A woman with a benign tumor in the had died because she followed the advice given by an iridologist, instead of going to hospital and be treated by doctors.
The two daughters of that woman relate what happened.
Everything started with a cyst. The woman decided not to go to the doctor and to see an iridologist instead.
Iridology is a pseudoscientific practice that diagnoses health problems and recommends treatments based on the analysis of a person’s iris.
Yes, you read it right. Someone looks at your iris and tells you what diseases you have and how to treat them.
No matter how absurd it may be, unfortunately there are people who believe that is a useful method. This was the case with the woman I am telling you about.
One of the woman’s daughters says that she was asked to PROMISE that she would not go to the doctor. The other girl says that the woman treated the iridologist as if he were a priest, she believed everything he said, without asking any questions.
The iridologist recommended all kinds of queer healing methods, like the slight tapping of the forehead with the fingers or the repetition of certain „positive statements”. Moreover, he promised the woman to cure her of cancer in 3 months if she followed his advice.
Obviously the advice of the iridiologist didn’t work and in the end the disease evolved till the moment when the woman died.
Now let’s look objectively at iridology.
In the first place…
Most of the doctors do not approve iridology. Because it does not work and there is no evidence to support it. The iridologists are NO doctors.
Iridology has a name with scientific resonance. But it is not a science. It’s quite the opposite of science and of the medical treatment used in hospitals.
It is a form of alternative medicine, like acupuncture or homeopathy (these by the way don’t work either).
Iridologists are not doctors, they did not graduate any medical school. They just attended some courses (unacknowledged by the scientific community) and received a certificate of practice.
This is what’s important for you to understand now: iridology sounds like a science, but it isn’t. Just it sounds like it.
Now let’s see what the studies tell us…
The department of science:
An analysis from 2000 of all the research upon iridology reveals the fact that it’s an ineffective method when trying to detect liver or heart problems, asthma, psoriasis or ulcer (Ernst, 2000).
A study realized in 2005 clearly shows that iridology is ineffective when is used for detecting cancer. There were used 110 subjects (68 subjects with various forms of cancer and 42 healthy subjects). All these people were examined by an experienced iridologist, who didn’t know what patients suffered of cancer and who were healthy. He could choose between 5 forms of cancer or say that the patients were healthy.
The iridologist gave the right diagnosis for only 3 subjects. 3 subjects out of 110! Proof that iridology is ineffective in detecting cancer (Münstedt et al., 2005).
In conclusion, iridology is a pseudoscience, based on groundless data, that only sounds scientifically and that in situations resembling with the case we presented you today may estrange people from efficient medical treatments and lead to tragedies.
