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Posted 11/13/2018 9:18 PM (GMT 0)
Has anyone ever heard of this? To me it sounds bogus and I am very skeptical. It is on devicewatch and quackwatch but I don't know how much credit I give those sites. Anyway this is how it works:

The
IQSTM technology works by tapping into our body's natural ability to process and interpret
information and by working with the body's innate ability to prevent and overcome illness. Our
body "knows" everything about its condition. Using the IQS machine and a sophisticated
computer program, ECM/BioSET can access this knowledge.
To perform a test, the patient holds a brass handle in one hand and a metal probe is placed
against electrodermal points on his or her hand. The readings show if there are any blockages
to the flow of electricity in specific meridians that signify sensitivities or abnormal response to
substances being tested. An IQS machine causes little or no discomfort because there are no
needles and the skin is not punctured.
Once the sensitivity evaluation is completed on the computer, the actual clearing takes place
by doing acupressure up and down the patients' spine to help remove any energy blockages
caused by the sensitivity. The patient will do different breathing exercises while the
acupressure is performed. The stimulation of these areas tends to balance the electromagnetic
fields of the body in relation to the identified stressors. This effectively reprograms the brain
almost immediately to stop identifying these substances as stressors. In essence, the body is
taught to have a different response.

So it is one of those electrodiagnostic/electromagnetic/biofeedback whatever, testing machines and I feel like these are about as good as muscle testing. My LLMD recommended going to this practitioner and said one of her patients had success weaning her off thyroid medication. But she has also suggested homeopathy a couple times and that is just useless in my experience.

My mom who pays for my treatment, insists on me trying it out at least, but I just don't want to waste another $400. But if anyone has experience or good results doing something like this I would love to hear. This doctor has no internet presence in the way of reviews but I guess she has been on CBS once. She has a book but only a couple reviews that didn't seem encouraging. She mainly uses enzymes but I already take those and they're easily available at the store so I don't know how exactly she is going to treat me. The intro appointment is 2 hours though so I assume we will cover everything. I am seeing a doctor she works with, not her, because she is not taking new clients.
Posted 11/13/2018 9:37 PM (GMT 0)
I have no experience with this, but there have been reports by other forum members in the past that have had bioresonance testing (not muscle testing) who said it was pretty accurate. I assume some of them already had positive lab tests for some of the things the machine picked up on.

It's something I'm interested in but would have to travel to see a practitioner.
Posted 11/13/2018 10:30 PM (GMT 0)
So this is a treatment for illness...not a diagnostic tool to evaluate what you have?


Personally, I don't believe in that.

But, if you feel like it could help...it might be worth a try...if you're willing to spend the $$ on something that is off the 'mainstream' path of treatment options.
Posted 11/14/2018 12:09 AM (GMT 0)
@Girlie no it is diagnostic. The treatment involves some kind of sessions, I'm not sure what they consist of. I think I am going to opt out. I just don't trust these woo-woo treatments after being scammed so many times. She says a minimum of 2-3 healing sessions at $300 a pop. Though I am open to more feedback.
Posted 11/14/2018 12:15 AM (GMT 0)

jb1994 said...
@Girlie no it is diagnostic. The treatment involves some kind of sessions, I'm not sure what they consist of. I think I am going to opt out. I just don't trust these woo-woo treatments after being scammed so many times. She says a minimum of 2-3 healing sessions at $300 a pop. Though I am open to more feedback.

So it is both diagnostic and then treating (healing sessions).

I'm skeptical about the "woo-woo" diagnostics/treatments too. smile
Posted 11/14/2018 1:21 AM (GMT 0)
This "technology" is one of several that I tried, out of desperation, when my health crashed this most recent time.

In addition to this Electrodermal Screening / Electroacupuncture According to Voll (EAV) / whatever else it's called, I also tried Biomagnetic Pair Therapy, Iridology, and Homeopathy. (There may be others, but these are what immediately come to mind, over the past five-plus years.) Regrettably, none of them yielded any benefits. None. But, that's just my experience.

