Bionetics: Untruthful Quacks, But Still Trading
There are many laws in the UK that ought to make trading in quackery difficult. In practice though, the laws are often skirted around or side-stepped by careful wording of claims and marketing tactics. Those of us who prefer to pop off a complaint to Trading Standards rather than watch Eastenders find it quite a frustrating business.
One of the main problems in the UK is that there is no joined up approach to dealing with the type of fraud and issues posed by quackery. If a claim is made in print media then you can complain to the Advertising Standards Authority. But if it is on the web then you may have a little more difficulty. Trading Standards operate within local councils are are primarily set up to deal with dodgy builders and fly-by-night tour operators. The web crosses these boundaries and finding a trading address may be hard. If you are worried about multi-national operations then you really have problems. Respectable companies like Google or e-Bay flout anti-quackery laws in the UK with impunity.
Take Bionetics: a company run from Camberley in Surrey. The company sells a hair testing process and claims to be able to diagnose and treat the underlying causes of many illnesses from a few strands of hair. We have seen Patrick Holford, with his Food for the Brain ‘charity’, make similar claims, but Bionetics take it one stage further into deep quack land by claiming they are measuring the ‘energies’ in the hair follicles and can measure ‘toxins’, pathogens, food allergies, and nutritional needs. It is the same scam as Hair Mineral Analysis but ‘new-aged’ up a bit with talk of applied kiniesiology and that old black box of nonsense, radionics.
The American Medical Association condemn similar practices as just a fraudulent way of selling mineral supplements. And so we see Bionetics offering a load of food supplements to correct your imbalances with some magic herbal and homeopathy pills. Customers using the service get doubly fleeced: first, on the test fee (£48-£78); and then on the subsequent course of useless pills you are supposed to take. If you are unfortunate enough to be ‘diagnosed’ with a food intolerance or allergy then you may be advised to take unnecessary and potentially harmful dietary changes.
Last year, someone complained to the ASA about Bionetics and they were found to be making untruthful and unsubstantiated claims,
The ASA noted the positive customer testimonials and the training undertaken by the supervising practitioner. Nevertheless, we considered that, without robust clinical evidence to support them, the claims that Bionetics methods of hair testing could “establish whether or not your body has become intolerant to 123 of the most common problem foods and ingredients” and “report on … accumulations of toxins, problem pathogens and nutritional deficiencies” were not justified. We concluded that testimonials alone were not sufficient to substantiate the efficacy of the testing methods and told Bionetics to consult the CAP Copy Advice team before advertising the test again.
Well, that told them. The action that had to be taken by Bionetics was that ‘the ad should not be repeated in its current form.’ Whilst this is obviously the right finding, the decision makes essentially no difference to what Bionetics can do with their business. They can still advertise in print, but just have to be little more careful with their wording in the future, and of course the ruling makes no difference to what they can claim online. In short, Bionetics are free to carry on trading with a untruthful and unsubstantiated business that sells gobbledygook and nonsense to the public.
If you want an idea of the nonsense that Bionetics are peddling then their ’science’ page is a good start,
The birth of Newtonian physics heralded a change in conventional medical thinking. Newton’s laws related only to physical matter, and ignored the “energy” factor. Opinion of the day backed Newton’s theories and modern medicine as we know it was born.
Therapies that could not easily be explained by reference to Newton became portrayed as quackery.
…
First, is the now generally held view that the cause of many of today’s most common medical problems can not be explained by conventional Newtonian theories.
So, Newton had nothing to say about energy? That will be news to physicists. And medical therapies that do not use F=ma are quackery? Utter gobbledygook.
And, the best bit,
First fact – scientists have now proved that the basic component of the universe is energy, and not physical matter. Quantum physics has replaced the Newtonian belief that the smallest building blocks of all matter are physical objects – protons and neutrons, and proved that spinning energy vortices are actually at the source. Everything is based on energy.
Second fact – scientists have proved that collections of atoms (molecules) all radiate their own energy patterns or vibrations. Everything, living or not, including our bodies and everything in them, radiates a unique energy pattern.
Third fact – scientists have proved that the body constantly communicates both internally and with the outside world through the interaction of these energy patterns. Experiments have shown that protein receptors on the cell membrane pass signals to the nucleus (DNA) when stimulated by external energy signals.
I wonder who wrote all of that? Its only intention can be to bamboozle since it is just comic book physics, innacurate and unrelated to anything medical whatsoever.
Since trading in nutritional supplements, homeopathy and herbal remedies is legal, the problem with this site revolves around the claims made regarding their diagnostic techniques and their ability to tell you which of these ‘remedies’ you ‘need’. (Answer: none). Most trading standards officers find this whole area totally alien to them. They are much more likely to be clued up on the ins and outs of extended warranty or the return of faulty goods. A ripped off pensioner with a badly tarmaced drive is an obvious injustice. Quackery is a more insidious form of harm and more difficult to pin down.
If someone was to pay me to police the quacks of the world (where are you Big Pharma and World Government when I need you?) I would set up a Minority Report style control room and I would wear a techno-glove to move quackometer screens around my transparent display wall. I would mash up my quackometer scan results with Google Earth and direct black helicopters full of elite troops into the homes of quacks, arrest them and force them to work as orderlies in the laundry rooms of large hospitals for the rest of their natural lives. Mwa ha ha ha.
