Live blood analysis
Live blood analysis (LBA), live cell analysis, Hemaview or nutritional blood analysis is the use of high-resolution dark field microscopy to observe live blood cells. Live blood analysis is promoted by some alternative medicine practitioners, who assert that it can diagnose a range of diseases. There is no scientific evidence that live blood analysis is reliable or effective, and it has been described as a fraudulent means of convincing people that they are ill and should purchase dietary supplements.
| Claims | Ability to diagnose disease from blood examined using dark field microscopy |
|---|---|
| Related scientific disciplines | Microscopy, dark field microscopy |
| Year proposed | ca. 1925 |
| Original proponents | Günther Enderlein |
| Subsequent proponents | Robert O. Young |
| (Overview of pseudoscientific concepts) | |
Live blood analysis is not accepted in laboratory practice and its validity as a laboratory test has not been established. There is no scientific evidence for the validity of live blood analysis, it has been described as a pseudoscientific, bogus and fraudulent medical test, and its practice has been dismissed by the medical profession as quackery. The field of live blood microscopy is unregulated, there is no training requirement for practitioners and no recognised qualification, no recognised medical validity to the results, and proponents have made false claims about both medical blood pathology testing and their own services, which some have refused to amend when instructed by the Advertising Standards Authority.
It has its origins in the now-discarded theories of pleomorphism promoted by Günther Enderlein, notably in his 1925 book Bakterien-Cyklogenie.
In January 2014 prominent live blood proponent and teacher Robert O. Young was arrested and charged for practising medicine without a license, and in March 2014 Errol Denton, a former student of his, a UK live blood practitioner, was convicted on nine counts in a rare prosecution under the Cancer Act 1939, followed in May 2014 by another former student, Stephen Ferguson.