I seem to live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance, as one side of my brain is highly-skeptical of most claims about diet, health, and healthcare. Perhaps that's due to my education, training, and work/personal experience.

But, the other side of my brain WANTS to believe this fakakta stuff, because most of the usual stuff doesn't seem to work. So, I naturally want to try something different, because someone else claimed that it worked for them. Maybe that's the creative part of me that was squashed in my youth but may still live deep inside.

Some have told me that I have to believe in things for them to work. Well, that sounds like placebo to me. But, that's fine. I'll take placebo, as long as I get the desired results. That's not been the case, however, with the aforementioned modalities.

So, were they bogus technologies? Or, was I to blame for not believing enough?

Really, I have no idea.

The skeptical side of my brain tells me that if something works, it will work regardless of belief. I don't need to believe that 2 + 2 = 4, for it to be true. But, the other side of my brain wants to believe in things like the movie "The Secret" and books like "The Medical Medium." People claim to have been helped by both. Then again, people believe what they want and make plenty of assumptions and false correlations. So, there's that.

In my own situation, over the past couple of years, I've had more of a "hands-off" approach. I've done less and gained more. Over this time, some symptoms have disappeared, others have lessened greatly, and several still remain -- especially extreme fatigue.

Now, I'm in no way suggesting that you or anyone else follow my example. As I've previously written, this is the path that I've chosen and it may not end well. I'm not a "professional" and have no idea what I'm doing.

However, what I was doing previously didn't seem to help, either. I felt the constant pushing my body this-way-and-that with medications, supplements, and diets was just muddying the water. I was skeptical about my true baseline, because I was constantly manipulating my body by trying new things.

So, I felt like getting out of the stream of things for a while was needed, so my body could settle-down a bit.

Because the fatigue is still such a huge problem for me, I recently purchased three new products to try. If I can resolve the fatigue, I believe I can probably deal with the other symptoms and live a relatively normal life. Then, hopefully, over time, if I give my body the raw materials and inputs it needs, perhaps it will continue to improve.

Again, I'm just sharing my thoughts and opinions. This is descriptive, not prescriptive. We all have different challenges, resources, and risk tolerances. I realize not everything will work for everyone. Plus, going back on antibiotics and/or herbs always remains an option for me.

In closing, I wish you luck. If you do try the EAV testing, I hope it's helpful and that you post about your experience.

The Dude
Posted 11/14/2018 1:52 AM (GMT 0)
Dude - you write great posts. smile
Posted 11/14/2018 2:02 AM (GMT 0)
Thanks Dude, I think I'm going to opt out. I'm glad I'm not alone in thinking these treatments are ineffectual. Fakakta lol, that's a new one, I'll have to remember that word. Someone else did iridology on me as well as muscle testing and sold me a bunch of stupid pills that did absolutely nothing, in the name of cleansing my body. I have no idea the mechanics behind these things other than they don't work. I have a hard time believing there are only two "real" eye colors among other things. One of the scammiest people I've seen claimed to be a shaman. I believe placebo effect works on others, just not on me. I do coincidentally have a Rife machine that seems to operate under similar principles, which worked for a bit but after that not much has changed. But maybe someone else has a positive experience.

Just based on her lack of internet presence/reviews/testimonials, and her vague descriptions of what treatment entails, plus the exorbitant price, it all just feels like it's a bad investment.
Posted 11/14/2018 7:43 AM (GMT 0)
Thank you, Girlie. I always appreciate your generosity. If I have any redeeming quality, it's that I have no hesitation about falling on my own sword and sharing my mistakes, weaknesses, and uncertainties.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0535/6917/products/mistakesdemotivator.jpeg
Posted 11/14/2018 8:50 AM (GMT 0)
JB: I'm glad you enjoyed the word "Fakakta." It's a great word to use when you feel like cursing, but the timing or situation may be inappropriate. It's the non-offensive F-word. smile

You're definitely not alone. I share your skepticism and frustration. Over the past five years, I've spent over $25,000 on a variety of doctors, tests, supplements, and a few medications. Some were "conventional" doctors and many more were "alternative" practitioners, such as Chiropractors, Integrative Medicine, Functional Medicine, Naturopaths, Health Coaches, etc.

