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Evening Standard Health & Fitness
Tuesday 6 March 2001
The machine that can tell if you’re well
The Quantum Xrroid system is complementary medicine gone sci-fi: it thinks it
can diagnose your bodily health and your moods.
Precious Williams went to find out.
THERE'S a scarily high-tech new health-testing device that's coming to a
health clinic near you. If its creators are to be believed, the machine can read
what is on your mind as well as what's going on in your body. The Quantum Xrroid
system - QX for short - is a computer linked arrangement that's just arrived in
the UK and is
tipped to revolutionise complementary medicine.
Developed by a former Nasa scientist, Professor Bill Nelson, QX works by
measuring your body's "electrical parameters". Using ultra-sensitive computer
software, the device "reads" your physical and emotional vibrations. In short,
it can tell you whether you are healthy at a click of the mouse. It's also
capable of analysing your physical reactions such as allergies to more than
3,500 different substances.
Jayney Goddard, president of the Complementary Medicine Association, says:
"Humans are naturally electrical beings and the QX system accurately measures
the patient's electrical responses.
The device uses electrophysiological reactivity to pick up sensitivities and
identify the overloading of specific substances and toxins."
At the Grove Health Clinic in Kensington, QX practitioner Susan Astbury
strapped electrical cables to my head, ankles and wrists (this is painless, if
slightly uncomfortable). The cables are wired to Susan's state-of-the-art
laptop.
No pulse or blood pressure readings are taken. Instead Susan types details of
my sleeping, eating and working patterns straight into the computer. In a matter
of minutes, the QX machine will have tested my body's electro-magnetic
parameters for signs of allergies, vitamin-and-mineral deficiencies, viral and
bacterial infections, parasites and even adverse moods and emotions.
"Strong emotions are capable of causing physical reactions, which, thanks to
this system, can now be measured," says Susan, typing furiously. "With ailments
which are difficult to treat, like migraines, QX can determine whether the
underlying problem is
sugar toxicity or simply high stress levels.
The readings allow me to pinpoint your body's precise requirements and
prescribe tailor- made treatments for you."
Seconds later, my "vibrational energy" details are digitally analysed and
displayed on-screen in easy-to- read jargon. The QX machine has revealed a
reassuringly high level of overall physical and emotional health.
But it isn't all good news. According to the QX analysis, I have
higher-than-healthy stress levels (hardly surprising, with my constant rush to
meet deadlines). My level of patience is markedly low (something
my boyfriend tells me every day). The machine then churns out a personalised
allergy-elimination programme. Again, it is uncannily spot-on in its suggestion
that my body was reeling from recent overloads of alcohol, sugar and tobacco. In
the week before my appointment, I'd been to six booze-laden parties and gone
back to smoking 10 cigarettes a day.
What I wasn't prepared for was to be told that the real enemy to my health
was carrot juice. If QX is to be believed, my daily trips to the juice bar are
counter-productive. The levels of carotene in my body are even more toxic than
the nicotine.
The final stage of the QX treatment involves a five-minute interlude during
which electro-magnetic resonances are zapped throughout my body (again, this is
painless, but just try keeping a straight face). These resonances, says Susan,
will temporarily rebalance the chakras. But for longer-term health benefits, she
suggests I return to the clinic for a few sessions of colour therapy. QX
advocates a holistic approach to health prevention rather than cure. According
to this philosophy,
there's no point in indulging in quick-fix cures since you'll simply overload
your body
rather than improving the underlying electro physical vibes. "There's a
definite validity to QX," says Jayney Goddard. "It's impressive. I feel that the
system should be rolled out to all GP clinics." However, QX is not
without its critics and Professor Edward Ernst of the Royal College of General
Practitioners was quick to assure me that QX therapy was, at best, a waste of
cash. "It may sound good in principle but the notion is pretty implausible.
There is no evidence I have ever heard of to suggest for a minute that this
system is effective," says Professor Ernst. "If a patient is suffering from
illness he must see his GP. To put such claims out there about this machine's
alleged capabilities is misleading and potentially dangerous."
