Live Blood Analysis: no health claims allowed

Practitioners should not be making health claims for Live Blood Analysis. Not a single one. There is no evidence to support them.

The UK Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) have published guidance on Live Blood Analysis, which advises

CAP is yet to see any evidence for the efficacy of this therapy which, without rigorous evidence to support it, should be advertised on an availability-only platform.

‘Dr’ Stephen Ferguson’s recordbreaking ASA adjudication

The Advertising Standards Authority have upheld my complaint against Dr Stephen Ferguson’s Natural Health Clinic website. He was found to be in breach of eight of the CAP Code rules – more than any other live blood analyst on my list.

Yet surprisingly, the ASA have not asked him to stop calling himself ‘Dr’. As Ferguson explains here, (at the bottom, just after the incredible CV):

The use of Dr before Dr Stephen Ferguson’s name is for PhD, the highest level of learning, not because he is a chemical drug doctor (GP). He is a naturopathic doctor the number 1 in the world, curing disease using only natural techniques and substances. NO CHEMICAL DRUGS (which are needed at times, but always damage the body and create other diseases, and in most case just mask the ones you already have pushing them deeper into your system, so you stay a legal drug addict for life in most chronic cases).

Live Blood Analysis and the ASA: a catalogue of complaints

Live Blood Analysis (also known as “nutritional microscopy”) is a quack diagnostic technique which was described as ‘fraudulent’ by Professor Edzard Ernst as long ago as 2005 and which has already been covered many times on this blog.

When I first heard about Live Blood Analysis, I was so shocked by what I found that I was moved to act. Happily, the ASA had just extended their online remit to include company websites.

The following list details the outcomes of all the ASA complaints I know of concerning live blood analysis and its practitioners.

Denton’s dirty tricks campaign

UPDATE 18/01/13: It appears that Denton has been paying people to sign a petition against me and Jo Brodie. A new Twitter account (@FightRacism2) has also been set up to promote this petition and to spread malicious untruths about us. For further details, see Jo’s Storify post here. The RationalWiki entry for Errol Denton is also being kept updated with recent developments and new, relevant links.

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Live blood quack Errol Denton seems to think Jo Brodie and I are being unfair to him. He claims we’ve been cyber bullying him for two years, purely because of the colour of his skin. We are lower than a cockroach’s belly, apparently.

Of course, Errol hasn’t substantiated any of these claims. Like many of the claims on his sites, they are totally without foundation.

Radio 4 You & Yours investigate unregulated ‘live’ blood tests

Thursday’s BBC Radio 4 You & Yours featured a report on live blood analysis.

I won’t go into too much background detail about the technique, the practitioners featured, the Groupon deals I’ve reported to the Advertising Standards Authority or the angry and disappointed customers who found my blog (and subsequently spoke to the media). I have already written about those things extensively (see ‘Further reading’, below).

Let me just share some highlights…