Most, I believe, were well-meaning. But, some seemed drunk on their own brand of woo-infused Kool-Aid. Like you, I wanted to understand how and why something might be expected to work, before I invested money in it. But, in return, all I got was a jumbled word salad that conveyed nothing. For example: "It balances the energies of the body." So, I would pointedly ask something like: "What, exactly, is the mechanism of action? How does it do what you claim? And, what can we measure before, during, and after to demonstrate that it works?" These questions were sometimes negatively received and viewed as sarcastic or hostile.

As with you, placebo has never worked for me, either. Perhaps we're just too skeptical. It's a tough line to walk, I think, between being skeptical and being a patsy. This is where cultivating the ability to listen to our feelings and instincts may be helpful.
Posted 11/14/2018 3:43 PM (GMT 0)

The Dude Abides said...
This "technology" is one of several that I tried, out of desperation, when my health crashed this most recent time.

In addition to this Electrodermal Screening / Electroacupuncture According to Voll (EAV) / whatever else it's called, I also tried Biomagnetic Pair Therapy, Iridology, and Homeopathy. (There may be others, but these are what immediately come to mind, over the past five-plus years.) Regrettably, none of them yielded any benefits. None. But, that's just my experience.

I seem to live in a constant state of cognitive dissonance, as one side of my brain is highly-skeptical of most claims about diet, health, and healthcare. Perhaps that's due to my education, training, and work/personal experience.

But, the other side of my brain WANTS to believe this fakakta stuff, because most of the usual stuff doesn't seem to work. So, I naturally want to try something different, because someone else claimed that it worked for them. Maybe that's the creative part of me that was squashed in my youth but may still live deep inside.

Some have told me that I have to believe in things for them to work. Well, that sounds like placebo to me. But, that's fine. I'll take placebo, as long as I get the desired results. That's not been the case, however, with the aforementioned modalities.

So, were they bogus technologies? Or, was I to blame for not believing enough?

Really, I have no idea.

The skeptical side of my brain tells me that if something works, it will work regardless of belief. I don't need to believe that 2 + 2 = 4, for it to be true. But, the other side of my brain wants to believe in things like the movie "The Secret" and books like "The Medical Medium." People claim to have been helped by both. Then again, people believe what they want and make plenty of assumptions and false correlations. So, there's that.

In my own situation, over the past couple of years, I've had more of a "hands-off" approach. I've done less and gained more. Over this time, some symptoms have disappeared, others have lessened greatly, and several still remain -- especially extreme fatigue.

Now, I'm in no way suggesting that you or anyone else follow my example. As I've previously written, this is the path that I've chosen and it may not end well. I'm not a "professional" and have no idea what I'm doing.

However, what I was doing previously didn't seem to help, either. I felt the constant pushing my body this-way-and-that with medications, supplements, and diets was just muddying the water. I was skeptical about my true baseline, because I was constantly manipulating my body by trying new things.

So, I felt like getting out of the stream of things for a while was needed, so my body could settle-down a bit.

Because the fatigue is still such a huge problem for me, I recently purchased three new products to try. If I can resolve the fatigue, I believe I can probably deal with the other symptoms and live a relatively normal life. Then, hopefully, over time, if I give my body the raw materials and inputs it needs, perhaps it will continue to improve.

Again, I'm just sharing my thoughts and opinions. This is descriptive, not prescriptive. We all have different challenges, resources, and risk tolerances. I realize not everything will work for everyone. Plus, going back on antibiotics and/or herbs always remains an option for me.

In closing, I wish you luck. If you do try the EAV testing, I hope it's helpful and that you post about your experience.

