Feeling skeptical about a microcope that can detect Lyme and other things

I just made an appointment with a LLMD. He's going to be doing a clinic only a couple hours from me. So, that's great. However, some things are making me a little skeptical.

First, I called his clinic for days, and no one ever answered. That doesn't sound like any clinic I'm familiar with. Finally, I just left a message on the answering machine and several days later (last evening), the doctor called me himself.

So, anyway, he doesn't have the schedule for the clinic, since it's being hosted elsewhere. He asks me to send him an e-mail, so I do. He responded this afternoon and tells me to call "W.... Linens Wellness" (I'm removing part of their name) to make an appointment - and gives me the phone number. I call several times, but the phone doesn't ring and then there's this weird busy signal. So, I attempt to look it up online. There is no "W..... Linens Wellness" in that town. So, I reverse the phone number and it comes up "W..... Linens Party Supplies."

I think that's really weird, and I call the number one more time. This time it rings several times and then I just get a "hello?" like I might have dialed a residence. So, I say, "Is this W..... Linens?" (leaving out Wellness or Party Supplies) and the woman says it is. So now I'm really confused as to why a party supply place is hosting a Lyme clinic. I ask, "Are you hosting a Lyme Clinic next week?" and she answers, "Why would you ask that?" So, I respond, "Because Dr. blahblah wrote me an e-mail and gave me this number."

So, then she relaxes and becomes chatty. Apparently she thought I was the Lyme police or something. I guess she is a Naturopath and her business will soon be wellness and party supplies. Whatever. I've got red flags going up, but we talk some about setting up the appointment, and then she tells me that there will be a high resolution dark field microscope there and that within six hours, they'll tell me 100% whether I have Lyme or not. Now I'm REALLY skeptical. I ask how that is possible and why haven't we heard of such a thing before. She responds and says, "The technology is there. You tell me why you haven't heard of it," implying there is some sort of conspiracy to keep it out of public knowledge.

I don't know. I really want to see a doctor who knows what he's doing. This doctor has recently finished a Lyme preceptorship, and that was announced on their Facebook page, so it sounds legitimate, but this whole clinic at the party place and a 100% for sure test is making me very, very leery. Comments??

Post Edited (WisconsinGardener) : 9/7/2012 4:09:00 PM (GMT-6)

Oh, dear, this is not sounding so good:

http://lymeblog.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=1529

Mac McDonald, LymeBlog News Editor said...
A federal grand jury in Kansas has indicted three people suspected of selling bogus treatments for Lyme disease, along with a microscope they claimed would diagnose the disease.

Acting U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker said that the three are charged with creating a fraudulent marketing scheme to sell medical equipment and drug treatments for a nonexistent epidemic of Lyme disease.

The indictment names a former Kansas medical doctor, who lost his license and is serving a 32 month sentence for manslaughter in connection with the death of one of his patients due to administering one of these drugs for the treatment for Lyme disease.

The 25-count indictment charged John R. Toth, 59, of Topeka, KA, Robert W. Bradford, 77, and Brigitte G. Byrd, 63, of Chula Vista, CA with conspiracy, mail fraud, introducing a misbranded medical device, and distributing unapproved and misbranded drugs.

Bradford is the founder of CRB, Inc., based in Chula Vista, and American Biologics, a company which markets supplements, symposiums and the Bradford Microscope. According to the American Biologics website Bradford claims to be a doctor although he is not a physician and has no science degree from an accredited university, according to the indictment. The website further states that the Bradford Variable Projection Microscope "... is a hightly (sic) effective assessment tool enabling practitioners to perform functional assessments of their patients' health status."

Bradford claimed to have invented the Lyme disease detecting microscope and conducted human intravenous drug experiments at a hospital in Tijuana that treated Lyme disease. According to the indictment he claimed that the microscope could be used to identify Lyme disease. The American Biologics website mentions that the microscope can be used with something called Dark field mode. "Dark field" Microscopy and the Bradford Microscope are methods sometimes quoted by Lyme disease sufferers as the proof of diagnosis used by their alternative medicine practitioners.

In 2006 the Health Canada warned consumers about the three products manufactured by American Biologics, Bismacine (also known as Chromacine), Dioxychlor (also known as DC-3) and Sulfoxime and said that the same manufacturer markets a device called the Bradford High Resolution Microscope as a tool to diagnose Lyme disease.

To illustrate how well the marketing scheme was working, in 2006, the "Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients", an online newsletter which claims to be "The Examiner of Alternative Medicine" and specializes in recommending the use of alternative medical treatments to Lyme disease sufferers, supported the device and treatment stating that the Bradford Variable Projection Microscope (BVPM) showed "images of Lyme spirochete and cyst forms." and Dr. Robert Bradford, was "... the developer of Bismacine,TM a chemical compound of bi****h. This formulation has shown to be effective at the Ingles Hospital against the spirochete and cyst forms of the Lyme organism." The newsletter's website still includes writings by "Professor Robert W. Bradford and Henry W. Allen".

Further new examples of the effectiveness of the marketing plan appear as recently as last month.

