I am new to this forum, but I thought I'd go to the trouble of creating a login to respond to this.
First, I am not a practitioner and have no financial interest in Asyra. Two years ago, my health began to shift, and a year ago it declined precipitously. At this point, I have CFID viruses and Lyme and some tick borne co-infections. While Lyme was probably the first assault, several successive life stresses further wore me down until some minor elective surgery became the last straw. My disrupted immune system then allowed a few chronic fatigue viruses to rebound in great numbers (I have very high viral titers).
The think about
beliefs is that the more strongly you identify with them, the more dismissive you'll be of information that doesn't support them. We're all quite familiar with this when it comes to politics or religion. But it also applies to each of us as well as practitioners. I have never found much useful information on Quackwatch. My judgement is that it may be the hobby of some cranky old physician who went to school 40 years ago, selectively reads the literature (if at all), and hasn't ever tried any protocols, and hence hasn't had the opportunity to see any effectiveness. But they may be more invested in being "right" than helping people. Goodness, they even regard chelation therapy as bogus because a challenge agent is used! If you lived or worked near battery factory and saw Dr. Quackwatch, you'd probably never get treated for lead poisoning, because he's so skeptical that such conditions can arise in our highly industrialized society.
This is not to say that you won't find holistic practitioners who aren't equally passionate about
their religion, preferring to try holistic remedies when they might better serve their patients by saying, "Some folks fight off Borrelia and Bartonella, others can't, if you aren't feeling better in three months with our remedies, go and get yourself a nice IV of targeted high octane antibiotics!"
My experience with Asyra has been mostly favorable because it has been so much faster and cheaper than traditional means of diagnosis. It specifically identified the chronic fatigue viruses "as a disturbance in the force" before the lab tests. My doctor would send me to an alternative practitioner and ask what they thought. I'd bring back the top hits on a piece of paper and he'd specifically order blood tests on those items. And you know what? Asyra is batting 1,000. The problem with Lyme is that most of the tests (except for the Lyme culture) are inconclusive (or take months for the final results). So, I wouldn't be so quick to categorize and dismiss Asyra with bra magnets or different indoor lighting. After all, how does an MRI work? How does a cat scan work? It works by imaging the body's electrical field. Is it really so hard to believe that the presence of substances in the body can cause a minute deviation in energy flow?
I've had the opportunity of watching the health decline of an ex-work colleague. What started as Epstein Bar ten years later became fibro (with other descents along the way). I have another ex-colleague who has had a precipitous fatigue decline. Each was from a different employer, but both were only willing to go to a traditional western physician or a physician that was fully covered on their insurance. On one hand, I can understand the financial realities that drive such decisions, but neither has gotten better. As a matter of fact, one is now fully disabled. In talking with each of them, I'm surprised at the lack of testing each has received. Goodness, if I had given up with the first round of tests from doc-in-the-box (HMO/PPO), I never would have discovered some of the issues my body is facing. Some doctors just look at the lab summary sheet of what is out of range, thereby completely missing items that are one or two units within the parameters of "normal". (And who can be more dismissive and self-righteous than a doctor? You only find egos like that in extreme politicians.)
I think what makes these illnesses so difficult to treat is that they do not appear to be caused by a single pathogen or virus (like HIV). Different environmental factors and pathogens can cause the immune system to become dis-regulated. In some people, this may take the form of auto-immune diseases, while in others it gets expressed differently depending upon what pathogens are involved. And once it is disrupted, it's not so simple as removing one offending item.
So, have I wasted time and money with some alternative practitioners? Yes. Have I wasted time and money with traditional doctors? Oh God yes. My goal is not to prove one tribe right or wrong, it is to get healthy, or as healthy as possible, in order to deal with this. In the meantime, it never hurts to do your homework before trying anything new. I'm betting the bra magnets don't have a lot to support them. Neither does covering your walls with aluminum foil to thwart mind control conspiracies.
Post Edited (Good-display-names-taken) : 3/6/2012 11:52:58 AM (GMT-7)