The Dude

This is truly a great post The Dude, one i believe many can relate to. Can you expound on your "hands off" approach, do you mean stopping "treatment" or do you mean letting doctors prescribe your treatment for you?
Posted 11/14/2018 3:57 PM (GMT 0)
I feel similarly to with regards to "Placebo" effect treatments. The funny thing is i truly believe that Placebo's work in general. There is lots of science that show people that believe something is making them better are more likely to get better. I often wish i could just believe in something to see the Placebo effects, but i don't have the same blind faith as others around me.

I really resonate with The Dudes comments on falling into these fakakta snake oil type treatments. I think we are susceptible to this specifically because of what "lyme" disease represents. I think on this forum it is now a common understanding that we are not just referring to a borrelia infection. Co-infections, Mold, Heavy Metals, organic poisons, food allergies, genetic mutations. All of these things don't have "standard" treatments and push us more towards non standard treatments.
Posted 11/14/2018 8:23 PM (GMT 0)
Yes the fact that there are so many factors means progress is slow or none at all, so we are left to try every option. And desperation kicks in and we try things that most people write off right off the bat. But we feel remorse if we don't try every single thing. It's kind of a curse.
Posted 11/15/2018 12:43 AM (GMT 0)

Garion said...
Can you expound on your "hands off" approach, do you mean stopping "treatment" or do you mean letting doctors prescribe your treatment for you?

Thank you for the kind words, Garion. I'm really grateful for your feedback.

Also, you raised a great question. I now see that "hands-off" could mean a few things. In my case, I meant stopping some things and greatly reducing others.

For example, I stopped taking most (not all) of the supplements I had amassed, because, in addition to not obtaining any obvious or measurable benefit from them, I had a growing concern they may be harmful. As Dr. Michael Klaper once stated in one of his lectures, "In any complex system, you can't do one thing!" So, while I was trying to manipulate a given biomarker (e.g. like people do with Vitamin D), I began to wonder what else might be happening.

Well, in the case of vitamins, I've read and heard discouraging reports -- such as increased morbidity and mortality. If that can be true for a vitamin, I thought, then perhaps it's true for other supplements, too. The topic is more complex that can be conveyed in a brief forum post, but the main point is what may be happening in our bodies by ingesting high doses of synthetic, concentrated compounds -- which are created in a laboratory and mass-produced in a factory. Even "Food-Based" or "Food-State" vitamins and minerals are not the same as eating whole, unprocessed foods.

As I stated above, this is just my own thinking and opinions. I could be wrong. I'm certainly open to changing my mind, as I learn more.

Today, my supplements are limited to:

- a digestive enzyme (one per meal)
- a proteolytic enzyme (three daily, between meals)
- an herbal sleep aid (one at bedtime)
- low-dose, extended-release melatonin (one at bedtime)
- molybdenum (just started)
- three botanical tinctures (just started)

At one time, by contrast, I counted over 100 different supplements that I'd amassed between two kitchen cabinets and my refrigerator. Recently, I purged another 30 or so bottles -- some unopened -- from my cabinets. They're sitting in a grocery bag waiting for disposal. On one hand, I wonder how much I've spent on supplements. On the other hand, I don't really want to know!

Aside from slowing-down on supplements, I also found it helpful to:

- stop going to doctors (except when truly needed)
- stop getting tests run on me (except when truly needed)
- stop immersing myself in illness and disease

What I mean about the last point is to stop thinking about illness all the time, stop telling others about everything that's wrong (or, that I think might be wrong) with me, stop reading blogs and forums about it, stop watching YouTube videos and Netflix documentaries about it, and stop letting my conditions and symptoms become my identity.

Do I do all of this successfully all of the time? Definitely not.

I do well for a while, regress, get mired in the quicksand again, and start over. I've taken a hiatus from this forum a few times. In fact, before my current user name, I was on the forum under a different account for 18 months. But, out of frustration, I deleted all of my posts and quit the forum. It took some time for me to return.

My mental attention definitely impacts my physical health. I've gone through the cycle enough times to see the pattern and results repeated. The more I saturate my brain with thoughts and discussions about ill-health, the worse I feel. When I break from it and occupy my mind with non-health-related things, I feel better mentally and physically.

