6 signs of divorce based on diagnosis: says doctor and medical journalist Alexey Vodovozov

There are two main methods of deceiving a patient into a diagnosis that he actually does not have: quackery and pseudodiagnosis. Moreover, recognizing the second one is not as easy as the first. The client is seen by real doctors - however, certainly in a private medical center. They conduct examinations using some solid-looking equipment and issue a beautiful form with a diagnosis. And they prescribe expensive procedures or pills.

As a result, the doctor receives money, and the patient receives treatment that he did not need at all. And the first is formally pure: it does not harm the patient’s health. But strongly empties his pocket.

Doctor and medical journalist Alexey Vodovozov told on YouTube channel ScienceVideoLab about the main criteria for pseudodiagnosis. Lifehacker in the lecture notes identified six main signs of divorce for diagnosis.

1. Scientific, but not scientific explanation of the principle of operation

Stories about the operating principles of a diagnostic miracle device always sound beautiful and incomprehensible. For example, a medical center will tell you that its doctors use information-cosmic diagnostics or aura studies. But these terms don't make any sense.

Sometimes pseudo-diagnosticians say that science cannot yet explain the operating principle of their equipment. But despite everything skeptics their method works and produces accurate results.

This actually happens sometimes. But only with medications. For example, scientists for more than 100 years have not been able to establish exactly how paracetamol works, although they know very well that it works. However, this approach cannot be applied to diagnosis. Until researchers discovered ultrasound, they couldn't come up with an ultrasound machine. Until X-ray waves were discovered, it was impossible to do a computed tomography.

Before deciding on a type of diagnosis that is unfamiliar to you, do a fact check - find out what they write about this method scientific resourcesthat are trustworthy.

2. Huge list of diagnosed types of pathology

You are promised that in half an hour of examination you will be able to obtain data on absolutely all body systems. However, such diagnostics cannot be carried out using compulsory medical insurance policy. There is no data on the sensitivity and specificity of the technique in the scientific literature.

There are no universal diagnostic systems in medicine at all. And if you are offered to check all your organs at the same time, this is probably a scam.

To study the work of only one organ, different studies are needed that complement each other. Therefore, today it is in principle impossible to describe the work of the entire organism using just one diagnostic procedure.

3. Absence of a diagnosis of “healthy” or “normal variant”

This is a very important point. You will definitely be given not just one, but several diagnoses that require urgent treatment. But under no circumstances should surgical intervention be used - for some reason such diseases are not found in any patient.

It is important that pseudodiagnosticians use formulations that are not accepted in official medicine. Or the names of non-existent pathologies. And they will certainly prescribe at least an admission program dietary supplements — don’t let the patient go just like that. And if the doctor doesn’t find anything, he is considered to be a bad diagnostician. But this is not true.

Of the non-existent pathologies, the most popular is “slagging in the body.” There are also more detailed formulations. For example, “slag contamination of the 3rd degree according to the WHO scale.” This is a scam: there is neither such a diagnosis nor an appropriate scale. This is easy to check on the WHO website.

Other popular diagnoses: “acidification of the whole body”, “tension liver or immunity", "blood dysbiosis". But such pathologies do not exist. Although there are similar terms - for example, doctors can talk about the tension of the immune system. But this is not a diagnosis, but one of the indicators being studied. However, the patient himself comes up with something that no one talked about and gets scared.

And one more thing: pseudodiagnosticians There is no research-proven scale of normal values. It would allow another doctor or the patient himself to check how his results differ from the norm. But no, no verifiable numbers - just words to be believed. Or phrases that all the reference indicators are inside the device and it itself compares the patient’s results with them. And in general, “this device was invented by people smarter than you.”

4. The purpose of the “miracle drug” - supposedly safe and effective

Based on the results of pseudo-studies, conventional medications that have a clinically proven effect are never prescribed. The client is told that medications have side effects. This means that the pills will certainly do harm.

Pseudodiagnosticians are well versed in psychology. They know: every person wants to be treated easily and pleasantly. This creates the illusion that the patient truly cares about himself. After all, he chooses only products without side effects, which definitely will not cause harm.

Therefore, after an examination, a person easily agrees to use “wonderful and safe” dietary supplements and homeopathic medicines. And even “discs with information images medicines that can be transferred over the Internet.”

A non-existent pathology can indeed be treated with non-working remedies. But there is no real illness.

5. Statements about numerous fakes of the miracle device

As a rule, in all pseudo-diagnostic centers they will tell you: only our devices are correct and working. All the rest have only fakes, and they are used by charlatans. Sometimes they will even show a long list of such fake devices. And they will warn you: they should not be used under any circumstances, and only ours should be used.

But in pseudo-diagnostics we regularly encounter “fake devices”, “falsified software”, and virtual battles for the right to call our units correct and reference.

Here is another popular method of divorcing a diagnosis. As soon as a new version of the device’s software is released, all previous readings will be reset. And patients from the database are again invited to undergo examination. They say that the previous version was imperfect, so some important diagnosis could go unnoticed. But now nothing will be hidden from the miracle device. Therefore, customers are asked to bring their own again. money.

6. Inability to obtain an official document - a certificate or prescription

Not a single pseudo-diagnostic center will even give you a certificate saying that you can visit the pool. You will never receive a prescription or sick leave there. Moreover, the documents that are needed for registration disability.

Any diagnosis must be confirmed using certain techniques. Each disease has its own standards, and there is a list of necessary tests and studies. This is done so that the doctor who issues the document has no doubts about the correctness of the diagnosis.

Staff at pseudodiagnostic centers are not confident that their findings are accurate. Moreover, sometimes it is not charlatans who work in such clinics, but normal doctors. They say that they will not ignore a patient with a really serious problem. And they will definitely send a person to specialized specialists if they see that he needs serious diagnostics and qualified help.

But if the patient is practically healthy, it is quite possible to give him a conclusion obtained, for example, using a “karmascope”. And there, along with traditional indicators, there may be “the arrival of the spirit,” “karmic load soul”, “the level of cleansing of the body from toxins and waste” and “the wavelength of the cells of problem organs”.

There are other criteria for divorce diagnosis. But these six can be considered basic. And if you are offered “a new unique technique that will replace all diagnostic procedures at once,” it is worth checking whether it corresponds to one or more points from this list.