RochesterChiro’s Blog

zap, zap, zap your way to illogical conclusions

 

Dear RochesterChiro:

My mother is thinking of buying a detoxification machine (www 2detoxity com) and I wanted your opinion on this product.

Thank you,

S. B., Denver, CO

Dear S.B.:

What your Mom is looking at is known as a Rife machine.  They have been around for a long time and work on the premise that diseases can be diagnosed and treated by tuning into radio-like frequencies allegedly emitted by disease-causing agents and diseased organs.  Furthermore, Rife devices allegedly generate radio waves with the same frequency as harmful bacteria to shatter the little buggers in the same manner a crystal glass breaks in response to the voice of an opera singer.  This particular iteration of Rife’s theories tunes into toxins to rid the body of that nastiness.

Looking at a couple of the claims on the website you sent to me, they are filled with half-truths and misleading conclusions.  To begin with, the home page begins with “Frightening Facts.”  There is a warning sign right there.  If someone needs to sell you something by frightening you first, be skeptical.

There are facts listed about exposure to toxic waste and cancer rates in the US.  All are probably true.  It is the conclusion, of course, that requires the suspension of logic.  “The detox box can help detox your body of these unavoidable toxins.”

Hmm…

“The Detox Box is programmed with over 450 specific frequencies based on the traditional uses of Dr. Rife’s research. By holding the stainless steel cylinders or applying the convenient electrode pads directly over your skin and selecting specific frequencies, it is theorized that you can disable harmful microbes in your own body. The “Detox Box” Micro Frequency Generator has over 550 preprogrammed codes when concerned with anxiety, headaches, stiff muscles, liver support, kidney support, and color therapy… plus much more.”

Sounds implausable, right?  Dial up the hepatitis frequency and zap, zap, zap away your illness!  It’s probably harmless, though, right?  I mean, how much damage can a tiny bit of current cause to person?

Turns out, more than you’d think.  There have been some big lawsuits concerning these type of devices mainly brought by people who were told their life-threatening illness had been cured and went along with their regularly scheduled programming — only to wake up one day and not wake up that day.  In other words, they died from the very illness that was never cured with the crap-in-a-box.

I cannot say I was surprised but I was certainly disheartened to see a chiropractor was behind this website of lies.  Why is it almost any time some questionable doctor shows up backing a claim of wackiness, it so often turns out to be a chiropractor? 

Anyway, there are so many silly claims in the sciency sections of this product’s website it would take me weeks to address them all.  Let’s just say what we are dealing with a device shown over and over to be useless over the past 100 years.  Save your money, your time and the life you save might possibly be your Mom’s.

Dr. Brett L. Kinsler blogs at RochesterChiro.wordpress.com and is available to review alternative medicine products…especially the ones with lots of buttons and dials and little lights and ones that make cool whirring sounds and beep regularly.