BioResonance Tumor Therapy
Stephen Barrett, M.D.
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In the Fall of 1998, it was announced that the New Hope BioResonance Clinic would soon be opening in Tijuana, Mexico. According to information posted in the clinic's Web site:
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The treatment was claimed to be "the most effective new development for the natural elimination of tumors and their underlying causes yet discovered." It was said to be administered with a "BioResonance Therapy Device" that can detect and modify "electromagnetic emissions" from the patient's cancer cells. According to its promoters:
Every cell in the human body has a gene called the P53 gene. This gene tracks the degeneration of the cell and when it finds that the cell is damaged beyond repair, it triggers its self-destruction. This active, controlled process of cell death is happening all the time in all of us. 95% of the cells that are in your body now weren't there 2 years ago. The old cells died through this natural self-destruction process that is triggered by the P53 gene. New cells are then created through cell division. What about tumor cells? In tumor cells the function of the P53 gene gets suppressed. The tumor cells lose the ability to die naturally. This insight about the P53 gene has led to the development of a new way to re-enliven the function of the suppressed P53 gene and bring back its ability to naturally self-destruct the cell upon recognizing that the cell is degenerate. What this means is that malignant tumors can be reduced and/or eliminated from the body by re-activating the cell's suppressed P53 function. The technique for re-enlivening the P53 function is through a process known as BioResonance Therapy.
Mr. Keymer's brilliant insight was to shift the thinking from seeing the tumor cells as the enemy that has to be aggressively killed, to seeing the tumor cells as weakened normal cells. The therapy that he devised was to re-energize the tumor cells in order to re-activate the function of the suppressed P53 gene. With this function re-energized, the tumor cells recognize their own degenerate state and naturally die on their own.
There are other factors involved in addition to this underlying principle. In the surrounding tissue there is another gene called the Myg gene that sends signals to the surrounding cells to stay alive. In the tissue surrounding the tumors the Myg gene becomes overactive. Its activity must be reduced which is also accomplished through BioResonance Therapy. There are also background toxic stresses that have initially caused the suppression of the P53 gene. These toxic stresses must be identified and eliminated also through BioResonance Therapy. Some of these include viruses, parasites, bacteria, mold, fungus, mercury and other heavy metals, environmental toxins, electro-magnetic field stresses, etc. The body's organs, glands and the immune system must also be strengthened and detoxified. Inevitably, there are emotional or psychological stresses underlying every tumor. These factors have also responded very well to BioResonance Therapy. 80% of cancer patients treated in Germany with this new BioResonance Therapy approach have recovered successfully. This means that the tumor has stopped growing, has then gradually or quickly reduced in size and either stabilized or has been completely eliminated. In addition, because the underlying toxic stresses that caused the tumor have also been identified and eliminated, thus far, reoccurrence of the tumor or development of other tumors has been minimal to non-existent.
BioResonance Therapy for tumors has been used successfully in Germany both with and without traditional therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. In fact, in many cases where traditional medical doctors have given up on patients and told them that they had only a few weeks to live, the patients started this new BioResonance Therapy for tumors and within a few months they were tumor free and back in good health. This has happened not once but over and over again. The average course of therapy is six weeks with 2 to three treatments per week. The treatments are non-invasive, completely comfortable and gentle. This is certainly one of the most encouraging and exciting new developments in the treatment of cancer.
The proponents claimed that tumor cells generate "electromagnetic oscillations" that differ from those of normal surrounding tissues and that their device can somehow detect and modify oscillations from the patient's cancer. They claimed that cancers are caused by "background toxic stresses" and that the device uses "inverse oscillation therapy . . . based on the principle of physics and biophysics of wave interference or destructive interference to cancel the electro-magnetic charge of the toxins." The proponents stated that about 150 practitioners had been trained and that "there are about 40 or 50 who are highly competent and are successfully treating patients using this therapy." The "80% success" figure was said to be based on interviews with practitioners who administered the treatment.
Through its New Hope BioResonance University of Holistic Medicine, the clinic offered a 9-month course and promised that "opportunities as a Certified BioResonance Tumor Therapist would be available at New Hope BioResonance Clinics throughout the world." The first seminar was said to prepare the practitioner "to begin to balance the electromagnetic fields of the body which very frequently results in the elimination of health complaints. " Other seminars dealt with "meridian test kits," identification and elimination of "toxic stresses" such as such as "parasites, focal infections, intestinal and liver disorders, auto-immune disorders, mold and fungus conditions, residual effects of childhood diseases, vaccinations and inherited diseases [and] psychological/emotional stresses."
