MEDICAL BAG
This issue’s round-up of rogue remedies sees Hans Asperger linked to Nazi science and a doctor flogging homeopathic sound files online...
ASPERGER OUTED AS NAZI The world of autism has been shaken by the revelation that Hans Asperger, the Viennese pædiatrician whose name has come to be associated with “higher-functioning” individuals on the autistic spectrum, was involved in the child euthanasia programme during the Nazi occupation. A study based on contemporary documents by Herwig Czech revealed that Asperger was directly involved in the assessments of children with disabilities, many of whom were transferred to the Spiegelgrund clinic, where nearly 800 were killed. In Asperger’s Children, American historian Edith Sheffer shows how Asperger’s career benefitted from the antiSemitic purge of the medical profession, and how his concept of autism emerged from the prevailing eugenic consensus prevalent in Western medicine at the time.
The dramatic rise in the recognition of the syndrome, among adults as well as children, owes much to the work of the late Lorna Wing, who first introduced Asperger’s work to the English-speaking world in the Eighties. For Wing, a founding member of the National Autistic Society and the mother of an autistic daughter, as well as a clinical and academic authority, the Asperger’s label was above all a means of overcoming the stigma that attached to the diagnosis of autism. Documentary filmmaker Saskia Baron, whose brother is autistic, suggests that perhaps “Wing syndrome” would be a more appropriate label. Dr Mike Fitzpatrick, in D.Telegraph, 18 June 2018.
SOUNDS DODGY
The California medical board is threatening to revoke the license of Dr William Edwin Gray III for selling homeopathic sound files over the Internet that he claims can cure a variety of ailments, including Ebola, SARS, swine flu, malaria, typhoid, and cholera. Gray graduated from Stanford Medical School in 1970. In an interview with the Los Angeles
Times, he said he had decided not to contest the board’s allegations, as it would be too expensive. Because homeopathy doesn’t require a medical license, he can largely go about his business without it.
Homeopathy relies on principles such as “like cures like”, meaning that a substance that produces symptoms similar to a disease or ailment is able to cure that condition – when heavily diluted. Homeopaths also believe in the “law of infinitesimals”, which suggests that dilution increases a substance’s potency. Most homeopathic remedies are diluted to the point where they no longer contain any of the original substance. Some homeopaths believe that water can have a memory of the substance. Gray says that sound waves can carry “the energetic signal in homeopathic remedies” to treat patients. He claims to be able to collect that energy by placing vials of homeopathic remedies (like water) in electrified wire coils and recording any emitted sounds. With this method, he produced 263 “eRemedies,” which are 13-second recordings (conveniently available as either .wav or .MP3 files) said to sound like hissing. Patients – who are not examined or even seen by Gray – can get these “remedies” via his website. There they can “dose” themselves with the recordings to treat a variety of ailments.
Gray’s website lists 23 ailments that the recordings can treat. A user simply answers a series of questions about their condition and the website serves up the appropriate eRemedy. The individual recordings go for $5 a pop and users can also subscribe to receive 25 for $100. In the biographical section of the site, Gray claims that in 2014 he “created [a] campaign to treat Ebola via cellphone, curing 3 out of 3 within 4 hours simply by playing the appropriate eRemedy several times in an hour.” Robert Stewart, who founded the New York School of Homeopathy, was sceptical of Gray’s claims, saying: “He’s on his own in this”. arstechnica. com, 26 May 2018.
Here’s a sonic remedy that actually works: an ultrasound patch that drastically cuts healing times for bed sores and serious cuts. In tests, the 100g (3.5oz) device, little bigger than a sticking plaster, dramatically reduced the size of chronic leg ulcers after four weeks. Patients who were not given the treatment saw an average increase in wound size over the same period. The patch delivers pulses of low-frequency ultrasound 15 minutes at a time. At the time of the report, scientists didn’t know how it worked, but were looking at the effects of ultrasound on macrophages – immune
cells that play a critical role in healing – and collagen production. Laboratory studies showed that skin cells from mice experienced a 32 per cent increase in metabolism and 40 per cent increase in multiplication rate after being exposed to low-frequency ultrasound. Venous ulcers often take months and occasionally years to heal. Standard treatment involves controlling the swelling and fighting infection. D.Telegraph, 2 Aug 2013.
LEAKING BRAIN
In 2013, Kendra Jackson from Nebraska was in a car accident, hitting her face on the dashboard. Several years later, she began having a runny nose, painful headaches and trouble sleeping. “[It was] like a waterfall, continuously, and then it would run to the back of my throat,” she said.
At first, doctors blamed allergies; then an ear, nose and throat specialist at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha said she had cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaking from her brain – about 8oz (237ml) every day. (The brain produces roughly 17oz/503ml a day.) CSF is a clear liquid that flows between the brain and its outer covering, and between the spinal cord and its outer covering. The fluid cushions the brain and spinal cord, and helps clear waste from the brain. If it leaks from a nostril or down the throat, it can have a metallic taste. Though brain fluid leaking out of the nose certainly sounds alarming, people may have the condition, known medically as CSF rhinorrhea, for years before serious problems emerge, such as bacterial meningitis.
The source of the leak in Jackson’s case was a very small hole between her skull and nostrils. Entering through the nose, doctors were able to plug up the leak with some of her own fatty tissue. She was expected to make a full recovery. livescience.com, 7 May 2018.