Anyway, I hope this helps clarify what I meant by having more of a "hands-off" approach.

The Dude
Posted 11/15/2018 1:02 AM (GMT 0)
Wow 100 supplements! I could not imagine downing 100 pills daily. Well actually with this illness I can lol. I'm trying to cut down on supplements. It is hard to know what does what. I'm going to eventually cut down to a liver detox supplement, beef liver, and boron and try to just stick with those as well as digestive enzymes because I don't notice any benefit of the others and I really don't know what they're doing. At the very least just costing me money. But I do think they're a little more effective than some vague electric acupuncture treatment.
Posted 11/15/2018 1:21 AM (GMT 0)
Fortunately, I didn't take all 100 supplements daily! That would've made me want to jump out the window! (And, even that wouldn't have helped, since I live on the first floor. smile)

As I ping-ponged from doctor-to-doctor, I kept acquiring new supplements, based on their pet theories. So, eventually, I ended up with over 100 different products in my "Supplement Graveyard."

Currently, like you, I'm sticking with what's helping. Plus, the new items I'm trying.
Posted 11/15/2018 2:00 AM (GMT 0)
I hear ya' Dude. I have a supplement graveyard, too. Some unopened and not mainstream enough that someone else would want to take them off my hands.

One has liver in it...like real liver...from an animal I suppose (hopefully not a human) That one really turned me off.

I've reduced what I take too...and feel no worse doing so.

One eye opener for me was the B6 I was taking. Thought I needed it for peripheral neuropathy...
Then I had a B6 test after my initial Dr. J appt. and my B6 was high. Then I scoured the internet...and lo and behold...high B6 can cause peripheral neuropathy.
I freaked out for a week or two...until I found something else to freak out about... sad

The $$$ I spent. I think the liquid glutathione that I purchased was $60. I opened it up...and knew I could not take it without gagging......sour rotten egg smell....and after a few weeks of sitting there...I got rid of it.
Posted 11/15/2018 2:13 AM (GMT 0)
Oh yes the supplement graveyard. I take the beef liver supplement as liver is supposed to be good for you (like treats like) but haven't noticed it helping. Perhaps it is more a long term thing. We should have some sort of supplement swap meet by now.
Posted 11/15/2018 2:16 AM (GMT 0)

jb1994 said...
Oh yes the supplement graveyard. I take the beef liver supplement as liver is supposed to be good for you (like treats like) but haven't noticed it helping. Perhaps it is more a long term thing. We should have some sort of supplement swap meet by now.

Well, I don't even eat beef liver...I can't stand the smell...and not even sure if I have ever tried it. This is an early childhood rejection.
Just the thought...of it... I also wonder - isn't that where the toxins are?


Ohhhh - yes - a swap meet - you take my liver supplement and I'll take your ______
Posted 11/15/2018 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
The liver is meant to detox toxins, yes you would think it is full of toxins but it actually is meant to support our liver with the things ours does not have. I can't quite explain how it works but they have a website dedicated to explaining it all.

Let's see what do I have. You like homeopathy right. I have a bunch of that stuff lol. If you need to detox metals I have some EDTA. I dunno if I want more liver though hah.
Posted 11/15/2018 3:01 AM (GMT 0)

jb1994 said...
The liver is meant to detox toxins, yes you would think it is full of toxins but it actually is meant to support our liver with the things ours does not have. I can't quite explain how it works but they have a website dedicated to explaining it all.

Let's see what do I have. You like homeopathy right. I have a bunch of that stuff lol. If you need to detox metals I have some EDTA. I dunno if I want more liver though hah.

Nope I don't do homeopathy - except the Apo-hepat...that might be homeopathy?

I'm hoping I don't need to detox metals...we'll see how far I get with my current protocol.
I do have some mercury amalgams though. Had two replaced two years ago (non-biological dentist) and it went well.
But I do have more in my mouth....
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