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 in vitro. It is promoted by some alternative medicine practitioners, who assert that it can diagnose a range of diseases.
Live blood analysis is an "unestablished diagnostic test": its methods are not generally accepted in laboratory practice and its validity as a laboratory test has not yet been determined. There is no scientific evidence for the validity of live blood analysis, and it has been described as a pseudoscientific, bogus and fraudulent medical test. Live blood testing has also been described as a fraudulent means of convincing a patient that they are ill and require treatment with dietary supplements.
A review by the BBC Radio 4 consumer programme You and Yours noted that 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 that proponents make 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 highlighted practitioners including Errol Denton of Fitalifestyle Ltd., who uses a serviced office in Harley Street, London to give what the programme characterises as an illusion of medical legitimacy; Denton acknowledged that "nutritional blood microscopy is neither scientific nor medical".
Read more about Live Blood Analysis: Overview, Common Diagnoses, Regulatory Issues
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