I can't imagine the average GP investing in a QX machine: prices start at
£10,000. But, for myself, the results were accurate and the dietary
recommendations (no cheese, less alcohol and carrot juice) have been effective.
After two weeks of sticking to the advice I've lost 4lb and acquired a glowing
complexion, so I think I can safely skip the colour therapy.
QX System consultations are available at The Grove Clinic,
182 Kensington Church Street, W8 (020 72212266).
Prices start at
£65 for an initial consultation and £43 for subsequent readings.
SPL021
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feature
profile Morgan Judy Rose –
hi-tech healing BY KARYN WOODLAND
Morgan Judy Rose has been practicing
acupuncture since the early 80’s, when it was still relatively new to
the West, and not widely embraced by the authorities. She recalls the
RCMP closing down the clinic of a colleague for “practicing medicine
without a license.” We’ve come a long way. And so has acupuncture.
A licensed
acupuncturist, Morgan also holds a diploma in traditional Chinese
medicine (trained in the Five Element System). Like all acupuncturists,
she works with energy, the chi or life force, which flows through
our bodies. “Conventional” acupuncture seeks to unblock and balance this
chi, usually through the insertion of needles to specific meridian
points.
But Morgan no longer
treats her clients using needles. Today she uses a computer. “I never
really liked inserting needles in people anyway,” she laughs.
Morgan is a
bright-eyed woman with a ready smile and an enthusiasm for helping. We
sit in her sunny kitchen with a cup of tea – she loves to brew her own
from anise-hyssop gathered from her garden, but today we indulge in a
cup of black tea rich with ginger. Shortly we will go downstairs to her
newly-renovated clinic on the ground floor of her View Royal House.
“Having worked in
clinics for 15 years, I very much enjoy working at home. I love to
garden and spend time with my grandchildren (a three-year-old and a
nine-month-old) and,” she smiles, “taking three seconds to go to work is
really appealing.”
How did she get
started?
“In theatre,” she
says with a laugh. She’d planned to follow in the footsteps of her
mother, an actress. Her early training was in theatre and music, at
London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama. “But my uncle-he has
passed on now-was a spiritual healer, and he would have people
come from all over Europe. When I was about
15 he told me I had the same gift but at that time it didn’t seem very
cool and I ignored it,” she says with a grin. “I was much more intent on
being a famous actress.”
In her 20’s, after
working on a television program, she had made enough money to come out
to Canada with her cousin. She stayed in Vancouver, working in the
theatre and teaching theatre in schools, and in the 1970’s (by then
married with two children) moved to Vancouver Island.
“It was at that time,
when I was thirty-something, that I went back to England and my uncle
asked me to join him in a research project on spiritual healing that was
being conducted by scientists,” Morgan tells me. The “healers” would
place their hands on “patients” who were hooked up to biofeedback
equipment, “and they’d record how all the dials changed. When I saw this
I realized I wasn’t using a gift that I’d been given.”
Once home again, she
started doing just that and, “as the universe works-people started to
come. I called it spiritual healing; I didn’t know what else to call
it-I think it was something like Reiki and the laying on of hands that
have been done for centuries,” she tells me.
But it didn’t earn
her a living, so she went to acupuncture school. “In those days a lot of
people hadn’t heard of it-they looked at me in horror and say, “You
stick needles in people? Gross!”
A pioneer in energy
medicine, Morgan is currently the only practitioner in Victoria using a
computer software program known as the Quantum Xrroid (QX) to help her
clients achieve optimal health and well-being. Call it hi-tech healing:
marrying the ancient art and knowledge of Chinese medicine with the
sophistication of 21st century science and technology.
How did she go from
“putting needles in people” to using a computer?
Five years ago, Morgan decided to move back
to her native London. Her step-dad was dying of cancer and she wanted to
be there to help him, but after three months she knew it wasn’t home.