Scott Forsgren posted a blog on November 2, 2008 titled "Dr. Robert Bradford D.Sc., N.M.D." Forsgren calls himself "The Better Health Guy", operates a website called betterhealthguy.com and writes a monthly column on Lyme disease for a publication called Public Health alert. He states on his website, "BetterHealthGuy.com was started as an attempt to share my ongoing battle with a baffling list of health challenges.", he further states, "One of my goals is to be an advocate for the Lyme community."

Forsgren writes in his November 2nd blog about his visit to a natural healing conference in Baden-Baden, Germany. The blog is devoted to his meeting with Robert Bradford whom he calls "Dr. Robert Bradford, the inventor of the Bradford microscope ...".

The blog, complete with a picture of Forsgren with Bradford, states how fortunate Forsgren was to have encountered Bradford and to get a free evaluation and recommendations from viewing his blood using Bradford's microscope. He points out that the evaluation alone would have cost $400 had he not had it done at Bradford's sales booth at the conference.

Forsgren later informs his readers, "Dr. Bradford consults with a clinic in Mexico. He commented that he has a 3-week protocol for Lyme that is in-patient and runs $15K for the entire program. He said his success rate with Lyme is over 90%."

As recently as three weeks ago, (November 15, 2008) another Lyme disease advisor, Brian Rosner, owner of BioMed Publishing Group, publisher of books on Lyme Disease treatment, published Bradford's complete protocol for Lyme disease treatment on his lymebook.com blog. In his blog Rosner calls Bradford "... Dr. Bradford, a well respected Lyme doctor". Rosner is also the author of such books as "When Antibiotics Fail: Lyme Disease And Rife Machines, With Critical Evaluation Of Leading Alternative Therapies" and "The Top 10 Lyme Disease Treatments: Defeat Lyme Disease With The Best Of Conventional And Alternative Medicine"

The indictment from the Kansas grand jury states that Bradford, Byrd and C.R.B. executed a marketing plan aimed at creating demand for Bradford’s microscope and certain drugs they sold for the treatment of Lyme disease. The Townsend Letter, Forsgren, Rosner and other supposed Lyme disease advise experts and publishers who have recommended the device or the treatment were not mentioned in this indictment. It is also unclear when, or even if, charges will be filed against other medical and alternative practitioners in the United States who use the Bradford microscope to convince their patients that they have Lyme disease or recommend the treatment developed by Bradford.

U.S. Attorney Parker stated that, in fact, there was no epidemic of Lyme disease, the microscope could not diagnose Lyme disease and the drugs the defendants were selling could not cure Lyme disease.

The pair from Chula Vista are accused of making more than $400,000 from the alleged conspiracy between April 2004 and August 2006, mostly through CRB Inc. according to the indictment.

In Kansas, the doctor, John R. Toth, used Bradford's microscope and Bradford's treatments. He charged patients about $100 for each use of the microscope that supposedly diagnosed Lyme disease and approximately $320 for a series of injections he called antimicrobial treatment, according to the indictment.

First, this place that you talked about sounds very secretative...  Naturopaths are normally not so I don't get that part.   They are normally not under attacks, it's the LLMD's that are.  

As far as Darkfield Microscopy, that is how I learned I had lyme by watching my own spirochetes.  After the Microscopy I was then tested by IgeneX and tested CDC positive for both lyme and ehrlichiosis..  I don't remember seeing any cysts but I was not taking any medication at that time if that means anything...

Denise

Also Dr Henry West of Pocatello, ID mentioned in the earlier post passed away this year,may he rest in peace. God bless that man he saved so many lives! I am eternally grateful for him and his son they are both amazing people fighting for us Lymies! Sorry I am a little touchy about them since they brought me back from death bed and they listened, they were the only ones who believed me.

I also had a blood stain done that showed my infected blood cells. I don't see spirochetes in mine, just protozoa. The test was expensive ($495!!) but everything else was coming up negative and this is what let my practitioner know we were heading down the right road in treating for Bart and tickborne infection. Really, I see it as life saving. If I didn't have that test, I probably would have ignored my symptoms and only God knows what would have become of me. There's no denying infection when you get a nice screen shot of your infected blood! If you want the name of the lab where I had mine done I'm happy to give you the name if you PM me.
Good luck!!

Hi Lyme 2013!
Welcome to our little community!
First of all, let me explain why I had to edit your post just a bit - I had to take the name of your doc out because we don't allow their names and contact info to be put up on the forum - it helps protect them and this site.

If you haven't already, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists (as Lyme rarely occurs by itself), helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, and a list of questions that you can ask any doctor that you are seeking treatment from!

We also have a pretty good search function on this forum to help you narrow down your search for information from past posts. We must be our own health advocates now and the best thing to arm yourself with is knowledge about our infections and the different ways to treat them!

Hey we have a friend that went to that guy in Idaho.......and he is better now. But he went down because of allergies and then had the microscope thing and he told him he had lymes............it is interesting but my LLND says you never know when it will show in the blood so it is always a chance just like all the other tests...............We have thought about going down to see him but not sure if want to spend the money for something that might not show what I need................I think with lymes we always want that proof so we can show it to people so they will accept our illness. I pray everyday that a test will come that will prove this terrible disease!............We all do what we need to do.

Good luck he will help you! He's very honest and will do everything for his patients! let us know how it goes!

Laments 32 the west clinic discovered my lyme and I believe saved my life! Feel free to message me.