Can iridology detect susceptibility to cancer? A prospective case-controlled study.
M�nstedt K, El-Safadi S, Br�ck F, Zygmunt M, Hackethal A, Tinneberg HR.
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany. [email protected]
OBJECTIVE: This prospective case-control study aimed to investigate the value of iridology as a diagnostic tool in detecting some common cancers.
SUBJECTS: One hundred ten (110) subjects were enrolled in the study: 68 subjects had histologically proven cancers of the breast, ovary, uterus, prostate, or colorectum, and 42 were control subjects.
METHODS: All subjects were examined by an experienced practitioner of iridology, who was unaware of their gender or medical details. He was allowed to suggest up to five diagnoses for each subject and his results were then compared with each subject's medical diagnosis to determine the accuracy of iridology in detecting malignancy.
RESULTS: Iridology identified the correct diagnosis in only 3 cases (sensitivity, 0.04).
CONCLUSION: Iridology was of no value in diagnosing the cancers investigated in this study.
About 30 years ago my partner at the time was studying iridology. He went on to become a most excellent iridologist traveling and teaching iridology.
During iris readings he would keep telling me that there was something about my shoulder that was not right. Since he was new at it at the time he could not say what. He would touch the spot in my shoulder and say right here. There is a major leasion here. He would ask me if I had pain or any symptoms. I only had a little brown mole there. The only thing unusual about it was that it was new. Had come up over the previous year.
About 3 years later that mole started to change, Turn purple, red, white and back to dark brown, then a layer of dark papery skin would rise up and peel off. It did this many times. I was such a ditz. I gave it no attention. Then one day a friend, a med student insisted that I go get it checked out. It was melanoma.
Seems to me that iridology could see the problem developing many years before a symptom came up that a cautious person would acknowledge.
I had it surgically removed and have not had a problem since. It was a stage 1. This cancer appeared at a time in my life when I ate mostly raw foods, fasted periodically, did lots of juices, wheat grass, etc. etc. so so much for that...
He went on to work in a physicians office that did alternative medicine. Through iridology he would correct diagnosis made by conventional means. As I recall he was just about always right through the iris readings
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The mistake here is having iridology or any natural modality looking for a 'medical' disease. This should NOT happen. To compare medical diagnosis with natural medicine treatment is like comparing apples with a car horn. Two entirely different things. The iridologists were falling into big pharma's trap.
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As with anything, we must know the limitations and potentials of a method.
Iridology is based on the connection of the nerve-rich iris to the rest of the body via the automic nervous system. So if the connection is maintained, the iris can be an accurate monitor of what's going on in the rest of the body. But the connection can be blocked, such as with anesthesia and other nervous system drugs. If something happens in such an event, it would not manifest in the iris.
So iridology can have a lot of false negatives, but I don't think there are any false positives.
I've dabbled with iridology in my canine patients. Being no expert in the field, I use it more to supplement other methods. I would say that it can be a very useful tool if we know its limitations and potentials, just like stethoscope auscultation, crude as some people may think of it, is still a useful diagnostic adjunct.
Well the iridologists I knew weren't falling into any trap. They knew full well what the cause and and nature of disease was. The thing is, when you can compare iris slides with conventional diagnosis you can learn a lot about he iris. You come to understand better what a broken arm looks like in the iris or a cancer laden liver might look like in the iris. Comparative analysis has done much to advance iridology and those iridologists who have had this opportunity will be much better than those who just learned from a book.
And again, like any art/science the results will only be as good as the skilled practitioner is. Connecting all the dots and accurately reading an iris is not for everyone.
An iridologist would never say there is cancer here or there but they would talk in terms of degenerative processes or toxic conditions and have inclinations as to the severity so it is no wonder that they only found 3 cases of cancer. The iridologist who declared cancer needs to study his profession again.
Last edited by Arrowwind09; 12-09-2007 at 10:50 AM.