Meanwhile, she was looking into alternative therapies and one day
visited a friend who had made an amazing discovery from chronic fatigue,
a recovery she attributed to the QX. “I suddenly knew that’s why I was
there,” Morgan says. “The minute I saw the device I knew it was for me,
even though I had never owned a computer.”
The QX software was developed by Dr. William
Nelson, formerly of Colorado, who married a Hungarian woman and
relocated there to undertake further research and training in energy
medicine through the Hippocampus Research Institute (an affordable place
to conduct research, as Hungarian doctors earn only about $50 a month).
“I flew home to B.C. and the day after I landed in Vancouver, Dr. Nelson
happened to arrive.” He was there to conduct a seminar for physicians
and doctors of Chinese medicine. “It all came together very quickly-the
way things do when the time is right.”
A case study
I heard about Morgan
through Marie who had desperately looked for solutions to her
10-year-old son’s health problems, which included headaches, mood
swings, negativity, and a lack of energy. She sought help from various
health practitioners-tested eyes, blood and sinuses-to no avail. Then,
through the Gettin’ Higher Choir, she met Morgan. After an assessment on
the QX, consultations with Morgan, and some dietary changes, Marie’s son
improved.
“Within a week I
noticed a difference, but more importantly he noticed.”
“It (the QX) brought
up a lot of things that were happening in his body; food reactions and
environmental stresses.” Two years later, Marie reports, “He’s fine, as
long as he stays on his regime.”
Marie has had her own
sessions with the QX. “Morgan did the chakra balance with me,”
she says, “and I just floated out of there!”
The chakra balance?
Morgan explains,
“Basically, I send in frequencies to balance the chakras, or clear the
meridians.”
In traditional
Chinese medicine, the practitioner opens the channels and balances the
energy flows through touch, as with acupressure, or, with acupuncture,
by needles placed strategically along the pathways. “If a person is
willing, the machine can take them quite deeply into spiritual and
emotional areas of their life,” adds Morgan.
“I don’t really know
how it works,” Marie tells me. “It’s like going for Reiki treatments, I
don’t need to know how-just that it does.” Frequencies, like radio
waves, perhaps? We can’t see them, but we can hear the radio just the
same.
A
matter of frequencies
Downstairs in the
clinic Morgan harnesses me to the QX by placing small straps around my
wrists, ankles, and head. The test takes about three minutes. I feel
nothing but the coziness of a comfortable chair.
Morgan explains the
QX is a biofeedback instrument which works on energy, searching for
imbalances in the body’s electromagnetic and subtle energy fields, often
correcting these imbalances before they manifest in disease. “It exposes
you to about 7,000 different frequencies,” she says.
“How you react to
them is what I see. My job is to analyze and prioritize the data.
It can also test for
parasites, fungus, bacteria, viruses, and environmental toxins.”
“When doing
acupuncture, I often used to wonder why some people didn’t hold their
treatments. They might be okay for a few weeks, and then would slide
downhill again. I now think this is due to undetected toxins in the
system.”
The first thing to
show up on my own test was a reaction to car exhaust. I put it down to
the drive through the Colwood crawl, but later learned the muffler on
the car needed replacing. It was possible, the mechanic told me, that
carbon monoxide could have leaked into the interior of the car through a
hole in the exhaust pipe.
Ridding the body of
toxins isn’t always as simple as replacing a car muffler.
Often prolonged
dietary changes are needed, and sometimes homeopathic remedies
prescribed.
After “zapping some
parasites” (an alarming but apparently common occurrence, I am assured),
Morgan runs an aura scan. I watch the computer screen showing what looks
like a tennis racket zipping across a human form.
“I’m not saying (this
type of treatment) can always help,” Morgan says. “But sometimes it can
go a long way to giving people their lives back.”
FW
October 2001
focus on women |
Click to
enlarge article |
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Computer works by thought
alone
|
Patricia Reaney Reuters |
Thursday, 13 July 2006 |
| |
| A chip implanted in
the brain records cell activity and sends commands to a computer
(Image: iStockphoto) |
A paralysed man using a new brain sensor has been able to move a
computer cursor, open email and control a robotic device simply by
thinking about doing it, scientists say.
