Dr. Peter W. Pappas wrote:
> There is absolutely no established medical basis for "looking at one's iris
> and telling what's wrong with them." An iridologist can no more look into
> your daughter's eyes and tell she has a tapeworm that I can look up my
> truck's exhaust pipe and tell it has a bad piston. If your daughter is
> having problems and a "medical doctor" can not figure out what's wrong, then
> there's two possibilities. First, nothing's wrong. Second, you need a
> second opinion from a qualified (!) medical practitioner.
Judy/Bob Dilworth wrote:
> I agree with Dr. Pappas. Also, tapeworms are far from "little pests".
> The fish tapeworm, D. latum, can get to be 25 feet long! Have you had
> her to a pediatric gastroenterologist? This would make MUCH more sense
> than an iridologist. Diagnosis of a tapeworm is done by seeing the
> segments passed in the stool (and having a competent lab identify them)
> or seeing the eggs in the stool (microscopically - again by a
> laboratory). If nothing else, you have nice pictures of your daughter's
> eyes, for which you probably paid dearly.
> Tapeworms are picked up by ingesting the segment or the egg from fecal
> contamination of whatever you're eating. Ask this iridologist about the
> tapeworm's life cycle (after you look it up first). I'll bet she
> doesn't have a clue.
Kimberly Oliver originally wrote: message
<37362B9D.F8681CF9 at bellsouth.net>
> >I had pictures taken of my 9 yr old daughter's eyes by a Iridologist.
> >The diagnosis came back amoung other parasites and a low ph balance,
> >that she had a tape worm in her instintine. She had been experienceing
> >a great deal of stomach aches and no medical doctor could figure out
> >what the hell was going on. Could you send me information on these
> >little pests. How do you ge them, what do they look like, how do you
> >get rid of them, etc.
Dr. Pappas and Ms. Dilworth,
I appreciate your willingness to respond to the umpteenth person in this
newsgroup who claim to have parasites or know someone who has a
parasite. As we both know, not every person who comes here for answers
has a case of delusional parasitosis. Some may actually have worms or
protozoans meandering through their innards. Of course, many have no
such thing. Let us not forget the Zebras in our differential diagnoses,
Dr. Pappas. Hoofbeats aren't always from Horses.
In order to foster an environment of trust with the patients I see, it
is important for me to respect their beliefs (no matter how radical
these beliefs seem to me when they present in the office - these are
things that life has somehow taught them to be valid). I have taken it
upon myself to read a great deal about complimentary (poorly known as
alternative) medicine including iridology. As I told Ms. Oliver in an
email, I was certainly unaware that iridologists could be so specific in
their diagnoses as to discriminate between infectious organisms. I
urged her to see a licensed physician and at the very least have them
due three succesive OVA AND PARASITEs to check her daughters stools for
cysts, eggs, or proglotids to confirm or deny that she has tapeworms, or
any other offending parasite. That's one O&P on three seperate stool
samples taken from various times/days to allow for the cyclical shedding
of some parasitews such as our friend, G. lamblia (=intestinalis). An
experienced physician with good history taking skills should then
investigate and hopefully find the true problem this child may be
experiencing, be it neurologic, psychologic, infectious, vascular,
congenital, or otherwise.
If this woman is taking her daughter to an iridologist and writing to
this poorly receptive newsgroup, Dr. Pappas and Ms. Dilworth, then she
must be desperate for answers about her daughter's ailing health.
Perhaps it would credit this group if we could be more sensitive to her
needs in this situation.
I commend Ms. Dilworth both for her effort to educate Ms. Oliver about
tapeworms and for encouraging Ms. Oliver to question her iridologist
further about her or his knowledge base. I sincerely hope that Ms.
Oliver finds a succesful resolution to her daughter's health concerns
and that this group may be more receptive to people like her in the
future.
-as3
--
Alberto Santos III
Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine
URL: http://www.flash.net/~alberto3/
Email: mailto:alberto3 at flash.net
ICQ: 24114574
