Live blood analysis
Often, the Skeptical Inquirer brings us same old same old. UFOs, bigsquatches, dowsing, psychics... yawn. So it's always nice when they turn up something new, at least to me. So Thomas Patterson's article in the latest SI was a nice find, a new thing to add to my mental junk drawer of baloney.
Live blood analysis practitioners set up in various alternative practices, or even at the local health food store. They'll take some of your blood (or more likely, they give you a sterile pokey thing so that you can do it yourself, since they don't have the necessary qualifications to pierce your skin) plop it on a slide, stick it under a 'scope and then point out imaginary things that require expensive supplements or treatments with a zero-point energy wand.
Wikipedia is uncharactestically blunt in its assessment: "There is no scientific evidence for the validity of live blood analysis, and it has been described as a pseudoscientific, bogus and fraudulent medical test. Live blood testing has also been described as a fraudulent means of convincing a patient that they are ill and require treatment with dietary supplements."
Live blood analysis practitioners set up in various alternative practices, or even at the local health food store. They'll take some of your blood (or more likely, they give you a sterile pokey thing so that you can do it yourself, since they don't have the necessary qualifications to pierce your skin) plop it on a slide, stick it under a 'scope and then point out imaginary things that require expensive supplements or treatments with a zero-point energy wand.
Wikipedia is uncharactestically blunt in its assessment: "There is no scientific evidence for the validity of live blood analysis, and it has been described as a pseudoscientific, bogus and fraudulent medical test. Live blood testing has also been described as a fraudulent means of convincing a patient that they are ill and require treatment with dietary supplements."