In the meantime, we must rely on Consumer Direct.
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I couldn’t agree more, I tried complaining to TS about homeopathic remedies in boots that didn’t contain any of the product on the label and just got refered to the MHRA. maybe one day I shall write to my MP but as the recent eaarly day motion shows that might not do much good.
I haven’t read anything so ignorant and utterly blinkered in a long time. You sad fool – open your eyes. People like Bionetics are trying to put right the damage that your pharma giants have caused with their drug-pushing greed. We’re being poisoned every day, through our apparantly superior living. We were given this beautiful planet and we’ve blatantly abused it. And while people like you continue to draw breath, it’s not going to be easy to change. Do yourself a favour and find your truth – you might just find something useful to say…
Which bit is ignorant and blinkered? What have I got wrong? Please let me know.
I have had ME for two years and recently had a hair test with Bionetics. I don’t know whether the actual results I got were legitimate but I have started to make a full recovery after taking products recommended by them including Green Barley Grass – main component is chlorophyll, ‘Prime Directive’ – contains 18 amino acids, ionic calcium to neutralise my system (there has been a lot of research into having a more alkaline diet to aid recovery) and am going to start taking vitamin C, selenium, and vitamin B12 which were also recommended. The latter two were also advised independently by my doctor. All of these things have quite blatantly been vital in aiding my recovery and enabled me to live a normal life again. I think you should reconsider your claims.
Wow anonymous. Hook, line and sinker.
Why? You write scaving reports about a lot of these companies without any real evidence to back you up. You don’t seem to know much about the products they sell either which have helped me a great deal.
I wonder who is going to take charge of creating an 'anti-quackometer' site. Everything on here is written with such sarcasm and venom. I totally agree with one of the posts above: pharmaceutical and chemical companies have been poisoning us for years with their 'legal' and 'scientifically' backed and 'researched and proven' drugs. I don't see any of them get a mention here.
Instead of providing a useful service, this site seems to just look at the surface of things and doesn't research its claims properly.
I found this site through a search about Bionetics, to see what others thought of it and found this article among the results. Thank you Quackometer as you've helped me make up my mind: I can't wait to try Bionetics!
Andy, you need to learn and appreciate the features of free market economics. I happen to agree with you in so far Bionetics techniques are unsupported by any clinical evidence and is as far that goes making wild unsubstantiated claims. However, I don't want my choice impeded by regulation or legislation not their right to business impeded the same. That is the cardinal sin of market principles. As much you don't like what they sell, they have a right to be there because it's for consumers to make their OWN assessment and informed choice not you or me or a body to override that. If they're poorly informed, then bring information to fore with sites like these but responsibility must be kept within the market. The moment you intervene you diminish that responsibility, you hinder potentially new innovation and treatment which hasn't got clinical funding from reaching the market so you kill lots of good stuff…
…and you make taxpayers pay for bureaucratic regulatory jobs. Bad products exist across the board even in the high st environment but they get weeded out by the market in the long run. Don't forget too some people will have benefited from Bionetics and even if that's a Placebo Effect, it's worth something to them. Finally you cannot attribute anything whatsoever to Google or Ebay they merely present you the market place online they don't create it. They have no responsibility to look after me and what I might decide to buy online.
I find it patronising that you tell that I need to "learn and appreciate the features of free market economics." Why should that be?
From my perspective, it looks like the height of naivety to believe that 'free market economics' can assess the medical efficacy of a treatment. Can you name any effective treatments that have become accepted purely though the workings of the market? Homeopathy has existed for 200 years – a simple placebo treatment – and the free market laps it up.
From my point of view, an unconstrained market in healthcare operates inneficiently because it allows miriad false claims to be made that the consumer is largely unable to assess. Regulated markets allow better quality information to survive and hence allow more efficient markets. And pretty much all markets in the world operate in this way – whether it be markets in second hand cars or houses – regulation ensures that high quality information is made public and so allowing better choices to be made.
First of all I object to being called an idiot simply because I want to remain annonymous; my industry prevents me from rattling cages in natural healthcare debates to preserve our dignity.
I am however fed up with the beligerant rantings of 'anti-quackery' sites such as this, which do nothing to help anyone. The first rule of natural healthcare is to 'Do No Harm', it's a pity the big Pharma's don't adopt the same approach.
I agree scientific evidence is required before claims to cure can be made. There is masses of research available to show the efficacy of nutritional supplements when taken to balance a state of deficiency, and I have seen much improvement in my clients health with managed food group elimination diets.
The Pharma's are just terrified that natural healthcare will undermine their industry if allowed to thrive.
Nutritional Therapist. Degree Qualified.
Well, you clearly are an idiot as I ask for a private identity and not just a generic Anonymous. You fail to appreciate why.
And your idiocy does not stop there. Please supply your best evidence that 'Big Pharma' is 'terrified' about 'natural healthcare'. Your best evidence. Anything. Or are you just deluded about this?
Nutritional Therapist. Degree Qualified = degree in baloney. To idiotic to realise that though.