Does Web Site Offer Patients False Hope?
BY NORMA WAGNER
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE
207.179.44.6
An Internet Web site run by a Sandy company
has added fuel to the debate over the
effectiveness of alternative medicine.
The BioPulse home page boasts that the
company offers "the most comprehensive
alternative medical treatment program available in
the World" for patients with AIDS, cancer, lupus,
multiple sclerosis, hepatitis A, B and C, other
degenerative diseases and chemical dependency.
Its promoters say the therapies attack disease
and rejuvenate patients' immune systems to
continue the fight.
Practitioners of traditional medicine offer the
opinion that some of those treatments are not
helpful, can be dangerous and often offer false
hope to patients with terminal and chronic
illnesses.
"It's sad when you can't offer hope in traditional
medicine. Often the normal response for patients
is to search out other remedies," said Marc
Babitz, a family practice doctor at the University
of Utah School of Medicine.
"But this is way off the map. This is harmful
psychologically, physically and financially with
absolutely no foundation for success. It's preying
on unfortunate individuals."
BioPulse patients travel to Tijuana, Mexico,
stay in a hotel, and pay $10,800 for the
recommended three-week program where they
receive as many as a dozen treatments.
BioPulse director Jonathan Neville, a lawyer
who lives in South Jordan, said the corporation
does not claim to cure disease and admits many of
the treatments are not approved by the U.S. Food
and Drug Administration (FDA). But, he said, the
alternative therapies have proven effective. "I
don't know how you can say any [medical
treatment] is a success [over a long period of
time], but all the patients seem to be very happy.
"We're getting a lot of publicity lately that we
haven't really sought out," he said. "If it was up to
us, we wouldn't have any press for another six
months because we want to have enough case
histories for doctors who are so skeptical and
negative to review and evaluate what we're
doing."
The Tijuana hotel clinic began taking
reservations from patients in January and treats
about 15 patients per month, said Neville. It is
staffed by an oncology surgeon, a critical care
physician -- both of whom are licensed to practice
in Mexico -- a staff of nurses and a lab technician.
A second BioPulse clinic in Bad Nauheim,
Germany, is slated to open this fall.
Neville and Loran Swensen incorporated the
company in Utah on June 4, 1998, according to
state records.
Neither Neville, Swensen nor the company's
two other listed officers hold medical licenses with
the state of Utah. And since they do not appear to
be diagnosing or treating patients -- but instead
refer them to the hotel-based clinic -- the state
Department of Occupational and Professional
Licensing (DOPL) has no purview over the
organization, said DOPL spokesman Kim Morris.
Neville and Swensen have been in business
together for eight years running Multi-Dimensional
Studios, a 3-D animation video company that
shares the same office space with BioPulse at a
small business complex at 459 W. Universal
Circle, Sandy.
The BioPulse treatment of most concern to
Utah doctors is "colonics," or intense enemas.
Intense enemas, which are becoming
increasingly popular in alternative medicine, can
break the wall of the colon, "which is extremely
dangerous," said Jay Jacobson, an infectious
disease specialist at LDS and University hospitals
in Salt Lake City.
Babitz agreed and said the practice can
damage the large intestine by flooding it with
enema water.
"When you put large amounts of fluids in the
large intestine there's a danger of absorption of
excess fluid or of other chemicals in the fluid, and
there's also a danger of removing helpful
chemicals from the body," he said.
Responded Neville: "We're careful to have
qualified physicians and nursing staff who
understand the risks and take all precautions.
They know what they're doing."
The BioPulse Web site says the colonics
procedure "is done privately by the patient."
The Web site also uses -- often wrongly --
medical jargon that the average person cannot
understand, doesn't back up its claims with any
statistics or studies, and charges a lot of money
for treatments not approved by the FDA, both
physicians said.
Under the "Colonic Detoxification" treatment,
the Web site talks about how toxins, bacteria and
fungi tend to lodge in the colon. Wrong, said
Jacobson, "that's the point of a bowel movement."
The Web site also claims those toxins can
migrate to other parts of the body "spreading
inflammation and infection." Wrong again, said
Jacobson. The large intestine absorbs nutrients
and the remaining waste products are shipped to
the colon and propelled out of the body.
"This is the classic alternative-medicine type of
thing that mixes up lots of medical words, medical
procedures, with hyperbole," Babitz said. "It's
taking unproven theories and charging people a
whole lot of money to become guinea pigs."
Neville pointed out he is not a doctor, that he
handles only the financial side of the business and
therefore could not respond.
Co-director Swensen responded angrily to
physicians' "typical" opinions toward alternative
medicine, saying: "We were taught 500 years ago
that the world was flat. That's where we are with
alternative medicine today. I don't argue that there
are not charlatans and flaws among some
practitioners in alternative medicine. But it doesn't
mean there aren't charlatans and flaws in the
system that's already in place.
"I could give a cantankerous damn about their
attitudes."
Another treatment that concerned the doctors
is "Chelation Therapy" where chemicals are put in
a patient's bloodstream to remove heavy metals
associated with such illnesses as lead poisoning.
But medical studies in the 1970s proved that its
use for other therapies offers no benefits, Babitz
said.
Several other treatments offered are riddled
with wrong assumptions and medical misnomers,
said the doctors.
In describing "Ultraviolet Blood Illumination,"
BioPulse staff say the technique uses ultraviolet
light as a disinfectant to kill viruses and bacteria.
They say the treatment produces "a custom-made
vaccine" for the client and claims it has proven
effective in the treatment of such "virus-causing
diseases" as AIDS, hepatitis A, B and C,
pneumonia, mononucleosis and herpes.
"It's a misuse of language, it's nothing like
vaccines because vaccines don't kill pathogens,
they protect against them," Jacobson said. "And
these are not virus-causing diseases, these are
diseases caused by a virus."
Neville simply said: "I don't know about the
semantics on that."
Other treatments advertised on the Web site
include "Theta Chamber Therapy" and
"Oxygenation Therapy," which involve inundating
the patient with large amounts of oxygen.
Jacobson questioned the theory behind the
procedures since human blood can hold only so
much oxygen before it becomes saturated.
Unless a person suffers from shortness of
breath from a respiratory ailment: "People can
only carry so much oxygen. If people breathe air,
that's enough oxygen for the majority of us," he
said.
Neville pointed out that hospitals use oxygen
chambers to treat victims of carbon monoxide
poisoning all the time.
Neville said during the next few years, 25 other
BioPulse rejuvenation centers will open
throughout the world, but not in the United States
until the company gets FDA approval to perform
its therapies stateside.
Additionally, the BioPulse Web site offers a
"Post-Clinic Support Program" for patients
returning from therapy where they can buy
nutritional supplements and "portable versions" of
some of the equipment used in their treatment.
Robert Morrow, a Utah doctor who is partnering
with the firm, and the patients' own physicians
oversee that process, Neville said. (Morrow
would not comment on the BioPulse therapies,
referring calls to Swensen.)
Neville said that in time traditional medical
practitioners will accept the alternative methods
offered by BioPulse. |