They believe the BrainGate sensor, which involves implanting electrodes
in the brain, could offer new hope to people paralysed by injuries or
illnesses.
"This is the first step in an ongoing clinical trial of a device that is
encouraging for its potential to help people with paralysis," says Dr
Leigh Hochberg of Massachusetts General
Hospital.
The 25-year-old man who suffered paralysis of all four limbs three years
earlier completed tasks such moving a cursor on a screen and controlling
a robotic arm.
He is the first of four patients with spinal cord injuries, muscular
dystrophy, stroke or motor neurone disease testing the brain-to-movement
system developed by the company Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems.
"This is the dawn of major neurotechnology where the ability to take
signals out of the brain has taken a big step forward. We have the
ability to put signals into the brain but getting signals out is a real
challenge. I think this represents a landmark event," says Professor
John Donoghue of Brown University
and the chief scientific officer of Cyberkinetics.
First, implant the chip
The scientists implanted a tiny silicon chip with 100 electrodes into an
area of the brain responsible for movement. The activity of the cells
was recorded and sent to a computer that translated the commands and
enabled the patient to move and control the external device.
"This part of the brain, the motor cortex, which usually sends its
signals down the spinal cord and out to the limbs to control movement,
can still be used by this participant to control an external device,
even after years had gone by since his spinal cord injury," adds
Hochberg, a co-author of the study published in the journal
Nature.
Although it is not the first time brain activity has been used to
control a cursor, Professor Stephen Scott of
Queen's University in Ontario, Canada
says it advances the technology.
"This research suggests that implanted prosthetics are a viable approach
for assisting severely impaired individuals to communicate and interact
with the environment," he says in a commentary in the journal.
Faster, faster
In a separate study, researchers from Stanford
University describe a faster way to
process signals from the brain to control a computer or prosthetic
device.
"Our research is starting to show that, from a performance perspective,
this type of prosthetic system is clinically viable," says Stephen Ryu,
an assistant professor of neurosurgery at Stanford. |
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Electromagnetic Waves have different wavelengths.
| When
you listen to the radio, watch TV, or cook dinner in a microwave
oven, you are using electromagnetic waves. |
 |
| Radio waves,
television waves, and microwaves are all types of
electromagnetic waves. They only differ from each other in
wavelength. Wavelength is the distance between one wave crest to
the next. |
 |
Waves in the electromagnetic spectrum vary in size from very long
radio waves the size of buildings, to very short gamma-rays smaller than
the size of the nucleus of an atom.
Did you know that electromagnetic waves can not only be described by
their wavelength, but also by their energy and frequency? All three of
these things are related to each other mathematically.
This means that it is correct to talk about the energy of an X-ray or
the wavelength of a microwave or the frequency of a radio wave.
The electromagnetic spectrum includes, from longest wavelength to
shortest: radio waves, microwaves, infrared, optical, ultraviolet,
X-rays, and gamma-rays.
Radio Waves
| Radio waves have
the longest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum. These
waves can be longer than a football field or as short as a
football. Radio waves do more than just bring music to your
radio. They also carry signals for your television and cellular
phones. |
 |
|
|
The antennae on
your television set receive the signal, in the form of
electromagnetic waves, that is broadcasted from the television
station. It is displayed on your television screen.
Cable companies have antennae or dishes which receive waves
broadcasted from your local TV stations. The signal is then sent
through a cable to your house.
Why are car antennae about the same size as TV antennae? |
| Cellular phones
also use radio waves to transmit information. These waves are
much smaller that TV and FM radio waves.
Why are antennae on cell phones smaller than antennae on your
radio? |
 |
Microwaves
| Microwaves have
wavelengths that can be measured in centimeters! The longer
microwaves, those closer to a foot in length, are the waves
which heat our food in a microwave oven. |
 |
| Microwaves are
good for transmitting information from one place to another
because microwave energy can penetrate haze, light rain and
snow, clouds, and smoke.
