Why Muscle Testing (Applied Kinesiology) is a Scam
(AK is a parlor trick for diagnosing allergies, ailments, dietary, and/or supplement needs)
This is the first part of a series of articles of how you can save time and money avoiding healthcare scams.
What Should You Do if You Go to a Chiropractor Who Does Perform It?
Easy answer: Don’t go. Save your time and money and get blood work and testing done to get to the bottom of your health issue. OR, many chronic health issues can be improved dramatically with diet, better sleep, stress reduction, exercise, and supplements.
Read on, though, to learn what AK is, how an AK doctor can cause positive or negative muscle testing.
Applied kinesiology (AK) is a method of diagnosis and prescription invented in the 1960s by a chiropractor named George Goodheart. Dr. Goodheart combined elements of psychic philosophy, Chinese Taoism, and ancient Eastern practices. According to Goodheart, the charts he invented for diagnosis were at least partly derived through psychic powers.
It is used mostly by chiropractors and some naturopaths for diagnosis of health issues. It is performed by testing the strength of the arm/shoulder muscles by pressing down lightly with the doctor's hand. But there is a subtle “trick” they use to make tests positive or negative that I will show you below.
It is an illusion or trick that dupes desperate patients who have failed the conventional medical system. I think people who have positive results with AK get them because of the placebo effect and/or the supplements or nutrients that are prescribed will accidently help with their condition. It is probably not directly harmful, but it could delay proper diagnosis, which may be harmful.
The AK chiropractor will claim that the supplement or food that the patient is holding will change the energy fields around their body, thus making them weak and creating a positive test (weakness of the arm/shoulder). Energy medicine is New Age and along the same lines as horoscopes, palm reading, etc.…. There is no proof on how it works.
One large review of AK in Chiropractic and Osteopathy concluded that “the few studies evaluating unique AK procedures cannot support the validity of AK procedures and diagnostic tests. The evidence to date does not support the use of AK for diagnosis or conditions.” In short, no study has ever shown how it works or that it works.
How an AK Chiropractor gets a Positive AK testing:
The “Practitioner” will cause a positive test (or weakness) by pressing down on your arm with the pinky part of his hand (notice that he’ll point down with his pinky on all positive tests throughout the video (take note at 30 seconds if you decide to watch the video posted below). This subtle change in where he directs his force can cause weakness due to the mechanical disadvantage at the shoulder joint.
How an AK Chiropractor can Cause a Negative AK test:
The “doctor” will change where he directs his force through the middle of his hand. He will end up pointing down with his middle and index fingers to create a negative test (Time stamp at 30 seconds). I could perform the same tests and get the results I wanted, regardless of your body’s deficiencies.
I posted the whole video below to prove how the chiropractor in this video will alter the weight in his hand to cause a negative or a positive test.
What Should You Do If You're Not Getting Answers to Your Health Condition?
Most AK doctors will get a positive test during their exam, thus prescribing one or multiple supplements for you to take. The results patients get that are positive are usually due to the placebo effect or that the supplement is changing a deficiency.
I’d rather have you work at improving your lifestyle and habits on your own and see how far you can improve your health on your own before you spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on appointments, tests, and supplements.
Most chronic health conditions have root causes in chronic inflammation and higher than normal blood levels of cortisol caused by chronic stress. Chronic inflammation and chronic cortisol create an environment for higher risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes type 2, etc.
Blood tests and other tests could reveal problems with certain allergies, heavy metal toxicities, hormonal issues, or other exposures you may have in your life that are creating the chronic health issues. Uncovering some of these issues can be helpful.
For instance, a patient I saw was dealing with numbness and tingling in both his hands and feet. His blood work was normal, and he was not a diabetic. After questioning his dietary habits, we uncovered that he consumed a lot of fish (from local lakes and tuna). Fish is high in mercury and is a known nerve toxin. By eliminating the mercury from his diet by eliminating most of the fish he consumed, he was able to get back to normal without any numbness or tingling.
What Should You Try Before Spending Money on Applied Kinesiology Testing?
Despite the blood work revealing these things, I’d say 80% of these issues could be improved by a dramatic amount by improving your lifestyle. The other 20% may improve with certain supplements. The problem I see is that many people want the “quick fix” by being prescribed a “magic supplement” that will improve their health. Sometimes that quick fix works, but most times it does not.
I will discuss a plan you can follow (much of which you’d pay thousands for in functional medicine) that you can implement on your own to improve your health dramatically, but it will take time and effort. I will also list supplements that can improve sleep, exercise performance, reduce cortisol, reduce anxiety. Improving these areas of your life can have a domino effect. Once you start sleeping better, you will have more energy to exercise and energy to stick to a healthier diet. Exercise can bring about many hormonal changes that will then, in turn, improve sleep and motivation to eat healthier.
I will be covering the exact protocol people pay thousands for in a five-part series for my paid subscribers. Please support this newsletter by becoming a paid subscriber. Gathering this information takes time and resources. My goal is to save you time, money, and frustration on figuring out what to do on your own when it comes to lifestyle, diet, and the right supplements to take.
The five-part series will cover:
Sleep: no-cost strategies to fall asleep faster and stay asleep along with supplements that promote sleep (and what brands work).
Nutrition: what diets work best for lowering inflammation and will not break the bank. What foods you should eat organic and what foods you can buy conventionally grown.
Exercise: what works and what doesn’t and how to slowly ramp up your exercise without becoming injured (very important if you’re over the age of 40).
Stress reduction: how heart variability (HRV) and breathing affect your fight/flight and rest/digest balance. What device you can buy for about $100 that can train your HRV.
Relationships: how you relate to yourself and others. Divorce, hanging on to past hurts/harm, social media, and lack of relationships will all be discussed in how they relate to increased risks of heart disease, cancer, and inflammation. And simple strategies on how to improve your relationship to self and others.
Please subscribe to our paid newsletter to get the upcoming series on “How to Resolve Your Chronic Health Condition on Your Own”. I’m Dr. Bryan Dingsor, and I have Your Back.