, should they read my list, will say hey!I'm allergic to/sensitive to one/two/three/all of those!
The point I am making I suppose is that, to me, the test is nonsense. Orthodox allergy testing is not even precise or accurate to any great degree when done by medical professionals. It's all a bit hit and miss. For the record, myself and two of my sisters have 'proper' allergies. My other sister (I have 4!) has food sensitivities, though they are unpleasant enough. I won't post my allergy details here just in case I do decide to go ahead with this.
Trouble is, if I did find a local practitioner to whom I could submit myself to for this purpose, I would begrudge paying every penny of the £25.00 it costs to have it done. That, I suspect, is what it is all about, the money, as always.
Jon, I'll get in touch with the researcher and point out that my article was in fact written for Bad Psychics/Bad Homeopathy and ask for a mention on the programme.
How scary that scams like this exist. There are people with legitimate allergies and/or sensitivities to food, and really the only way to figure this out (and correct me if I'm totally wrong) is by trial and error.
My son has Asperger's, and since we're not a huge fan of giving small children major psychiatric drugs, we looked for alternatives to help him. I met a mom whose children were on The Feingold Diet, talked with her, and thought, "Meh, how can it hurt?" so we started it. It took months to figure out that his behavior changed dramatically when exposed to petroleum-based additives (Gave him a Pop-Tart one morning after the basic six weeks of special Stage One diet, and he threatened to kill his father then spit on him...ok, those are a no-no).
Is it hooey? Some might think so, but since I've seen my own child react, I would say not. Changing one's diet is not easy, nor is every little symptom a sign of an allergy/sensitivity. The K-Test people should be locked up.
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Mmmm...at least the K-Test has been exposed on "Watchdog", although the researcher who contacted me never mentioned anything about a "press release" from Kymatica. If that's how the programme first heard about the K-Test it would explain why there was no mention of me or BadPsychics/BadHomeopathy! It was also a bit silly of "Watchdog" to send their people out for multiple tests on the same day, which Kymatica picked up on immediately and used as an excuse for the random results. There was also no explanation of WHAT the test was actually measuring, namely the electical resistance of subject's skin.
Still, it will be interesting to see if "Watchdog" gets a response from Superdrug, who offer the K-Test in some branches. I e-mailed the company myself shortly before I posted the article and never got a reply.
I must say it was depressing to see nurses and pharmacists who should know better performing this nonsensical and potentially dangerous "test".
Post by farsideofthemoon on Feb 17, 2009 20:35:02 GMT
I think the reason they didn't mention Julia is that she wasn't a 'victim'. Normally when they do this type of report they have some people who have been ripped off. However this time, they just went for it themselves, I think they knew there was enough in it for them to make it look stupid just by sending their researchers on it. And to be honest, for the standard of Watchdog, I was quite impressed by their experiment.
I recorded the prog last night and have just watched it. Towards the end, someone referred Superdrug as a pharmacy. None of the ones I have gone into can dispense prescriptions, which is how I would describe a pharmacy - perhaps like some Asda and other supermarket stores, they do have a pharmacy section in larger branches.
But it was a good result, with common sense from Ben Goldacre. Pity Julia and BP didn't get a mention.
Post by onewingedangel on Feb 18, 2009 10:30:45 GMT
I dunno if this helps but a friend of a friend informed watch dogs yonks ago about something (I'm going back 10yrs here).
This person didn't get a name mention but they said something along the lines of receiving a letter on the exact date this person had dropped it off at the BBC.
Anyway, legal reasons they couldn't use this person's name, as they hadn't experienced the product personally and that they weren't a medical expert (also something about a royalty being paid if that person's name was mentioned)...............but this person did receive a thanks from watchdog, along with a bunch of flowers and 2 free tickets to top of the pops ;D
Just thought I would mention it, even though it was a decade ago, it might be a reason to whyJulia wasn't mentioned?