Shorter microwaves are used in remote sensing. These
microwaves are used for radar like the doppler radar used in
weather forecasts. Microwaves, used for radar, are just a few
inches long. |
 |
This microwave tower can transmit information like telephone calls
and computer data from one city to another.
The Infrared
Infrared light lies between the visible and microwave portions of
the electromagnetic spectrum. Infrared light has a range of wavelengths,
just like visible light has wavelengths that range from red light to
violet. "Near infrared" light is closest in wavelength to visible light
and "far infrared" is closer to the microwave region of the
electromagnetic spectrum. The longer, far infrared wavelengths are about
the size of a pin head and the shorter, near infrared ones are the size
of cells, or are microscopic.
 |
Far infrared
waves are thermal. In other words, we experience this type of
infrared radiation every day in the form of heat! The heat that
we feel from sunlight, a fire, a radiator or a warm sidewalk is
infrared. The temperature-sensitive nerve endings in our skin
can detect the difference between inside body temperature and
outside skin temperature. |
Infrared light is even used to heat food sometimes - special lamps
that emit thermal infrared waves are often used in fast food
restaurants!
| Shorter, near
infrared waves are not hot at all - in fact you cannot even feel
them. These shorter wavelengths are the ones used by your TV's
remote control. |
 |
Visible Light Waves
Visible light waves are the only electromagnetic waves we can see. We
see these waves as the colors of the rainbow. Each color has a different
wavelength. Red has the longest wavelength and violet has the shortest
wavelength. When all the waves are seen together, they make white light.
| |
 |
When white light
shines through a prism or through water vapor like this rainbow,
the white light is broken apart into the colors of the visible
light spectrum |
Ultraviolet Waves
| Ultraviolet (UV)
light has shorter wavelengths than visible light. Though these
waves are invisible to the human eye, some insects, like
bumblebees, can see them! (Image of the bumblebee is courtesty
of Mark Cassino.) |
 |
Scientists have divided the ultraviolet part of the spectrum into
three regions: the near ultraviolet, the far ultraviolet, and the
extreme ultraviolet. The three regions are distinguished by how
energetic the ultraviolet radiation is, and by the "wavelength" of the
ultraviolet light, which is related to energy.
The near ultraviolet, abbreviated NUV, is the light closest to
optical or visible light. The extreme ultraviolet, abbreviated EUV, is
the ultraviolet light closest to X-rays, and is the most energetic of
the three types. The far ultraviolet, abbreviated FUV, lies between the
near and extreme ultraviolet regions. It is the least explored of the
three regions.
 |
Our Sun emits
light at all the different wavelengths in electromagnetic
spectrum, but it is ultraviolet waves that are responsible for
causing our sunburns. To the left is an image of the Sun taken
at an Extreme Ultraviolet wavelength - 171 Angstroms to be
exact. (An Angstrom is a unit length equal to 10-10
meters.) This image was taken by a satellite named SOHO and it
shows what the Sun looked like on April 24, 2000. |
Though some ultraviolet waves from the Sun penetrate Earth's
atmosphere, most of them are blocked from entering by various gases like
Ozone. Some days, more ultraviolet waves get through our atmosphere.
Scientists have developed a UV index to help people protect themselves
from these harmful ultraviolet waves.
X-rays
As the wavelengths of light decrease, they increase in energy. X-rays
have smaller wavelengths and therefore higher energy than ultraviolet
waves. We usually talk about X-rays in terms of their energy rather than
wavelength. This is partially because X-rays have very small
wavelengths. It is also because X-ray light tends to act more like a
particle than a wave. X-ray detectors collect actual photons of X-ray
light - which is very different from the radio telescopes that have
large dishes designed to focus radio waves!