On December 10, 1998, I searched the World Wide Web and MEDLINE for information about Martin Keymer. I found one site which mentioned that a "Dr. Martin Keymer" in Germany had been involved in treating patients with colloidal minerals for six years. My MEDLINE search using PubMed found no articles listed under the name "Keymer M."
Proposed Mechanism Is Impossible
Cells become cancerous because they undergo gene mutations. Genes are instructions, encoded in the DNA we inherit, that dictate how our cells work. Some important genes are involved in controlling when a given type of cell will divide in two. Other important genes are involved in causing defective cells (such as cells that are dividing when they aren't supposed to) to effectively "commit suicide." The p53 gene is involved in both activities. It participates in the "decisions" about when to divide and helps trigger the cell-suicide response if the cell is behaving inappropriately [1].
A gene mutation is a chemical change in the gene itself. When the p53 gene undergoes a cancer-generating mutation, it can no longer participate in monitoring cell-division rates or help elicit the "suicide" response. Once this happens, however, its function can no longer be restored. The only way to restore function would be to make new p53 genes in a laboratory and inject them into every tumor cell in the body. If it were possible to correct mutant genes, it would also be possible to eliminate conditions like sickle-cell anemia or Huntington's Disease. However, no such process has been developed.
BioResonance Tumor Therapy advocates claimed that in cancer cells the p53 genes are "suppressed," rather than mutated, and that their treatment will somehow "re-energize" them. Suppressed genes are intact but unable to function. However, many studies of biopsied cancers have shown that their p53 genes are mutated. Since the p53 gene is not suppressed, the claim that BioResonance Therapy can reverse this suppression must also be false.
Moreover, the treatment method is completely senseless. In 1998, the Web site had 26 case reports, most of which involved patients treated in 1997 or 1998. The reports had few details and include little or no follow-up information. The reports indicated that the diagnosis was made by examining the patient with ampules of various cancer cells or other substances in the device's matrix, and the contents of the ampules are electromagnetically modified in some way and administered to the patient.
Current Status
In November 2004, I noticed that the New Hope Clinic's Web site, which had been active during the early part of the year, was no longer online. However, I located the Web site of the BICOM 2000 device's manufacturer (Regumed GmbH), which states:
Bioresonance therapy is a therapy with patient’s own electromagnetic frequency patterns. The patient’s own electromagnetic oscillations of his body are received by electrodes working as an antenna and fed into the device. The BICOM device changes the body’s own information with the help of special electronic systems into therapy signals, which are returned to the patient by the output cable. Due to this method the electromagnetic pathologic information in the body is eliminated i.e. reduced. The patient and the therapy device enter a feedback cycle [2].
What is “resonance”? An example: If you hit a tuning-fork in a room containing a piano, the corresponding string in this piano begins to resonate too. A further extraordinary discovery is the fact that cells communicate with each other by means of certain wavelengths (frequencies). Where this form of communication remains unimpaired by disturbance frequencies, the person in question is considered to be healthy. A toxin, for example, entering the body, has disturbed frequency patterns which interfere with the body’s own regulatory powers and in turn impair the body’s functions. Using the BICOM device, frequency patterns, which cause illness, can be transformed into therapeutically effective frequency patterns [3]
The BICOM device makes the transition into Bioresonance particularly easy. Over 400 indications are stored in our therapy programmes. These programmes contain the experience gained from 20 years’ work in Bioresonance. The therapist needs only to enter the programme number, place the electrodes on the patient and press the start button. The device switches itself off automatically once a therapy programme is complete. . . . As well as being used for therapy, the BICOM device is excellent for diagnosis too [4].
According to Regumed, "some 4,500 doctors from all specialties and non-medical practitioners around the world are working with BICOM Bioresonance Therapy." [5] I find this amazing because no device of this type has been demonstrated to be useful in treating any health problem.
References
- Fearon ER, Vogelstein B. Tumor suppressor and DNA repair gene defects in human cancer. In Holland JF and others. Cancer Medicine, Fourth Edition. Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1997, pp 103-104.
- Technical dictionary. Regumed GmbH Web site, accessed Nov 6, 2004.
- How does it work? Regumed GmbH Web site, accessed Nov 6, 2004.
- Easy to use. Regumed GmbH Web site, accessed Nov 6, 2004.
- More about Regumed. Regumed GmbH Web site, accessed Nov 6, 2004.
This article was revised on November 6, 2004.