X-rays were first observed and documented in 1895 by Wilhelm Conrad
Roentgen, a German scientist who found them quite by accident when
experimenting with vacuum tubes.
| A week later, he
took an X-ray photograph of his wife's hand which clearly
revealed her wedding ring and her bones. The photograph
electrified the general public and aroused great scientific
interest in the new form of radiation. Roentgen called it "X" to
indicate it was an unknown type of radiation. The name stuck,
although (over Roentgen's objections), many of his colleagues
suggested calling them Roentgen rays. They are still
occasionally referred to as Roentgen rays in German-speaking
countries. |
 |
The Earth's atmosphere is thick enough that virtually no X-rays are
able to penetrate from outer space all the way to the Earth's surface.
This is good for us but also bad for astronomy - we have to put X-ray
telescopes and detectors on satellites! We cannot do X-ray astronomy
from the ground.
Gamma-rays
Gamma-rays have the smallest wavelengths and the most energy of any
other wave in the electromagnetic spectrum. These waves are generated by
radioactive atoms and in nuclear explosions. Gamma-rays can kill living
cells, a fact which medicine uses to its advantage, using gamma-rays to
kill cancerous cells.
Gamma-rays travel to us across vast distances of the universe, only
to be absorbed by the Earth's atmosphere. Different wavelengths of light
penetrate the Earth's atmosphere to different depths. Instruments aboard
high-altitude balloons and satellites like the Compton Observatory
provide our only view of the gamma-ray sky.
Gamma-rays are the most energetic form of light and are produced by
the hottest regions of the universe. They are also produced by such
violent events as supernova explosions or the destruction of atoms, and
by less dramatic events, such as the decay of radioactive material in
space. Things like supernova explosions (the way massive stars die),
neutron stars and pulsars, and black holes are all sources of celestial
gamma-rays.
|
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‘ Busting
the ‘QuackBusters’, by Monica Erdei
We often get emails and calls
from Practitioners who have been approached by
upset clients, colleagues or
even friends and family who have done a little
investigation into the
EPFXSCIO online and have encountered a small handful
of websites who write less
favorably about our technology. Words such as
"scam", "quack", "fake",
"lies", etc. often appear on these websites hoping to
sway ‘consumers’ into
believing that they are being taken advantage of. I’m
talking about the ongoing
issue of the self-proclaimed "QuackBusters" or
"QuackWatchers" as they often
refer to themselves as.
I decided a few years ago, to
do my own investigation into these websites and
have read through them quite
extensively. I have also visited other websites that
specifically talk about the "Quackbusters"
or "Quackwatchers" and was not all too
surprised to read about the
background behind these people. I knew that there
had to be some strong
motivation behind their quest to defame virtually every
‘alternative’, ‘holistic’,
‘integrative’, or ‘complementary’ health practice known to
man. From massage therapy, to
holistic dentistry, to nutrition, to you name it
–
they simply don’t like it. I
suppose from my own personal experiences with
holistic healing and
alternatives, I found their statements to be quite odd. To
completely discredit all
forms of complementary methods and therapies that did
not directly fall into the
typical healthcare provided by a general family physician,
as if saying none of the
other forms of methods and therapies have any validity
whatsoever also seemed quite
odd to me. To label it all as ‘quackery’? What
was up with that? Who
could actually say that and truly believe it?
I found an interesting
article written by one of the "Quackbuster" people which I
have quoted below for your
review. It was the one article that I found that really
summed it all up for me –
after reading it, I understood why they might also
believe the EPFXSCIO would be
‘quackery’ as well. I think that after reading it
straight from the ‘horse’s
mouth’ you will gain some insight into the mentality of
the "Quackbusters" – I urge
you to ‘read between the lines’ and see what stands
out most for you.
How to Spot a "Quacky" Web
Site, by Stephen Barrett, M.D.
The best way to avoid being
quacked is to reject quackery's promoters.
Each item listed below
signifies that a Web site is not a trustworthy
information source. The
hyperlinks will take you to articles on
Quackwatch that explain why.
General Characteristics
·
Any site used to market or promote
homeopathic products. No
such products have been
proven effective.
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